The Sisterhood - "Gift" Album (July 1986)

"Gift" Album (July 1986)

In March 1986, The Mission began negotiations with Phonogram Ltd. as WEA Records refused to release any material. So the band released the October 1985 demo tape in slightly re-recorded form as an independent single on 9 May 1986. The single (its b-side was titled "Wake (RSV)" as a nod to "Giving Ground (RSV)") promptly entered the UK Indie Chart at no. 1. WEA Records had to release The Mission from their contract.

Both Andrew Eldritch and The Mission still had a publishing contract with RCA Records from their days in The Sisters of Mercy. A sum of £25,000 for one studio album was payable for the year of 1986 in an Advance against royalties deal, so RCA decided to split up the money to the two concerned parties.

Eldritch decided to claim the whole sum for himself by being first to compose, produce and release a studio album, much in the same way as he did with the "Giving Ground" single. Again he didn't appear as a vocalist, so he could release the album on his own label without having to offer it to WEA Records: "They thought it was great that I called myself The Sisterhood while they still had The Sisters of Mercy, so they didn't have to back me at all. I had to put out the album on Merciful Release, but it gave me free rein."

Eldritch and Lucas Fox returned to Fairview Studios. Merciful Release office manager Boyd Steemson: "Basically, we had some extra tracks around, so Andrew quickly put some songs together."

James Ray: "I wasn't involved too much with the album, as it was taking ages for Eldritch to formulate any concrete ideas, and I wanted to be writing my own stuff. I personally think the album transpired to cash in on the sales of the single."

"Giving Ground" was included as an extended remix on the album, the only track featuring James Ray.

James Ray: "Lucas Fox done the spoken word stuff." "If I remember correctly I advised Andrew on how Lucas Fox should approach his vocals and that was quite enough for me."

Lucas Fox does the vocal parts on "Colours", "Finland Red, Egypt White" and "Rain from Heaven". The text of "Finland Red, Egypt White" comes from an arms dealer's catalogue for the AK-47 rifle, while the title cites the country code for blank cartridges. James Ray remembers Norman Cook, then bassist of local band The Housemartins, having done a mix of the track which remains unreleased. "Rain from Heaven" with its choral singing seems to have been one of the tracks Eldritch intended for the Left on Mission and Revenge album, as he later mentioned how "Wayne and Craig had said those choral singings were insane."

Patricia Morrison got her first opportunity to collaborate with Eldritch, but her only verified contribution to the album is one spoken passage on the opening track "Jihad". Eldritch: "So I asked Patricia to come to the studio and told her: 'Speak this - Two-Five-Zero-Zero-Zero'. It took The Mission two months to realise the meaning of those words. Two months!"

Alan Vega gets a credit on the album cover but it remains unknown whether he made any contributions to the recording. He was possibly part of the "Chorus of Vengeance" on the track "Rain from Heaven".

In July 1986 Eldritch put the album out on his Merciful Release label to unanimously negative press reactions. The album did not accomplish its purpose, as RCA Records dissolved the publishing contract with Eldritch and decided to keep The Mission instead.

Tony Perrin, The Mission's manager: "I think Eldritch perpetuated it longer than anyone else bothered. We'd still get letters from his lawyers ages after but nothing would ever come of it. The whole thing cost us legal bills and that's all, the rumours about big losses by us were all rubbish, it was never going to court."

Andrew Eldritch later said about the album: "The Sisterhood album was a weapon in this corporate war. That's why I called it Gift. But I still like the record. It's weird but it's fine." "I see it as a techno record. Or what I thought to be techno at the time."

The official Sisters of Mercy website comments: "The Sisterhood album has become a classic; it parallelled the New Beat of the Continental avant-garde which eventually spawned Techno."