Front man for The Mission, Wayne Hussey, is back in South Africa for a brief tour. Here is what to expect from the man who now lives with wild parrots just outside Sao Paulo, writes Patricia Morrison
Back in the day you were either a Michael Jackson fan or a Prince fan, a Madonna fan or a Cyndi Lauper fan. If you were a Doc Martins, leather and lace, black lipstick and blue-black haired goth, the choice was Sisters of Mercy or The Mission.
Wayne Hussey was the guitarist for Sisters of Mercy for two years and then, in a supposed vampiric fit, he left to form The Mission. They went on to enjoy more commercial success than any other goth band, although purists will swear by their favourite gravesite that Sisters and Bauhaus always remained true to the pale blue skin ideology and were, therefore, the most authentic.
Also, Wayne began his international career by being part of that Euro trash pre-techno group, Dead or Alive. “You spin me right round, baby, right round, like a record baby, right round, right round,” sang the androgynous Pete Burns. Wayne is remembered for such hits as Severina, Like a Hurricane and Butterfly on a Wheel.
A few decades on and five tours to South Africa, Wayne returns with his second solo album and over 100 songs to choose from.
“Each show is different,” he says from his home somewhere in a remote part of Brazil. “It depends on how much wine I have had, or how well Liverpool played the night before, maybe even if I am wearing clean socks or dirty socks.”
As he talks, his dogs are barking madly in the background. The once wild man of gothic rock sounds relaxed and happy.
“I have lived here for just on 12 years. It’s very remote with wild parrots everywhere. There are no tarred roads, only dirt roads which lead to my home.”
This leads me to recall the last time I watched The Mission perform in South Africa. It was about 12 years ago and one of their gigs was the Easter Oppikoppi, which is a far smaller festival than the main one.
“I remember they gave us luxury accommodation which were bungalows,” he recalls. “We walked in and I saw these white things on the wall and on closer inspection they were massive spiders. We chickened out and declined to spend the night and drove back to Joburg.”
Unfortunately for them, while they played a great set, a certain Matthew van der Want got wind of the story and throughout their entire set he heckled: “Africa’s not for sissies!”
It was most amusing, but kinda distracted them from their gothic rock mission. So, if Wayne is too scared to sleep in a bungalow in the bushveld, how does he handle living in the Brazilian outback?
“The thing is, Brazil is a glorious country, but if I had to stay here fulltime, I would go crazy,” he admits. He uses opportunities like promoting his latest release, Songs of Candlelight and Razorblade, to tour the world and places that he is particularly fond of, South Africa being one of them. But he is also touring the world with The Mission.
“The Mission released an album in 2007, and then in 2008 we did a farewell tour including four nights at Sheperds Bush.
“It was emotional to say the least. Then the original members regrouped to do a 20-year anniversary and we enjoyed it so much we recorded an album in 2013. We are planning a tour next year.”
In the meantime, he is enjoying performing tracks from his latest solo endeavour and will be sharing them with fans when he plays here next month. “Quite a few were written without the band in mind and some were left-over Mission songs.”
“It always takes me a lot of time to finish an album and get into that creative space. With this album, I took it at a leisurely pace. Lyrically, it’s the usual life, love, sex, the joys and tribulations.
“I will be playing popular songs from The Mission as well as my solo songs and lesser known songs from The Mission.”
Wayne has outlasted most of his generation in terms of surviving the treacherous music industry, which is rather unexpected. He says he never thought about longevity in the music industry when he first started. “The bottom line is that when you’re 24 you don’t think that far ahead. I never even thought I would live this long. I know that I am one of the lucky ones. What keeps me going is the desire to make the perfect record which you can never do. It’s non existent.”
Wayne Hussey plays at the Rivonia Barnyard on May 8 and 9 and then flies to Cape Town to perform on May 11.