As Eldritch stated in an early interview, he wanted to hear himself on the radio.
He and Gary Marx (Mark Pairman) played and recorded on the Sisters of Mercy's initial single "Damage Done" and pressed one thousand copies.
Throughout the early 1980s, the band released several singles on Merciful Release, controlling the format and image of the records, typically in a black sleeve with artwork centrally mounted and a head and star logo on the rear of sleeves.
A notable example of this being Henri Matisse's Blue Nude in gold on black for the single Alice.
By 1984, the band had signed a distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records (Elektra in the US) whilst still maintaining control of Merciful Release.