![]() As anyone who has ever attempted to run a label and perform in a band at the same will attest, this is no easy task and, factoring in cash flow and a near constant touring schedule coupled with a prodigious intake of chemicals, the wheels would've come off the wagon sooner or later but two events would throw The Sisters Of Mercy a lifeline. Fiercely independent, their Merciful Release label had been set up in order to release their own records and those of a likeminded disposition (fellow Leeds bands The March Violets and Salvation benefited from the label's patronage) and to exercise strict creative control over not only the music but also the image of the six singles released between 19, characterised as they were by the band's head and star logo and single colour artwork that sat in the centre of a black sleeve. In some respects, it's a wonder that The Sisters Of Mercy had made it to this point. And then of course there was the title - First And Last And Always - compounded by the fact that the vinyl album's two sides were more or less divided into Eldritch/Hussey and Eldritch/Marx compositions. The clues to The Sisters of Mercy's imminent implosion were already in place: Ben Gunn's departure in 1983 after the band's first US tour, with the guitarist claiming that the band had become the very thing that they'd set out to parody news of singer Andrew Eldritch's hospitalisation after one too many nights on the mirror and rumours of the band barely talking to each other during the recording of their debut album.
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