After having witnessed a grandiose concert at the Matrix in Bochum (with bad sound though) in October I now got the very first DVD of this British GothRock legend. Reason for tour and DVD is the 20th anniversary of the band and I must confess: THE MISSION spared no pains!
With Lighting The Candles Wayne Hussey and Co. offer an exclusive and fancy DVD box containing 2 DVD’s and one bonus live CD plus a booklet with all information around the anniversary, tour, shows presented on this DVD’s.

DVD 1 (02:09:49) – is more than a 1 hour live recording of the show that took place on April 13th 2004 during the Breathen tour at Cologne’s Limelight Club, that was featured and exclusively recorded for German channel WDR and Rockpalast. The tracklist is around the same presented on this year’s Lighting The Candles tour:
Intro/ Deep Still Water
2. Crystal Ocean
3. Evangeline
4. Hymn (For America)
5. (Slave To) Lust
6. Garden Of Delight
7. Severina
8. Breathe Me In
9. Butterfly On A Wheel
10. Belief
11. Sacrilege
12. Wasteland
13. Daddy’s Going To heaven Now
14. Like A Child Again
15. Beyond The Pale
16. Serpent’s Kiss
17. Deliverance
18. Tower Of Strength // encore

The band seems to be well-prepared and rehearsed for this show and Wayne Hussey is using his entire vocal range. Altogether the band is acting pretty static, which is on the other hand quite natural for a DVD production as musicians have a limited room to move on stage (to have somewhat of a perfect lightning). The audience was eye-catchingly dressed with THE MISSION t-shirts, at least in the first three rows and gave much feedback to the band during the show. What stroke me after having experienced show and DVD current single Breathe Me In sounds much like with what the band kicked off in its early days.

After the live part seven classic video clips follow (Deliverance, Butterfly On A Wheel, Severina, Tower Of Strength, Never Again, Wasteland, Evangeline) whereas Deliverance and Evangeline are live vids, while the rest are typical 80’s video productions. Those of you who were grown up during the 80’s know what it means ;) No eye stays dry that might it be due to nostalgic moments or smiles up to laughing. By the way, while watching Butterfly On A Wheel I got aware of the similarity to Simple Minds…

DVD 2 (03:32:02) – offers four solo performances by Wayne Hussey (Mesmerized, Stay With Me, Severina, My Funny Valentine) unfortunately cut pieces from different places and performances. In addition one will find many special features about the band, interviews with Wayne Hussey and band members, biography and discography, stories being on tour, different bootlegs, rehearsals for the Breathen tour and the making of to this DVD. There is a lot of funny stuff and oddities to see and to hear. Everything got put together with much heart blood and offers a detailed retrospective over the entire band history and of what the band is about, now and in the past.

And, if that wouldn’t be enough there is also a bonus live CD included (69:58), recorded at different venues during the Breathen tour in 2004.

All things considered Lighting The Candles offers more than 5 hours of material around THE MISSION plus almost 70 minutes for the live CD. This is definitely “value for money”! This DVD boxset is an absolutely highlight and a must-have for every new and old THE MISSION fan. Grandiose work!