The Sisters Of Mercy - Wake (HQ Audio Rip)

"Wake" was a video recording of The Sisters Of Mercy's "last" concert at The Royal Albert Hall, June 18, 1985. This audio rip is sourced from a recently created, high quality 50p transfer made by two members of the Heartland forum.

Wake (1985)

1. First And Last And Always
2. Body And Soul
3. Marian
4. No Time To Cry
5. Walk Away
6. Possession
7. Emma
8. Amphetamine Logic
9. A Rock And A Hard Place
10. Floorshow
11. Alice
12. Fix
13. Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Download (new link + HQ video thread) (Heartland membership required).

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Paint Your Wagon

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry is a rock band that was formed in Leeds, England in early 1981.

The band was formed by guitarist/songwriter Chris Reed and vocalist Mark Sweeney, along with bassist Steve Smith and drummer Mick Brown (who would later join The Mission). Sweeney left the band in late 1981 and Reed permanently took over as vocalist, with Martin Fagan joining as a second guitarist. The group's sound, featuring a numbing guitar drone, powerfully throbbing drums, and Reed's cavernous vocal tones, caused the Lorries (as their fans came to call them) to be quickly lumped into the then-developing gothic rock scene by pop journalists, although the band themselves preferred to cite Wire as an influence.

Paint Your Wagon, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry's second album, was released in 1986 in the UK on Red Rhino, an independent music record label. It would be the band's final original LP release on the label (excepting a singles collection, Smashed Hits, the following year) before signing to major label Situation Two in 1987. Like the Lorries' debut album (Talk about the Weather), Paint Your Wagon had a very short running time, coming in at under 30 minutes. Two of the tracks, "Mescal Dance" and "Blitz", were instrumentals. Cassette and CD releases/reissues have featured various additional bonus tracks.

This download is taken from my own vinyl copy of Paint Your Wagon, transferred to the computer using a USB turntable. The LP is in near-mint condition, and the recording is fantastic!

Paint Your Wagon (REDLP 65 1986)

1. Walking On Your Hands
2. Jipp
3. Last Train
4. Head All Fire
5. Mescal Dance
6. Shout At The Sky
7. Which Side
8. Tear Me Up
9. Save My Soul
10. Blitz

Download.

Manuskript - I Can't Believe It's Not Goth!

Manuskript are a mid-90s UK Goth band consisting of Christian Tonkin, Michael Uwins, Paul Morris, Tim Chandler, Tom Quick.
This, their self financed début EP, was limited to approximately 500 copies and originally only available at their gigs. The remaining copies were distributed through Resurrection Records. This rip is from the original (non Resurrection) batch.

I Can't Believe It's Not Goth EP (MTSKR 12 1995)

1. Chase
2. Prince Of Fools
3. Flies In The Marzipan
4. Faking Lies

Download.

James Rays Gangwar - Dios Esta De Nuestro Lado

James Ray is a rock singer and band-leader, best known as a member of Andrew Eldritch's side-project The Sisterhood.

He was a founding member of "James Ray And The Performance", a rock band with ties to goth rock. James Ray has also formed the bands "James Ray's Gangwar", "The MK Ultra", and his current band "4080peru".

After James Ray And The Performance, Ray formed James Ray's Gangwar. The band were still contracted to Merciful Release for an album, so the band recorded the Dios Esta De Nuestro Lado LP, a more aggressive sounding album, still with the southern American influence, and a cover of Alvin Stardust's "[My] Coo Ca Choo" closing the album. The opening track, Rev Rev Lowrider was released as a single. Other non-album tracks were released as singles, "Fuel", "Another Million Dollars" and "Without Conscience".

After this, Gangwar released the Third Generation LP on Surgery Records, a much more techno-based album, with fewer guitars, and a more trance-like feel. The song "Fuelled Up" draws heavily from the earlier song "Fuel," which in turn borrows heavily from the melody of Knock on Wood.

The final Gangwar album was 'Psychodalek'.

In recent years, Gangwar have reformed, to play a handful of concerts, such as Wave-Gotik-Treffen.

Dios Está De Nuestro Lado (MRAY 341CD 1992)

1. Rev Rev Lowrider
2. Heart Surgery
3. 35 Thousand Times
4. Badlands
5. Hardwar
6. Cadillac Coming
7. Bad Gin
8. Santa Susana
9. Coo Ca Choo

Download.

Children On Stun - Mondo Weird

Children On Stun is the name of a Gothic rock band from England. Formed in 1991, the original line-up consisted of Neil Ash, Simon Manning, Simon Treen and Pete Finnemore.

1996 saw the band begin to record their new album, Mondo Weird, which was not released until 1997.

Members:

• Pete Finnemore - Guitar (1991-1995)
• Simon Manning - Bass (1991 - 1998)
• Neil Ash - Vocals (1991 - 1998)
• Simon Treen - Drums (1991)
• Kyle Whipp - Bass (1995-1998)

Mondo Weird is a slight departure from the more traditional style of earlier Stun releases as the band discovered computers that go "bleep" sometime before its recording, but it remains a strong a vastly overlooked album.

Mondo Weird (1997)

1. Mondo Weird
2. Building Boxes
3. Flech
4. Style Police
5. Singles And Doubles
6. Twisted
7. Strange Days
8. Outrageous, Outlawed, Outspoken
9. Scum
10. Aunty Crystal Thieves
11. Whiskey A Go-Go
12. Demonica Beatnik

Download.

N.B. Due to Mediafire's upload size limit this download has been split into 3 archives. You will need the free programme 7-Zip to extract them.

Eyes Of The Nightmare Jungle - Pressure

Eyes Of The Nightmare Jungle are a 90s Gothic Rock band (think The Merry Thoughts). Here is one of their singles which contains a cracking re-working of their club hit, "Shadow Dance".

Pressure (SPV 055-61693 CDS 1994)

1. Pressure (Radio Version)
2. Pressure (Extended Version)
3. Shadow Dance (Remix '94)

Download.

The Sisterhood - Gift (CD Rip) FLAC & MP3

The Sisterhood was a short-lived English musical project, consisting of Andrew Eldritch (writer and producer), drum machine "Doktor Avalanche" and the "Chorus of Vengeance" consisting of Lucas Fox (drums), Patricia Morrison (bass and vocals), James Ray (guitar and vocals) and Alan Vega (synthesizer and vocals). Eldritch does not sing lead vocals on the record officially, though does sing Colours & Giving Ground unofficially.

The band was formed by Eldritch after the 1985 breakup of his band The Sisters of Mercy. There had supposedly been an agreement among Eldritch and the ones leaving the band that Eldritch would retain the rights to the songs and the names, while the ex-Sisters would play their old songs under the name of Sisterhood. Eldritch would not accept this close a name, especially with them breaking the agreement by playing songs they weren't allowed to.

Eldritch quickly formed "The Sisterhood" to force the old band members out of the game. Enlisting the helping hand of Patricia Morrison, formerly of The Gun Club and soon-to-be member of the reformed Sisters, and Alan Vega of the New York outfit Suicide.

Their first release was a single, featuring two versions of the song, "Giving Ground".

The Sisterhood released one LP, Gift, in 1986 on Eldritch's own Merciful Release label, which includes "Giving Ground" and four other songs. Not named after the English word but rather the German word for poison, Gift is quite simple with its long, droning rhythms and ill sentiment ("what you have lost can never be found" and "trust lies broken, and the truth is drowned") towards the former Sisters members, especially Wayne Hussey.

On "Jihad" Patricia Morrison recites the numbers 2-5-0-0-0 several times. According to rumours this is a reference to the amount of money that Eldritch won from The Mission in the civil courts after suing them over the ownership of the name "The Sisterhood".

A version of "Colours" with Eldritch singing was later included as a b-side of "This Corrosion" and then a bonus track on the CD of The Sisters of Mercy album Floodland.

On "Finland Red, Egypt White", Lucas Fox reads the technical specifications of an AK-47 rifle to several minutes of sheer repetition.

The hit single "This Corrosion" that appeared on "Floodland" was originally planned for the Gift album, harboring the same vitriol towards the betrayers of Eldritch's trust.

Sure enough, the release copyrighted the name of the band, forcing the other Sisterhood to initiate a name change. Changing to The Mission, supposedly taking the name from the next Sisters LP that had been planned, "Left On Mission And Revenge", the band quickly started a life of its own.

Gift was released on both vinyl and CD. The CD version is quite hard to come by (I only physically have it on vinyl) but a CD rip has been shared on SoulSeek and other P2P sites. Whilst I'm not 100% certain that this download is a CD copy it does sound remarkably clean and CD-like in comparison to my own and other people's vinyl rips.

Gift (SIS 020-CD 1986)

1. Jihad
2. Colours
3. Giving Ground
4. Finland Red, Egypt White
5. Rain From Heaven

Download. MP3

FLAC (NEW):

http://www.mediafire.com/?9q4eefu83o8ij63

http://www.mediafire.com/?877if5d5nagjovt

http://www.mediafire.com/?pdt7y4oln110wa4

The Wood Children - Happens Everyday 12"

The Wood Children were an indie rock band who (to my surprise when researching this post) have more than one release! Until now I thought this wonderful 12" was there only output, but it turns out they did in fact release a few more things in the late 80s and early 90s.

I haven't been able to find any information about them online, but here is (what I believe to be) their début release.

Happens Everyday 12" (A B B05T 1987)

1. Happens Everyday
2. Two Red Buses
3. Can Of Worms

Download.

The Mumbles - The Wire EP

My first post will be one of shameless self-promotion. I am in a keyboard-driven rock n' roll band called The Mumbles and last year (2008) we released an EP for free online.

Here it is for your full enjoyment.

The Wire EP (BH0802 2008)

1. Prelude
2. The Machine
3. Dream Of Mirrors
4. Martell
5. Twenty-Two

Download.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the Odds And Sods blog. This blog will contain various bits and pieces, including: short writings, ideas, videos and, most importantly, will be a place for you to download music by long lost bands.

I'm a fan of obscure 80s Gothic Rock and Post-Punk so if you are too, expect to see some useful downloads in the future.