Trevor Ristow is the American author, based in New-York, of the Sisters Of Mercy biography: “Waiting For Another War: A History of The Sisters Of Mercy Vol. I: 1980-1985”. He is a television and film producer at GKW Filmworks and was the editor of “Loudquietloud: A Film About the Pixies”.

Ristow has produced and/or edited over one hundred television episodes, documentaries or narrative films for History Channel, National Geographic, PBS, NBC, Discovery Channel, E! Network, and HBO. Series he’s worked on have won six Emmy Awards, three Telly Awards, and multiple festival prizes. The book has now also been released as a numbered limited edition paperback via Rough Trade, including a special stamp and signature and unpublished photo of the band. Side-Line already did a review of his excellent book and had a chance to do a small interview as well!

Q: Is Andrew Eldritch aware of the release of your book? Did you ask him if he was interested to work together on it or was he against it?
Trevor: He is aware of the book but I doubt he knew about it before it was announced. Therefore he did not have an opportunity to be in favor of the book, or opposed to it. It just arrived, rather unexpectedly, out of the sun. At least that is how it feels to most people who have read it.

Q: Why do you think Andrew Eldritch does not like to be associated with the “Goth” scene?
Trevor: I think he finds it limiting. In Germany the goth scene is vibrant and large, but in most of the rest of the world it is a small, somewhat unserious ghetto of mediocre bands. I imagine he considers Sisters music bigger than that scene, and I agree with him.

Q: What do you think of the quality of the current concerts of The Sisters Of Mercy, compared to the old ones? According to many fans, the first line-up would still be the best?
Trevor: Obviously I have a deep love for the early years but I have seen The Sisters many times over many decades and I’ve never walked away disappointed. It’s a whole experience that is larger than simply hearing the songs performed.

Q: What side do you prefer most? Eldritch as lyricist or as composer?
Trevor: This is a very difficult question because he’s a superb lyricist, but most of my favorite songs are his compositions also. This is the man who wrote the entire “Reptile House EP”, “Train”, “Body Electric”, “Blood Money” and “Bury Me Deep”, “On The Wire”, “Floodland”, and many more. For me, personally, it’s hard to overstate his talent as either a lyricist or a composer.

Q: How do you see the future of the band?
Trevor: Mostly on YouTube, sadly.

Genre/Influences: New Wave, Gothic Rock.

Format: Book (paperback) – also available as kindle.

Background/Info: The Sisters Of Mercy are still a cult-band nowadays, although they officially only released 3 studio-albums and started their career back in 1980. They are worldwide seen as one of the founders of the gothic rock genre and are also one of the most bootlegged bands ever. The American author Trevor Ristow was already a huge fan of the band in his teenage years and released a Sisters’ fanzine in the ’80s. He collected lots of press articles, stories from close friends of the bandmembers and his own live experiences to write this book.

Content: First we learned to know the importance of certain people in the beginning period of the band as Claire Shearsby (dj, keyboard-player, sound-mixer and ex-girlfriend of Andrew Eldritch), Ruth Polsky (booker, tourguide, fixer, photographer), Kenny Giles (sound-engineer, studio-owner), Jon Langford (Mekons, The Three Jons) and many others. But most of all we experienced mastermind Andrew as the control freak inside the band which caused lots of conflicts with other people. The stories that are being told are not only about frontman Andrew Eldritch, but also about the other (former) band members Wayne Hussey, Craig Adams, Gary Marx and Ben Gunn.

Many other topics are covered such as The God Squad and The Sisterhood, the very strong Sisters-fanbases, the first American tour (September 1983) and the tough negotiations between Andrew and some major record-companies. The start and rise of the band is very well clarified, starting from the first gig on February 16th, 1981 (Alciun College – York) until the “final” concert at the Royal Albert Hall on June 18th, 1985. Here, the legendary video “Wake” was recorded and it was also the final concert for founding member Mark Pearman alias Gary Marx. Later the split with Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams would also follow, deciding them to continue as The Mission.

+ + + : We get a deeper look into parts of the private life of the band members at that time, as well as interesting stories of what sometimes happened backstage, the tension between the band members and also the relationships of the band members at that time with their girlfriends. About 50 rare pictures, very detailed information on gigs, special anecdotes, explanation of the deeper meaning of the lyrics, the founding of the Merciful Release label … it’s all there.

– – – : Most of the covered topics are about the genius Andrew Eldritch, always driven on amphetamines and not too shy to say how much he hates being labelled as “goth-band”. Some parts of the book are written from the own perceptions of the author, which can of course be different from your own point of view.

Conclusion: Every old-school Sisters-fan should own this 270 pages entertaining masterpiece for sure! The added context that the author provides to song-texts and many other topics is amazing! We are already looking forward for the release of volume II that will cover the ’90’s era.

Artist: www.thesistersofmercy.com
Label: www.gkwfilmworks.com/sisters – www.facebook.com/waitingforanotherwar