19/03/2023
On this day 42 years ago 😳…………
Towards the end of 1980 I started a fanzine with my mates, Steve & Robo. We called it 'Primitive' (because it was) It was spawned in Brannigans and virtually all of the content in that first issue was F-Club related. 'Primitive' was made up of gig reviews and an interview with a pair of F-Club regulars who collectively called themselves Soft Cell. We produced 200 copies which sold out straight away, so we decided to make another. When word got round the F-Club that we planned on making a second issue, 'Peach' approached us and asked if we would interview his new group.
"Maybe. What are you called?"
"The Sisters Of Mercy"
"How many gigs have you done?"
"None"
"Never heard of you"
As we started gathering content for issue 2, these little conversations with 'Peach' became more regular, until one Thursday night, he told us that The Sisters Of Mercy had finally organised a gig in Leeds. They would be supporting Altered Images in the F-Club. "Wow! So you really are in a group after all. Okay we'll wait & see."
Thursday March 19th 1981.
Peach, Andy and Craig are on a foot high stage making an all mighty racket. Are they really a proper group ? I'm watching them but I still can't tell. What ever noise they are producing is coming up through the floor and buckling my knees way before it reaches my ears. Holy f**k this is loud. How many songs have they done? Have they f**ked up and started again? Is it really MEANT to sound like this? I can't tell. I have no idea. The sound is crap. REALLY CRAP. At the end, the audience don't really know what to do, so they do nothing. My first thought is to wonder if Clare Grogan is still alive and if she is then how the f**k is she gonna follow that? Surely her poor little perfect pixie ears have been shredded to f**k.
Ten minutes later we see Peach.
"Well, what did you think?"
"When can we interview you?"
"We're playing again on Sunday"
"See you there" ………..
We arranged to meet Peach, Andrew and Craig mid afternoon in a small cafe called The Four Cousins (or was it Three? ) in the arcade at the side of the Virgin Record store on Briggate (it's no longer there) It's worth pointing out at this stage that we had only taken part in one interview before (Soft Cell) and the three 'Sisters' had never actually been interviewed at all, so it was a strangely polite affair that was about to unfold. After introductions were out of the way and pots of tea had been ordered, the tape recorder was turned on. Andrew was much more articulate and charismatic than we had anticipated and we listened intently for the next 40 minutes as he proceeded to share his vision of what TSOM were all about. He knew, even then, exactly what he wanted to achieve.
I can't remember if the interview drew to a natural close or the tape simply ran out, but either way, we had learned enough about the band to know that we wanted them in our next issue. After all, they were now a proper Leeds group, with a proper 7" single and a collection of proper songs on tape. They had even been mentioned on the John Peel show so that was good enough for us. Andy brought a 10" X 8" photo of the group for us to use with the instruction "Don't lose it, it's the only one we have".
As we packed up and made our way out of the Cafe. I looked at the back of the photo on which Andrew had written 'Craig. A. Gary'.
"Hold on a minute, who's Gary" I asked.
"Oh that's me." Said Peach.
Mark Johnson
W&A
