Music > Live Reviews

The Mission

The Adrian Flux Waterfront

12/05/17

It is over thirty years since Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams parted company with the Sisters of Mercy and hooked up with Mick Brown and Simon Hinkler in the band that eventually became The Mission. In that time, there have been hit singles and albums, triumphant festival headline slots, numerous line-up changes and a farewell tour or two. Throughout it all, this seemingly most unfashionable of bands have been the butt of punishing derision in certain sections of the music press but here they are, back again, with three-quarters of the classic line-up. 

This is the first time I have seen Adams, Hinkler and Hussey on stage together since the Reading Festival in ’89. Hell, it is the first time I have seen The Mission in any form for nigh-on a decade. With Mike Kelly behind the kit, this current line-up has been together for six years, something of a record for this band.

Tonight is effectively a warm-up for a nationwide tour starting next week. As main man Hussey says, the first set is a chance to play songs that have rarely, if ever, been played live before. The sound for this first set is, unfortunately, truly dreadful. I have honestly never heard the band sound worse or, for that matter, a headliner sound as bad at The Waterfront. That said, the band seem to be together and enjoying themselves and it is good to see ‘em playing Coming Home, however bad the sound may be.

The second set kicks off with Beyond The Pale and the soundman has pulled it all together. The biggest response of the night comes with debut single Serpent's Kiss and the energy levels stay up with the likes of Swoon, Naked and Savage, Raising Cain and a riotous Like A Child Again before things wind-up with the anthemic Tower of Strength and Wasteland. 

With not one but two encores, taking in the likes of Black Mountain Mist, The Sisters' Marian, South African no. 1 hit single Butterfly On A Wheel, a raging Blood Brothers and Deliverance, this was pretty much a triumph.

The human pyramids may not be as high and the arm waving goth-dancing of the audience may not be as frenetic as they used to be but The Mission are still enthusiastically received. But for that dodgy sound in the first set, this would be damned near perfect. And it wasn’t all about nostalgia. The title track of 2016 album Another Fall From Grace shows this band are as relevant as the younger, hipper bands earning the headlines.