The Cult and The Mission at The Piece Hall, Halifax

The Cult and The Mission toured the UK together in 2012 and this rather incredible bill has been repeated some 11 years later with 3 dates (Cardiff, Halifax and Scarborough). As the band reached Halifax, it was my turn to once again visit my youth and catch this incredible package….it did not disappoint.

The Mission take to the stage first. I have recently bought Mission main man Wayne Hussey’s second instalment of his autobiography entitled “Heady Daze” about his life in The Mission (the previous book, Salad Daze covered his pre Mission career in Sisters Of Mercy and Dead Or Alive) We are treated to a flash of Hussey’s sense of humour straight after set opener, Tower Of Strength, when he complains of the bright light in his eyes; this light is actually the sun, well even the most experienced of lighting engineers may struggle with that one. Tower Of Strength is a fine set opener which is followed by Beyond The Pale and Severina and a visibly relieved Hussey is pleased that for at least a bit, that pesky sun disappears behind cloud, to be honest though, the singer will wear sunglasses inside so there shouldn’t be a problem.

Stay With Me from The Mission’s amazing debut album – God’s Own Medicine, a song that I have not seen them play much in the last couple of tours is followed by a familiar drum machine intro which brings us Butterfly On A Wheel and confetti is strewn all over the audience as The Mission finish their set with a double punch of Wasteland and Deliverance. The band will be appearing at this October’s All Tomorrow’s Ghosts Event in Whitby on the 27^th October and I fully expect to see you down the front!

The Cult hit the stage to the track Rise from their 2001 album Beyond Good And Evil and immediately we can see that the years have not dented frontman Ian Astbury’s dancing (or nor indeed his vouce which sounded in fine fettle throughout). Sun King (from Sonic Temple) and King Contrary Man (From Electric) show this eager audience that not only have The Cult fought off the years but there set tonight in Halifax will be very much based around their earlier material but you will get no protests from this rotund Northern Irish rocker!

 

A real surprise comes from the band dusting off The Witch which sends this Goth heavy audience into rapture. Funnily enough the G… Word features heavily in this set with Astbury sending love from the stage to John Robb, author of the amazing book, Goth – The Art Of Darkness (and indeed guest on The Diamond Dave Show!) who is in attendance. Billy Duffy is sending riffs in to the Yorkshire skies when a brilliant keyboard intro brings us Lil’ Devil and two more  recent songs Vendetta X and Mirror. The Goths of Yorkshire are given more props by Astbury when he says how important Yorkshire is to The Cult with Halifax, Bradford  and Leeds namechecked as being Goth strongholds in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Of course he couldn’t not mention that it was not just Yorkshire Goth that created The Cult, but the Mancunian swagger of Duffy on guitar, helping them become the band they did. With Spirit Walker, Rain and main set closer the anthem that is She Sells Sanctuary bringing the main part of the set to a close I would have been happy with that. However, we were treated to an encore of Peace Dog and Love Removal Machine. So,  Astbury and the band are rocking just as hard in their sixties as they were in their twenties…well I just hope this 51 year old Ulsterman can keep up!