New Mission Greatest Hits 2 CD Set Released
C.E. Dorsett
The Mission has released a two disc greatest hits anthology called the Phonograph Years, Fans of the Mission or any other dark wave/gothic music have to get a copy of this and celebrate the brilliance of the Mission.
As well as writing the comprehensive sleeve notes Wayne was also heavily involved, in collaboration with Universal, in the final selection of the tracks for this anthology. Highlights being a newly unearthed gem in ‘Diamond Cuts Diamond’, a song the band recorded during the ‘Carved In Sand’ sessions that has never before been released in any form whatsoever, and ‘Hands across The Ocean’, a radically different version of the song that was eventually released as a single. A completely over-the-top live version of ‘Blood Brother’ from 1988 and a demo of ‘Belief’ produced by Mike Fraser. And a fair few versions of the more popular and more well known tunes are appearing on CD for the very first time. We think it’s something any Mission fan would definetly want in their CD collection. And released, again by Universal, a week later on March 20th, is the Mission film/documentary ‘Waves Upon The Sand’. This is the film that has only until now been available on VHS and follows the band during the ‘Carved In Sand’ album period, on tour and in the studio. This is coupled on DVD with the live film that was recorded and released, again only previously on VHS, as ‘Crusade’ in 1986. This DVD will sell at mid-price. And again, a must have for all Mission fans and available to pre-order from Amazon.com.
The Mission Anthology - The Phonogram YearsCD1:
1. Serpent’s Kiss
2. Garden Of Delight (Extended)
3. Like A Hurricane
4. Crystal Ocean (7” edit version) Never before released on CD.
5. Shelter From The Storm (Janice Long BBC session version)
6. Stay With Me (7” edit version)
7. Blood Brother (Recorded live at The Astoria, London, March 1988)
Never before released
8. And The Dance Goes On…..
9. Wasteland (7” edit version)
10. Severina (7” edit version)
11. Tomorrow Never Knows (amphetamix) Only available previously on CD
on Japanese import.
12. Beyond The Pale (7” edit version)
13. Kingdom Come (Janice Long BBC session version)
14. Tower Of Strength (Bombay Mix edit)
15. For Ever MoreCD2:
1. Amelia (Live from the Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, May 1990)
2. Into The Blue (7” edit version)
3. Butterfly On A Wheel (7” edit version)
4. Deliverance (Sorcerer’s Mix)
5. Belief (Mike Fraser produced demo)
6. Grapes Of Wrath (Demo)
7. Hands Across The Ocean (Tim Palmer produced demo)
8. Diamond Cuts Diamond (Tim Palmer produced demo)
9. Bird Of Passage
10. Metal Guru
11. Never Again (7” edit version)
12. Shades Of Green (Utah Saints 7” remix)
13. Trail Of Scarlet (Sitar Mix)
14. Like A Child Again (7” edit version)
15. Afterglow (Full length Olympic version)
A short extract from the sleevnotes written by Wayne:
BLOOD BROTHER (Live at The Astoria, London, March 1988)
Originally seeing life as the ‘b’ side on the ‘Stay With Me’ single, I wrote this in response to a song that The Cult had recorded for a Radio 1 session in which Ian Astbury gives me a name check. Can’t now remember the name of that song. Our first tour in January 1986 had been as special guests on The Cult’s ‘Love’ European tour. This version was recorded during our 7 sold out nights at The Astoria during the‘Children’ tour. My vocals are a little rough but I think this captures perfectly the band at this time. It’s big, noisy, confident and arrogant, melodramatic and megalomaniacal, and completely glorious. Never before released.
BUTTERFLY ON A WHEEL (7” edit)
This was the first single of the new decade, the 90’s, released on 1st January. One of our more popular and evergreen tunes, this was a song that I wrote for Julianne of All About Eve. I remember when we’d finished mixing it at Swanyard Studio we played it to Charlie Eyre. He sat in the middle of the big SSL mixing desk and listened to the song blaring out of the big studio monitors and when it had ended he swung around in his chair with a tear in his eye and said, just like George Martin did to The Beatles after they’d recorded ‘Please, Please Me’, ‘Well boys, you’ve just made your first no. 1 record’. Of course, history decreed a different fate for us compared to The Beatles but the song did eventually make it to No. 1.….. In South Africa.
BELIEF (Mike Fraser version)
Before we commenced recording the ‘Carved In Sand’ album with Tim Palmer again producing we tried recording with a few other producers/engineers, one of which was Mike Fraser. Mike was a lovely, genial Canadian that generally worked out of the Little Mountain Studio in Vancouver. Mike’s credits had included Aeorsmith, The Cult, and Metallica amongst others. It was suggested that to achieve some commercial success in the USA we should use a producer/engineer with a working knowledge of that elusive American ‘big rock’ radio sound. Now, I’m not particulary a fan of any of the aforementioned bands or American ‘big rock’ but the lure of the yankee dollar was very hard to resist at that time and in our pursuit of global dominance we recorded this version of ‘Belief’ with Mike. The recording took place in London, can’t remember which studio, and then I flew with Mike to Vancouver for a few days to mix the track at Little Mountain. It actually now sounds a lot better to me than I remember and working with Mike was a good experience, I liked him a lot. But I didn’t think it was the right decision to work with a North American for that album. I wanted to retain the little ‘Britishness’ that we still had left. And whilst I think Tim Palmer did a great job I used to often wonder, what if? This version has never before been released.
DIAMOND CUTS DIAMOND (Tim Palmer produced demo)
This is another song that was recorded as a demo for the ‘Carved In Sand’ album and discarded. It’s very wordy and obviously a work in progress and easy to see why we did reject it but it stands testament to the wealth of material we had accumulated for that album. We ended up having enough completed material (that we were happy with) for two albums and released ‘Grains Of Sand’ some 6 months or so after the release of ‘Carved’. Actually, hearing this now again after all these years I do really like the guitars on the outro (Mission).