Weird Sisters

The Weird Sisters were a very popular band in the wizarding world, whose music was frequently played on the Wizarding Wireless Network. Despite their name, all eight known members were male.

Many individuals in the wizarding world were fans of the Weird Sisters, including Ginevra Weasley and Nymphadora Tonks.

History[]

1980s[]

By the 1986–1987 school year, Hogwarts students Myron Wagtail and Kirley Duke, accompanied by Orsino Thruston, had formed the band, and wanted to perform in the Hogwarts Castle. They wanted Jacob's sibling to perform with them, though the student was unable to actually play an instrument. As part of the preparations from the show, they taught Jacob's sibling to transfigure a cauldron into a bass guitar and charm it to play on its own. When asked if they used the charm they denied it, claiming to have learned through years of practice.^[1]

After the performance, Wagtail informed Jacob's sibling that they found a talented newcomer, Donaghan Tremlett to take over as a full time bass player.^[1]

In 1986–1987 school year, the band mentioned that Jacob's sibling, being known as an unofficial "Curse-Breaker", had been one of their sources of inspiration. They helped them practise their Frog Choir audition on the training grounds. They then encouraged Jacob's sibling to sing in front of Professor Snape to test their nerves. They watched and praised them for having done a great job.^[2]

During the 1987–1988 school year, Charlie Weasley and Jacob's sibling wanted to throw a party at The Burrow and asked Myron if the Weird Sisters would play. After Jacob's sibling helped Myron out of a creative slump, he agreed. During the party Myron gave Jacob's sibling a special shout out from the stage.^[3]

During the 1988–1989 school year, Professor McGonagall needed new performers to play a strathspey song for the inaugural Summer Nights dance festival in Hogsmeade. Jacob's sibling suggested the Weird Sisters play instead, to which she agreed upon hearing Jacob's sibling's recommendation. When Jacob's sibling brought the sheet music for the strathspey to the band, Kirley helped Jacob's sibling realise that the festival may be a cèilidh, however Myron pointed out that it could also be an 'around the world' theme. They eventually played the song at the concert on stage, with Professor McGonagall leading the dance.^[4]

During the 1989–1990 school year, the Weird Sisters popped up in front of Jacob's sibling in the Three Broomsticks Inn when they thought they had mentioned something about them.^[5] Later, Jacob's sibling invited the Weird Sisters to do a concert at the Great Lake.^[6] They also performed during the party at Three Broomsticks^[7] and performed a secret concert at Hogsmeade Station.^[8]

1990s[]

During the 1994–1995 school year the Yule Ball was announced, one of the rumours discussed in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was that Albus Dumbledore had booked the Weird Sisters for the ball, which turned out to be true.^[9]

On 25 December 1994, the band performed in the Great Hall on a magically-appearing stage. Among the band's instruments were a set of drums, several guitars, a cello, a lute, a double bass and some bagpipes. During this performance, Harry Potter noted that all members of the band were extremely hairy and all wearing black robes that had been artfully torn.^[10]

In 1995, the band was popular enough that the marriage of their bass player, Donaghan Tremlett, made front-page news in the Daily Prophet.^[11]

Ginny Weasley had a poster of the band hanging on her bedroom wall.

Music and style[]

The band's overall aesthetic and music style were influenced by the darker elements of the wizarding world, such as the three Unforgivable Curses, Dark wizards, and macabre objects such as Doxy skulls. Despite this, none of the members were ever known to have practised the Dark Arts, and at least three of the members' Boggarts were Lord Voldemort. As the band members started to explore darker themes in their work, they were drawn to various people they thought embodied the most dark and depressing parts of life. These people were Ben Copper (who represented despair and meaninglessness), Severus Snape (who represented tragedy and brooding), Ismelda Murk (who represented the endless darkness), and Jacob's sibling (who represented pain and suffering).^[1]

They also took influence from physical objects as well, such as various artefacts Myron found in the Artefact Room, including a black quill, and metaphysical concepts such as entropy and overthrowing order and conformity. Myron was known to be influenced by existentialist post-modernist fiction.^[1]

Despite this, the band was not all depressing. Before the start of any performance, the various members of the band would cast the Cheering Charm on themselves and each other in order to hype each other up for the performance.^[1]

Members[]

Known performances[]

Title	Date	Wizard(s)	Location
Weird Sisters' first concert	1986–1987 school year	Myron Wagtail (lead singer) Orsino Thruston (drums) Kirley Duke (rhythm guitar) Jacob's sibling (bass)	The Training Grounds
Party at The Burrow	1987–1988 school year	Myron Wagtail (lead singer) Orsino Thruston (drums) Kirley Duke (rhythm guitar)	The Burrow
Summer Nights dance festival's premier song	1988–1989 school year	Myron Wagtail (bass) Orsino Thruston (drums) Kirley Duke (rhythm guitar) Minerva McGonagall (choreography)	The festival grounds
Weird Sisters concert at the Great Lake	1989–1990 school year	Myron Wagtail (lead singer) Orsino Thruston (drums) Kirley Duke (rhythm guitar)	On the shores of the Great Lake
Party at the Three Broomsticks Inn	The Three Broomsticks Inn
Weird Sisters' secret concert	Hogsmeade Station
The Yule Ball	1994–1995 school year	Myron Wagtail (lead singer) Orsino Thruston (drums) Kirley Duke (Lead guitar) Donaghan Tremlett (bass) Heathcote Barbary (rhythm guitar) Gideon Crumb (Bagpipes)	The Great Hall

Songs[]

• "Do the Hippogriff"^[12]
• "Magic Works"^[12]
• "This Is the Night"^[12]
• "Blood Sucker"^[13]

Behind the scenes[]

• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the band which performs at the Yule Ball deliberately goes unnamed throughout the film because of a legal dispute between the film studio and Canadian folk band Wyrd Sisters.^[14] The band is simply introduced as "The band that needs no introduction!", by Filius Flitwick.
  • Thirteen years after the film's release, despite the legal dispute, Warner Bros. used the name to identify a trio of teenage witches in the 2018 Netflix Original Series, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
• Members Merton Graves and Herman Wintringham do not make an appearance in the film.
• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, piper Gideon Crumb plays keyboards as well as bagpipes. In the book series, however, there is no mention of the band having a keyboard player.
• The band's songs were written by Jarvis Cocker, who plays singer Myron Wagtail. "Do the Hippogriff" was a collaboration between Cocker and rhythm guitarist Jason Buckle (Heathcote Barbary).
• The Scottish band Franz Ferdinand, self-professed fans of the books, were originally invited to play the Weird Sisters.^[15]
• In an interview, J. K. Rowling stated that the instruments that they played included bagpipes, cello and electric guitar and that they were Harry Potter's favourite band.^[16]
• At least as portrayed in the Harry Potter films, the Weird Sisters are considered to be a wizard rock band.^[17]
• All appear on Chocolate Frog Cards at the Harry Potter Exhibition.

Etymology[]

• The term "Weird Sisters" was the name given to the three prophetic witches in the play "Macbeth", by William Shakespeare ("weïrd" being Old English for "fate" or "destiny").
  • Macbeth, stated to be quite possibly the favourite Shakespeare play of Harry Potter series author J. K. Rowling,^[18] had another allusion in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film), where the Frog Choir sings the song "Double Trouble", which directly quotes the witches from the play multiple times.
  • The Hebrew edition of the books translated the band's name into "אחיות הגורל" (Achyoth HaGoral), meaning "Sisters of Destiny", indirectly referencing Macbeth.
  • Interestingly, the Spanish edition of the books refers to the band by the name las Brujas de Macbeth, meaning "Macbeth's Witches".
• As it is unconfirmed as to from where J. K. Rowling got the idea for the band's name, other possibilities include:
  • A variant of the name, Wyrd Sisters, was used as the title of a 1988 Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett.
  • A play on the heavy metal band, Twisted Sister.
  • A reference to the term “weird sisters” cited by the character Harker in Chapter 3 of the book Dracula when having seen the three women who try to kiss his neck.

Portrayers of the Weird Sisters[]

• Jarvis Cocker (of Pulp) as Myron Wagtail – vocals
• Jonny Greenwood (of Radiohead) as Kirley Duke – lead guitar
• Jason Buckle (of All Seeing I) as Heathcote Barbary – rhythm guitar
• Steve Mackey (of Pulp) as Donaghan Tremlett – bass
• Steven Claydon (of Add N to (X)) as Gideon Crumb – keyboards and bagpipes
• Phil Selway (of Radiohead) as Orsino Thruston – drums

Appearances[]

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (PC version) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Mentioned on a shirt) (Mentioned in the Daily Prophet)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (At the funeral for Albus Dumbledore)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Mentioned on a poster)
• Pottermore
• Harry Potter: The Character Vault (Mentioned only)
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

Notes and references[]