Say Goodbye....
... cos The Mission are going to heaven now (well, until Mr Hussey needs more cash to pay the gas bill, at which point he'll stage another reunion)
As everyone else who posted said, the farewell Mish gigs were great - they were never my favourite band but I cant deny I love them, they've undoubtedly been a very big part of my life, plus at least in the last 10 odd years live they've always been very good.
Went to 3 of the nights (missed out on Children, and part of me wishes we'd gone to that too), excellent music, excellent atmosphere, people I hadnt seen in years from all over the UK and in fact the whole of Europe, excellent FUN, quite emotional in places, especially on the last night (first time I saw them was 18 years ago, on the Carved in Sand tour in Turin, this was like a long, important chapter of my life ending. And fittingly enough my mate Alex who was here for the gigs and stayed at mine I had first met that famous night in 1990). I also loved the fact they used the stage prop they had on the Gods own Medicine (and Children?) tour, and each night they had the intro they used on the respective tours (apart from the last night, when they used the Dambusters again, from the First Chapter tour).
All three nights were special in their own way, First Chapter had the best individual songs, Gods Own Medicine is my favourite album as a whole, Carved in Sand I never liked apart from 2 songs but it was relegated to support set, and the main set, the greatest hits, was simply fantastic.
But you know what the funniest bit was? that at the gigs of what has undoubtedly been the MOST COMMERCIALLY SUCCESSFUL goth band of all time there were NO GOTHS AT ALL[1]! Yep, that's right, none - at least, none currently ACTIVE in the goth scene (DJs, promoters, present day bands[2], the uber-dressed people you see at EVERY goth event etc.). The vast majority of the crowd were people who certainly WERE in the goth scene AT SOME POINT, but not really anymore, and certainly never part of the fancy dress brigade. Which speaks VOLUMES about the current goth scene and why certain people (like me for instance!) dont feel any affiliation with it nor really want to be associated with it.
Still we certainly didnt miss them, it was great to see 2000 people per night going absolutely mental, belting out the words, getting on each other shoulders (I'm covered in bruises, which is always a sign of a good gig ;-) ) and/or generally intent on having FUN as opposed to studying who's wearing what while being all careful to stay far away from the uncool 'hooligans' at the front, in case they accidentally smudge their make up.
It was a fantastic three nights and I really hope they really were the last ever Mission concerts: that way those who were there will keep the memory with them forever, and those who werent can only kick themselves for what they have missed out on.
[1] Unless of course they all went on the Children night when I wasnt there... which I somehow find unlikely ;-)
[2] apart from those whose members are all well over 30, and even then there werent as many as there should have been