First and Last and Always is the debut studio album by English gothic rock band the Sisters of Mercy, first released on 11 March 1985 through the band's Merciful Release label. Prior to recording sessions for a debut album, the band started off by releasing multiple extended plays and singles from 1980 through 1984. Guitarist Ben Gunn departed the band in October 1983 and was subsequently replaced by Dead or Alive member Wayne Hussey. This created one of the band's most iconic line-ups, comprising Hussey with frontman Andrew Eldritch, guitarist Gary Marx, and bassist Craig Adams.
After touring for two months and releasing the single "Body and Soul", recording sessions with producer David M. Allen began at Strawberry Studios in Stockport during June 1984, with sessions also taking place at Genetic Studios in Reading. The sessions were prolonged due to Eldritch's drug use and extended time spent on writing lyrics, though recording was eventually completed in November 1984. As with the band's previous releases they used a drum machine referred to as "Doktor Avalanche", this time being an Oberheim DMX.
First and Last and Always was preceded by the singles "Walk Away" and "No Time to Cry", which peaked at number 45 and number 63, respectively, on the UK Singles Chart. The album peaked at number 14 on the UK Albums Chart, though the band had still been in debt afterward due to the production costs. The costs were recouped in 1988, and the album was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry in 1989 for selling 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. The album was later certified gold by the BVMI in 2011 for selling 250,000 copies in Germany.
Although Eldritch and Hussey began writing new material soon after the album's release, the Sisters of Mercy dissolved later in 1985 when Hussey, Marx, and Adams departed the band due to heightened tensions between them and Eldritch. Consequently, First and Last and Always was the only Sisters of Mercy album to feature Hussey, Marx, and Adams. In the aftermath of the disbandment, Hussey and Adams went on to form The Mission, while Eldritch created his side project The Sisterhood, though Eldritch would later restart the Sisters of Mercy with other members.
Background The band was founded in 1980 by Andrew Eldritch and Gary Marx in Leeds. Up to 1983, they had produced five singles and two EPs, which were released on the band's own indie label Merciful Release and were distributed independently as well. As the band became increasingly successful and featured regularly in the UK Indie Chart, a first studio album was announced in 1983 for the following year. Eldritch estimated the production costs at £40,000, a sum which exceeded the financial capabilities of an indie band. Around the same time talks with interested record labels began. Eldritch, who handled management and business affairs of the band, negotiated with several record companies early in the new year and finally signed a satisfactory contract with WEA Records. Merciful Release opened an office in London and founded its own publishing company Candelmaesse Limited, as well, which licensed the future song material to the publisher of RCA Records, RCA Music Limited.
In October 1983, guitarist Ben Gunn left. At the end of the year, through CBS Records, who were interested in signing the band, he was replaced by former Dead or Alive member Wayne Hussey. The new band line-up played its debut concert on 7 April 1984, which featured the newly written songs "Body and Soul", "Train" and "Walk Away". The gig was followed by a short American tour until 16 April. After returning to the UK, Eldritch wrote a new song called "Wide Receiver", which was inspired by a term in American football and which he recorded on his own at home as a demo. The rudimentary song wasn't used in the end, but Eldritch's solo demo recording appeared in early 1992 on a bootleg album.
At Strawberry Recording Studios in Stockport, the Sisters of Mercy recorded their first single in March 1984 for WEA ("Body and Soul"), which was composed and produced by Eldritch himself and which was released on 4 June 1984. "Body and Soul" peaked at 46 on the UK Singles Chart. From 2 May to 6 June, the band toured the UK and Europe and tried out a new Gary Marx composition which he later used in Ghost Dance. Recommended by WEA Records, Cure producer Dave Allen saw the band in Amsterdam (2 June 1984) and later received a telegram by Andrew Eldritch which said: "The Sisters say yes to Dave Allen". After the end of the tour, they began to prepare themselves for the album recordings, but first they entered Maida Vale Studios on 19 June to record a John Peel Session for BBC Radio 1. The session was broadcast on 13 July when the Sisters of Mercy were already in the recording studio.
Recording Demo sessions After intense songwriting sessions, Gary Marx entered Parkside Studios, "a tiny studio in a rehearsal complex off Armley Road where I'd been with Wayne to record some new demos with him singing." The recordings were engineered by Steve Allen. Eldritch was enthusiastic about the new material, and played some instrumental demos to Melody Maker journalist Adam Sweeting: "I think this stuff's gonna be incredible, like nothing we've ever done before".
Strawberry sessions At the end of June 1984, the Sisters of Mercy went with producer Dave Allen into the Strawberry Recording Studios in Stockport, near Manchester, for five weeks to record their first studio album. Studio costs were £500 a day and £3,250 a week. Eldritch spent the whole five weeks inside the studio and, according to Dave Allen, used large amounts of amphetamine on a daily basis. In Stockport, backing tracks and vocals were to be recorded. Additional vocals, overdubs and the final mix were planned for August at Genetic Studios. The finished album was to be released in the third week of October 1984. The band immediately started to record, with Hussey and Marx often providing guide vocals with their own lyrics which later showed up on bootlegs. Both Hussey and Marx later used some of these lyrics for their own bands, The Mission and Ghost Dance. An early recording of "First and Last and Always", which, according to Gary Marx, was "previously called 'The Scottish One'", was "completed pretty early on". Marx sang an early draft of the later Ghost Dance lyric of "When I Call", which mentioned the name of a friend of the band's from Hamburg; Marianne.
On "Nine While Nine", which, according to Marx, was "recorded at the same time" and "had the working title 'Child of Light", Gary Marx sang a guide vocal which he reused later for the Ghost Dance song "A Deeper Blue". The title of this song is derived from Yorkshire dialect where "while" is used to mean "until". "Black Planet" exists in the form of an early version with a Wayne Hussey lyric which he later used for the Mission songs "Dance on Glass" and "Naked and Savage". Additional songs which were left unused were the later Mission song "Garden of Delight" and later Ghost Dance song "Yesterday Again". Eldritch later sang his own version of "Garden of Delight" which remained unused as well: "There are a few bootlegs in existence of me trying to sing Wayne's words, and you can hear that I'm not convinced by them. I can't breathe any meaning into them."Andrew Eldritch TV interview (ZTV, Sweden 1993) "The guy didn't have a clue – he'd just string buzz words together."
Recordings were delayed, to the frustration of the band as Eldritch was still working on lyrics. Gary Marx: "He'd got far too caught up in the business and had lost his edge as a writer. We wasted weeks at a time in the studio, waiting for him to come up with a handful of lyrics. It was very painful and very expensive." A notable exception was "Marian". Eldritch, inspired by Gary Marx's original lyrics to "First and Last and Always", wrote new words to a Wayne Hussey composition which contained a few passages sung in German. "'Marian' is a very special song; it's not like any of the other songs. I wrote it in ten minutes, usually the lyrics take me up to half a year." The vocal takes proved to be time-consumingly elaborate. Marx said, "After each session Andy would say, 'But is it epic?', and we'd go, 'Yeah Andy, it's great!' And he'd go back and do it again. Andy's a complete perfectionist." He added, "We could write and record a double album in the time it took him to get the headphone mix to his liking."
At the end of July 1984, recordings were finished and the band had completed raw mixes of 18 songs on ten analogue master reels: Reel 1: "Tones"/"No Time to Cry" Reel 2: "Emma"/"Walk Away" Reel 3: "Poison Door"/"A Rock and a Hard Place" Reel 4: "First and Last and Always" (album version)/"First and Last and Always" (Japan version) Reel 5: "Possession"/"Spit on Your Grave"/"Evil Come Evil Go" Reel 6: "Marian"/"Wide Receiver" Reel 7: "Nine While Nine" Reel 8: "Some Kind of Stranger" Reel 9: "Some Kind of Stranger" (early) Reel 10: "Down to E....."/"On the Wire"
According to Dave Allen "Tones", "Spit on Your Grave", "Evil Come Evil Go" and "Down to E....." are working titles for known songs. "Amphetamine Logic", according to Gary Marx, had the working title "Horned One Stabs", which indicates that this song was not recorded at Strawberry but at later sessions. In early August 1984, the band flew to the US to play two concerts in New York.
Genetic sessions After the US gigs, the band went into Genetic Studios near Reading with producer Dave Allen as planned to complete the album with engineer Tim Baldwin. But the sessions at Genetic Studios dissolved, according to Gary Marx, into "madness of Eldritch walking into walls between vocal takes and us generally losing the plot. [Baldwin] seemed to remember it fondly enough." Weakened by continuous amphetamine use, insomnia, malnutrition and hypoglycaemia, Eldritch collapsed in the studio one night. Marx: "He was completely exhausted; hallucinating. Despite this, part of him still wanted to carry on, although the other part knew that he had to stop because he was so ill." Eldritch: "I enjoy it so much, being strung out for a very long time. I'm told you can't do it for that long." Eldritch was rushed to the nearest hospital where he had to stay for a while because of heart complications and reduced general and nutritional condition. In time for two festival appearances in Germany in early September 1984, Eldritch was released from hospital, but the band couldn't meet the scheduled release date of the album. During an interview in Ahlen on 8 September, Eldritch said the release had been postponed to the beginning of the next year.
The band then returned to Genetic Studios to put the finishing touches on the album. It was possibly at these sessions that the band recorded a studio version of the Bob Dylan song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"; an indication of the band's black humour. Studio versions of the two later Mission songs, "Serpents Kiss" and "Wake", exist. Wayne Hussey: "Both of these songs were actually first recorded during the sessions for [First and Last and Always], but weren't completed at that time." It's not clear whether these two songs were recorded at Strawberry or at Genetic Studios. On 22 September 1984, the band made an appearance at a festival in York and then went on the Black October tour through the UK and Europe from 4 October till 18 November 1984, which was originally set up to coincide with the release of the album. To coincide with the tour, a first single off the album was released on 8 October 1984, "Walk Away", which included a limited edition flexidisc featuring an "Amphetamix" of the song "Train". With the release schedule disrupted and the album postponed to the next year, the record company unsuccessfully requested to postpone "Walk Away" too. "Walk Away", like its predecessor, failed to reach the UK top 40, reaching No. 45.