Alice (The Sisters of Mercy song)

After one week of pre-production at Andrew Eldritch's flat in Leeds, four tracks were recorded over two weekends with producer John Ashton of the Psychedelic Furs at Kenny Giles's studio in Bridlington: "Alice", "Floorshow", Stooges cover "1969" and the unreleased "Good Things".[1]

The same four songs had been previously recorded for a BBC radio session in August 1982.[2]

"Alice" and "Floorshow" were released as the band's third 7" single on 21 November 1982.[3] With two additional tracks, "1969" and the new recording "Phantom", it was re-released in March 1983 as a 12" EP.

Ashton financed a US release (the band's first) of the 12" EP on Island Park, New York label Brain Eater Records.[4][5]

The EP was never released as a stand-alone CD, but was included on the Some Girls Wander by Mistake collection.

7" (1982)

12" (1983)

• Andrew Eldritch – vocals
• Craig Adams – bass guitar
• Ben Gunn – guitar
• Gary Marx – guitar
• Doktor Avalanche (drum machine) – drums

• Andrew Eldritch (1990): “My attitude to 'Alice' has changed over the years. I wrote it in ten minutes about pills and tranks when I used to care about watching people I know get dragged down by that. Now I really don't care.”[6]
• Gary Marx (1983/2003): “Ben joined us last year. The first single that we did with him was 'Alice', which was like our break in a very small way, as it got us into the indie charts [...] The Psychedelic Furs put up all the costs so it was no skin off our noses. What happened was, Andy went to see the Furs a long time ago and gave them our first tape, which they liked and gave to various people, including their manager. So we've had a lot of help and advice from them. John Ashton, the Furs' guitarist, produced 'Alice' which was the reason why it was so good. With a bit of luck he might help us with the next one.”[7][8] “The guitar sound was my old £85 Shergold in the early days, something I’d borrowed off Jon Langford or other friends of the family, or one of Andrew’s guitars [...] We’d made ‘Alice’ with John Ashton producing who did a brilliant job, and rather than invite him to work with us again Andrew believed he’d learnt everything he could from John and took sole responsibility for [the band's follow-up single] ‘Anaconda’.”[9]
• Les Mills (manager, 2004): “I arranged for them to record with John as I felt it would benefit both parties, as the Sisters' previous recorded work had been dire and John wanted to get into production.”[1]