The Mission - Jun 22

On the hottest night of the year so far, a crowd gathered in Reading’s Sub89 – I’m told the venue’s first sell out since the start of the pandemic in 2020. Entertaining the crowd tonight, The Mission, a band I first heard back on the old Channel Four Chart Show when ‘Serpent’s Kiss’ topped the Indie charts. 36 years later, original members Wayne Hussey, Simon Hinkler and Craig Adams are back on tour again to celebrate their extensive back catalogue.

Before the maelstrom of goth majesty, we have local ‘billy legends The Go Go Cult. Treading a line between The Seeds and the Cramps via The Meteors, the band have long established themselves on the (old school) garage scene.  Songs such as the magnificent ‘Town Called Sorrow’ and ‘Old Nick the Revelator‘ went down well with the rapidly swelling crowd.

Impressively for a band in their fifth decade, The Mission still have a substantial travelling fanbase with the Eskimos packing out the first few rows of the crowd. By the time the band came onto stage the venue was heaving and the temperature rising even further. We were rewarded with a lengthy set including a substantial number of singles and some rarer tracks from later albums. Starting with ‘Beyond the Pale’, ‘Hands Across The Ocean’ and debut single ‘Serpent’s Kiss’ the band quickly had the fans won over with Wayne’s 12 string taking centre stage.

2016’s ‘Tyranny of Secrets’ easily slides into the set matching the heights of late 80s Mission before old favourite ‘Naked and Savage’ has the crowd singing alongside Wayne before launching into ‘Evangline’ from 2001’s (1^st) comeback album. Much (wrongly) derided at the time, the ‘Masque’ album produced one cracking single and ‘Like a Child Again’ has me reminiscing about my student days. ‘Afterglow’ leads into ‘Severina’ and ‘Butterfly on a Wheel’ before the big singalongs of ‘Wasteland’ and ‘Deliverance’ complete the set with the latter resulting in an audience led coda as the band leave the stage.

The band are back on stage and launch into ‘Belief’, ‘Sacrilege’ and ‘The Crystal Ocean’ with its swirling guitars. Another short break and we are into the final stretch with ‘Dance on Glass’ and after a little hiccup ‘Hungry as the Hunter’. Finishing with goth nightclub favourite ‘Tower of Strength’ and a flurry of dancing hands in the crowd, a couple of words from Wayne and its all over.

Leaving a very hot and sweaty venue, the band had satisfied its fans with a consummate set of fan favourites.  As a long time fan, it was good to see the band back on a roll with the newer material fitting seamlessly in with the classic tunes from the 80s heyday. Overall a fantastic night for this aging goth.

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