From: UKESKIMO@aol.com
The Mission played Tues. night at The Doll Hut in Anaheim Cal. It was in front of small crowd of about 50 people. Even though it was a small place and was on borrowed gear the sound was excellent .The bands performance was also spot on and well tight. Here is the set list: [see above KdJ]. Other Mishlist members present were Kristian and Ed.
I mentioned to a friend there were they as good as ever and he said, No, they are better!, and he is right!!! During Blood Brothers Scott had those drums cooking, Mark's guitar was wailing, Craig's bass was ready to take the roof off this place, and after the beat came back up and Wayne (who was in fine form) screamed You and Me, We are Blood Brothers..., I thought the brakes would not hold and the whole band would come straight over the bar and through the wall into the car park.....fucking amazing!!!!!! And Ed, has that grin on your face come off yet? That's all from me on this as this must be really hard on all the others on the list except to say, there's a message in the air.
Think that I have mentioned that I live in So. Cal., I'm sure I have mentioned more than once that I know Wayne and that I was at the rehearsals. How did we know about the gig? Well.....hmmm, Wayne thought of the idea on Sunday I think it was, but it was just an idea, it wasn't confirmed 'till Tuesday pm. As far as the gig goes it was touch and go as Mark's Marshall amp had failed, Craig needed bass amp and speakers and Scott didn't have any of his drums here, so they won't sure if it could be done after all. I called a friend who knows Linda, who owns the Doll Hut, and he felt sure that someone could help them out and to just turn up. Mark managed to hire an amp (out of his own pocket...good on you Mark) just in case. My friend had made a few calls for me on Craig's behalf, so when I got there I found a killer bass set-up sitting out front which some one had brought up (travelled some 40 odd miles!) for Craig, and the previous band on let Scott use their drums. So to sum it up, yes we were the lucky ones, but it nearly didn't happen.
Here's a little more to add to the Doll Hut story. Linda, the owner, got a Marshall amp for Mark for that night. He did have it all set up but not sure what happened as the next thing I see is Mark pulling out cables and putting up the Crate amp which he had hired and had been using that day at rehearsal. I think that when the band arrived that they were not too sure if they wanted to play as looking around at the place it isn't exactly inspiring, but Wayne said: What the hell, we're here now... and when Craig saw the base set-up that had been brought in for him he was than well keen to try it out. After the gig he said that it nearly deafened him!!!! Wayne said that he also was being deafened, not by Craig, but by Scott, who was hitting the cymbals so hard. In fact Scott smashed several sticks, he said he used to be into punk rock and just loved to play loads, which he did! By the way Linda's Doll Hut is well known for giving local bands a start. No Doubt got their break there as did the Offspring.
.....KIM
From: Kristian Roberts
They say you never forget your first love (literally and musically). But it is never the same..... BUT THIS TIME IT WAS EVEN BETTER!!!!! As Mr. [UK] Eskimo has already said the Mission played a small club, I estimated it to have been more like 20 people, tonight in O/C.
The band was great, Wayne was in top form even in the tiny space his brilliance and passion could not be contained, Craig as good and as brilliant as ever playing (and joking) that he was a pure pleasure to watch, Mark Thwaite was a technically brilliant guitarist who not only played the old songs, he took them and made them his own and then some...(hey Mark, Dave was very impressed and you know how hard it is to get a compliment out of him), Scott, well the only thing I can say is that at one point I thought the drums were going to bring the walls down (literally) and Ed has a drum stick to prove it.
I know NOT ONE PERSON will be disappointed. After nearly ten years of not seen them. I am only sad that I have to wait 'til November to see them again...
A very happy and tired
Kristian
From: Wayne Hussey
Yeah, we played a little warm up show last night at 'Linda's Doll Hut' in Anaheim. A great little roadhouse type bar. It was very cosy. Capacity for this place is 49. Probably the smallest place I've ever played in my life and I'm not sure we even filled it!!!! The people that did turn up were all friends and familiar faces so it was kinda weird, like playing in my living room. It was fun & pretty relaxed although I was pretty nervous before we started. It's been a while since I did this but it all came flooding back.......
From: Mark Thwaite
Just a quick note to let you know that I've posted some pix taken at the secret Mission Doll Hut gig (Anaheim California - 5th October) on my website. Sorry for the lack of notice on this show, we only decided to do it the day before, didn't have confirmation on the venue 'till the afternoon of the show, so it was too late to post the list. Anyway we wanted to see if we were any good or not!!! As it turned out we had a blast, probably the smallest venue I've personally played at in over 10 years. Hopefully more photos and a day by day tour diary will be added to the official Mission UK website, which is currently under construction. See you soon at a city near you.
