From: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org (seven-seas-moderated-digest) To: seven-seas-moderated-digest@smoe.org Subject: seven-seas-moderated-digest V2 #169 Reply-To: seven-seas@smoe.org Sender: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Precedence: bulk seven-seas-moderated-digest Tuesday, June 3 2003 Volume 02 : Number 169 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2003 09:17:55 -0600 From: "K. F. Smith" Subject: seven-seas-moderated archival stuff - 2 Echo and The Bunnymen 7 They're Back! 7 With a new single called "The Game"! 7 With a new drummer (except he's the old one)!! 7 And with a spanking new pair of boxer shorts!!! 7 Chris Heath is "puzzled". Photo: Andrew Catlin Echo and The Bunnymen have come down to London this morning to be interviewed by Smash Hits. Unfortunately this afternoon they're scooting off to South America and, just at the moment, they seem to have other things on their minds. Boxer shorts, to be precise... "Could you panic buy a white pair for me?" asks Pete De Freitas (their very polite and slightly posh-voiced drummer). "I want good ones, real comfy ones," drawls Ian McCulloch (Mac, their singer) Jake, the friend on the receiving end of these instructions, looks uncertain. "Paul Smith (very swank shop) ones are going to be #15 a pair," he warns. Mac looks affronted at the suggestion that he couldn't afford hundreds of pairs at that price. "I don't mind spending a few bob," he grins. All this boxer-short banter is happening in a record company interview room. To be frank, it's a mess. It looks like a cross between a school changing room and a betting shop. All over the floor are over-stuffed bags of different shapes and sizes with clothes crawling out of them. Slumped over chairs and sofas, like islands in the middle of this chaos, are the group, counting out stacks and stacks of money, arranging for cheques to be cashed, and asking for emergency supplies of Sharp's Extra Strong Mints. And, of course, for boxer shorts. Orders taken, Jake slips out to the shops muttering "Oh yeah they're mega now - get the gofer to go out and get the underwear". "We'd have been out buying our own undies," insists Mac. "I don't like having undies that haven't been hand-picked. Though actually I do find it hard buying undies. Lorraine (his wife) normally buys them. People can see you. . ." he squirms at the horror of it all, ".it's like they've got X-ray vision, isn't it?" Er...yes. "You didn't mind nicking mine!" Les Pattinson (the very chatty bass player) suddenly exclaims, explaining that his mother had bought him "some Page 3 ones" when he was 17 and Mac had snaffled them early in the group's career under some pretense or another. "I didn't get them back for years," he huffs. "And when I did they were all worn out. The girl had totally faded." Mac looks amused and Will Sergeant (the guitarist and easily the quietest of the four) finally breaks his silence. "I got some great ones with Father Christmas on them for Christmas" Oh. Echo And The Bunnymen have been pretty quiet for getting on three years now. They started out back in 1978 in Liverpool (with a drum machine which they called Echo - hence the name!) and soon built up a very devoted following of mostly serious young men in long overcoats. Then in 1984, with their "Ocean Rain" LP - all poetic lyrics and beautifully shimmering songs - they got rather more famous and apparently decided it was time to become huge rock stars. But then it all went wrong. They took about a year to put out their next single, "Bring On The Dancing Horses" and then...nothing. Mainly because Pete disappeared. "I was a bit pissed off," says Will. "I was a bit pissed off," says Mac. "I was a bit pissed off too," agrees Les, "especially as he was supposed to be godfather at my daughter Rebecca's christening two days afterwards." So what happened? Pete looks slightly amused and slightly embarrassed. "I Just exploded," he says. "I went to New York with some friends of mine, then went down to New Orleans, did some recording, went off again, went down to Florida and then down to Jamaica. I did tons of filming." He also, by all accounts, looked a right state. Will leans over and shows everyone a cartoon from a book he's reading - it shows a completely berserk-looking bloke with long straggly hair. "That's you there, isn't it?" he laughs. "That's right" says Pete. "I'm described on Bill Drummond's album (Bill Drummond is their old manager and occasional "pop star") on the song "Ballad For A Sex God" as the bloke "with wrap-around reflecting shades and freaked out hair". He puts his hand to his shoulder to show how long his hair was. "I was pretty skinny too - I hadn't been eating. Or sleeping." Hmmm. So had he gone bonkers? "Pretty much, yeah," he admits. "It was interesting." "It's good," interrupts Mac, "that he went a bit bonkers and then came back." Les agrees. "Sometimes you just want to go 'WOOOOOOOOOOHH' (makes huge screeching noise at which the other three kill themselves laughing). No, you do! You start wondering what you're doing, the 'meaning of life' thing." "Yeah," sighs Pete. "You can get into a mentality where you get fed up with every single thing - everything - from your telephone going when you don't want it to onwards, and it just spirals around and you just get pissed off with everything and everybody. I didn't hate them, it's just as my normal self I wasn't capable of doing something quite as callous as walking out on plans that had been laid down so I suppose I went a bit crazy in order to be able to do it." As for what else he actually did in these lost months he's a bit vague. There was something to do with a group - The Sex Gods - who still exist without him and there was a film project: "a different kind of film, it can't really be explained - you'll have to wait and see if it ever turns up." At the time there were also lots of rumours about him getting involved in a bizarre Moonie-type American religious cult - either joining one or - gulp! - trying to start one. From the reaction of all the group when this is mentioned it's quite clear that a) there's something behind these stories and that b) they definitely don't want to talk about it. "Er. I think this is something that has been documented enough," fibs Mac. "It's nice to keep them guessing," says Les. "Why put it straight?" insists Mac. And that is that. While Pete was away, the Bunnymen recorded a new LP (using drum machines, The Pretenders' drummer Blair Cunningham and New Order's Steven Morris) and decided they didn't like it. Meanwhile Pete decided he'd quite like to rejoin. "Jake said to me," he remembers, 'they'll probably, take you back' and I said 'I reckon I probably want to come back' and gradually it edged towards me being back." And now they've got a spanking new single (out any day now) and LP - both called "The Game." "'The Game' is life," snarls Mac. "I can't write about left wing politics." And they insist that it's worth the wait. "A lot of great records do take a long time." They also insist that they've changed quite a lot since the days they were "willfully awkward" and Mac could be relied on to bark out a controversial opinion about anyone or anything. "I think I've grown up," he says calmly. "I don't want to get involved in all that stuff again. I'm 28 now. It's a long time. (singing) since I was seventeen!" He' s not gone completely meek and sloppy though . Three or four years ago he caused a bit of a "storm" appearing on "The Tube" and started explaining in the middle of a song how all criminals should have their hands chopped off, Old Testament-style. He obviously hasn't changed his mind since. "Fingers at least," he says. "Baddies are bad, aren't they?" "It's like what they do to you," agrees Les, who's particularly smarting after having his car broken into outside Pete's house the other day. "I don't think I've ever taken anything that I haven't earned or paid for," says Mac, "and I think stealing is a bad thing. Stealing is horrible. Rape is horrible too. You should kill rapists. I don't think there's any excuse." Pete vainly sticks up for a more humanitarian approach. "What if they're sick, sick in the head? They can't control their thoughts. They can't help it." "Neither can their victims," growls Mac. "A decent society," insists Pete, "is about giving everyone a decent break rather than chopping hands off. It's daft." "I disagree," fumes Mac. "It's not a fair society because you're endangering the rest of society." And on they go. Mac is particularly sensitive because his home has now been burgled six times. Suddenly though he calls a stop to the proceedings. "Uh - oh," he says warily. "I think this could turn into a 'Britain would benefit from a fascist dictator interview'" (referring to a very famous daft comment Dame David Bowie once made). "Anyway," he says. "We're not politicians." Quite. ".we're businessmen." At which they all "kill" themselves laughing once more. I remind Mac of a story Julian Cope told recently - that Julian and Mac had gone to a fortune teller who'd said they'd both become famous pop stars, predicted a few other things correctly and - triple spook! - said that Mac would die at the age of 30. Mac confirms that it did happen. "We were at a party - Pete Wylie as well," he remembers. "Some girl said she read palms and she did say I'd only got two years left. I have been thinking about it." "It's poppycock," huffs Les, unimpressed. "Don't worry about it." "Anyway," continues Mac, smiling, "actually what she said was that I'd be well loved and Julian wouldn't be ha ha ha." Clearly he thinks this is very true. "But she also said I wouldn't have any kids (he has a daughter, Candy). Mind you, she was a total divvy, just a stupid girl. A student." "One beer too many," agrees Les. Anyway, if it is true, Mac has only two years left from yesterday when he celebrated his birthday by. doing what exactly? "I went to Manchester to do the shopping.changed the nappy.had a can of lager.watched a bit of telly.packed my bags.went for a Wimpy and ate it round the back entrance in the car. Those spicy veggie ones are great, aren't they? I always." But, sadly, we shall never discover the exact reason for Mac's spicy veggie-burger devotion for, at this very moment, in saunters a puffed-out Jake with the shopping. Everything is pawed over, most importantly those boxer shorts. Pete peeks in the bag at his pair and looks very pleased. Mac hauls out a "nice" pair of green-and-white striped ones and looks most chuffed. "They're great," he murmurs. And with that they pick up their bags and off they go. ====================================== The Official Seven-Seas Web Page. www.bunnymenlist.com ====================================== ------------------------------ End of seven-seas-moderated-digest V2 #169 ******************************************