I was skipping through Bill Drummond's excellent book 45 the other night, due to turning 45. He was Echo And The Bunnymen's manager all the way through their best years and writes very eloquently and passionately about them. Then I went and found this- the Bunnymen live at Rockpalast in 1981 with an hour and half set spanning the first three albums, showing what a formidable back catalogue they were building up. But the most striking thing is how different their set up looks with them playing in a line across the front of the stage, not with the drum riser behind the singer- changes the whole look of a band playing live. Almost revolutionary. Actually, on second thoughts, the most striking thing is Ian doing sexy in his ripped t-shirt.
10 comments:
Looking forward to seeing this again. Those first three albums were simply incredible. Of course, the fourth wasn't bad either but it 'Porcupine' all the way for me.
Glad you noticed the set up. I saw that set up a number of times on their treks to The States.
This was really a "band" for a very long time - and my favorite band of ALL TIME.
Drummond was the perfect Svengali for a bunch of guys from the environs of Liverpool (and Brazil) - someone they could admire and ridicule at the same time he was taking them on the ride of their lives.
Echorich- The way they play so together in this is really good and Les' bass is much underrated, never mind Will's guitar.
Singing bear- s'funny, despite the Back of Love and the Cutter, somehow Porcupine doesn't work as well as the 1st 2 albums for me. Ocean rain is a different record altogether, in tone as much as anything.
Heaven Up Here will always be tops for me, despite the lack of a Rescue or Cutter
Good find. Thanks for sharing this. A mate bought a dodgy video bootleg of this show from Camden Market years ago. It'll be good to see it again.
These Rock palate gigs were filmed for TV so the quality is pretty good, better than 80s bootleg. I remember buying bootleg cassettes in the students union in the late 80s and they were often utterly unlisted able.
Predictive text is a bit aggressive on this device (see previous comment)
Rockpalast
Unlistenable
Thanks for posting the video SA. Not many bands' first three releases are as essential as those first three Bunnymen albums. Looking forward to watching the video on my day off.
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