Tower Of Strength

Notes

There is some history between Martin Gore and Wayne Hussey. They met when Wayne's band The Mission and DM both performed at the San Remo festival in February 1990, as a glam rock tribute band called The Metal Gurus. Martin loves glam rock, so a year later he asked Hussey to play glam rock songs at his 30th birthday party. Hussey got him a signed photo by Gary Glitter for his birthday. In 2002, The Mission released a single called "Shine Like The Stars", of which the B-side was a cover of "Never Let Me Down Again". And in 2016, Wayne Hussey asked Martin to sing backing vocals on a song called Only You & You Alone from The Mission's album "Another Fall from Grace".

Wayne Hussey said in a press release:

“When Covid-19 hit I started receiving messages asking ‘Why don’t you re-issue Tower Of Strength for the front line workers?’ The song had apparently been adopted as an anthem by some NHS workers, and it got me thinking that I would like to contribute something to the greater cause at this unprecedented time and the only thing I could really contribute is music. So in conjunction with my good friend Michael Ciravolo, I came up with the idea of recording a new version of Tower Of Strength for charity by enlisting the help of musician friends and acquaintances. Tower Of Strength was first released by The Mission as single in 1988 and then again in 1994. It charted twice in the UK top 40 and has proved to be probably our biggest song and the one we generally close our shows with. It is anthemic. I wondered if recording a more well known song might have a greater reach but neither Michael or I could come up with any suggestions that seemed to fit lyrically without getting too corny. So Tower Of Strength it was then.”

“Usually I detest things that are done for charity that are also self-serving, but I came up with a plan that satisfied my conscience. I spoke with my fellow Mission band members who co-wrote the song - Craig Adams, Mick Brown and Simon Hinkler - and we agreed to give up any publishing income generated by the new version to nominated charities, including mechanical and performance royalties and 100% of any revenue raised by sales. TOS2020 has been renamed to divert funds from the original version, and the charities will all be personally nominated by the people involved in its recording and release. Because the musical contributions are global our idea is that the proceeds will be divided and distributed equally among all the beneficiaries.”

Martin Gore nominated Direct Relief as the beneficiary of the song's profit: “Direct Relief is an organisation that helps people in times of emergency like natural disasters or in times of poverty by getting medical equipment and supplies to where they are needed most. At the moment they are obviously heavily focused on Covid-19.”