The Mission - Lighting The Candle (+CD) (DVD)

...been around for 20 years, the temptation must be to just film a gig, stuff it on a DVD and release it to the fans who'll snap it up regardless while waiting for the next album and tour.

Not the case here. Before you even get to the discs, you know they've put some effort into it. Nice cardboard slipcase holding a big fold out inner part with the 2 DVDs,1 CD and a nice 12 page booklet.

The first DVD is the main reason ...
...background music, specially written for the DVD. Take a minute to enjoy that, then dive straight in to the main feature. 17 songs recorded in April 2004 for a German TV show. All nicely filmed, and available in stereo, DD5.1 and DTS. Worth watching with the full surround sound experience. Nice and subtle, nothing too distracting. Just what you want from a live video. Band at the front, audience surrounding you, maybe the odd guitar wandering around ... more

With a band who have been around for 20 years, the temptation must be to just film a gig, stuff it on a DVD and release it to the fans who'll snap it up regardless while waiting for the next album and tour.

Not the case here. Before you even get to the discs, you know they've put some effort into it. Nice cardboard slipcase holding a big fold out inner part with the 2 DVDs,1 CD and a nice 12 page booklet.

The first DVD is the main reason for buying the thing in the first place. Nicely designed menu with some suitable background music, specially written for the DVD. Take a minute to enjoy that, then dive straight in to the main feature. 17 songs recorded in April 2004 for a German TV show. All nicely filmed, and available in stereo, DD5.1 and DTS. Worth watching with the full surround sound experience. Nice and subtle, nothing too distracting. Just what you want from a live video. Band at the front, audience surrounding you, maybe the odd guitar wandering around a bit now and then.

So, excellent picture and sound. What about the music? With so many albums to choose from, there's going to be something missing, but it's got all the main classics covered and some more obscure songs. Starts of with Crystal Ocean, and there's not a bad moment to be had anywhere. Keeps it up all the way through the single released along with the DVD (Breathe Me In), old singles Butterfly on a Wheel and Wasteland, right up to Deliverance and Tower of Strength. (Although I kind of prefer that played the way it was originally, not the "new" version they came up with when it was re-released as a single).

And what of the extras? The CD is just a bonus live album. Not a straight copy of the DVD, but different songs from the same tour. Some songs from the DVD are missing, and others are on the CD but not the DVD. Including Mercenary, a lovely little song (originally a B side), with plenty of swearing in the lyrics.

The second DVD is full of all the bonus material. First, there's a new song, Light the Candles. Pretty good, and hopefully an indication of the direction the next album might go in. Rubbish video to accompany it though (just some footage from the recording of it).

There's also the usual rehersal footage, interviews and band on tour stuff. Interesting enough, once. The discography section is a bit more interesting than normal. Not just a list of records with pictures of the covers. It features a commentary by Wayne Hussey, along with various acoustic excerpts of songs.

There's also 4 songs played solo by Hussey (nice enough), and a collection of "classic" video clips. These "classics" are generally a bit rubbish. Usual embarassing goth shennanigans, really. Watch them once for a laugh.

And finally, the "bootleg" collection, taken from Wayne Hussey's own collection of videotapes. Not the best quality then, coming from a dodgy old VHS recording of some obscure TV programme. But still interesting enough to watch, and a nice commentary to go with it.

All in all, it's a rather excellent package. Everything you want from a live DVD (i.e. all the songs you like, nicely filmed with decent sound, although it possibly sounds a bit too clean and so doesn't quite capture the true feeling of actually being there), plenty of extras, of varying quality, and a bonus live CD. 

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