Demos and Outtakes 1981-1986

Originally compiled and posted by user Waterisnat on Dimeadozen with this note:

The Sisters of Mercy
Demos & outtakes 1981-1986

Here's a bunch of Sisters demos & outtakes I put together from what I believe to be the best circulating sources for all of these recordings. All of those sources are detailed below, so you can make out for yourself what you need/want and what you don't. Whenever vinyl sources were used (either by myself, or by the producers of the bootleg CD's), I have manually removed (nearly) all audible clicks & pops using the pen tool in SoundForge, so you might even consider downloading what you think you already have...

Tracks labeled B01-B14 have been put aside because
- they were mastered at a much louder volume than the other tracks, and I didn't want to subject the first 28 tracks to the same treatment (I'm all for dynamics in music, not just sheer volume);
- I already seeded them once before

I think this is a fairly comprehensive collection of unreleased Sisters studio recordings. I did not use any of the circulating 'rough mixes' of officially released tracks, because most of them are virtually indistinguishable from the latter AND of patently inferior sound quality (unless anybody knows differently, in which case I'd love to be told).
One source I regret to say was not used: the 'Kenny Giles Walks On Water' bootleg that surfaced a couple of years ago and which I have never been able to track down - so if anybody could seed that one in addition to this lot, I'd be over the moon :-)

Total time: 180 minutes; 1,03 GB FLAC (Level 8/Verify)

1-3: 1981 'Floorshow' demo EP
- from the 'Before The Flood' bootleg CD
1. Floorshow
2. Lights
3. Teachers/Adrenochrome

4-13: 1982 Portastudio demos
- from the 'Before The Flood' bootleg CD (superior to the version on the 'Acoustics From The Beehive' bootleg CD)
4. Valentine
5. Body Politic (early version of 'Fix')
6. Lights (same version as above, but included for completeness' sake)
7. Anaconda
8. Driver (unreleased song with a couple of lyrics that ended up in 'Heartland')
9. Good Things (unreleased song)
10. Phantom
11. Burn (actually an unreleased song of which the intro and some lyrics were later re-used in 'Burn')
12. Kiss The Carpet (actually an instrumental demo of 'Burn', without the intro)
13. Valentine (basically the same as track 4, but included for completeness' sake)

14. Fix (bass-only version of 'Fix' with alternate lyrics possibly sung by Craig Adams; or maybe not Sisters related at all?)

15. Where Spirits Fly (instrumental version of a Gary Marx composition later recorded by Ghostdance)
- not really a demo, but a soundcheck recording, from Hamburg 1984; taken from the 'Echoes Vol. III' bootleg CD)

16. Wide Receiver (unreleased song - 1983/1984?)
- from the 'Wide Receiver' bootleg CD

17-21: 1984 demo recordings
17. Walk Away (early demo from shortly after the 1984 Peel Session)
18. No Time To Cry (early demo from shortly after the 1984 Peel Session)
19. A Rock And A Hard Place (instrumental version)
20. Black Planet (instrumental version - not the final take, but the recording used for track B03, the 'Dance On Glass' lyrics version)
21. Marian (instrumental)

22-28: 1986 Portastudio demos for 'Floodland' (1986)
- 22 from the 'Kamasutra' bootleg 2CD, 23-27 from 'Acoustics From The Beehive' (but ultimately from the 'Kill The Lights' bootleg LP; clicks & pops manually removed), 28 from the '1983-1986' bootleg CD (clicks & pops manually removed)
22. Dominion/Mother Russia (from 'Kamasutra' bootleg 2CD)
23. Flood I
24. Lucretia
25. Neverland (complete 7'37")
26. Untitled (6'53" version with guitar)
27. Driven Like The Snow (wide stereo mix, bass left/drums right)
28. Flood II

B01. Candle (instrumental version of 'Driver', 1982-3? - from the 'In The Shadow Of Angels' vinyl bootleg; clicks & pops manually removed)

B02-B09: 1984 demo recordings
- from the superior 'Victims Of Circumstance' bootleg CD, not the flawed & hissy 'Suns Of Mercy' bootleg CD
B02. First And Last And Always (alternate 'Marian' lyrics sung by Gary Marx)
B03. Black Planet ('Dance on Glass' lyrics sung by That Guitarist)
B04. A Rock And A Hard Place (German disco version)
B05. Garden Of Delight (unreleased song sung by That Guitarist)
B06. Garden of Delight (unreleased song sung by Andrew Eldritch)
B07. Knockin' On Heaven's Door
B08. Serpent's Kiss (unreleased song, instrumental version later recorded by The m*****n for their debut single)
B09. Emma

B10. A Rock And A Hard Place (alternate disco version - from the '1983-1986' bootleg CD; vinyl clicks & pops manually removed)

B11-B-14. 1984-1985 outtakes
- the same quartet of songs that also appeared on the 'Last Magician Of Rational Thought' 7" bootleg EP, but here taken from the 'Rare Obscurities' bootleg CD (vinyl clicks & pops manually removed)
B11. No Time To Cry
B12. First And Last And Always
B13. A Rock And A Hard Place
B14. Walk Away

...rise and reverberate...