New album by The Sisters of Mercy…’s founder guitarist, Gary Marx!

Sincere apologies for the clickbait title – but I couldn’t resist the urge to be a bit mischievous! It’s Gary Marx of all people, who has returned to the fold with Green Ginger Jive, a glam-inspired album – and his first release since 2008’s “Nineteen Ninety Five and Nowhere”. Many of us, of course, know him better as the lead guitarist for The Sisters of Mercy and one of the four musicians who created their landmark debut album, “First and Last and Always”.

But before that definitive goth-rock release, Marx had to be inspired into music themselves, and it was that journey of discovery that we accompanied him on, the evening of Saturday 5 October. Here in the city that gave us – and Bowie – the Spiders of Mars, Marx talked about the influence of musicians like Mick Ronson on his emerging tastes. It’s shot right through “Green Ginger Jive” – a groovy, catchy assemblage of gleaming 70s glam-rock epics.

Turning then to the evening itself, I must commend the staff of Wrecking Ball Music & Books on Whitefriargate in Hull – their beautiful premises were the perfect space for this intimate affair, and the staff were friendly and helpful to all. Once we were seated and suitably refreshed, before a stage full of tantalising relics like garish paisley shirts and snakeskin-print guitars, our MC arrived in a glorious scarlet suit and that iconic Ziggy-bolt elephant mask!

He cavorted exuberantly to backing music amidst cheers and laughter – before removing the mask and remarking he couldn’t do more than one song with the heavy rubber head on! He then proceeded through a few choice selections from “Green Ginger Jive” – I particularly enjoyed De La Pole Avenue, a very memorable and catchy track. It also chimed nicely with me, as long long ago I lived in Hull, and not far from that Anlaby Road area!

A true showman, Marx acknowledged as well the many fans in the audience wearing the faded black tees from a certain Eighties band he was involved in, many decades ago. He’d hinted in previous comments about the night that he’d be attempting that haunting instrumental from 1983, “Phantom” which had been a B-side to the Anaconda single as well as the Alice 12″ EP. Using a cunning assembly of loop pedals, Marx stretched his fingers and recreated that most atmospheric track for us thirty-odd (very odd) punters, upstairs at Wrecking Ball. I am utterly beholden to Mel Butler – ace photographer, teenage goth idol and bassist in our band The Scarlet Hour – for recording these magic moments and committing them to YouTube.

Mel has selflessly recorded all the renditions of the classic Sisters tracks that Marx recreated for us, from that incredible era of the band between forming and that genre-defining debut album release. Hearing them rendered so expertly by the quiet man that wrote so many of the memorable riffs from my favourite band was – well, it was supernatural. Paranormal. A night of unprecedented experience!

We were also lucky enough to be held enraptured by Marx’ reminiscing, which he does so effectively and with gentle humour, as a truly charismatic speaker. In this instance I am most grateful to John Butler, svengali of The Scarlet Hour and professional note-taker at this evening, as I spent most of it recording Marx and immediately ruining those videos with my own braying laugh. You can hear me cackling in the back of Mel’s videos. Sorry. Anyway – John helped fill in the gaps for me on the gossip from starting the Sisters, to that apocalyptic recording and release that was “First and Last and Always”.

As befits so many bands that formed in the late Seventies, Marx went into the Sisters cheerfully admitting he had little to no actual skill with the guitar. Nonetheless, he maintains the earlier songs that were written as they were learning were some of the best – and listening to those songs played live by their writer so many years later, it’s easy to believe.

We were treated to a confirmation of the challenging journey that writing, recording and releasing “First and Last and Always” was. Marx confirmed that the actual writing fell squarely to him, Hussey and Adams with Eldritch mainly confining himself to lyric writing and extensive production (and other, more health-endangering activities). When it did come to musical composition, it was suggesting the insert of catchy fragments inspired by other bands, as Marx relates in this clip about the – admittedly catchy – writing of “Amphetamine Logic”!

I can also agree 100% with Marx’ assertion that the painful love songs on “First and Last and Always” are the true emotional heart of the debut. That trio of anguished siblings – Sisters – “Marian”, “Nine While Nine” and “Some Kind of Stranger” are some of the finest songs The Sisters of Mercy ever wrote.

Again, Marx confirms a long-held belief that the exquisite “Nine While Nine” is too close to the bone even for the demon bastard overlord himself to perform often. Interesting bit of trivia, Nine While Nine was last performed live in March 1985 – right here in my city of Newcastle, and recorded for posterity on the excellent bootleg “Disguised in Black”. It’s definitely one of my favourite Sisters songs, and you can absolutely hear Eldritch’s sentiments ringing true throughout.

All of course dependent on the sterling guitarwork by the very modest Gary Marx. We could have stayed all night, begged him to play every demo, single and EP and right through “First and Last and Always”. Instead, we were even more annoying and Marx graciously signed record after record after record! He signed four alone for me, and committed me to the impossible challenge of ambushing Wayne, Craig and Andrew for their autographs at some point. But at least I can say I’ve had my picture taken now with every member of the classic lineup that created the debut album by The Sisters of Mercy. Well, almost – the only extant picture of me with Eldritch is, frankly, both rubbish and embarrassing. I’ll put it on the Patreon where you’ve at least earned the right to laugh at my baby pictures!

My sincere thanks again to Wrecking Ball Music and Books for a splendid evening, the Family Sinister who met up for drinks before and during the evening, Mel and John Butler for being even bigger Sisters fans than I, and the incomparable Gary Marx for his good humour and endless patience. Here’s hoping we’ll hear more from Gary in the future – the Fortieth Anniversary of First and Last and Always is in March next year, after all…

Selfie with Gary’s personal Gold Record certification for “First and Last and Always”

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