The Mission Celebrate Their 40th Anniversary With Three Vinyl Reissues & London Residency

Almost four decades ago The Mission released their debut album, God’s Own Medicine, that was an atmospheric and emotive work of spiralling guitars, impassioned vocals and anthemic songs that became a landmark album of both the ’80s alternative and gothic scenes. Recorded in six weeks with producer Tim Palmer, the album featured the singles Wasteland, Stay With Me and Severina, that featured Julianne Regan (All About Eve). Bowing to record company pressure at the time, the album featured a running order that was contrary to the band’s original intentions and also had an edited version of fan-favourite Love Me To Death. The freshly mastered version is being pressed on coloured vinyl for the very first time and will feature a deluxe embossed gatefold sleeve and printed inner sleeve, this version also restores the original running order and for the very first time includes the full-length version of Love Me To Death.

“It made sense for the album’s arc that ‘Stay With Me’ should be near the end of the album. But, once it was released as a single, there was no way Mercury would let it stay on Side Two, so we had to swap it for ‘Severina.’ Of course, ‘Severina’ was really a great powerful song where it had originally been intended. That swap made the rest of the album seem a little wrong, so we swapped ‘Dance On Glass’ and ‘And The Dance Goes On’ as well. It wasn’t the biggest problem in the world, at least all the songs were there, but it has frustrated us all a little over the years. It’s great to have it out correctly now.” (vocalist Wayne Hussey)

For their second studio album, 1987’s Children, The Mission enlisted Led Zeppelin‘s John Paul Jones to produce and the resulting album established the band as a fixture of the era’s alternative music scene. As with the new edition of God’s Own Medicine, this newly mastered and limited edition pressing of Children is the first time the album has been available on coloured vinyl and features a deluxe embossed gatefold sleeve with spot gloss finish and a printed inner sleeve, reflecting the original release. The band’s third album, 1989’s Carved In Sand captured The Mission at the height of their commercial success. The album saw Tim Palmer re-enlisted to produce the record, while Reeves Gabrels, Baluji Shrivastav, and Guy Chambers also made contributions. The new pressing of Carved In Sand features coloured vinyl and recreates the original gloss laminated LP sleeve, with a printed inner sleeve. Like both God’s Own Medicine and Children it is newly mastered by George Shilling.  

All three albums have been unavailable on vinyl since 2017, and these one-time special coloured vinyl versions with deluxe packaging will only be available through The Mission‘s own webstore. A regular version of each of the three albums, in standard single sleeve artwork, will be released subsequently and made available to purchase through all normal retail outlets. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the band and the original release of God’s Own Medicine, The Mission are playing a hugely anticipated four night residency at London’s Kentish Town Forum in November, the band will perform a different set from across their catalogue of ten studio albums each night.