The Mission (band)

The Mission (known as The Mission UK in the United States) are an English gothic rock band formed in 1986.
Initially known as The Sisterhood, the band was started by frontman Wayne Hussey and bassist Craig Adams (both from The Sisters of Mercy), soon adding drummer Mick Brown (Red Lorry Yellow Lorry) and guitarist Simon Hinkler (Artery and Pulp). Aside from Hussey, the lineup has changed several times during the years and the band has been on hiatus twice.

The band's catalogue consists of ten main albums (''God's Own Medicine'', ''Children'', ''Carved in Sand'', ''Masque'', ''Neverland'', ''Blue'', ''Aura'', ''God Is a Bullet'', ''The Brightest Light'', and ''Another Fall from Grace''), with several complementing albums, compilations, and other miscellaneous releases.Martin Roach with Neil Perry, ''The Mission: Names Are for Tombstones, Baby'' (Independent Press, London, 1993), pp 270–276

History

Incarnation

After an aborted recording session with Andrew Eldritch in the summer of 1985, Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams left the Sisters of Mercy. Based in Leeds, the duo continued to work on various musical ideas and recorded them over the autumn.Sleeve notes ''The First Chapter (reissue)'' Wayne Hussey, April 2007 Dismissing the use of a drum machine, Adams and Hussey asked Mick Brown (Red Lorry Yellow Lorry) to help out with the sessions. By the end of the year, he had joined the band on a permanent basis. With Hussey as both the frontman and principal songwriter, the trio required a second guitarist to facilitate a live setup. They eventually recruited Simon Hinkler (Artery), who also contributed keyboards and thus completed the four-piece. The name The Sisterhood was chosen with a nod to the past and rehearsals for the first shows started in January 1986. The new name quickly became a point of discussion in the English music press, giving the four-piece a significant amount of publicity. As The Sisterhood, the band made their live debut on 20 January 1986 at the Alice in Wonderland, London.

While the band was on tour as support to the Cult around Europe, Eldritch released a single as The Sisterhood. Back in England, Hinkler was briefly dismissed and reinstated for three UK dates where the band revealed their new name, The Mission. Although Hussey and Adams were still under contract with WEA, manager Tony Perrin prepared their material for a release. In May, the EP ''I'' (''Serpents Kiss'') appeared on the Chapter 22 label as the Expedition I tour took the band around Europe. Two months later, ''II'' (''Like a Hurricane/Garden of Delight'') was released on the same label and supported by a number of festival slots that culminated in an appearance at the Reading Festival.

Crusade

Hussey and Adams were released from their WEA contracts and the band signed a seven-album deal with Phonogram in July 1986. Their debut, ''God's Own Medicine'', was then recorded in six weeks with novice producer Tim Palmer, an acquaintance from Hussey's Dead or Alive days. In October, the single "III" ("Stay with Me") was released, preceding the album that appeared the next month. The band set out on a three-month World Crusade I UK/European tour, with their dedicated followers, 'Eskimos', in tow. They also appeared on British television a number of times and recorded a session for BBC radio. The single "IV" ("Wasteland") charted at No. 11 in January 1987.

The World Crusade II tour brought the band to North America, where they were known as 'The Mission UK'. The 41-date trek was characterised by substance abuse and led to the collapse of an inebriated Craig Adams in Los Angeles, resulting in him temporarily quitting the band. Sound tech Pete Turner filled in for one show, before they enlisted the help of Chris Bocast to play bass with them for the remainder of the tour, which included an opening slot for The Psychedelic Furs. In March 1987, the single "V" ("Severina"), with guest vocals by Julianne Regan, was released. Back in England, Adams returned to the band to play a handful of European festivals, and two support dates in Leeds and Edinburgh on U2's Joshua Tree Tour. A live video entitled ''Crusade'' was released, capturing the band and their noisy audience at the early stage of their career. It coincided with the release of '' The First Chapter'' in June 1987, a collection of material from the first two EPs.

''Children''

By the summer of 1987, Hussey had already written some new material that was first aired during the band's summer festival shows and U2 warm-up performances. The Mission enlisted the help of John Paul Jones to produce their second album, ''Children'', engineered by Mark 'Spike' Stent. In October of the same year, Hussey became a father to a girl named Hannah, an event that inspired much of the lyrical content. Musically, the band moved more towards a Led Zeppelin-inspired hard rock style. In January 1988, the band recorded some additional material in London together with Stent. In February, the first single, " Tower of Strength", was released, reaching number 12 in the UK Singles Chart. At the end of the same month, the album appeared and charted at number 2 in the UK album chart.

The rest of the year was taken up by the Children Play world tour, which included a six-night residency at the London Astoria, Theatre where John Paul Jones made a guest appearance on keyboards. The rest of the tour included a support slot for Robert Plant, the first dates the band played in Latin America, and a small tour of Japan. A second single, "Beyond the Pale", made less of an impact and a third scheduled for the end of the year was cancelled. At the end of 1988, The Mission embarked on an eight-date arena tour around the UK, while a collection of their music videos, ''From Dusk to Dawn'', was released.

Deliverance

In the first half of 1989, Hussey spent some time writing new material in the Black Mountains in South Wales before the band reconvened in April to start the recording process. At the end of the same month, they played two shows, one in support of the Lockerbie disaster and another for the Hillsborough disaster fund. The latter featured guest appearances by Pete Wylie and Mick Jones and saw a committed Hussey, who as a lifelong Liverpool F.C. fan, was keen to support the victims. In between recording, the band played a number of European festivals supporting The Cure. In contrast to the large shows the band had been playing on the Children Play tour, they decided to embark on a low-key Scottish Highlands tour with some of their most ardent fans in tow. The last commitment of the year was another headline appearance at the Reading Festival, before the band returned to the studio to complete the album.

They once again enlisted the help of Tim Palmer to produce the record, while Reeves Gabrels, Baluji Shrivastav, and Guy Chambers also made contributions. Slated for an early-1990 release, the recording of the ''Carved in Sand'' album had been completed by the end of August 1989. To kill time, the foursome then promptly went camp to form a glam rock tribute band, The Metal Gurus, playing support for The Wonder Stuff towards the end of the year. The first single, ''Butterfly on a Wheel'', was released in January 1990 and narrowly missed the top ten. The new album appeared a month later, together with the ''Waves upon the Sand'' video that documented the recording sessions and Scottish tour of the previous year.

The Deliverance tour in support of the album proved problematic. The band hired David Wolfenden as a supplemental guitarist to give Hussey free rein as the frontman. An inebriated Hussey showed up on the James Whale show and reports of their debauched behaviour continued to appear in the press. The release of a second single, "Deliverance", coincided with the UK arena dates. Illness beset the first European leg of the tour as Hinkler contracted scarlet fever, leading to some cancellations. Personal tensions led to a confrontation during the North American leg of the tour and Simon Hinkler left the band after a gig at Montreal's Metropolis. The remaining members continued with a variation of stand-ins that included Tim Bricheno (of All About Eve) before he joined The Sisters of Mercy. A third single, "Into the Blue" was released in May 1990 to coincide with a number of festival dates, including a headlining slot at Pinkpop and indoor dates to replace the cancelled French dates from earlier in the year. The band also played dates in Australia and New Zealand for the first time in their career. For the second half of 1990, they enlisted the help of Paul "Etch" Etchells (ex- Ghost Dance) on keyboards and guitars. This last leg of the tour, which included a performance filmed for the Rockpalast programme, saw Hinkler returning twice as a guest during the encores at Leeds and the final night at the Brixton Academy.

The Mission had a lot of surplus material after the ''Carved in Sand'' sessions and had difficulties deciding on the running order of the album. In October 1990, the companion album, ''Grains of Sand'', was released. It contained the rest of the candidates, some of which had already surfaced as B-sides, supplemented by acoustic renditions and covers. A single, "Hands Across the Ocean", co-produced by Andy Partridge, became a minor hit and was backed by a live version of "Amelia". The band and Hinkler were on friendly terms again and they resurrected the Metal Gurus project to record a cover version of "Merry Xmas Everybody" with Noddy Holder and Jim Lea from Slade for the Childline charity.

After a break to recuperate, the band teamed up with engineer Joe Gibb to create a high-tech studio setup. Brown had been soaking up the Leeds dance scene, while Hussey's explorations were towards folk music. The band, asked to perform a lucrative headlining gig at Finsbury Park in 1991, brought out quite a different side, joined by Maartin Allcock of Fairport Convention and Anthony Thistlethwaite of The Waterboys. Many long-standing fans left the gig worried about the direction of the forthcoming release, ''Masque'' (produced by Mark Saunders). ''Masque'' was originally intended to be a solo release by Hussey; however, the remaining band members contributed to the recording, and the album was released under the group name as a result. Hussey later said, "with ''Masque'', we attempted to break down these preconceptions that people had of us but it didn't go down very well". Adams left the group subsequent to the release of the album. Reduced to a duo, the Mission began searching for new members, even placing an ad in '' Melody Maker''.

Childhood's end

The second incarnation of the Mission consisted of Brown, Hussey, Mark Thwaite (formerly of Spear of Destiny) on guitar, Rik Carter (formerly of Pendragon) on keyboards, and eventually Andy Cousin (formerly of All About Eve) on bass. This lineup's first release was a fanclub-only flexi disc cover of the Osmonds song " Crazy Horses" in early 1993. The recording of a new album started, while a BBC
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