[3] After an aborted recording session with Andrew Eldritch in the summer of 1985, Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams left the Sisters of Mercy.

Their debut, God's Own Medicine, was then recorded in six weeks with novice producer Tim Palmer, an acquaintance from Hussey's Dead or Alive days.

The 41-date trek was characterised by substance abuse and led to the collapse of an inebriated Craig Adams in Los Angeles, resulting in him temporarily quitting the band.

Sound tech Pete Turner filled in for one show, before they enlisted the help of Chris Bocast to play bass with them for the remainder of the tour, which included an opening slot for the Psychedelic Furs.

[11] Back in England, Adams returned to the band to play a handful of European festivals, and two support dates in Leeds and Edinburgh on U2's Joshua Tree Tour.

A live video entitled Crusade was released, capturing the band and their noisy audience at the early stage of their career.

The Mission enlisted the help of Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones to produce their second studio album, Children, engineered by Mark 'Spike' Stent.

[14] The rest of the year was taken up by the Children Play world tour, which included a six-night residency at the London Astoria, Theatre where John Paul Jones made a guest appearance on keyboards.

[15] At the end of 1988, the Mission embarked on an eight-date arena tour around the UK, while a collection of their music videos, From Dusk to Dawn, was released.

In the first half of 1989, Hussey spent some time writing new material in the Black Mountains in South Wales before the band reconvened in April to start the recording process.

[17] They once again enlisted the help of Tim Palmer to produce the record, while Reeves Gabrels, Baluji Shrivastav, and Guy Chambers also made contributions.

To kill time, the foursome then promptly went camp to form a glam rock tribute band, the Metal Gurus, playing support for the Wonder Stuff towards the end of the year.

The new album appeared a month later, together with the "Waves upon the Sand" video that documented the recording sessions and Scottish tour of the previous year.

Personal tensions led to a confrontation during the North American leg of the tour and Simon Hinkler left the band after a gig at Montreal's Metropolis.

This last leg of the tour, which included a performance filmed for the Rockpalast programme, saw Hinkler returning twice as a guest during the encores at Leeds and the final night at the Brixton Academy.

A single, "Hands Across the Ocean", co-produced by Andy Partridge of XTC, became a minor hit and was backed by a live version of "Amelia".

[21] The band and Hinkler were on friendly terms again and they resurrected the Metal Gurus project to record a cover version of "Merry Xmas Everybody" with Noddy Holder and Jim Lea from Slade for the Childline charity.

The band, asked to perform a lucrative headlining gig at Finsbury Park in 1991, brought out quite a different side, joined by Maartin Allcock of Fairport Convention and Anthony Thistlethwaite of the Waterboys.

The second incarnation of the Mission consisted of Brown, Hussey, Mark Thwaite (formerly of Spear of Destiny) on guitar, Rik Carter (formerly of Pendragon) on keyboards, and eventually Andy Cousin (formerly of All About Eve) on bass.

The Club Mission tour played smaller venues around Europe, with new tracks "Afterglow" and "Raising Cain" becoming a regular feature in the set.

The end of 1993 saw Hussey remixing "Tower of Strength" with Youth, and revisiting some of the past material for a greatest hits compilation album.

The compilation, entitled Sum and Substance, was released the next month and featured two new tracks: "Sour Puss" and a remix of "Afterglow" by Mark "Spike" Stent.

The Neverland tour saw a slight revival in popularity, with two of the concerts being filmed for German television, a promo-only live EP released, and a handful of summer festivals played.

When the resulting album, Blue, was released, it received mixed reviews from music critics but left portions of the old fanbase rather unimpressed[citation needed].

A short stint around the UK, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands afterwards turned out to be a farewell tour: after ten years, Hussey and Brown decided that enough was enough.

In 1999, after releasing an album of solo versions of Mission classics in his home studio, Hussey resurrected the band with Adams, drummer Scott Garrett (Adams' bandmate in the Cult), and Mark Thwaite, for what was intended to be a one-off tour with Gene Loves Jezebel across the United States and an also-resurrected All About Eve across the United Kingdom.

At this juncture, Thwaite left the band (first due to touring commitments with Tricky and later to form the group New Disease), to be replaced by Rob Holliday of Sulpher.

In early 2003, the Mission gained a new bassist in the form of Rich Vernon and within a matter of months, Garrett also left, to be replaced by Steve Spring.

A new single, "Keep It in the Family", was released in March 2007, followed a month later by the new album God Is a Bullet, featuring Hussey, Thwaite, Vernon, and Spring, and guest musicians Simon Hinkler, Bricheno, and Julianne Regan.

[29] Revitalised, the band decided to continue touring and played shows in South America, Mexico, Europe, and on the Download Festival in 2012.