http://photobucket.com/albums/v482/xnasa57/?action=view¤t=min83live.jpg
L-R: Pothier, Roberts, Gage, Stevo, AJ. Not pictured: Haleen.
I’m guessing this is in Milwaukee, or possibly Madison.
cool pic…thanks
nice! wouldnt it be great to have a vid of that? in such great quality? 
beyonce’s mom + al!? [:P]
cool pic!!
wempathy;
Is this pic from your “personal stash”?
Any others similar to it? Great find & thanks for posting!
wow. thanks for sharing.
Yes, that is quite cool. Thanks for sharing!
I wanna see the look on Al’s face if he ever sees that picture
It sure looks like Arista forced Alain to dress up like that and go on tour.
I think I see a record exec somewhere in the crowd.
Ha!
Yeah, I like how he insists he was “forced” to do all of that…and yet we have “Primental,” the instrumental version of “I Wanted to Tell Her,” released in '81. Two years before “With Sympathy.” And it’s funny, but I don’t see Vince or Ian’s names anywhere on my “Cold Life” 12". Not to mention the fact that they were performing several of the tracks from “With Sympathy” on the '82 tour…yep, it’s a conspiracy.
Yeah, I like how he insists he was “forced” to do all of that…and yet we have “Primental,” the instrumental version of “I Wanted to Tell Her,” released in '81. Two years before “With Sympathy.” And it’s funny, but I don’t see Vince or Ian’s names anywhere on my “Cold Life” 12". Not to mention the fact that they were performing several of the tracks from “With Sympathy” on the '82 tour…yep, it’s a conspiracy.
yes, totally agreed. why won’t he accept with sympathy as his creation?
you should listen to theese:
http://gila.deathmask.net/min/al_jourgensen_001.wav
http://gila.deathmask.net/min/al_jourgensen_002.wav
http://gila.deathmask.net/min/al_jourgensen_003.wav
this is the promo cassete interview. sorry for quality, i grabbed these from somebody on soulseek (i think it was bisquitodoom).
Yeah, I have a copy of the actual cassette; that’s some funny shit. I like how the interviewer (Richard Skinner) calls him out on using a British accent, when he’s American. Or Cuban, whicheva’. “That’s just what I grew up listening to.” And here I thought he was a country fan…
Yeah, I like how he insists he was “forced” to do all of that…and yet we have “Primental,” the instrumental version of “I Wanted to Tell Her,” released in '81. Two years before “With Sympathy.” And it’s funny, but I don’t see Vince or Ian’s names anywhere on my “Cold Life” 12". Not to mention the fact that they were performing several of the tracks from “With Sympathy” on the '82 tour…yep, it’s a conspiracy.
I was speaking with Ian Taylor’s brother-in-law the other day and he told me that Taylor is out of the music business altogether and that he rehabs old mansions in England now. And Vince? Whatever happened to him I wonder?
wempathy;
Is this pic from your “personal stash”?
Any others similar to it? Great find & thanks for posting!
Mrs. Wempathy took that picture and had lost track of it for years. She only found it a few weeks ago.
I might have a few candid shots around. Unfortunately, no performance pics that I know of.
you should listen to theese:
http://gila.deathmask.net/min/al_jourgensen_001.wav
http://gila.deathmask.net/min/al_jourgensen_002.wav
http://gila.deathmask.net/min/al_jourgensen_003.wav
this is the promo cassete interview. sorry for quality, i grabbed these from somebody on soulseek (i think it was bisquitodoom).
What a difference a couple of years makes. I hadn’t heard that interview before. Thanks for sharing. He talks so proudly of his patience in negotiating a deal with Arista and his new band. He does mention taking Ministry in a different direction for the second Arista album.
What happened? A few hard core parties back in Chicago and then hanging out with Front 242? Fires the 1983 touring band and replaces them with a Fairlight?
What happened? A few hard core parties back in Chicago and then hanging out with Front 242? Fires the 1983 touring band and replaces them with a Fairlight?
Richard Skinner? Great name.
Loved the bit about “I wrote ‘Work For Love’ at the same time as ‘Cold Life’” The only fact in that statement is that Al did, in fact, write ‘Cold Life’. [laugh]
The only bandmember fired and replaced from the '83 band was Shay Jones, and she wasn’t really a fulltime member anyhow. If by ‘fired’ you mean ‘stopped paying’, then you might be on to something. [sly]
The only bandmember fired and replaced from the '83 band was Shay Jones, and she wasn’t really a fulltime member anyhow. If by ‘fired’ you mean ‘stopped paying’, then you might be on to something. [sly]
Yeah, I hadn’t thought about that. Good point. Actually, it’s kind of hard to imagine Al being in charge of payroll for any extended period of time. It’s just strange that he sounds rather confident about future of the band in that interview (with Dick Skinner), and the possibility of the tour band continuing on without him.
One question I’ve wanted to ask was how/why did Arista portray Ministry as a duo of Al and Stevo? Was the contract only with Al and Stevo?
Probably because “avant garde” synthpop duos were quite popular at the time and thus, an easier sell to the public? Soft Cell, Yaz, Eurythmics, Naked Eyes etc (and yes, even Suicide)
Al and Stevo even looked rather similar during those years so they probably fit well together appearance-wise.
I personally don’t believe any of the “it was an abortion, they made me do it” schtick from Al. In that interview, as well as most others from the period, he sounds genuinely enthused about the future of the band. Hell, it was the early 80’s–there’s NOTHING to be ashamed of by -certainly not by the standards of the time. He was simply following the path that offered the least resistance to the $$. We’d all do the same thing if put in his shoes. Besides, he made a DAMN fine album that’s an excellent representation of the genre, no matter what he thinks about it. I personally rank With Sympathy amongst the top 5-6 “synthpop” (I don’t care for that term but still) albums of all time…and granted, there are not a lot of excellent albums from that era (a lot of catchy singles but FEW quality albums). Really a pity there was not a “darker” synthpop followup album that could bridge WS to Twitch…
With Sym is out of print, Ministry’s day in the spotlight is past, and most of Al’s fans either already know or are too young to know/care. I think it’s kind of juvenile for it to still “bother” him as much as it does.
I read a pre-With Sympathy interview with Al recently where he mentioned that the best song ever was “Le Freak” by Chic…
With Sympathy is always an interesting topic here. As much as I don’t care for Opie and Anthony, it was funny to hear Al’s reaction when they played Work For Love during his interview. It’s been mentioned before, but Al’s disdain with that album mostly comes from his dealings with Arista, and I believe there was a lot of compromise on those songs (probably that they needed to sound more commercial).
Al’s also said in the past that the finished product wasn’t really his album, it just had the Ministry name on it, so he was the one who had to “read the mail at the end of the day”.
I’m glad that WS is still discussed, because I wouldn’t know that much about it if it hadn’t been for this forum. Lots of knowledgable people here…hell, Wempathy was Al’s roommate at one time (or am I thinking of someone else?). It’s funny that the ‘duo’ photo was mentioned. It’s almost like they were being promoted as another Naked Eyes or Wham.
By chance, did Ministry ever open for the Psych Furs back in the day? I didn’t see any info in the Tour section, but wondered if there was a link since they’d worked with Vince Ely.
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