I thought about adding this review to the main thread, but that would not be right so here goes.
The background to this release is essentially the final ever tour from The Mission, after a 23-year period starting off in 1985 when Wayne Hussey & Craig Adams split from the Sisters Of Mercy during the sessions for the latters "First & Last & Always" album.
They released 8 studio albums and a couple of sanctioned compilations (The first one being "The First Chapter" which comprised the early 12" singles released before the true first album called "Gods Own Medicine") plus a couple of cracking live albums & a BBC Session compilation.
Wayne decided to finally call it a day late last year, and left us with the final studio album "God Is A Bullet" (sadly no surround mix) and the farewell tour this year.
The plan was that when the London shows (at the end of the tour) happened, they would perform for 4 nights straight, and on each night they would play an entire album.
The first night saw "The First Chapter", the second one was "Gods Own Medicine", the third "Children" (and if ever an album should have been remixed in 5.1 then this is surely it) and the fourth was to be "Carved in Sand". Naturally, it mutated and Carved In Sand also had material from "Grains of Sand" - a second album released the same year that had the 10 tracks which were left off from the "Carved in Sand" release, and they also did a second set of their favourite songs from all periods.
This DVD is from that final night, and has over 2 1/2 hours from the main show plus a third disc with a tour diary, rehearsal footage, extracts from the last ever AFter SHow party & various tracks performed at other shows that were not done on this night at the Empire.
Sound quality & mix.
If you have heard the various CD's from these nights - and there are 5 of them (The First Chapter, Gods Own Medicine, Children, Carved in Sand & Live and Last) then put them right out of your mind immediately as these sound - to me - dreadful. The kick drum sounds like a basketball being bounced, and the overall mix is terrible.
The DVD however is a completely different story.
Whilst the surround mix is perhaps not as aggressive as I like it, it is still done superbly (mix engineer was Tom Dalgery (?) and it was produced by Wayne Hussey & George Allen) and has plenty of punch & power, delivering a true representation of a superb live band in all their power. Naturally, the DTS stream really helps & I am very happy to see this included.
For fans, this really is a "must buy" release, and I can highly recommend it even to non-fans (although it has to be said that The Mission are one of those bands you either love or loathe, it seems). Most of the material on offer is original - don't be fooled by titles like "Over The Hills & Far Away", as it is not a cover of the Led Zep track of the same name - but the few covers played are old favourites of the band & fans such as Neil Young's "Lijke A Hurricane", The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" (which was awesome on the 12" release back in the 80's), The Kinks' "Mr Pleasant" and Iggy Pop's "1969". There is also a nod to Aerosmith, with a great re-working of "Dream On" (from the "Children" album again, which was produced by John Paul Jones & descrbed as "The Best AlbumLed Zeppelin never made" by critics at the time).
This is a great release, with a superbly mixed surround track that is IMHO right up there with any live album from anyone.
Highly recommended.