ARTmania Festival 2010 will take place between 13th and 15th August. Reaching the fifth edition, ARTmania Festival is shouting out the next band coming to Sibiu and playing Friday, on the 13th of August 2010 in the Large Square: the sisters of mercy.

New and hence unreleased songs make up half of any Sisters set these days, although the classics get a good thrashing in rotation. Having derived their light show from the Big Bang (gleefully inventing rave lighting in the process), the Sisters see no reason to tone it down, and will be exploding in all their usual glory at the next suitable opportunity.

Metal Hammer:   [the 1=”Sisters” 2=”are…” ]  “a lean glittering groove machine for the new millennium, leaving the sullenly anachronistic reformations of their contemporaries far behind.”

Tickets and passes are available at Carturesti, Diverta, Germanos and Vodafone Shops and online on www.eventim.ro and www.myticket.ro. Outside Romania tickets are available on the eventim european network.

Presale I: 1-30April – 70RON/day 110/pass (~18/29€)

Presale II: 1-31May – 80RON/day 140RON/pass (~21/37€)

Presale III: 1 June – 12 August – 90RON/day 160RON/pass (~24/42€)

Sale inside the festival: 110RON/day 180RON/pass (~29/47€)

Artmania Festival 2010 is organized by ARTmania Events in partnership with the Sibiu City Hall, Sibiu Local Council, Sibiu County Council and Continental Hotel Chain.

 

Selective Biography: 

1980: The sisters of mercy are formed in Leeds by Gary Marx and Andrew Eldritch. With one guitar, a three-watt practice amp and no money, they record a single “to hear ourselves on the radio”. The Merciful Release label is founded to issue it and one thousand copies are pressed. The record gets played on the radio.

1981: Sensing that something horribly huge is within their grasp, the duo decides to “start again, properly”. Andrew Eldritch, by his own admission “a very bad drummer”, becomes by default the band’s lead singer as Gary Marx concentrates on guitar and Craig Adams is recruited on bass.

An essential move seems natural to the Sisters but is to set them crucially apart from (and ahead of) their peers: they are now anchored and driven by the legendary Doktor Avalanche, drum machine.

1983: The Sisters come out with a three-song single in October ‘83. ‘TEMPLE OF LOVE’ is in every respect a monster. Backed with ‘HEARTLAND’ and ‘GIMME SHELTER’, it is destined to be their last independently released record.

1985: Gary Marx’s departure is announced as the debut album goes straight into the Top Twenty.  The band stage an end-of-tour concert in July at London’s Royal Albert Hall as The sisters of mercy celebrate the first pinnacle of their existence. Eldritch is expected to leave the stage with his usual “Goodnight!” but tonight it’s “Goodbye”. It will be five years before the sisters of mercy play live again.

1987: The second album ‘FLOODLAND’ is released in November.  A fifth-generation Doktor Avalanche drives a body of songs which highlight Andrew Eldritch’s maturity as a singer and songwriter.

1990: Guitarist Andreas Bruhn joins the band; he and Andrew Eldritch write songs for the next album. Tony James replaces the recently departed Patricia Morrison. Guitarist Tim Bricheno completes the line-up, as the third LP ‘VISION THING’ is being finished.

1993: Summer shows with Depeche Mode in Europe are followed by the first Greatest Hits album ‘A SLIGHT CASE OF OVERBOMBING’. A single featuring new guitarist Adam Pearson ‘UNDER THE GUN / ALICE (1993)’ is released simultaneously, and assumes its automatic place in the top ten.

1995: Still arguing with East West, or rather: not talking to East West any more. As far as its recording contract goes, the band has effectively been on strike for five years now. Andrew Eldritch starts remixing industrial dance records and is rumored to be active in trance music. Adam, as usual, is also making soundtrack music.

From 1996 on, Sisters had a lot of concerts in Europe and America and passed through a lot of line-up changes, but it goes on with a huge fan core and is highly appreciated for their performance.