This is great fun,
another old school chum from the Ridings High, Wayne Hussey who was
with the Sisters of Mercy & now in The Mission. I caught up with him
and here is an exclusive Bristol Rocks interview!
Try the sampler below of the Missions forthcoming album 'God is a
bullet' to be released on CD and as a download mid March 2007.
And below is a single sampler.
When
you attended the Ridings high school in Winterbourne you were
in a band called 'Humph'. What did you do between leaving school and
1983 when you joined the Sisters of Mercy?
I left the Ridings, I think, in the summer of 75. We
carried on with 'Humph' but changed our name to 'Rough
Justice'.....snigger.....it was the times, yer honour.....and we got
to play at the famed Naval Volunteer near Bristol city centre and
our gig was even listed in the NME.....That was the height for us,
playing the Volunteer and getting our name in the NME, we thought
we'd made it.....I worked in the co-op for a year or so,
Winterbourne & Coalpit Heath, and even spent a few weeks in the
co-op around the corner from your nan in Yate.....And then I met a
girl from Liverpool and decided to move up there in 77, I
think......Anyway, we soon split up but I decided to stay in
Liverpool as it had a very active and growing punk scene which
appealed to me and
also accepted me despite my Mormon upbringing! I started playing
around town with a few bands - Ded Byrds, Walkie Talkies, Hambi &
The Dance, and got to know all the other local musicians like Julian
Cope, Ian McCulloch, Pete Wylie and the rest of
'em....Formed a band with Budgie (who went onto the Banshees
ultimately) and Ian Broudie (Lightening Seeds) for about two
days.......And then I answered a Melody Maker ad for a guitarist and
auditioned and consequently joined Pauline Murray (ex Penetration) &
The Invisible Girls. We made an album with Martin Hannet producing
and
that was the first time I was introduced to hard drugs, never to
look back.....I also played my first European tour with the
Invisible Girls, visiting Holland, Germany, & Scandinavia for the
first time. After a year or so with Pauline we disbanded and then I
was asked by Pete Burns to join Dead Or Alive. I did and was with
them for two years or so and then we signed to CBS (now Sony I
believe) and made an album, during
which time I left because of their increasing use of sequencers and
synths in preference to my guitar playing...... And at the time CBS
were courting The Sisters Of Mercy and they had just lost a
guitarist to University so I was recommended to the 'Dritch and I
got the call from Andrew to travel across the Pennines to Leeds to
meet 'em.....I got the job without even playing a note by virtue of
the fact that I chopped 'em out......Such were the days......
And that takes us up to the end of 1983.......
So in 1983 you joined the
Sisters of Mercy and played in this band until 1987. Can you
describe how life was for you during these years?
Yeah, so in the autumn of '83 I joined the Sisters
and promptly went on my first tour of the USA......Such hedonism I'd
never seen......In '84 we toured Europe and played some festivals,
the highlight probably being us on the same bill as Frank Zappa in
Germany somewhere......We also recorded what was to become the first
SOM album "first and last and always" which featured a fair number
of my tunes.......We toured
some more, revisiting the states and Europe a couple of times
each.......
The aforementioned album was released early in '85 and, guess what?
We toured some more culminating in a show at the Royal Albert Hall
which was filmed and recorded for posterity.....That proved to be
the last show I, and bassist Craig Adams, played with the Sisters
before we left later that year to start our own band with me singing
which became The Mission. That was in October 1985.
The
Mission has been in existence for 22 years! I don’t want to ask the
obvious question about what the Mission have done during this time
because it is well documented
HERE.
You are still touring and selling albums, the Mission will be
playing at The Bristol Carling Academy on May 15th 2007
and you appear to have made a good living from music.
If you were able to go back to the Ridings high school in
Winterbourne and advise the young Wayne Hussey about his future
career in music, what would you tell him?
Start wearing dark glasses as they'll afford you a
mystique that you know yourself you don't have but no one else needs
to know that......And never wear a beret!
Do you have any advice for
young Bristol bands struggling for recognition?
There are a million fantastic players out there who
can emulate any style, any other player, but why? It's already been
done and unless you wanna play in a tribute band I would always
recommend trying to be unique, individual, but true to yourself. Not
always easy but when it starts to work for you it is very
rewarding......
Enjoy what you do. It is a privilege to be able to play in front of
an audience that has paid to see you perform and/or who have bought
your music.
And believe in yourself because if you don't then no one else will.
