"[1] Singer Andrew Eldritch saw the time ripe for a change of direction: "I always wanted to do something different, because whatever we did it all eventually sounded the same.
"[2] On the very same day Eldritch made a phone call to bassist Patricia Morrison, whose band Fur Bible was on a UK tour with Siouxsie and the Banshees at the time, and asked her to play on his planned album.
[14] Eldritch went into the studio at the tail end of 1985 to produce the debut single of James Ray and the Performance for his Merciful Release label.
"[16] While Eldritch was in the studio, Hussey and Adams, who had taken over the Sisters' roadcrew and equipment, announced their debut concert for 20 January 1986, which they were going to play under the new name the Sisterhood.
In only five days Eldritch recorded a song called "Giving Ground," which he co-wrote with Merciful Release manager Boyd Steemson and co-produced with Lucas Fox.
The single was released as planned on 20 January 1986, the same day that Hussey and Adams played their debut concert in London as the Sisterhood.
"[23] Sounds magazine reported on 20 February 1986 that "a new 12-inch EP called 'This Corrosion' will soon be in the shops, featuring the same line-up but with the addition of a mysterious and so far undisclosed American vocalist.
We then spent weeks on what was to be the Sisterhood's second single, 'This Corrosion', but Eldritch decided he was going to use it to kickstart the Sisters Mk II.
American vocalist Alan Vega, who had made friends with the Sisters of Mercy in 1983,[28] and undertook a solo tour through the UK and Europe during February and March 1986, recorded one version of the song, other vocal takes featuring James Ray and Andrew Eldritch are in existence as well.
The projected 12 inch EP remained unreleased, instead the song "This Corrosion" in 1987 became the Sisters of Mercy's comeback single.
A sum of £25,000 for one studio album was payable for the year of 1986 in an Advance against royalties deal, so RCA decided to split up the money to the two concerned parties.
[29] Eldritch decided to claim the whole sum for himself by being first to compose, produce and release a studio album, much in the same way as he did with the "Giving Ground" single.
Merciful Release office manager Boyd Steemson: "Basically, we had some extra tracks around, so Andrew quickly put some songs together.
"[31] James Ray: "I wasn't involved too much with the album, as it was taking ages for Eldritch to formulate any concrete ideas, and I wanted to be writing my own stuff.
The text of "Finland Red, Egypt White" comes from an arms dealer's catalogue for the AK-47 rifle, while the title cites the country code for blank cartridges.
James Ray remembers Norman Cook (AKA Fatboy Slim), then bassist of local band the Housemartins, having done a mix of the track that remains unreleased.
"[9] Patricia Morrison got her first opportunity to collaborate with Eldritch, but her only verified contribution to the album is one spoken passage on the opening track "Jihad".
In July 1986 Eldritch put the album out on his Merciful Release label to unanimously negative press reactions.
The album did not accomplish its purpose, as RCA Records dissolved the publishing contract with Eldritch[29] and decided to keep the Mission instead.
"[33] The official Sisters of Mercy website comments: "The Sisterhood album has become a classic; it parallelled the New Beat of the Continental avant-garde that eventually spawned Techno.
"[29] All tracks are written by Andrew EldritchThe final episode of BBC drama Spooks' seventh series references this album.
This code activates a Russian sleeper agent in Faversham (also a reference to the Sisters of Mercy as the Faversham is a pub in Leeds that "was where goth's dark lords, the Sisters of Mercy, would hold court"),[33] Kent to collect a hidden portable nuclear weapon to be taken to Grosvenor Square in London and detonated at 15:00hrs.
Also, while trying to get to London Bridge through an unused underground tube tunnel, Lucas North says the sentence "What is lost can never be found"; a line from the "Giving Ground" track.
The 2009 song "Soothsayer" by The Gray Kid samples the main riff from "Giving Ground"[34][35] and was featured in the 2012 film The Brass Teapot.