Well, we finally made it to the outer reaches of the UK after a seven-plus-hour drive from West Wales to the North East of England to watch The Mission celebrate 40 years of God’s Own Medicine and beyond. We find ourselves camped in the venue, crouched on the side of the bay with the superb ruins to the town’s right, and the weather has stayed dry (which is nice), but it’s changing and a crisp mood fills the air for Tomorrow’s Ghosts annual ghoulish festival and a whole lot more besides over this spooktacular weekend.

We wander in past the downstairs stalls of the Goth market to catch Lol Tolhurst and his son running through some old classic Cure songs that go down well with the audience, but let’s be honest, there’s only one event in town that everyone’s here for, and that’s The Mission celebrating being in the game for 40 fuckin years. Incredible, considering it often seems like yesterday they played the New Ocean Club in Cardiff and Bristol Studio to Finsbury Park, and the enorma dome that is Wembley. I’ve gone on foreign excursions into Europe to watch The Mission, and to be honest, they’ve played to some amazing audiences in the early days but have sounded as good as, if not better, in recent years than they did back then. So, with a new album in the can and marking the 40th year of existence of ‘Gods Own Medicine’, I simply had to be here.

As the familiar intro plays out, the anticipation builds as Wayne’s iconic intro fills the room and the air is peppered with tick-a-tape as ‘Wastelands’ signals the beginning of an uninterrupted jaunt through that iconic debut album. It does seem a bit weird being taken back to those early shows, and my head is full of memories whizzing through my mind before I’m reminded that it was 40 years ago. The album is delivered in full with the orchestrated ‘Garden Of Delight’ and Wayne. Simon and Craig sound sensational and look to be enjoying themselves, possibly more than ever, and there’s something in the air as the audience sings back every lyric like it was yesterday; we probably stood side by side when this journey began. I’ll be honest, it might have been more than a minute since I heard some of these songs, but it was great to hear songs like ‘ Sleeping Dogs Lie’ and ‘Islands In A Stream’ next to the more regularly played songs. The first hour flew by, and we had reached the first encore of sorts as the band then returned to run us through a few of those iconic covers from the era, and it was B-sides like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, ‘Wishing Well’ before a wonderful rendition of ‘1969’ that led into ‘Shelter From The Storm’. I had to head to the bar for some water as the heat was rising before the band returned a second time to play the brand new single that was released the very same day (digitally, of course, such is the way these days), ‘Kindness Is A Weapon’. It seemed to put a full stop to the band playing 40-year-old tunes thus far and almost ended with the most recent offering, and it sounded so good live as well. It only left the one two of a superb rendition of ‘Crystal Ocean’ before signing off with a stunning ‘Deliverance ‘. The only downside was we wouldn’t hear any of these again tomorrow night because there were no repeats promised. Day one of Tomorrow’s Ghosts done and dusted and the band sounded an dlook on form and even Wayne seemed genuinely humbled and happy. Bring on day two!

Saturday 31st.

After a good rest, it was once again into the crisp October Hallows’ Eve for round two of The Mission and something of a best of the rest set, which should be interesting. Once again, it’s the familiar intro tape before launching into a breathtaking take on ‘Beyond The Pale’, but it was easily one of the best opening four tracks I can remember from seeing The Mission literally dozens of times over the years. Hot on the heels of ‘Beyond The Pale’ was ‘Serpent’s Kiss’, a majestic ‘Metamorphosis’ followed by one of my favourite Mish tunes ‘, Naked And Savage’, I was in heaven and needed the calmness of ‘Swoon’ to bring me down. I think there were twenty songs played this evening, and the set was about two hours and ten minutes, give or take a couple and the full band version of ‘Garden Of Delight’ was so much better, and the energy coming off the band was superb, with Alex on the kit holding the tempo just.

It was great to hear new material alongside lesser-played tracks; it seems like ages since I saw them perform ‘Like A Child’ or ‘Into The Blue’, but over two nights I guess they can really spread their wings. I quite like spoilers and hearing brand new tracks before a record has been released, and tonight we had more, which is always welcome. The line-up has been really steady now for some time, and Alex fits right in, and it was funny when the audience started chanting for Slinky, so Wayne asked where was a song for Alex, to which he was asked, “Alex, where’s your cross?” to which he crossed his drumsticks only to remember that he was at a Goth epicentre so turned them upside down to resemble something altogether more fitting, which made him and many laugh, which again is most un-Gothlike but funny.

We had the usual suspects of course this evening with ‘Butterfly On A Wheel’ being drowned out by the audience singing it was the second encore where the band ended the festival with a stunning ‘Belief’ before the iconic ‘Towner Of Strength’ finished the show with Wayne handing out roses like it was a medal ceremony and I think knowing how bloody good a band he’s in and to be fair after his fairly recent health scare he mentioned briefly he was on form as were the rest of the band grasping the oportunity with both hands and it only leaves me to say thanks a million for still being out there doing this and can we do this all again soon. Oh yes, I’m off to London by the time you read this to do it all again. KTF, and bring on Islington, and I look forward to Europe next year and the new album dropping before the summer.

Tomorrow’s Ghosts festival was a roaring success, and I don’t know why I never went before, but I will certainly attend again. The venue was perfect, the staff pleasant, and the audience thoroughly entertained. Awesome, simply awesome.

Author: Dom Daley