The Mission / Claytown Troupe
28 February 2008
Shepherds Bush Empire
Bringing to a close a 22 year history, The Mission were performing four consecutive nights at the Shepherds Bush Empire, playing each of their first four albums in their entirety.
This was obviously going to be a nostalgic exercise and continuing that theme, The Mission had chosen supports bands relevant to the era. On other nights Balaam & The Angel, Miles Hunt (The Wonderstuff) and, cheekily, The Sisters Of Murphy performed and for this second night we were graced with a performance from Claytown Troupe.
For the uninitiated the Claytown Troupe put out their well received debut back in 1989 and toured the same year with The Cult on their Sonic Temple tour. The band’s sound mixed that of The Cult with the edginess of the likes of Crazyhead. Having caught the band on that tour, I was converted and saw them a number of times, culminating with their support slot on Pearl Jam’s first ever UK tour in 1992. This coincided with the bands second album, Out There, which unfortunately didn’t live up to the promise of their debut and the band split soon after.
Frontman Christian Riou and keyboard played Rick Williams resurrected the band in 2004 and they have been working on new material, though none was played tonight. Focusing on their debut, Through The Veil, the band led us through most of that album, with just one visit to the second album Out There.
Bury My Heart kick started things with the familiar “hey, hey, hey” chant in the chorus raising a few fists. Riou had soon got rid of his jacket as Tell Me followed with the singer’s big voice soaring. Unfortunately the other sound levels appeared to be in complete battle, with the keyboards suddenly catching you by surprise as they popped right up in the mix and vanished. The strange mix was particularly evident at the start of the guitar driven Prayer which was lacking that instrument until Riou pointed at guitarist Ben Christo and the sound desk got the hint. Christo, who is currently also a member of the Sisters Of Mercy handled the guitar lines faithfully to the recordings.
Things did seem to balance out a bit for Hey Lord with Riou, who no longer sports long hair, reaching out and expressing his vocals with his arms and hands. The Veil took us to moodier territory, whilst Ways Of Love got lost in the mix. With the crowd subdued, it did seem to rub off on the band that bore the look of things not going to plan. Real Life was a bit of a mess due to the weird sound levels whilst Alabama finished things on an even keel.
I’d been really looking forward to seeing the Claytown Troupe and this was far from the experience I’d hoped for and I expect them too. Certainly I’d like to catch them again with decent sound.
Claytown Troupe set list:
Bury My Heart / Tell Me / Prayer / Hey Lord / The Veil / Ways Of Love / Hate To Hate / Real Life / Alabama
Whilst tonight was the second night, The Mission were technically performing their first album, God’s Own Medicine. The previous night focused on The First Chapter album which was released after God’s Own Medicine and compiled the band’s early EPs. Got it?
As much as Mission mainman and sole remaining member Wayne Hussey seemed to want to move away from it, The Mission were in the thick of the original Goth genre at the time and Wasteland, which opened tonight’s show was one of its anthems. Whilst the crowd tonight are older, larger and lacking some of the hair they used to have (including me!), the enthusiasm was evident immediately with people on each others shoulders and confetti thrown in the chorus. Unfortunately the ugly sound had still not balanced and it was an initial worry that it could be with us for the night.
Bridges Burning continued, as on the album, with images of fire framed on the screen behind drummer Steve Spring and thankfully the sound improved. With And The Dance Goes On up next, it was apparent the band would not run through God’s Own Medicine in track order. The Mission fans were known for their construction of human towers and the first one appeared during this song, with Hussey taking a swig from a bottle of wine at its conclusion.
Hussey explained that as God’s Own Medicine was a short album the band would get the chance to visit some other material tonight. Following the band’s fourth album, Carved In Sand, an accompanying disc, Grains Of Sand, was released featuring songs which were from the same sessions. From that album Grip Of Disease followed, pleasing the devoted fans.
Back to God’s Own Medicine and one of my least favourite from it that remarkably shone brightly tonight and was a highlight. Dance On Glass’ more atmospheric feel worked magic and had the security utterly confused by the three tier human tower that had formed for it.
Having dispensed with his guitar, Hussey flailed around to the swinging Stay With Me, which had been The Mission’s third single. This was followed by the two songs that closed the album, Island In A Stream and Love Me To Death.
Hussey explained that having agreed to do these shows, which committed them to perform a whole album each night, in revisiting some of the songs it had made them wonder “what the f**k were we thinking!”. Surprisingly perhaps, the song he was referring to was one which had made it to number 25 in the UK singles chart – Severina. Admittedly the lyrics may seem a little immature in retrospect, but it was an obvious crowd pleaser from the reaction.
Hussey also explained that some of the songs not played for a while were quite challenging and a well known guest was brought out to assist in the band’s original guitarist Simon Hinkler. Hinkler looked, understandably, quite different to when I’d last seen him with The Mission about 17 years ago, but his playing on Let Sleeping Dogs Die helped make it the highlight of the set thus far.
Hinkler, wearing a white cowboy hat, remained for the next couple of songs which raised the temperature. Blood Brother incited the first mosh of the evening and Deliverance, from the Carved In Sand album, got the majority singing along.
Hussey appeared alone to a backing track faithful to the God’s Own Medicine version of Garden Of Delight and the backing tracks continued as the band joined him for Carved In Sand’s Butterfly On A Wheel. Personally this is a Mission song I’m not fond of at all. With the following three also less than favourites the set lulled a little for me, though it was apparent the die hards loved it and it was to be expected that some more obscure tracks may pop up over the four nights.
Completing the God’s Own Medicine album the speedy Sacrilege breathed life into the crowd at the front and that energy continued with Shelter From The Storm. Appearing on all four night, it was left with many Mission fans favourite Tower Of Strength to bring a close to an incredibly enjoyable set. Reports have been similar strong from the other shows which saw The Mission put to rest in fitting style.
The Mission set list:
Wasteland / Bridges Burning / And The Dance Goes On / Grip Of Disease / Dance On Glass / Stay With Me / Island in A Stream / Love Me To Death / Severina / Let Sleeping Dogs Die* / Blood Brother* / Deliverance* / Garden Of Delight (Hereafter) / Butterfly On A Wheel / Evangeline / Daddy’s Going To Heaven Now / Belief* / Sacrilege* / Shelter From The Storm* / Tower Of Strength*
* = with Simon Hinkler
LINKS:
The Mission
Claytown Troupe
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