Heady Daze – Wayne Hussey – Book Review
by Killian Laher

It’s shaping up to be a year where so-called goth music transitions from ridicule to rehabilitation, with a plethora of related books.  One of its leading lights, Wayne Hussey, has just published his second autobiography, covering the rise of his band, The Mission.  The heyday of the Mission is now more than 30 years ago, so it’s easy to forget that for any music fan in the late 80s, singer Wayne Hussey was somewhat ubiquitous, for better or worse.  Not for him the more serious approach of some of his peers.  Whether you read Melody Maker or Smash Hits (but not NME), he popped up on a regular basis with mouthy interviews and generally larking about.

The book is very much Hussey’s account of the swift rise of the band, and much of it is a no-holds-barred account of sex, drugs and general excess.  Refreshingly, he takes the piss out of himself, with several hilarious anecdotes of being mistaken for Bono (who he likes).  Painting a picture of a band of drug fiends who just wanted to live life to the fullest.  Despite their success in Europe, America never quite took to the Mission, and it wasn’t helped by numerous arrests and their dismissal of a brand new MTV show, Unplugged.

Ultimately, like most music biographies, it’s one the fans will really enjoy and others might shrug and go, ‘Oh yeah, The Mission, is he still alive?’