"Tower Of Strength" - Mission UK: Classic or Dud?

I was down, down, down
you smoothed my frown, frown, frown,
So I'll slip you a length
of my tower of strength

Perhaps I'm blinkered by too many bad memories and I have to admit I haven't heard it in years but...

I didn't get it then and I don't get it now, it's just horrible soulless mindless rubbish to these ears but I respect Dan's opinion and respect his, usually, pretty good taste.

Sorry, but it had to be said.

That said, there are two unforgiveable things about it: Wayne Hussey's singing (which is always eurgh, but thankfully swathed in enough echo and buried in the mix to prevent total damage) and the laff-a-minute video, which should have been taken out and shot.

Still, possibly the last great thing they ever did before plunging into the tepid mediocrity (from CARVED IN SAND onward...).

The Mission RoXoR.

Being a sad little goth-boy, I found the whole concert revelatory, and I can't remember enjoying a gig as much since.

I still think that Tower Of Strength is possibly the least shit thing that the Mish ever recorded. Not that that's saying much - I recently heard the Sisters' demo of 'Garden of Delight'. Mr E must have had a good giggle when he heard Wayne's attempt to sing that one!

I must admit I have no problem with Wayne's singing on this song. It just fits the tone so well (even though the last note of the first phrase of the verse is very obviously on his break; listen to that tenative, shaky wobble!).

After steeping myself in a fest of vintage Sisters of Mercy this afternoon (as recounted here: Songs that Start Out Promisingly....then slowly fail to live up to the promise of their openings.) I immersed myself in the syruppy shenanigans of the Mission for my walk to work this evening, and I'm still recovering (suppressing my urge to put my sunglasses on at all times, sport a big silly black goucho hat, paint my fingernails black and do wavey arm dances, etc.). Sure, they haven't aged so well, but damn if the Mish weren't a helluva lot a fun in their heyday. And yes....I still say the video for "Tower of Strength" is deplorable crap, but the excessive, histrionic sweep of the song is still the stuff of greatness, to say nothing of Simon Hinkler's swooning solo and that fab-o bassline. God Bless the Mission!

Ill-advised. Though "Beyond the Pale" is quite good too.

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYVIVEUH!

Just bought the five CD live set from their farewell shows, `cos -- after all -- one can never have too many live versions of "Mr. Pleasant". Actually mighty great. Something strange happened to Wayne's accent, though -- gone is the hoary "R" sound of his past. He seems to have lost the Brit drawl and replaced it with a weird transatlantic flourish. Where once he'd sing "TOWUUUUHHH", he now sings "ToweRRRRRRRRRR". It kinda breaks my heart.

The Mission are one of those bands I used to love but now find rather embarrassing, though I still love a great many of their songs, like Mr. Pleasant. And Tower of Strength.

That's pretty much precisely how I feel about them. I look back and think: "What the hell was I thinking?" But I'll always retain a soft spot for'em. Still -- go back and ponder the lyrics of tracks like, say, "The Crystal Ocean" and try not to cringe.

Hahah, mindmeld, I was thinking about this song today.

To wit...

Brother of Cain, but I'm not Abel
To see the wood from the trees
I'm all at sea, come hell and high water
Before I drown, kiss me please

Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake me round, and around
Shake me down

Here comes the sun, streaming through the window
Colour up the dust and making it shine
The devil's real name is the crystal ocean
Wave after wave, in time after line

Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake me round and around
Shake me down
Shake me down
Shake me down

Flesh and blood, sister in crime
Cross my heart and then hope to die
The blinding lights, done with mirrors
Reach for the blade and kiss the sky

Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake me round and around
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake me round and around
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake me round and around
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake me down
Shake me round and around
Shake me down

Never do that again.

Bahahahahaah

Never do that again.

No, that was on Masque

You're not helping you know.

Wait, HOLD on:

Just bought the five CD live set from their farewell shows

What IS this, your planned response to the upstairs neighbor who was driving you nuts?

After having two kids, one gets musically frivolous.

5-CD live set? This is insane

I like the way the bass kicks in on Tower of Strength. As ever, the embarrassing pompousity of Wayne Hussey's lyrics (and people moan about the Neph!) completely ruin the song.

I don't think the lyrics are that bad on "Tower of Strength," honestly. I mean, they're not genius, but they're a fucklot better than "Love Me To Death" from God's Own Medicine which are categorically indefensible.

5-CD live set? This is insane

Yeah, it is the quintessence of needlessness. Still, I wish more of my fave bands would go to such lengths.

classic

they were really just a rip off of U2, but loved them at one time.

they were really just a rip off of U2

More the Bunnymen than U2.

WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THESE GUYS DID A COVER OF "DREAM ON"

ALL THESE YEARS, I COULD HAVE BEEN LOLLING EVEN MORE

some friends y'all are

I thought you had the damn album it was on, sheesh!

I'm listening to said album for the first time just now! I'd only ever heard (and played the shit out of) "Tower of Strength", largely because of things like this thread where other goth-heads were all "what an embarrassing band, but TOS owns"

Okay fair enough but you mentioned the eight minute version up top and I just assumed 'okay he has the album' and there you go.

DREAM ON
DREAM ON

Oh and god bless you America.

never assume anything post Napster/WinMX/iTunes

A veritable garden...OF DELIGHT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snQKDt-dYp4

Oh and never forget:

This is the thread where you post in the style of Wayne Hussey

oh lol that thread, I love it so

Gods these guys were embarrassing. Still have much guilty love for 'Severina' though.

'Blood Brother' too!

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Who were the other Mission that forced the name change for the USA?
Apparently Wayne Hussey is severely cross-eyed, which is why he's never been seen without dark glasses.
I met Craig Adams once, he was very nice.
That's all I have to say about T'Mish.

So our own J3ff T. had never seen this before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLXCFDAoOD8

I had no idea Wayne Hussey was related to Raiden of Mortal Kombat fame.

Wow, the only thing that could make that better is Beavis and Butthead talking over it.

Seems like the best place for it, since the only place I can find where I mentioned the Wayne Hussey solo album 'Bare' (covers of 'A Night LIke This' and 'With Or Without You', amongst others) is actually a Wonder Stuff thread...

Please, somebody tell me they've heard (or better still, got) this:

http://hussey-regan.com/hussey-regan.com/Welcome.html

1: Naked and Savage (The Mission)

Wayne: Julianne & I talked about which Mission song to cover and 'Butterfly On A Wheel' was mentioned, mainly because that's a song that I'd originally written for Julianne back in the late '80's. But we both felt that was a bit obvious so we decided to go for something a bit more obscure. Naked & Savage was the b-side to The Mission's first single and we played with this for a while. I sent Julianne a piano piece that I recorded which she then sped up, substituting another instrument playing the same thing, and added the beats, more keyboards, and sent it back to me. I added guitars, harmonica, vocals and, bit by bit, we got there.

Julianne: A brilliant piece of fortuitous serendipity happened here. At one point in the mixing process, Wayne sent me a mix of the song for comments/approval, but had forgotten to put my lead vocal in. I thought it was an alternative mix, but it was in fact a mistake. We were both excited by the mistake and so decided to make the song more of a chill-out duet. It's far more interesting and rich than the version I'd sung on my own.

2: Ordinary World (Duran Duran)

Wayne: Without ever being a fan of Duran Duran (but every girl I've ever met is) I do really like this song. I wanted to take it away from the rock ballad that the Duranies version is. My way into this was actually by listening to the Thom Yorke solo album and being inspired by the electronic rhythms he used on that album. I know it sounds nothing like that now but that's where the germ of this came from for me. Of course it evolved into something else as most things thankfully do.

Julianne: Now, I have always been a Duran Duran fan. I'd even seen them play live at Aston University in 1981, before they were massive. I loved them, used to go out to clubs and would dance to Planet Earth like a good little New Romantic. Had I rolled the ball on this one, it would probably have been closer to the ballad version and so would have been nothing new really, but Wayne rolled and this is where the ball went. It's much more inventive than what I'd have done, I love it.

3: Enjoy The Silence (Depeche Mode)

Wayne: This is one of Julianne's choices. I do like Depeche and I feel that their music has aged incredibly well, unlike a lot of stuff from the '80's. This is a great song, and a great version, I think. It was easy to come along and sprinkle some fairy dust on what Julianne had already done with it.

Julianne: I never really liked Depeche Mode, but I certainly didn't dislike them. I knew they were good but they'd dipped under my radar for some reason. However, when I heard this single back in 1990, at first I thought it was like something David Sylvian might have written and it woke me up to the band. I loved the melody but wanted to really slow it down and make the music more brooding to reflect the depth of the lyric. The Depeche Mode version is like a sunny day with a mackerel sky, ours is more of a sunset through bruised clouds.

4: Another Lonely Day (Ben Harper)

Wayne: I only started listening to Ben Harper in the last few years and it was my wife who actually first played this to me and said she thought I could do a good version. Dunno what she was trying to say to me! Anyway, I started playing a piano version of this at my solo shows in the last couple of years, which evolved into this version for Curios with Julianne's help.

Julianne: My input on this is minimal, just a little bit of backing vocal here and there. It needed absolutely nothing else. It's all about the simplicity.

5: Wichita Lineman (Glen Campbell)

Wayne: Another of Julianne's choices but who doesn't like this song? Julianne sang this first and left some gaps for me to add my vocals and with a little to and fro'ing it became a duet. I think it's quite unique because I'm not sure it's ever been recorded like this before where it's a conversation between a man and a woman. One of my fave tracks on the album.

Julianne: I feel it really works as this conversation between the two people. It almost accentuates or magnifies the feeling of longing and yearning. It's got to be one of the most romantic songs ever written. I have no time for the cliché of chocolates, flowers, palaces and weekends in Paris; this is a man at work, he has a hard job and he works away from home. He misses his woman, she misses him. I hear this as a truly romantic song about love, between down to earth people. It's about real love. ‘And to need someone more than want them, and to want them for all time?’ That's what we all want, isn't it?

6: Ashes To Ashes (David Bowie)

Wayne: Another song that I'd been playing at my solo shows on piano. I know a lot of people thinks it's sacrilegious to cover Bowie and I must admit it was a challenge but I believe the way to do it is to take the song and make it your own, which I feel we've done here. I do feel, however, if there is one track on this album that may polarise listeners this would be it. But sod 'em. This gives me goose bumps every time I hear it and I reckon Mr. Bowie himself would quite like this, if he ever gets to hear it.

Julianne: Again, I am just a little John the Baptist to Wayne's Jesus on this. But I am honoured to have untied his sandal straps; and I love Bowie immensely.

7: I Go To Sleep (Ray Davies)

Wayne: This is a song that Julianne was playing around with for a while without finding a way into it. To got her creativity going. I went online and put the title into YouTube and up came all these very disparate versions - some wonderful and some not so. Besides the obvious Pretenders version, which we all know, other notable and worthy versions are by Sonny & Cher, Marion Maerz, and Peggy Lee! But my absolute fave version is the original Ray Davies demo of this that I unearthed in my research. I sent the links to Julianne and next morning there was an MP3 in my inbox from Julianne and she was on her way. I got to play auto-harp on this, of which I am most pleased.

Julianne: Yes, I was getting all tangled up in this, lost. It got the better of me. I have always loved this song and am a great admirer of Ray Davies. I have an old reel-to-reel tape of me singing 'Lazing on a Sunny Afternoon' at age four and a half, so I'm a long-time fan. Wayne got me out of the doldrums on this by sending me the links to all the various versions of it. I heard them, digested them, bits may have come out subconsciously, but whatever, I found the essence of what the song meant to me and took it from there. Wayne's additions to this, especially the backing vocals and the music box in the last chorus, made it nicely 3D for me.

8: Where The Wild Roses Grow (Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue)

Wayne: This is the song that got the ball rolling for us. Julianne was recording a version of this song with another friend of hers for another project and she asked me if I would be Nick Cave to her Kylie. Of course I said yes and crooned away to the track she sent me. Then that project fell through and Julianne was left with the track which she completely re-worked and didn't know what to do with. One of us, can't remember who now, suggested we could do an album together of songs like this. So, that's how we started and bit by bit the idea evolved and flourished into the CD we have now produced.

Julianne: This is the song that gave us the idea to carry on and make a whole album together. The plan was originally to have an album of duets, but that began to feel too contrived and limiting, so we then just chose songs we loved and didn't care whether they were duets or not, didn't care who did what; it was a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. We didn't have strict roles or 'quotas' of what songs we should do and how we should do them. So I guess this is the real duet of the album. It's a beautiful and very, very well written song.

9: Dangerous Eyes (New Song)

Wayne: One of the things we decided very early on was that we would both contribute a new song each. Julianne's is Dangerous Eyes, which was the last track to be completed and very nearly didn't make it on at all. I knew this was a good song from the first time I heard it. To me it sounds like it could quite easily be a James Bond film theme song. I always fancied myself as Bond... ‘Hi, my name is Bond, Wayne Bond.’ More like a Brooke Bond monkey... God, middle aged fantasies, eh? Anyway, I know Julianne struggled for a while with the chorus of this, to find something that felt right to her. Personally I liked her original lyric and melody but I understand how when something doesn't feel quite right that you can't let it go and you have to work it out. But I wouldn't let her scrap it, which is something she suggested a couple of times. I feel vindicated by the result, as this is as good a song as anything else on this album in my opinion.

Julianne: Yes, Wayne wouldn't let me give up on this one. It started to run away from me, I lost faith in it. It felt too long and rambling and it began to actually depress me. He gently pushed me to carry on with it. So I started to edit it, taking out the superfluous bits that didn't do much for the song other than confuse it and make it longer than it needed to be. That improved it massively for me. But then I found that the chorus, which should be the strongest part of a song, was the part I liked least. So I removed the vocal and started improvising something, and it's a rare occasion that I do vocally. The melody line that came out first was the one I kept, and even some of the words. So the chorus came right out of the depths of my subconscious so I wasn't going to question it. I sent it back to Wayne and he added his vocals and I got shivers up the back of my neck when I heard what he'd done. I am delighted with it, really so happy with it. And I had set out to write a Bond theme for a non-existent Bond film, so if Wayne is 007 then I must be a Bond Girl? If so, then I want to be Diana Rigg.

10: Calling Your Name (All About Eve)

Wayne: I had a three-hour bus journey into Sao Paulo one day so I loaded up my iPod with my All About Eve albums. I listened through and made a shortlist of about 10-12 songs that I felt we could cover for this album. Calling Your Name being one of them. When I was at home in the studio I started messing around with various songs either on the guitar or piano and this is the one that came easiest to me. So it kind of chose itself. Again, it's taking a song and going somewhere new and different with it, making it your own. Successfully so in this case, I think. Also I got my mandolin out for this one, which I hadn't played in years.

Julianne: Succinctly put, I'm blown away by what Wayne has done with this song. He has made it so much more multi-dimensional than the original. I will be very interested to hear what Tim Bricheno and Andy Cousin of All About Eve think of it!

11: Unravel (Bjork)

Wayne: I was a big fan of Bjork's first couple of solo albums but I kind of lost my way with her a bit until I met my wife who was, and is, a big fan. So I was re-introduced to Bjork and fell in love with her voice and her unorthodox approach to making music. Unravel came on in the car one day and, as with Another Lonely Day, my wife suggested that I could maybe do a good version of this. I messed around on the piano with this for a few days until I came up with something that I felt was a good way to go with it, took it into the studio and did it. Played ebow on an acoustic guitar on this, which actually sounds like some kind of ethnic stringed instrument. I did enjoy singing this one and I think you can hear evidence of that in the vocal. Julianne did her backing vocals on this without ever having heard Bjork's version.

Julianne: Yes, I'm glad I didn't listen to the original version before I sang this. Bjork, alongside people like Kate Bush, is very much 'the singer's singer' and so I didn't want to be overly influenced and intimidated. It's a gorgeous song, the lyrics are so simple and so true and so genuinely romantic.

12: A Change In The Weather – Aporia Mix (New Song)

Wayne: Three or four years ago I started recording with an Italian band called Votiva Lux who I really liked. We recorded this song together and were planning on doing an album and then they split up! So this song sat around doing nothing for a long time and when it came for me to do my new song for the album I remembered this and asked the Votiva boys if they'd mind if I finished it and included it on this album. The original version is a full on rock band version, which I didn't think sat very well with the rest of the material on this album. So I took some guitar parts, a bass part, and a few other elements from the original, Julianne added some vocals, and I did this remix which works a lot better in this context.

Julianne: Love this song, and I'm happy to have just a small bit-part role in it. Again, less can be more.

There are also versions of "You'll Never Walk Alone", "When The Body Speaks", "Dream On", "The Angel Of Death" and "Alone And Forsaken" out there, and dance mixes of Wichita Lineman and Enjoy The Silence.

I also discovered this nugget of info:

Wayne Hussey is a life-long red and even penned the song Draped In Red from the 2007 Mission album God Is A Bullet celebrating Liverpool's monumental and historic 2005 Champions League victory in Istanbul.

God help me, I have found this. I'll start listening after a coffee.

Oh Jesus, this is like two drunk goth cultures fighting. Wayne is playing the 'used to be a big star now showing my sensitive side by doing stripped down intimate acoustic stuff', while Julianne is still doing the 'wispy ethereal look at me' stuff. With a sort of trip-hop undercurrent to make it edgy.

I have failed to get to the end of either Another Lonely Day or Wichita Lineman. Wayne's lack of range very much in evidence. I Go To Sleep is not awful, but does not feature Wayne in any audible capacity.

I was beginning to think Where The Wild Roses Grow almost worked, but then Julianne's call-and-response bit on the chorus made me laugh out loud. Although Wayne has changed all the phrasing around, and not for the better. And the dramatic "...with a rock in his fist" has made me laugh out loud again.

Dangerous Eyes has a line in the chorus that goes "with your heart going sacred, singing Hare Krishna". Wayne's lyric book in full effect. He's barely on it apart from some tuneless backing howling on the chorus and this is arguably the most successful song yet. It sounds Toploader trying to do a Bond theme.

Bjork cover just Wayne warbling, I suspect he thinks it sounds like This Mortal Coil. It doesn't. Last song is more trip-hop-lite. Some epic Naughties synth presets, but it lasts barely a minute before it gets turned off.

Overall, not a huge success then. It was maybe at its best when it sounded like what you'd hear in the street with two different tribute acts playing at venues next door to each other, coincidentally playing the same song. In different keys. Possibly more entertaining the Bare was, but for different reasons.

Omg this sounds like a train wreck

That would have been preferable.

Just worked it out, the primary reference point for the whole record is "It's A Fine Day" by Opus III. Up to the minute stuff there.

http://open.spotify.com/album/3oDzDOhUUaUtQbM9LFjnxU

fyi

No sane person should want to listen this twice.

oh

oh my

this version of "Ordinary World" is... something

I'm just listening to the bits I hadn't heard. YNWA is genuinely awful.

The Hank Williams covers are inoffensive, I suppose.

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New York, NY (July 15, 2013) - The Mission are back with their most exciting album to date. Wayne Hussey, Craig Adams, & Simon Hinkler, original members all, along with drummer Mike Kelly, came to realize that they actually made quite a decent big ol’ noise together and wanted to capture their newly rejuvenated sound on record. In support of the new album, the band will embark on a world wide headlining tour hitting all major market cities in the US and Europe along the way.

'The Brightest Light' will be released September 17th via The End Records. This is a unique work and sounds only like The Mission, this is a band that has never sounded so good, so fresh, so true.

“This is my rock album. It’s all fully flexed muscle and proud of itself. I wanted us to capture as closely as possible the sound that we make when we play live and I believe that for the very first time ever we have succeeded.” – Wayne Hussey

Still digesting that quote there.

Oh, the tracklisting, of course:

01. Black Cat Bone
02. Everything But The Squeal
03. Sometimes The Brightest Light Comes From The Darkest Place
04. Drag
05. Born Under A Good Sign
06. The Girl In The Furskin Rug
07. When The Trap Clicks Shut Behind Us
08. Ain't No Prayer In The Bible Can Save Me Now
09. Just Another Pawn In Your Game
10. From The Oyster Comes The Pearl
11. Swan Song
12. Litany For The Faithful

Meantime this is...a read

http://theendrecords.com/artist/the-mission/

so this has been released so i wanted to hear a song or two, well Wayne's voice is shot. haha we have a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kPFI68673o

mmeeeeeeeearaggahahack

I was thinking about this band the other day cos I saw some bloke in a frilly shirt and had an instant flashback to the Stay With Me video. Terrible song, were they trying to get Pirate Goth to happen or something?

I haven't heard anything off the new one, but I remember being put off by a re-recording a few years back of Mish oldies, and I'd noticed that Wayne had strangely shed his endearingly hoary British accent in favor of a pinched, transatlantic vein of pronunciation. Where once he's sing "SELL ME DOWN THA RIVUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH," it was now "SELL ME DOWN THEE RIVERRRRRRRRRRRR."

Kinda ruined it for me.

wait, those song titles

how did I miss that

Where HAVE you been

I think you mean, "Where HAVE you BEEEEENNNNNNNN"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYpQofT8RLI

^ not gonna lie, I still love this song

there are a handful of song that i think i could still enjoy.

i listened to the first track off this new album, it's horrible way too many cigarettes as his voice is gone. then i found that video and posted it, will never play this again.

Yeah, I picked up the CD in other music and walked around the store with it for a few minutes ... and then came to my senses and put it back (and bought a Bonzo Dog Band re-issue instead).

"Let's see, a bottle of Blue Nun with only the dregs in it or top of the line chilled Dom Perignon, which to choose."

http://thequietus.com/articles/13568-wayne-hussey-the-mission-favourite-albums

See, right here, I got a problem:

Pornography is by far and away my favourite Cure record. If you like ‘Friday I’m In Love’ you’re not going to like Pornography, but conversely I don’t like ‘Friday I’m in Love’ and I like Pornography.

urgh I now have stuck in my head a sound vision of Hussey singing the Siamese Twins: "leave me to diiiii-iiie, you wooon't remmeber my VOIIII-CE!!!"

Going awAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
On a strange DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

We did some shows with The Cult round about this time last year in the UK

so, killing joke really did stand them up ?

never did follow that story to the end ..

checked the list ..
i have no problems with wayne
(oh the gossip i have re him and andrew .. but cant spread via public channels)
i even enjoyed them at a finnish festival in 1990.
the only band during which it rained, but it mattered not, as it felt right.
i expected more in this list.
nowt interesting really.

Jaz pulled the plug on that one.

MEEEEEEEEEEEEE

It is with huge pleasure that The Mission announces the release of their new single, by popular demand 'Swan Song', the 2nd single from their recent album 'The Brightest Light'.

Societe Perrier is excited to premiere the 'Swan Song (Reconstruction Circa 1984)' remix off the new EP.

http://societeperrier.com/premiere-the-mission-swan-song-reconstruction-circa-1984/

They have also filmed a new video, again directed by Rhory Danniells, for the single that was partially shot using the new MOVI M10 handheld 3-axis digital stabilized camera gimbal. This is the first music video to be shot in Europe with this equipment.

The video will be released along with the digital EP on Tuesday 3rd December in North America via The End Records from all usual digital outlets.

--

'Swan Song' EP Tracklisting

1. Swan Song (radio edit) - Produced by David M Allen, edited by Wayne Hussey.

Wayne: "We've chosen Swan Song as the next single because of it's overwhelming popularity with our audience, both live and on the album. It's certainly the most 'Mission' like song on the album, it's epic. As is the video that we've made for the song."
2. More Than The Truth - Produced by David M Allen with additional production and mixed by Wayne Hussey. A new song that the band recorded during The Brightest Light sessions.

Wayne: "We went a bit electronic with the rhythm track of this, hence it didn't really sit with the rest of the songs on the album for which we employed a far more organic approach. An album needs to sit together as a whole and have cohesion. That's why it always takes me days to decide on which tracks to use and in what order. A big part of the process, even in this day and age of random playlists on an iPod. But this song is cool, it has a good energy and I like it's tension. Not that I've been in a club for a long time but I can see this being played and not clearing the dance floor."

3. Swan Song (Reconstruction Circa 1984) - Produced & performed by Wayne Hussey.

Wayne: "I wanted to re-record the song and make it sound like something I may have heard on the dance floor of a goth club in 1984. I used a 909 drum machine for that authentic 80's drum sound and the guitar sounds are all phase and chorus. Nostalgia is all we've got to look forward to."

4. Swan Song (Deconstruction) - Produced by David M Allen with additional production and recording and remixed by Simon Hinkler & James Bacon.

Simon: "I worked with my old friend James Bacon on this. In the 90's we were two thirds of electro band Mindfeel, and as such have spent countless studio hours together, so I thought it would be interesting to apply some of that aesthetic to a Mission remix. I set off at 6am and drove up from Devon to Sheffield. The first half of the day was a bit mad, with Dave (Allen) in London, uploading missing vocal and guitar files and us downloading them into the mix. But we decided on the vibe pretty much straight away - taking out the chord changes and rooting it down to just the verse bass line, which all the other recorded elements work really well with. James put in a keyboard pad, and all in all I think we achieved quite a Mindfeel-sounding mix of a Mission song."

5. Swan Song (Reaper Version) - Produced by David M Allen. Vocal by David M Allen.

Dave: "When the idea of different mixes for Swan Song was suggested I found it difficult to think of a different approach as nowadays I do everything to make the mix I finish "the one". Coming back from a Saturday night pub Kareoke session and frankly a little tipsy I had the crazy idea to sing it myself. At least I thought that Wayne would have some amusement out of it along the lines of "Cheeky Fucker !". To my mixed feelings of horror and pride, he said that he liked it and asked if it could be used. Vanity won over horror for which I beg the listeners indulgence."

6. Swan Song (Lament) - Produced & performed by Wayne Hussey.

Wayne: " I was sat at home watching TV and strumming my nylon stringed classical guitar and this version of the song just naturally evolved. Obviously with one eye on an acoustic version that I'll be able to play at my solo shows it is proof that a good song can be played in any one of myriad ways. I think this is probably my own personal favourite version of the song. Of course it is."

this isn't hideously terrible, what happened

Title track of their last album is really not bad - who would have thought.

Not meeeeeeeeeeee

this thread kills meeeeeeeeeeee

moreover,

We are very pleased to announce that In April 2016, Wayne will be playing a handful of European shows (dates below) to promote the release of a limited edition double A side 7 ‘’ vinyl single on Eyes Wide Shut Recordings in conjunction with Record Store Day. The single features Wayne’s stunning and haunting re-working of the classic Sisters Of Mercy song, Marian, a song originally co-written by Wayne with Andrew Eldritch.
The other A side is a brand new song entitled ‘My Love Will Protect You’, a song that was co-written by Wayne with Rebeca Y. Casanova as part of the Canciones De Cuna benefit album. The lyrics for the album are all written by homeless children in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which are then worked into songs by established national and international artists and recorded as an album of lullabies, all proceeds going to help finance culture centres in Buenos Aires that offer art, music, theatre, and photography classes to homeless children

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSwIMEAiiFE

You RAISE MEEEEE UUUUUUUUUUUP

Not bad

Definitely was not expecting to hear Tower of Strength while watching season 2 of Green Eggs and Ham with the kids tonight.

An idle thread revive to notice the previous thread revive and whuh. (Now I want "Tower of Strength" to get a sync in Bluey.)

The first volume of Wayne's memoir was a fantastic exercise in Partrigism - the bit where he claims superiority over someone at school who stole his girlfriend (or possibly just beat him in a cross country race) because Wayne became a world famous rock star and the other guy didn't is the pinnacle.

The second, covering the Mission first phase, is light on detail when you want it and mainly focuses on how attractive all the thousands of women he had sex with were. Very little new info - in fact a couple of times he gets close to gossip then refuses to name the person - although I'm not sure I knew his first kid was with the same woman as Craig's.

picked up his first book a couple of months ago in a charity shop.
read it.
yeah, not so sure i would pick up the second book if i chanced upon it.

I got rushed into an Amazon voucher spend and couldn't think of anything else.