The Alternative Number Ones: The Sisters Of Mercy’s “More”

In The Alternative Number Ones, I'm reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it's for members only. Thank you to everyone who's helping to keep Stereogum afloat.

Lollapalooza wasn't the only ambitious, genre-agnostic alternative music festival that toured the US in 1991; it was just the only one that succeeded. In fall 1990, the Cult's Ian Astbury brought his Gathering Of The Tribes fest, an important Lollapalooza precursor, to a couple of California venues. In 1990, someone tried to turn Gathering Of The Tribes into a nationwide touring festival, with X, Steve Earle, EPMD, the Hoodoo Gurus, King's X, and future Lollapalooza bands Fishbone and Primus. That tour was a total failure, and many of its dates were cancelled for lack of ticket sales.

Since the Cult never played a Gathering Of The Tribes festival, that enterprise didn't have a charismatic, shamanic figure like Jane's Addiction leader Perry Farrell to serve as a rallying point. Farrell, one of Lollapalooza's co-founders, played a crucial role as a kind of envoy for that festival -- someone who could personally speak the vision that he wanted to bring to life. The other big 1991 festival had another guy like that, but he didn't help much. That festival was the Tune In, Turn On, Burn Out tour -- a catchier name might've helped -- and the figure in question was Sisters Of Mercy leader Andrew Eldritch.