September Songs

Few months mark the start of something new as much as 1st September does, a real change in the seasons, change of mood, new phase of the year,  the whole back to school routine (which as someone who has worked in education since the early 90s is very much part of my annual rhythm). 

In 1984 Ian McCulloch tested the water for a solo career with a single released under his own name, outside the Bunnymen with a cover of Kurt Weill's September Song. Weill's song looks forward to autumn coming...

'But it's a long, long while from May to December
And the days grow short when you reach September
And the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
And I haven't got time for waiting game

And the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days I'd spend with you'

September Song (Long Version)

In 1987 David Sylvian released a solo album, Secrets Of The Beehive which had this song to open it, one minute and seventeen seconds of David and piano. For David, the inevitability of September and the changes it brings are shot through with melancholy...

'The sun shines high above, the sounds of laughter
The birds swoop down upon the crosses of old grey churches
We say that we're in love while secretly wishing for rain
Sipping Coke and playing games

September's here again'

September

Much more recently, in 2021, Chris Coco and George Solar released September On The Island, a tribute to Ibiza after all the tourists have gone home...

September On The Island (Dub Version)

Forty Five Minutes Of New Order- ish

I heard Your Silent Face on Friday night- not for the first time obviously- and it floored me once again. There's something about it that is very special- the rippling Kraftwerk inspired keys and synths, Hooky's bass and the mechanical drumming, Bernard's serious lyrics completely undercut by the 'why don't you piss off line', the way it gloriously skips between euphoria and melancholy. It's much more than all of that, one of those songs that is way more than the sum of the parts. It inspired me to start a New Order mix for my Sunday series but then I changed tack almost immediately. Rather than just sequence of load of my favourite New Order songs (almost all of which would be from the 1980s) I thought it might be more interesting or more fun to do a Your Silent Face/ New Order inspired mix and see where it took me. It took me here...

Forty Five Minutes Of New Order- ish

• New Order: Your Silent Face
• Galaxie 500: Ceremony
• Gorillaz ft. Peter Hook and Georgia: Aries
• The Liminanas and Peter Hook: Garden Of Love
• Ian McCulloch: Faith And Healing
• The Times: Manchester 5.32
• Ride: Last Frontier
• New Order: Isolation
• Mike Garry and Joe Duddell: St. Anthony: An Ode To Anthony H. Wilson (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Your Silent Face opens side two of Power, Corruption And Lies, New Order's second album, released in May 1983. It's now seen as a New Order classic, a landmark album, the fusing of dance and rock, light and shade, a band stepping out of the shadows of Joy Division and the first NO album Movement. Your Silent Face had the working title KW1 (the Kraftwerk one). Funny story about New Order and Kraftwerk- the Dusseldorff robots visited New Order in their Cheetham Hill rehearsal space/ HQ and sat open mouthed as the band showed them the kit they used to make Blue Monday. 'You made that record using... this?' 

Galaxie 500's cover of Ceremony is a beauty, a slowed down, slow burning version, ringing feedback, the guitars gathering in intensity, and Dean's upper register voice smothered in echo. Ceremony was New Order's first single (and in a way, Joy Division's last). It was released as a 12" in 1981, twice, with different sleeves and slightly different versions. Galaxie 500's version came out as a B-side on their Blue Thunder 12" in 1990. At the time the nine year gap between 1981 and 1990 was an eon, the 1981 world and 1990 world two totally different eras- for New Order as much as anyone. 

Gorillaz got Hooky to play bass as part of their Song Machine project in 2020. Aries is I think the best 'New Order' song of the 21st century. Murdoc, Noodles, 2D and Russel Hobbs/ Damon Albarn together with Hooky's bass totally nailed what NO should be sounding like now. 

Four years before Gorillaz got Peter Hook to sling his four string guitar around he hooked up with French duo The Liminanas. Garden Of Love is (again) a great 21st century 'New Order' song, slightly fragile, slightly woozy, psychedelic garage rock, the bassline wending its way to the fore and staying there. 

Ian McCulloch's Faith And Healing is virtually a New Order cover- it sounds so much like a off cut from Technique he probably should have given them writing credits. It came out as a single in 1989, taken from Mac's solo debut Candleland. 

The Times was one of Creation mainstay Ed Ball's projects. In 1990 as The Times he released Manchester as a single, a hymn to a city at the centre of a youth explosion. Hooky's mentioned in the lyrics. It's also a tribute to the sound New Order had on 1985's Lowlife. It couldn't be more Lowlife unless it came wrapped in a tracing paper sleeve. I sometimes it think skirts the line between ridiculous and brilliant. I can imagine it making some people cringe but I think it has charm. Once, driving through France it came on the car stereo on one of the mix CDs I'd burned for the trip and made me briefly, stupidly homesick. I got over it- I mean we were on holiday in France for fuck's sake.  

Last Frontier was on last year's Ride album, Interplay. It's an Andy Bell song, soaring, chiming guitars and on the money drums. It sounds like a close cousin of Regret (the last truly great New Order single, released back in 1993. Although actually, I'm happy to listen to arguments for Crystal, released in August 2001). 

Isolation is a Joy Division song, from their second/ final album Closer. It's a stunning song, the collision of electronic drums and real ones genuinely thrilling, along with the synth and bass. Ian's words are bleak, a man at the end of his tether. This version is by New Order, recorded for a John Peel session in 1998. They still play it live- they did it at Wythenshawe Park last August. 

Mike Garry and Joe Duddell's St. Anthony: An Ode To Anthony H. Wilson is a song I come back to often, Mike's A to Z of Manchester music endlessly listenable and at times very moving. For his remix Andrew Weatherall, a huge fan of Factory, turned the song into a nine minute Weatherall tour de force, complete with a version of the Your Silent Face bassline. Which is where I came in. 

Start Again

I took this picture two years ago today, of Sefton Park in Liverpool. We went over for the day for Lou's birthday- it's her birthday today, so happy birthday to you Lou. Eliza had just gone to university in Liverpool the month before, which was a huge change for all of us and she was excited and loving her new student life. The three of us, me, Lou and Isaac went over to see her, go out for lunch on Lark Lane and then into town for some shopping. We were still being really cautious about Covid, not doing much indoors and not taking Isaac into indoor public spaces. We had lunch sitting outside a cafe on Lark Lane in the October sunshine. It was the last time the four of us were together. Just over a month later we were all in hospital with Isaac who had Covid and which killed him, aged twenty three on 30th November 2021. 

Last year we went over again to see Eliza on Lou's birthday. We were all in a bit of a mess, going through the grief and the loss and having to navigate all the first anniversaries- our birthdays, his birthday (23rd November) and the first anniversary of his death. It was a difficult day, each of us in tears at different times but we managed to see it through and in the end had a good night out. 

We're going over to Liverpool again today, the three of us going out once again for Lou's birthday. Here's a scouse song to celebrate. I've been playing disc four of Echo And The Bunnymen's Crystal Days box set a lot, a CD mainly comprising songs from their Scandinavian tour of 1985 where they supported themselves playing covers of Paint It Black, Soul Kitchen, Friction, Action Woman, She Cracked, It's All Over Now, Baby Blue and Run, Run, Run. At the start of the CD there's a live version of a song called Start Again, recorded live in Gothenburg in 1987, the final tour for the classic McCulloch/ Sergeant/ Pattinson/ de Freitas line up. In the booklet Ian says they never really nailed the song which suggests they had a go at it in some studio or other but as far as I'm aware this is the only existing Bunnymen version. It's a rattling, driving late- 80s Bunnymen song, with sweeping strings, a Will Sergeant guitar solo and a rousing chorus, 'sinking shadows again... And one day/ I'll turn around/ Wonder when/ I'll turn around/ And start again'. Looking at the words it does seem like it could be a coded message, Ian signalling to the other three he would be off shortly. 

Start Again (Live in Gothenburg 1987)

Incidentally, the Bunnymen HQ was across Sefton Park from the photo above on Aigburth Drive, the road that skirts the western edge of the park, a flat at the top of a large Victorian house occupied by various band members during the 1980s. 

Ian recorded Start Again for his 1989 solo album Candleland, the lyrics going through some changes. Candleland was filled with a few Bunnymen sounding songs but without the fizz that the other three Bunnymen brought. Producer Ray Shulman brought a production sheen to Ian's songs, there is the lovely title track where Ian sings with Liz Fraser and the very New Order-ish Faith And Healing. Start Again closes Candleland- the album version is slowed down, with an acoustic guitar, cello, a wash of synths and Ian singing softly, 'wonder when', as the song fades out. It's some distance from the live version in Sweden, a very different take on the song. 

Start Again

Candleland was partly a reflection on mortality following the then recent deaths of both Ian's dad and Pete de Freitas, Ian singing start again as a way to move on from both of those bereavements. And sitting here typing this I realise it applies to us too, trying to finding a way to start again without Isaac. 

Here You Come Again, Acting Like A Saviour

Nantwich, a small market town in Cheshire, has had an annual festival called Words And Music running since 2008. Ian McCulloch appeared at it in 2015 and the organisers convinced him to come back this year. My parents retired to Nantwich ten years ago and when I saw the gig advertised months ago, my brother and I jumped in early and bought a pair of tickets. Ian and his band played the Civic Hall, a room with capacity of just 500, so a close up and intimate gig. I was expecting it to be Ian and acoustic guitar and was very pleasantly surprised to see amps, keyboards and the Bunnymen's drumkit set up on stage when we arrived. The Civic Hall's stage is low with no barriers and the room is seated cabaret style, making it feel informal and like a one off. Ian and band arrive on stage just after nine, Ian all in black, wearing shades for the entire gig, and in good form, chatting between songs and telling stories with a table of drinks next to him and several different beverages at hand. The band are loose, nicely ragged in places and more than able to do Bunnymen songs justice. They play a mixture of Bunnymen and Ian's solo songs, and the opening three songs make a good statement of intent, beginning with 1989's Proud To Fall, followed by Rescue and then a lovely, groovy version of Bedbugs And Ballyhoo. 

Proud To Fall

They play Ian's cover of Leonard Cohen's Lover Lover Lover, recorded for his second solo album 1992's Mysterio, a song I saw him play when he toured to promote that almost exactly thirty years previously at Manchester University student union, a night he studiously ignored Bunnymen songs. 

Lover, Lover, Lover

All My Colours (Zimbo) gets an airing, the stage dark and the purple lights setting the lyrics off perfectly. He dips back into his solo debut Candleland with the title track, originally sung as a duet with Liz Fraser, Ian's voice a little raspier than it was in 1989. Seven Seas gets a huge cheer and some dancers moving to the front. Nothing Lasts Forever is played, a song which when I saw Echo And the Bunnymen play it at Manchester's Albert Hall back in February reduced me to a sobbing mess- it doesn't have quite the same, full on emotional impact on me tonight but I'm not completely dry eyed either. It breaks down in the middle and they segue into Walk On The Wild Side. Rust from 1999's second Bunnymen comeback album is Ian at his most reflective. Bring On The Dancing Horses is a highlight, wobbly synth sound, ringing guitars and streamlined groove filling the room, there's a dash through The Velvet Underground's I'm Waiting For The Man and eventually, inevitably, a finale of The Killing Moon.

Ian and the band return for an encore with Lips Like Sugar, a song fully reclaimed from 1987's self- titled, below par album (it's an album and a song I have a lot of love for but pales in comparison to the four that came before it and was a victim of 80s production, inter- band band tensions and a little disinterest from some parties). Then they disappear again. Just as it seems they've definitely decided not to come back for a second encore and half the crowd are putting coats on and beginning to head for the doors, they re- appear and give us a driving, fired up The Cutter. 

The Cutter

McCulloch is sixty two years old, he doesn't really have anything to prove. Echo And The Bunnymen have toured much of the year and were in North America in September. Playing gigs like this is good for him, a way of mixing it up a little I guess, and good for us, seeing him close up and clearly enjoying himself. 

I have tickets for Pete Wylie at Night And Day next Sunday, another scouse post- punk legend in a small venue. If someone can arrange for Julian Cope to play Sale Waterside or Stretford Public Hall the weekend after, I can complete a Crucial Three October hat trick. 

Half An Hour Of Liz Fraser

Liz Fraser's voice, whether with The Cocteau Twins or guest appearances with other artists, is a unique, almost miraculous thing. Trying to describe it is fairly pointless. It swoops and soars and has a magical, otherworldly quality. Sometimes it's gossamer thin, distant and a part of the shimmering, hazy swirl of the Cocteau Twins records, the lyrics difficult to work out and impressionistic. Sometimes it's much bolder and in the foreground, clear and insistent. Here's this week's half hour mix (actually thirty eight minutes) of Liz Fraser's voice, variously with Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Ian McCulloch, Massive Attack, Harold Budd and Felt. 

Half An Hour Of Liz Fraser

• Cocteau Twins: Pearly Dewdrops' Drop
• Cocteau Twins: The Spangle Maker
• Ian McCulloch: Candleland
• Massive Attack: Teardrop (Mad Professor Mazaruni Vocal Remix)
• This Mortal Coil: Song To The Siren
• This Mortal Coil: Edit To The Siren (In The Valley Re- edit)
• Cocteau Twins: Cherry- coloured Funk
• Felt: Primitive Painters
• Harold Budd, Simon Raymonde, Robin Guthrie, Liz Fraser: Ooze Out And Away, Onehow

Candleland

I found some refuge in Ian McCulloch's album Candleland yesterday. I'm not sure why. It just suggested itself to me. When Ian recorded and released it in 1989 he was coming at it from going through the twin losses of his father and Bunnymen drummer Pete de Freitas. I've been listening to Treasure by The Cocteau Twins the day before so maybe the Elizabeth Fraser connection prompted me to dig it out (she sings on the title track). Ian McCulloch solo albums may not carry a huge amount of significance or currency at the tail end of 2021 but this song carried me through for a few minutes yesterday.

Candleland

This version from a session for John Peel is a less smoothed out, rawer take on the song with Ian singing on his own and lots of natural echo on the guitars and voice. The session went out at the end of September 1989 and was recorded with Ian's new live band, The Prodigal Sons (who included Edgar Summertyme on bass and the legendary Mike Mooney on guitar). 

Candleland (Peel Session)

Lost All Reason And Belonging

A month ago JC, The Vinyl Villain, posted some songs from the first flush of Ian McCulloch's post- Bunnymen solo career, a single from late summer of 1989. It's here, a comprehensive post about Faith And Healing, Candleland and it's B-sides. I was about to post something very similar so pushed my post back a bit and then re-wrote it. I have a lot of affection for Candleland, an album that JC notes sold fairly well and got good reviews but came and went very quickly. Tastes were changing quickly in the autumn of 1989, in the world of guitar bands very quickly indeed, and at the ripe old age of thirty Ian was looking like one of yesterday's men.

Candleland stands up as a decent collection of Ian McCulloch songs, some have a late days Bunnymen feel, not least in his voice and the lyrics. The single Faith And Healing is a particular favourite, sounding as it does like Mac fronting late 80s New Order. It's nothing groundbreaking, nothing out of the groove he was in by that point, it's just pushes my buttons (in a good way). The flow of words and themes remind me of The Game re-worked for '89.

Faith And Healing

Ian did a Peel Session in December 1989 with his new band, The Prodigal Sons. The session version is very different from the album one, the New Order synths and bass sound removed and the fuzz guitars turned up, sounding alive and tuned in. The whole session is much rawer, rehearsal room stuff rather than the more smoothed out sound of the Candleland album and thirty one years later these versions sound fairly fresh.

Faith And Healing (Peel Session)

The Flickering Wall (Peel Session)

Damnation (Peel Session)

Candleland (Peel Session)


The 12" release of Faith And Healing came with several remixes. This one, The Carpenter's Son Mix (by Mark Saunders), is a typical late 80s remix- extended with the guitars and bass separated and moved around.

Faith And Healing (The Carpenter's Son Mix)

September Songs

September arrives after a long August bringing with it a change in tone and pace. The first of today's pair of September songs is Ian McCulloch's solo single from 1984. Ian wanted to indulge his crooning side away from the Bunnymen and this song, a cover of the 1938 Kurt Weill standard, is decent enough (but in the same year as Ocean Rain it naturally pales a little). The lyrics nail this day and month perfectly-

'Well, it's a long, long time
From May to December
But the days grow short
When you reach September'

September Song (Long Version)

Meanwhile a decade earlier Alex Chilton wrote this song for Big Star, less about September maybe and more about a gurl. There is something heart-wrenchingly beautiful about this song- the guitars, the chord change, the vocal. Autumnal perfection.

September Gurls

Them And David Bowie

The crazy, beautiful stream of all things David Bowie related this week has been both wonderful and very sad. The sheer amount of music is one thing, the words and memories another and then there's the pictures. This one of two South London boys enjoying a beer backstage at Shea Stadium popped up. As did this one below...

Big Audio Dynamite in New York in 1987, with Bowie, Peter Frampton, Jimmy Cliff, Dave Stewart (ugh) and Paul Simonon again (Havana 3am supporting B.A.D.) One of the later B.A.D. line ups did a cover of Suffragette City which I thought I had a digital file of but don't. I can't find it anywhere on the internet and can't rip my vinyl right currently either. You'll have to imagine it. The influence of Bowie on the punks is well documented. This picture of a pre-Sid Vicious Simon Ritchie on his way to see Bowie at Earl's Court has been widely shared too...

Bowie was enormous in 1970s Liverpool. Pete Wylie tweeted this week that Liverpool's 70s youth had to reject their city's homegrown music and find something new- and that was Bowie. Wylie's old mucker Ian McCulloch released an album of acoustic songs called Pro Patria Mori in 2013, coupled with Bunnymen songs done live at the Union Chapel. This was Mac's tribute to the Thin White Duke.

Me And David Bowie

And just because a Bowie post isn't complete without some music from the man himself, this is an absolute highlight, his best moment from the 1980s, a soaring, romantic song from a widely panned 1980s film, plucked out of nowhere with a hastily scrambled together bunch of musicians sometime in London in 1986. A favourite of mine (and Simon and Drew's too).

Bowie with Absolute Beginner Patsy Kensit. I had a bit of a thing for her in 1987.

Ceremony

On July 19th 1986 New Order headlined a show at GMEX (formerly Manchester's Central railway station, for much of the 70s and early 80s a derelict carpark. We used to park there when shopping in town and my Mum and Dad got all of us kids back in the car on one occasion and drove off, leaving one of my brothers standing forlornly where the car had been, aged only three or four. Don't worry- they realised before leaving the carpark). The show was the highlight of the Festival of the Tenth Summer,a Factory organised event celebrating ten years since punk and the show at the Lesser Free Trade Hall where the Sex Pistols set into motion everything that has happened to Manchester since. The Lesser Free Trade Hall, also the venue where Bob Dylan was accused of being Judas, is now a swish hotel. The Festival of the Tenth Summer had its own Factory catalogue number (FAC 151) and had nine other events including a fashion show, a book, a Peter Saville installation, an exhibition of Kevin Cummins photographs and so on. Very Factory. Support for New Order at the gig included The Smiths (billed as co-headliners), The Fall, A Certain Ratio, Cabaret Voltaire, OMD, John Cale, John Cooper Clarke and Buzzcocks. Not a bad line up really.

During their set New Order were joined on stage by Ian McCulloch who sang Ceremony with them. This clip shows that meeting, the only drawback being it's less than a minute long.



There's an audio only version of the whole song here. Ian sings in a register closer to Ian Curtis' and certainly gives it his best shot. The bit where Hooky joins Mac at the mic is great.

Ceremony was Ian Curtis' last song, intended for Joy Division but recorded and released as the first New Order record. The first two New Order records actually- it was released in March 1981 by the three piece New Order and produced by Martin Hannett. It was then re-released in September 1981 in a newer, slightly longer version with Gillian Gilbert on board and with a different Saville sleeve. If you want to get really trainspottery about it, the run out groove on the first version says 'watching love grow forever', while on the second version it has 'this is why events unnerve me'.

New Order and Echo And The Bunnymen toured the USA together along with Public Image Ltd throughout 1987, billed as The Monsters Of Alternative Rock. The Melody Maker reported from it as the picture up top shows. According to Lydon's autobiography 'Bernard Sumner was having problems emotionally and looked a bit the worse for wear' and describes him being tied to a trolley to sing at one gig as he was unable to stand. 'Nice fella' though says Lydon. Bernard's favourite tipple was 'a pint of headache' (Pernod and blackcurrant).

Pro Patria Mori

This Latin song title challenge is turning out to be difficult. I suspect if I was into Metal I'd be alright- I have a feeling metal bands give their songs Latin titles quite often.

Ian McCulloch digs me out of a hole today with a track from his 2012 solo album Holy Ghosts, a fine record full of sweeping strings and that voice, with nods to the 80s but here in the present. Julian Cope, as has been well documented, is not a fan. In a recent interview he described McCulloch's career as the universe having a hiccup. A bit unkind Julian.

Pro Patria Mori

The two disc edition of Holy Ghosts came with some good orchestral versions of solo and Bunnymen songs recorded live at the Union Chapel, worth shelling out on if you're a fan. The title comes, obviously, from Wilfred Owen's famous poem Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, 
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs 
And towards our distant rest began to trudge. 
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots 
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; 
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots 
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, 
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; 
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, 
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . . 
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, 
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. 
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, 
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. 
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace 
Behind the wagon that we flung him in, 
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, 
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; 
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood 
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, 
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud  
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, 
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory, 
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est 
Pro patria mori.

Call It A Day

Ian McCulloch had a solo album out last year which I didn't spend too much time with (for unknown reasons, time probably) but have rediscovered recently. Pro Patria Mori was a good single lp but was also available as a double. The second disc was recorded live at the Union Chapel, a mixture of Bunnymen songs from Rescue through to Nothing Lasts Forever, and songs from Pro Patria Mori, reworked acoustically and orchestrally. The fringe and the chin may not be what they were but the voice is in rich form and there's some lovely chugging Velvets rhythm guitar along with the strings. Angels And Devils, in the grand tradition of 80s indie rock, was tossed away on a B-side.

Angels And Devils (Live at the Union Chapel)

It Must Have Been Because, Because, Because...

Ian McCulloch's got a few hidden gems in his solo back catalogue- this song Proud To Fall being one. There's nothing particularly clever, experimental or far out going on, just a guitar pop song with all the correct structure- verse, chorus, middle eight, etc, home in time for tea- and lyrically it's very Mac. It's just one of those songs that'll improve your day a little bit.

Proud To Fall

The picture shows a linocut by Claude Flight of ships in Liverpool dock being painted blue, silver and pink during the First World War in order to protect them from German U-Boats. These ships were known as Dazzle Ships (later, much later, an album by OMD). I went for a walk the other Saturday and passed Sale library (we still have a library, and it opens all day on Saturday). Wandering in and having a mooch about a book (actually the catalogue from an exhibition) called British Prints From The Machine Age, 1914-39 caught my eye. It's full of linocuts by a group of artists who founded Vorticism, the first forward thinking, modernist British art movement of the 20th century. The prints are brilliant, stunning and fresh, capturing modern life in early-to-mid 20th century Britain- speed,  movement, sport, leisure, machines, vehicles, people. A lot of them are pretty abstract, the sort of thing we take for granted as design now.

I was leafing through the book at the kitchen table on Sunday. 'Is that a library book?' daughter E.T. asked. 'Yep, due back soon too, I might renew it', I replied. I turned to the front page and the borrowing stamp sheet- 'I think I'm the only person who's ever taken it out' I said. E.T. asked what the title was. 'British Prints From The Machine Age, 1914-39' I said.  'That's why you're the only the person who's ever taken it out' she muttered.

I like to feel I have taught her well the art of the sarcastic response. And now she uses it against me.

I Got Lost Inside It All

After escaping The Bunnymen Ian McCulloch released his solo album Candleland. It led with this single, a perfectly formed little song with typically McCulloch lyrics. In truth it also sounds like the last blast of the old days of the mid 80s, before 1989 turned into something else for fans of guitar bands. Still, it sounds pretty good today, twenty three years on. Yep- twenty three.

Proud To Fall

The Days Grow Short When You Reach September

Don't they just.

In 1984, with The Bunnymen at the top of their game with Ocean Rain, Ian McCulloch decided to nip off for a solo single, which probably didn't do much for fragile band relationships. Taking Kurt Weill's September Song, a crooner's standard, Ian gave it his best shot. This being the mid 1980s the 12" had a long version to use up those extra five inches. Backcomb what's left of your hair, wrap up in something warm (a raincoat maybe or long black woollen coat), take a stroll around some moody landscape and wallow in Ian's version of September Song, while contemplating the fact that yesterday's Model 500 song was released less than a year later.

September Song (Long Version)

To Make Some Woman Smile

After he left The Bunnymen Ian McCulloch released the highly regarded Candleland, with songs about death and the passing of time, and a duet with Liz Fraser from Cocteau Twins. The press loved it. In 1992 he followed it Mysterio, which didn't receive anything like the same praise or sales. The lead single was this, a cover of Leonard Cohen's Lover, Lover, Lover. Pretty good it is too .

This being Leonard Cohen (I'm not a big fan, I love Tower Of Song though) there are some lovely lyrical touches- the second verse goes 'He said I locked you in this body, I mean it as a kind of trial, you can use it as a weapon, or to make some woman smile'.

I saw Ian McCulloch on the tour to promote Mysterio. He played what used to be called Manchester University Main Debating Hall but is now called Fizzy Lager Academy 2 or something. I saw Oasis there after Shakermaker came out and they were dull as ditchwater, but that's another story. I think I went to the McCulloch gig on my own which is never the best way to see a gig. Mac had rounded up a band of tracksuited musicians, who could play but looked like car thieves. The encore saw a ton of dry ice pumped out and Mac emerging from it to croon You'll Never Walk Alone. It was dramatic and this being Manchester it was pretty provocative too, but it wasn't a football violence kind of crowd- a few half hearted boos and he went into In Bloom, also from Mysterio, which sent everyone home happy. The album has a few moments but doesn't fare that well compared to the rest of his back catalogue. Looking back he was just killing time before the inevitable Bunnymen re-union, although before that happened there was an album recorded with Johnny Marr; apparently the mastertapes were stolen from a security van. It would've been interesting to hear.

Ian McCulloch - 06. Lover Lover Lover.mp3