That Moment The Mission Debuted On Top Of The Pops…

Once upon a time in dear old Blighty, there was a music programme called ‘Top Of The Pops’.

Before MTV became popular, before the internet, back in the days when under a handful of TV channels and a few commercial radio stations were all there was for musicians to get mass attention, it was a very big deal to get on it – the difference between your record selling 1000 copies a week or 50000 copies a day.

When the eighties came along and people’s clothes began to look they’d poured a bucket of Skittles in with the washing, the appearence of bands mimicking old time punks Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Damned, Toyah, Bauhaus, The Cure and The Cult did make them stick out like sore thumbs just a bit, and Goth really didn’t do itself much favours by the first band ever to appear on TOTP with the new tagline – looking like extras from an episode of Doctor Who,

The Mission debuted on 19th March 1987 with the rather weak ‘Severina’ – the previous much stronger single ‘Wasteland’ was banned from airplay (due to the BBC and independent broadcasters showing a distinct lack of bottle when faced with loudmouthed militant born again Christian groups at the time stamping on anything ‘blasphemous’ or – even worse – hinting of paganism).

The band looked a bloody sight, Hussey couldn’t have been any more camp if he tried, and the public thought they were some hippy take on Boy George’s Culture Club (ironically, he was No.1 at the time with his first solo record after the latter fell apart due to their leader being a pathetic junkie). At least his purple went with the lights.

The cherry on top was Julianne Regan of All About Eve – The Mission’s ‘sister’ group – on backing vocals, complete with overbite and looking like she’d just crawled out of bed from some student dorm.

It did do the trick, however unintentionally, in killing stone dead the ‘goth threat’ sensationalism by tabloid journalists seeking the next circulation boosting morale crusade or those killjoys who see every ‘yoof’ movement as a threat to civilisation.

Which meant after this…

… no one bothered to complain about this (opening track of the 1st October 1987 show), until it was too late.

Eldritch and Morticia with the Sisterhood’s Chorus of Vengence – now Goth seemed like a good idea.