From: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org (seven-seas-moderated-digest) To: seven-seas-moderated-digest@smoe.org Subject: seven-seas-moderated-digest V2 #291 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 Friday, November 28 2003 Volume 02 : Number 291 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 14:45:09 -0000 From: "Steve Hodson" Subject: seven-seas-moderated Bunnymen on TOTP II.. 'Back of Love' is on Wednesday's TOTP II. Steve ====================================== The Official Seven-Seas Web Page. www.bunnymenlist.com ====================================== ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 11:47:53 -0600 From: "Martha Smith" Subject: seven-seas-moderated Liverpool Echo http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/content_object id=13671950_method=full_siteid=50061_headline=-Heaven-back-here-name_page.h tml Heaven back here Nov 28 2003 PADDY SHENNAN meets Echo And The Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch as the band prepares for tomorrow's sold out 25th anniversary gig in Liverpool IT isn't a great start. Ian McCulloch isn't a happy bunnyman. Fresh - well, jaded and jet-lagged - from an international tour which took in the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and Brazil, mouth almighty feels in need of some Liverpool medicine: a pint of Cains bitter. We head for his pub of choice, The Philharmonic, but disaster strikes: the Cains is off. "I don't bel-ieeee-ve it," says Ian. This is quickly followed by disaster number two: The Tuna Melt Incident. Ian wants to eat in the main bar, but we are directed to the lounge/dining room at the back of the pub. "Would you like a side order?" asks a nervous young chap. "Yeah, I'd like to eat it on that side of the pub." He can't, so cancels his Tuna Melt. Then, after a few more uncomfortable seconds, the nervous young chap says: "Well, you can't drink in here if you're not having any food." "Good," says Ian. "Because I didn't want to drink in this room in the first place!" Perhaps they didn't know who he was. We head for The Brewery Tap, next door to the Cains brewery, where there is plenty of Cains bitter and, for Ian, a plate of Lamb and Mint Pudding, chips and peas. He is a happier bunnyman.Now he can relax and talk about Echo And The Bunnymen's sold out 25th anniversary gig at the Royal Court tomorrow. On November 15, 1978, singer Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant, bassist Les Pattinson and a drum machine called Echo made their debut at Eric's in Mathew Street. "It felt kind of weird but it was the weirdness I grew up wanting," recalls Ian, now 44. "I worried about it being s***e, but I knew I'd carry on whatever the reaction." The Bunnymen played one song - a 20-minute version of Monkeys, then called I Bagsy Yours. The drum machine broke down. There were just 43 people in the audience. But the reaction was ecstatic. "Totally brilliant ... legendary," said Teardrop Explodes singer Julian Cope. "Suddenly it wasn't just your mate on the stage, it was a guy who was born to be a star," said Pete Wylie. "It was instant folklore," recalls Ian. Between 1978 and 1988, the Bunnymen played classic gigs, released classic singles such as A Promise, The Back Of Love and The Killing Moon and classic albums, including Crocodiles, Heaven Up Here and Ocean Rain. Then everything fell apart. Ian, Will, Les and drummer Pete de Freitas (who joined in 1979) played their last gig together in Japan on April 26, 1988 - Ian just thought it was time to stop. Pete died in a road accident on June 14, 1989 and, a year later, a new-look band, minus a wounded McCulloch, began gigging. But the Bunnymen Mark II (or Bogusmen, as Ian dubbed them) were a non-starter and, although Ian and Will formed Electrafixion in 1994, what the world was waiting for was the return of the real McCoy. Then, in 1997, Ian, Will and Les decided to get back together. The result was the hit single Nothing Lasts Forever and hit album Evergreen. The music press called it "the coolest comeback in history". And, although Les has since left, Ian and Will continue to keep breeding Bunny records and touring the planet with a new line-up. Their next studio album is planned for next year. A happy ending, then. But who are the heroes of the story? Ian says: "Roger Eagle and Pete Fulwell for opening and running Eric's; my family; John Peel, and my teachers at Alsop High School in Walton who, luckily, didn't spot my brilliant gift for creativity (if they had, they might have channelled it somewhere else). "Mark E Smith of The Fall, who has always been off his rocker but is a true one-off, was an early inspiration, although after we got successful he didn't like me any more - but I understand that because I'm like that. It's probably why I slag off so many people - because I'm jealous." Ian, the gobfather of British pop, has always been the voice of the Bunnymen, but it's time for him to pay tribute to those who also served - and, in one case, still does serve ... "I reckon Will Sergeant is the best guitarist in the world - he's certainly the most inventive and influential. But he hides his light under a bushel, which probably explains why he doesn't get in those 'Top 100 guitarists in the world' lists." Of former bassist Les Pattinson, he says: "He had these great, inventive bass lines. People have compared his sound on Over The Wall to I Wanna Be Adored by the Stone Roses - and Mani, from the Roses, who is a brilliant bass player, will admit to being inspired by the Bunnymen." And, finally, Ian heaps praise on the Bunnymen's late drummer, Pete de Freitas, who was just 27 when he died in 1989. He says: "Pete was the best drummer in the world. He had inventiveness combined with power and finesse. And he looked different to most drummers; he looked like a young Laurence Olivier." And the beat goes on, tomorrow at the Royal Court ... after 25 years, the Bunnymen are still going strong. The best of times... Mac on the best and worst Bunnymen years: The best was 1983, when The Cutter took off. It was also a great year because I got married to Lorraine. 1997 was also brilliant, because Nothing Lasts Forever heralded the greatest ever comeback. The worst year? 1988. My dad died and the band split up - we were given nine years off for bad behaviour. Mac on ... the best Bunnymen song: The Killing Moon, although Nothing Lasts Forever is also special. The worst is The Subject (the B side of The Back Of Love). It's utter s***e. Mac on ... the best Bunnymen gig: Tomorrow at the Royal Court, or the first night at the Albert Hall in 1983. ====================================== The Official Seven-Seas Web Page. www.bunnymenlist.com ====================================== ------------------------------ End of seven-seas-moderated-digest V2 #291 ******************************************