The idea of This
Mortal Coil, before the name existed, to record using different people from
different bands, came from being with Modern English in America. During the
tour they did an encore, running two of their songs together, “Sixteen Days”
and “Gathering Dust”. I told them I thought it might be a good idea if we
recorded those two songs and combine them the way they did it live. They said
at that point that they weren’t particularly interested in doing it, because it
meant going back for them. They were more interested in doing new material. So
I asked if they would mind if I tried recording it with different people. That’s
where the idea came from. I have a hard time listening to it now, but recording
those two pieces of music, making them one piece of music, and the experiment of
working in that way, gave me a taste to continue.- Ivo Watts-Russell
This Mortal Coil
Sixteen Days - Gathering Dust
BAD 310 (12”) (Sep 1983)
A Sixteen Days - Gathering Dust 9:00
B1 Song To The Siren 3:30 (Written-By - Tim Buckley)
B2 Sixteen Days (Reprise) 4:11
Bass - Michael Conroy (on tracks: A, B2)
Engineer, Producer - John Fryer
Guitar - Gary McDowell (on tracks: A, B2) , Robin Guthrie
Keyboards - Martyn Young (on tracks: A, B2)
Producer - Ivo
Voice - Elizabeth Fraser , Gordon Sharp (on tracks: A, B2)
Written-By - Modern English (tracks: A, B2) Tim Buckley (B1)
This is a re-recording of Sixteen days – Gathering Dust inspired by Modern English’s live set, arranged by 4AD owner Ivo Watts-Russell. Mick & Gary from the band performed with Elizabeth Fraser from the Cocteau Twins on vocals.
AD 310 (Sept 1983)
A Song To The Siren (Song To The Siren is only performed by the Cocteau Twins.)
B Sixteen Days (Reprise)
Art direction and design - Vaughan Oliver
You can download 'Sixteen Days-Gathering Dust' and 'Sixteen Days (Reprise) from iTunes as part of the 'Dust & Guitar's' album.
This video for Sixteen days-Gathering Dust was found at the end of a video cassette of a 1985 documentary on 23 Envelope so it could possibly be official, though it doesn't look it.
This home made video for the tracks looks nicer than the one above.
12" sleeve front
A side label
12" sleeve back
B side label
7" Sleeve front
7" sleeve back