The most successful of all 'Goth' bands, The Mission were formed after The Sisters of Mercy split in 1985. Craig Adams (bass) and Wayne Hussey (guitar/ vocals), annoyed by the limited lyrical contribution they had been allowed to make, walked out while working on songs with Sisters leader, Andrew Eldritch, in Hamburg. After linking up with Simon Hinkler (guitar/keyboards) and Mick Brown (drums), they rehearsed a set comprising mainly Sisters rejects and covers (The Stooges, The Doors, Neil Young) and hit the road, supporting The Cult and initially calling themselves The Sisterhood - a stunt designed to annoy Eldritch. Soon after they became The Mission, a move that prompted more brickbats from Eldritch, who claimed they had lifted the name from the Sisters of Mercy's projected new album, Left On Mission Of Revenge.

The Mission's first recorded evidence, "Serpent's Kiss", was a far rockier affair than anything from their old band. After a second single, "Garden Of Delight", came their major label debut, God's Own Medicine (1986), the beginning of The Mission's chart success as well as the first example of the band's overblown rock dream. The Mission achieved their commercial breakthrough with "Wasteland", which reached #11 in the UK on the back of a tour with All About Eve.

The band's live shows and beery camaraderie gained them a large following, but cracks appeared on their 1988 tour of the US, when Craig Adams suffered a nervous breakdown and temporarily left the band. Children (1988) smacked into the UK album charts at #2 on the back of the windswept melody and passion of "Tower Of Strength", but it was a rather stilted and shallow affair, even with the cover of Aerosmith's "Dream On" and production by Led Zeppelin bassist, John Paul Jones.

Fans were invited to the recording sessions for their third album and asked to choose the track-listing from the fifteen or so songs available. The new directness of Carved In Sand (1990) was exemplified by the divertingly melodic and pretty "Butterfly On A Wheel", which dealt with the break-up of Simon Hinkler's relationship with All About Eve vocalist, Julianne Regan.

The band toured widely following the album's success and again it was the US leg that thwarted the band: midway through, Simon Hinkler smashed his guitar, walked off stage, and quit, later to surface with a new project; Mindfeel. To fill the gap, Mercury asked for a new album. After dusting down the previous left-overs and recording a few new songs, the remaining band members released Grains Of Sand (1990), which contained "Hands Across The Ocean" - a message to Simon Hinkler that asked for, and offered, forgiveness.

A new chapter began in 1991, spurred on by the dance explosion. The truncated three-piece recruited session musicians for the experimental, defiantly non-Gothic Masque (1992), featuring the thundering dance-rock of "Never Again" and the songs co-written with Miles Hunt of The Wonder Stuff. The album's lyrical simplicity was summed up by the beautifully upbeat love song, "Like A Child Again", on which Fairport Convention violinist Ric Sanders was allowed full rein.

After Salad Daze: Radio 1 Sessions (1994) and Sum And Substance (1994), Craig Adams jumped ship to join The Cult (who split up soon after), and it was left to Wayne Hussey and Mick Brown to reconfigure the band again. They recruited Andy Cousin (ex- All About Eve to play bass, Rik Carter (ex-Pendragon) on keyboards and a new guitarist to augment the sound.

A curious but occasionally successful album, Neverland (1995), was released on their own label, Equator, and marked a return to more guitar-based work, though with little commercial impact. It was followed by Blue (1996), a lacklustre effort, adding little new, and with the songwriting sounding ever more stretched.

In August 1996 Wayne Hussey finally decided (on The Mission's 10th anniversary) to call it a day for the band after the tour... the band did reform in October 1996 for one final farewell show to 60,000 fans when The Mission headlined the 5FM festival in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Wayne relocated to California, USA in January 1997;