A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion.
Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Get your neck massaged.
Which didn't spark too much initially in me by way of responses. Eventually I got to Oneohtrix Point Never, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Love Corporation.
Out in the field the Oblique Saturdays team pitched in with the usual array of inspired choices- JM suggested Reef and The Sweet, Her Palid Reflection came up with Cosey Fanni Tutti, Jake (bouncing back to the previous week's big rooms) gave us Paul Horn, Al proffered Wu Tang, Trail Of Bread suggested The Wedding Present, Devo, Prong and an unsafe for work track from Khia, Mrs G went with Elvis, Chris Yardley offered up a Roxy Music remix, Rol went for Stevie Wonder, The Swede wanted Shriekback and The Pretenders, and Khayem gave us Echo And The Bunnymen.
This week's Oblique Strategy from Mr Eno and Mr Schmidt is this- What wouldn't you do?
1. Vote Tory.
As Meatloaf said, 'I'd do anything for love but I won't do that'.
I could probably add more items to that list but the question posed on the card made me think of other musical questions. How does it feel to feel? What have I done to deserve this? What time is love? Why are you being so reasonable now? What's the frequency, Kenneth? What's my name? What for? What is love? What is house? What does your soul look like? Where is my mind? Where have all the flowers gone? Why can't I be you? What's going on? How soon is now? What's all this then? What have I said now? How far can too far go? What's inside a girl? What do I get?
That's enough questions for the time being. Maybe you can come up with some answers. As ever, feel free to play along in the comment box. What wouldn't you do?
Over at The Vinyl Villain JC spent September counting down 800 songs that span the parameters of the blog and his musical world. Near to the business end of things was a song by Echo And The Bunnymen, a band who were a formative Vinyl Villain influence. The song was Heads Will Roll, from 1983's Porcupine. It was a choice that made me smile- out of all the songs from the classic four man line up, from Crocodiles to Ocean Rain, all those songs and moments, all those singles, JC went for a Porcupine album track.
I spent some time going back to Porcupine and Heads Will Roll. The album was described by those involved in making it as 'horrible'. They'd been on tour and hadn't had time to write new songs. The songs they were writing didn't flow as easily as the Heaven Up Here songs. Mac doesn't like singing the Porcupine songs, as he feels the words are too personal, that he gave too much away. Will didn't like the record company telling him first version of the songs and the production weren't good enough and resented them having to be re- worked and re- recorded. Les didn't like the record industry full stop. Pete had been producing The Wild Swans, spent some time doing other things, and was a little isolated from the other three Bunnymen (as he often was). Not ideal conditions. That they made Porcupine at all is a miracle.
The Cutter and The Back Of Love are songs one and two- two massive Bunnymen singles, adorned with Shankar's strings- and after that the album does become a bit heavy and self obsessed. My White Devil and Clay are both serious songs. The title track too.
Side two opens with the drama and psychedelic post- punk of Heads Will Roll though and suddenly we're back down at the front, the band blazing and the violas and cellos linking 1967 with 1983, headspinning swirly psyche and Mac singing of 'partly politic' and 'no one calling', meetings in private places where he will 'stare you into the ground'. It's gripping and exhilarating stuff, psychedelic Bunnymen with verses and choruses.
They recorded a longer version, the Summer Version, which eventually came out as a B- side on the post- Porcupine standalone single Never Stop, a song that broke the gloom. Lay down thy raincoat and groove. The Summer Version is longer, Will's spindly guitar at the fore and Les' bass powering everything along, before the viola comes in. It ends with Shankar's strings and Pete's drums going off on one for forty seconds,a section which could easily have been stretched out for longer.
This clip of the Bunnymen on Dutch TV miming to Heads Will Roll demonstrates what was so great about them, the 1983 Bunnymen in all their pomp.
The 2003 CD release of Porcupine (and the other canonical 80s albums) featured various B- sides and extras. Porcupine's extras included four previously unreleased versions from the original studio recordings, produced by Kingbird (Ian Broudie, who produced both the original and re- recorded songs for Porcupine) and before Shakar's strings were added. When you listen to them it's easy to see why Will was pissed off at them being rejected- there's nothing wrong with them, they're sparser and possibly less dynamic but still good takes. WEA/ Korova rejected them as 'too uncommercial'. I'm not sure Will was too bothered about being commercial. When they'd recorded The Back Of Love in 1982 tensions were so bad Drummond got them off to Scotland, a tour of the highlands and islands, to rebuild band relations, a tactic which didn't entirely succeed. The Porcupine sessions were tense and that can be heard in the original versions I think. Shankar's strings which added so much to The Back Of Love and The Cutter were brought back. This is the original version of the album's title track...
Ian's lyrics to the Porcupine song Higher Hell were inspired by seeing a Hieronymus Bosch painting while on tour in Madrid, Ian lost in the detail and crazy world of the 16th century Dutch painter. The lower heaven and higher hell of the song were Ian's version of Bosch's psychedelic/ religious freakout world of God, animals and monsters, birds swallowing people whole and bodies piled up after final judgement.
Hieronymus Bosch appears on the new Bunnymen album Apples For Isaac, a link between the worlds of 1983 and 2026. 'What would Hieronymus say?', Ian sings in the single Brussels Is Haunted, a genuinely great late period Bunnymen song, Ian back at the top of his game, sounding good and writing lyrics that are memorable.
It's difficult to listen to the album and hear it as a full Bunnymen album in some ways- Will only appears on a few songs and Ian has said that Will's 'weird stuff' didn't get used. It feels more like an Ian McCulloch solo album but the name Echo and The Bunnymen will get greater attention and sales. But even so, it's good, I like it. It feels weirdly personal due to the title but that's not the only reason. At least half the songs are much better than you might expect at this stage in proceedings and the fact that there's been so long between this one and the previous one (ten years) suggests Ian has worked at it, chosen his best songs, got them recorded as he wants them and not just rushed out some mediocre product. It feels like he cares.
Clem Burke's drums give it some wallop, the guitars and synths sparkle, it sounds Bunnymen but not deliberately so, not chasing or reviving the classic sound- it's just that this is what they sound like. First song Take Me By The Hand charges in at a pace and Can't Be Sold follows, bold and confident in itself. Brussels Is Haunted is a beauty. On some of the songs Ian sounds his age, the voice a bit worn and weary- not in a bad way but in a way that works for the songs.
An Unstoppable Force opens side two, Velvets acoustic guitars and Ian at the fore, wiser maybe, a man who knows time and tide wait for no- one.
There are a couple more that stand up- Asimov has clipped guitar chords and some drama and The Light That Surrounds You pulls at the heartstrings. Lab Rats Ran has sax that recalls Roxy Music. Apples For Isaac ends with We Prayed In The Dark and by the time it finishes I've spent forty minutes listening to eleven new Echo And The Bunnymen songs and not wished I had Ocean Rain, Porcupine, Crocodiles or Heaven Up Here on instead. It's not any of those albums either but it's definitely, on its own terms, a minor triumph.
14 Rodney Street, Liverpool. Unlike the childhood homes of The Beatles there is no blue plaque on the outside of the first floor flat and it hasn't been preserved and restored by the National Trust either. In 1978 Paul Simpson moved into the first floor flat, paying a grand total of £7.50 per month in rent. It was in this flat that the early and unnamed band Julian Cope had formed with Simpson, Dave Pickett and Mick Finkler were discussing names. Paul picked up a copy of Daredevil that was lying around, recently found in the basement flat recently vacated by an actor, Ozzie Yue. Paul found a frame with Daredevil and Spiderman facing Submariner in a showdown and the caption, 'the Teardrop Explodes!'
The rest of the band were unconvinced but Cope jumped on it, claiming it to be 'psychedelic brilliance!'.
Paul's flat was according to Cope 'a hangout and port of call for both the cool people and the crazies'. Paul would be a member of The Teardrop Explodes in their early days and left to front his own group, The Wild Swans. The Wild Swans single Revolutionary Spirit came out on Bill Drummond's legendary Zoo Label, and was Drummond's favourite single on the label. The recording of the song was paid for and produced by Bunnymen drummer Pete de Freitas who accidentally recorded it in mono. Revolutionary Spirit is one of the wonders of its time, a shimmering and drama laden song with lines about the Delta of Venus, Saint Sebastian and the quiet places where angels fear.
The flat at 14 Rodney Street was shared by Paul with his school friend Will Sergeant who like Paul was member of the Eric's scene, Liverpool's punk circle and guitarist in nascent Echo And The Bunnymen. Paul and Will had an on/ off band called Industrial/ Domestic.
In his memoir Echoes Will recalls that despite their love of psychedelia the band rarely dabbled with anything stronger than brown ale. Paul's autobiography, also called Revolutionary Spirit, describes an occasion where Paul and Will accidentally imbibe 'heroic quantities' of magic mushrooms in the first floor flat at 14 Rodney Street, a trip that had Will pinned in his chair, the wallpaper moving around in front him. The Liverpool police force somehow became convinced that Paul's flat was the epicentre of Liverpool's drug trade and raided it, finding nothing illegal but destroying Paul's carefully put together montage of photos cut out from magazines.
Courtney Love turned up at one point having been told by Julian Cope that she could stay with Paul and Will. Paul shared a flat with her elsewhere in the city later, Courtney's own brand of chaos witnessed up close and first hand. Will moved out to a top floor flat at 19 Aigburth Drive near Sefton Park, with Les Pattison and Pete, a flat that became Bunny HQ. It does not have a blue plaque either to the best of my knowledge.
A few days ago Echo And The Bunnymen's new single came out, a song called Brussels Is Haunted. They've been playing it live for some time- I heard at Manchester's Albert Hall a couple of years ago. I don't know how much of a contribution Will Sergeant made to it but it sounds like an Echo And The Bunnymen song, one that could easily have fitted on 1987's self titled 'grey album'. The guitars chime, Clem Burke plays drums, Ian is in good voice, there are some suitably Bunnymen lyrical touches- Brussels is haunted by the song, by world wars, by Plastic Bertrand, by Waterloo, by Annik Honore, by its past and by its present, while Ian is dancing at the Classic and drinking rum, cassis and beer blond. It sounds like Ian is still interested, still cares and is still up for it.
A day later they launched news of an album called Apples For Isaac. The title alone caught me in my tracks. I've no idea at the moment who the Isaac in the title is or what it's referring to but it has a personal angle for me. Time I guess, will tell.
Last year I did a Bunnymen Sunday mix which took in covers, versions, remixes, edits and samples, very much an inspired- by Echo And The Bunnymen mix. You can find it here. At the time I promised a follow up. Friday's Seven Seas on Top Of Pops post and Thursday's Brussels Is Haunted double punch provided the prompt for me to get it done. This is one for the purists, entirely songs from the 1979- 1987 period, the original line up, no singles, all album tracks, B- sides and alternative versions, the Bunnymen in all their pomp.
Over The Wall is from the second Bunnymen album, the mighty Heaven Up Here. Heaven Up Here has a powerful opening trio, with Show Of Strength, With A Hip and Over The Wall. In 1980 they recorded this version for John Peel ahead of the album's release, Will, Les and Pete perfectly locked in, guitars, bass and drums kicking up a storm and Mac imperious on vocals, all urgency, drama and poetic beauty.
All I Want is Heaven Up Here's final song, a celebration of life and living as the finale of an album of darkness and terror- spiky, pounding early 80s post- punk psychedelia. Will's guitar playing is choppy and angular, the sound of flashing lights against ink black skies. 'If we make the same mistake, who will we blame?', Ian asks as the song fades out. A question England fans have pondered since Wednesday night.
Heads Will Roll is from Porcupine, the third Bunnymen album. The extended Summer Version came out on the Never Stop 12". Porcupine is a heavy album, produced by Ian Broudie, one that no one particularly enjoyed making. They had to drag the songs out of themselves after a long period on the road. McCulloch has said that lyrically it's the most autobiographical and honest album- the lyrics are pretty oblique. Heads Will Roll is a highlight (along with the majestic pair of singles, The Back of Love and The Cutter) and those Indian strings provided by Shankar add a great deal to Heads Will Roll.
Ocean Rain. The greatest album ever made etc. My Kingdom is superb, skyscraping 1984 psyche rock, from an album with some huge pop moments and career defining songs. Ocean Rain is all drama, majesty, jewels and stormy seas. My Kingdom, organ intro, rackety dynamics, gorgeous sound and a twin Will Sergeant guitar solo, his semi- acoustic pushed through a 60s valve amp, utterly wonderful, while Mac sings of 'burning the skin off' and 'climbing the rooftops'.
Way Out And Up We Go was the B-side to 1983's The Cutter, Ian asking for money but being given alcohol, the bass and drums pounding away and Will chucking everything at it.
Over Your Shoulder is from 1985, a B-side to Bring On The Dancing Horses, the Bunnymen responding to the new pretenders- the Jesus And Mary Chain- by piling the guitars up and stomping on the fuzz pedal.
Happy Death Men is from their debut album Crocodiles, moody and isolated, more than a little frantic. Anguished. Neurotic even. The band sound as if they're playing under a strobe.
All That Jazz is also from Crocodiles- the Peel Session version here is from a May 1980 session. Ian's lyrics are funny, genuinely comedic- 'Where the hell have you been? We've been waiting with our best suits on/ Hair slicked back and all that jazz'.
Watch Out Below is an early version of The Yo Yo Man, recorded at a 1983 Peel Session. It shimmers, embers burning, a psychedelic sea shanty that became more overblown on Ocean Rain. The Peel Sessions album, double vinyl, twenty one songs, is an essential companion to the albums they made during the same period. If you haven't got it, you really should.
Ocean Rain- this alternative version of the 1984 album's final and title track is faster, less hushed and awed. They were right to slow it down but this version is fascinating, Will's guitar riff and Pete's brushed drums rattling away as Ian finesses his lyrical theme for the song and the record, 'screaming from beneath the waves'.
Turquoise Days is from Heaven Up Here, all of that album's melancholy, drama and dark energy brought together. Ian sets sail under rumbling skies, 'We got a problem/ Come on over', the unease and dread of 1981- Cold War paranoia, Ian Curtis' death, Thatcher's managed decline of Liverpool, inner city riots- a flickering backdrop. On the album's cover the four Bunnymen stand on the beach at Porthcawl, staring out to see beneath heavy clouds, silhouetted on the sands.
Echo and The Bunnymen on Top Of The Pops, July 1984. A masterclass in making an effort and blowing early evening teenage minds, the Bunnymen at their most pop and most stoned.
The Bunnymen travelled all the down from Liverpool to the Top of The Pops studios to mime to the third single from Ocean Rain, their poppiest moment, the epic, swooping grandeur of Seven Seas. On the left, Pete de Freitas is dressed a penguin, white face paint and puffed out chest, a minimal kit (two cymbals and a snare). He looks deadly serious as only a man dressed as a penguin should.
On the right, Will Sergeant (I presume, it could be anyone) miming guitar and dressed as a fish. Unlike Pete there is less effort made at the miming. Will/ the fishman strums an F chord for the entire performance.
In the centre, Ian McCulloch. Ian is of planet Earth but not on planet , a man spiralling far away, distant and alone, porcelain skin and bird's nest hair, swimming on dry land, dancing in front of a mirror of his imagination, Narcissus in high waisted pleated trousers. Stoned immaculate. It's a miracle he can remember the words.
As the band give it their very best shot, a giant fish dangling above them and down the front Bill Drummond stands by, mouthing the words to Seven Seas and operating the stage prop waves as the band hit the third chorus. Where is Les? Missing, lost at sea...
Magnificent, the stuff that dreams are made of. Seven Seas is peak McCulloch, a song of romance and travel, cavemen and mother religious. The tortoiseshell is apparently a reference to cocaine and sex (or sex on cocaine) but let's not dwell on that right now, it might spoil the mood.
The Peel Session version of Seven Seas is a diverting take on the song, recorded in June 1983, the band still working the song out with Will's guitar front and centre and a drunken glockenspiel part that didn't make the final version.
Echo and The Bunnymen are touring at the moment and walked into some difficulties last week with a few hit and miss reviews and a last minute cancelled gig in Manchester. They got back underway at Bristol and seem to be back on track but all is not well if you read between the lines. I've seen them several times in the last few years and always had a good night out- those songs, Ian in good voice, Will's guitar playing- but at some gigs others have attended Ian hasn't always been at his best and this seems to have been the case last week. Hopefully, he's OK.
In 2013 Will and original bass playing Bunnyman Les Pattinson formed a side band, Poltergeist, a trio of cosmic explorers with Will very much free to indulge his psychedelic guitar dreams. The eight instrumental songs on Your Mind Is A Box (Let Us Fill It With Wonder) are all worthy of the time spent with them, Will and Les mining 70s cosmische, 60s psyche and scouse adventurism to fine effect. Over half the songs on the album stretch out over six minutes- this one, Cathedral, opens the record and gathers a head of steam, Will's guitars shimmering and careering over some lovely bass playing from Les.
In the 70s, as Liverpool's punk scene spun into being Will lived on a flat with Paul Simpson (Teardrop Explodes, The Wild Swans, Care, solo, author, smart dresser) halfway between the city's pair of famous cathedrals. Leaving his front door and turning left or right would bring either the Anglican one or the Modernist Catholic one immediately into view. I've always assumed that this track is a tribute to one or the other or both.
I've been thinking about an Echo And The Bunnymen mix for ages without committing. Part of me just wanted to do the first four albums, the original line up of McCulloch, Sergeant, Pattinson and De Freitas, from Eric's to Ocean Rain. Part of me wanted to just sling together my favourite Bunnymen songs (more or less the same thing actually). Part of me wanted to do just B-sides and album songs. These things may still happen. But I enjoyed the pair of New Order mixes I did earlier this year where I started with a New Order song and went where it suggested, taking in solo songs, remixes, covers, edits and songs that sounded New Order- esque- so I used that as a guide and started a Bunnymen mix in a similar vein. There are edits and solo songs, B-sides and singles, outliers in the Bunnymen world.
William Alfred Sergeant is Echo And The Bunnymen's guitarist, a sometime solo artist, memoir writer and all round good egg. In 2020 he released an an album of instrumentals called Things Inside. Into The Seventies was the opening track, a three minutes of finger picking and drones that sounds like the soundtrack to a late night TV programme. His side project with Les Pattinson, Poltergeist, released a fine album too, Your Mind Is A Box (Let Us Fill It With Wonder), which I should have included in this mix.
Bedbugs And Ballyhoo was originally a B-side to Bring On The Dancing Horses, a shimmering Bunnymen pop song with a jazzy, groovy B-side. It was re- recorded for the so- called Grey album, their fifth and self- titled album in 1987 (and then released as a single by WEA but I think everyone had pretty much given up on that album by that point). Ray Manzarek of The Doors plays keyboards. Bedbugs And Ballyhoo (along with The Game, Lips Like Sugar and one or two others) are proof that they could have made a really good album out of those songs if they'd not been falling out, had been more arsed and not smothered the songs in late 80s sheen.
Never Stop is a 1983 single, a massive Bunnymen moment, released to coincide with gigs at the Royal Albert Hall- 'lay down thy raincoat and groove' they instructed. Strings, Ian doing his best Henry Fonda 'Good Gawd' impression and lyrics attacking Thatcherism. Will's bursts of guitar are pretty good too. Discoteque is the 12" mix and the rhythm section really could lay down their raincoats and groove.
Peza is a DJ, producer and remixer/ edit artist. His version of Bring On The Dancing Horses is a 2019 nu- disco edit that doesn't too anything too radical but keep the song streamlined for the dancefloor. Dancing Horses is brilliant, shimmering 80s alt- pop.
Go Home Productions is/ was the name of Mark Vidler's remix/ edit/ mash up outfit- I featured quite a lot of his stuff back in the early days of this blog and he's been doing his thing since 2002. His unofficial version of Ocean Rain's Crown Of Thorns found its way to the band who liked it so much they put it out themselves. By contrast with Peza, Go Home Productions does monkey around with Thorn Of Crowns, completely reconstructing it, leaving Ian's C- C- C- cucumber, C- C- C- cabbage C- C- C- cauliflower malarkey on top.
Ian left the Bunnymen and went solo in 1989. Hi first solo lp was Candleland, a low key and somewhat out of step album for 1989 but it's rather wonderful in its own way. His second solo album was 1992's Mysterio which was lead by a cover of Leonard Cohen's Lover Lover Lover. This remix, the Indian Dawn Remix, was by Mark 'Spike' Stent and is very 1992. He went on to work with the reformed Bunnymen on 1999's What Are You Going To Do With Your Life?, the Bunnymen reduced to just Ian and Will. Les left after realising that the things he grew frustrated about with Mac in the 80s were still frustrating and causing arguments in the 90s.
The Killing Moon is perhaps their best known song- I'm sure it's their most streamed. It gained a whole new life after being included on the soundtrack to Donnie Darko in 2001. It is a superb song,both Ian's timeshifting, romantic lyrics and the swooning 80s post- punk/ psychedelic music. Something For Kate's cover and this dub disco remix came to me via its appearance at an ALFOS. Both Something For Kate and T- Rek are Australian and this cover/ remix is a bassline led, thumping nine minute gloom romp. Lovely.
Weird Gear is from Everyman And Woman Is A Star, the 1991 album by Ultramarine with lyrics from a Kevin Ayres song, sung by Brendan Staunton and with strings sampled from The Cutter, a 1983 Bunnymen single/ highlight, high drama and urgency, happy losses and drops in the ocean.
This rainbow appeared when I went to the cemetery yesterday to see Isaac, a full arch overhead- it was nice for a moment, this natural display lighting up the grey skies overhead. I try to go every weekend and at least pop by, leave some flowers and say hello. These small acts of remembrance have become important and it feels OK now, funnily it actually feels like we're going to see him in a way.
November is a fucker. Isaac's birthday is the 23rd (he was 23 when he died and would have been 27 this month had he lived). He died a week after his birthday on the 30th November 2021. Those two dates, so close together, make November really difficult. Last year, the third anniversary, was as bad as the two previous ones- oddly, the actual days themselves weren't too bad- we went to see him and then went and did something with the day that seemed to be fitting. But the build up to his birthday, the next three weeks, and then the week between the two- they're really hard and I think we can all feel that coming again now the calendar's ticked over into November. The day after the anniversary of his death it's December with everything that that month brings.
I was hoping that this year might be slightly better, a little easier but at the same time I'm not expecting it to be. A friend with experience in these matters but a good few years ahead of us said to me recently that, 'everyone assumes grief is linear and it most certainly isn't'. Which is very true. I'm also in a new workplace where people on the whole don't know my story yet- it just hasn't been easy to drop it into conversation so far- and that adds a new dimension to November.
As ever music helps. Here are some November songs.
I can't remember who tipped me off to Bathhouse by Steven Leggett. It came out in 2018, an ambient/ neo- classical, electronic tribute to the Turkish baths in Newcastle- upon- Tyne. Andrew Weatherall played some of it on Music's Not For Everyone so maybe it was one of many hundreds of Weatherall tip offs.
It's a beautiful album, very much a singular piece of work. You can get the whole thing digitally at Bandcamp. November is the album's penultimate track, it fades in slowly with found sounds (recorded in Crete) and drones and then cello. There's the low end rumble of a single dull thudding drum and the sound of water lapping against the sides of the baths. The ambient sounds and musical instruments drift in and out, the drum comes and goes, and there's the swell of something choral. Quietly stunning.
The only other song I have in front of me with November as its title is a 2009 Echo And The Bunnymen B-side, the flipside to Think I Need It Too (from the album The Fountain). Ian McCulloch had been recording with three musicians in London, trying to do something different. The results still sounded like the Bunnymen so Ian invited Will to go into the studio and they worked on the songs that became The Fountain. The Bunnymen duo of 2009 do indeed sound a little re- invigorated by this and their song November is decent enough.
There are other November songs- November Has Come by Gorillaz, Vashti Bunyan's Rose Hip November, Sandy Denny's Late November, Tom Waits' November, The National's Mr. November and Folk Implosion's Fall Into November could all find a place here but instead I'll go wth the latest in Richard Norris' ling running series of monthly ambient releases, Music For Healing. Richard releases a new twenty minute track at the start of each month. The latest one which arrived in my inbox on 1st November was written by Richard in the aftermath of his bandmate Dave Ball's death, using the synths and instruments that the pair of them used in The Grid- a Minimoog, some Roland, Oberheim and Waldorf machines and was recorded at Richard's studio in Lewes. Deep Down (In B) is most certainly a memorial for Dave, a musical eulogy. You can listen to it here.
I held back from doing this for ages, a mix just containing cover versions, because it felt a bit lazy, a bit uninspired but the recent covers of Nick Drake by Joao Leao and The Velvet Underground by Thurston Moore twisted my arm into it. There are potentially more cover versions mixes to come. All these are relatively recent, although now I think about it Rowland S. Howard's Pop Crimes album came out in 2009 which is sixteen years ago and Calexico's in 2003 which is twenty two years ago- but the rest are all fairly recent. This mix leans towards the garage/ psyche/ guitar side of things.
Andy Bell's cover of The Sabres Of Paradise's Smokebelch was begun on the day of Andrew Weatherall's death, 17th February 2020, and finished in late summer/ early autumn 2023 when I emailed Andy to ask him if he had a track for our then unreleased pipe dream album Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 1. Andy's reply contained the completed cover and as soon as we listened to it, we knew it would close the album. Smokebelch itself began life as a cover version of L.B. Bad's New Age Of Faith.
Joao Leao's bossa nova flecked cover of Nick Drake's One Of These Things First, a song from Nick's 1971 album Bryter Later, came out as a 7" single on Toronto's Local Dish label and was posted here two weeks ago.
Calexico's cover of Love's 1967 classic Alone Again Or doesn't stray too far from the original- Calexico were surely destined to cover it through with their combination of desert indie and mariachi horns. I thought I had a dub version of Alone Again Or- it sounded superb, dub groove, those horns and a snatch of vocal but I must have dreamt it.
Rowland S. Howard's Pop Crimes was the former Birthday Party guitarist's second solo album. He was undergoing treatment for liver cancer at the time and died two months after it was released. Under those circumstances Talk Talk's Life's What You Make (second line, 'can't escape it') takes on a different meaning. Rowland's guitar playing- in fact just the way he held and approached the guitar- is pretty unique. His roiling guitar lines and feedback, the metallic clang and grim vocal delivery take the song into new places- which is what a cover version should do really.
Moon Duo are represented twice here. First their cover of Black Sabbath's Planet Caravan was a summer 2020 release, their version of the 1970 original a chilled and weightless cosmic take. Their version of The Stooges' No Fun is from a 2018 12" single with Alan Vega's Jukebox Babe on the other side. Sonic Boom produced it. Again, a blank eyed, calmed down take on Iggy's 1969 proto- punk classic.
The Liminanas released a compilation of singles and other rarities in 2015, I've Got Trouble In Mind Vol. 2 which included this cover version of Angels And Devils, an Echo And The Bunnymen B-side. The Liminanas, French psyche/ garage band par excellence, take The Bunnymen's Mo Tucker stomp and turn it Gallic.
Thurston Moore's cover of The Velvet Underground's Temptation Inside Your Heart came out in September, a song he's been playing live for some time, MBV bassist Debbie Goodge plays the bass (as she does when Thurston plays live). Lou Reed's song first saw the light of dark on the 1985 outtakes album VU and has been a favorite of mine since the late 80s. Thurston more than does it justice.
My recent trip back to Ultramarine's 90s albums and the recent re- issue of some unreleased recordings from 1996 led me to Weird Gear, the second track on 1991's Every Man And Woman Is A Star, a song with vocals by Brendan Staunton and a very well deployed string sample from 1983...
The bouncy folk/ techno groove and Brendan's soulful vocal are a dream. The lyrics are from a Kevin Ayres song, There Is Loving Among Us from 1972 and Kevin's Whatevershebringswesing album.
The swirling strings sample is of course from The Cutter, the second single from Echo And The Bunnymen's third album Porcupine- the Bunnymen and producer Kingbird (Ian Broudie) pulled out all the stops with The Cutter, Eastern strings, scouse psychedelia growing from their post- punk dread and some of Ian's best lyrics, lines about the seventh floor, hurdles approaching, drops in the ocean, Sellotape and knives and being the happy loss. What's it all about? I don't know. It's exhilarating and anthemic stuff though.
This earlier demo version saw the light of day on the Never Stop 12", also from 1983, a wonderfully rattly version with trebly guitars courtesy of Will Sergeant but lacking those distinctive strings.
In 1982 Bill Drummond and Mick Houghton compiled an album called To The Shores Of Lake Placid, a various artists compilation rounding up releases by on the Zoo label. Bill set up Zoo in 1978, initially to put out a single by Liverpool punk group Big In Japan (the band Drummond played guitar in along with at various times Jayne Casey, Ian Broudie, Holly Johnson, Dave Balfe, Budgie and Clive Langer among others). The Big In Japan single was a four track EP, From Y To Z And Never Again- the song Suicide A Go Go appeared on To The Shore Of Lake Placid along with Society For Cutting Up Men.
To The Shores Of Lake Placid is a round up of some of what was going on in Liverpool between 1978 and 1982. A clutch of lesser known, semi- legendary Zoo groups are all present- Whopper, Troy Tate's The Turqoise Swimming Pools, Birkenhead's Dalek (I Love You) and Those Naughty Lumps whose song Iggy Pop's Jacket Bill Drummond plays guitar on.
Lori And The Chameleons, a short lived Bill Drummond and Dave Balfe outfit with singer Lori Lartey, are there twice, with Lonely Spy and this one, Touch, a lovely piece of late 70s disco- pop...
The Teardrop Explodes and Echo And The Bunnymen both show up, each represented by three early classics (the Bunnymen with Pictures On My Wall, their Julian Cope co- write Read It In Books and live favourite Villiers Terrace, The Teardrops by When I Dream, Camera, Camera and Take A Chance).
My mp3s of the original versions of Read It Books and Pictures On My Wall, the ones from Lake Placid with Echo the drum machine keeping time, are corrupted and won't play. This version of Read It In Books is from a session at Rockfield with The Chameleons producing, and was added to the U.S. release of Crocodiles.
A few years later Echo And The Bunnymen would be huge. In 1984 they released 'the greatest album ever made' (to quote Ian McCulloch), Ocean Rain. Drummond gave the Bunnymen something else as manager, something out of the ordinary. On 12th May 1984 there was a Crsytal Day, a day of activites in and around Liverpool city centre- breakfast in a greasy spoon, a bike ride that traced the outline of the head of the bunny god, a ferry trip across the Mersey and a banana fight. In the evening the band played at St. George's Hall, the neo- classical building opposite Liverpool Lime Street station, visible in the centre of my photo above, taken from the viewing platform at St John's Beacon. The gig was filmed and transmitted on The Tube, a tea time treat.
Bill's adventures as the Bunnymen's manager came to end not long after and in some ways they were never the same without him, professional record company management taking over and the operation losing the madness of Bill's days- the tours of Scottish islands, gigs on ley lines, post- punk bicycle rides. In his book 45 Bill details his time as their manager in a chapter called From The Shores Of Lake Placid, a book written and published for his 45th birthday and also the revolutions per minute of the ultimate pop culture artefact, the 7" single.
Echo And The Bunnymen played a pair of sold out gigs at Manchester' Albert Hall last weekend, two nights celebrating their 1985 singes compilation Songs To Learn And Sing. I was there on Saturday night, the middle of my action packed musical weekend. The Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant plus four shadowy auxiliary Bunnymen, are a slick outfit these days. Mac is centre stage and all in black, saying little between the songs but in good voice. Will plays stage left, switching guitars and peeling the lead lines from the last the last forty three years off nonchalantly, head down. They play two sets, one at 9pm and one at 9.50pm, a short ten minute gap between to the two, presumably so Ian can have a mid- gig cigarette. The Albert Hall is an atmospheric venue, perfect for the Bunnymen, back lit and with dry ice with the old Bunnygod figure on the back drop occasionally lit fully.
The first half is a mix of old and new, opening with the post- punk thump of Going Up and All That Jazz, and then Flowers from 2001. New song Brussels Is Haunted follows Rescue, Will leading the band through the 1980 single. The first set finishes with a strong pair of songs, Never Stop and Bring On The Dancing Horses, all 80s grooves and cool.
After a short break they're back. My memories of the second set are hazier but its wall to wall classic album tracks and singles, a singalong Seven Seas in the middle, culminating in The Killing Moon and The Cutter. An encore has them play an extended version of 1987's Lips Like Sugar, sounding superb on the packed floor of the Albert Hall. They follow it and finish with Ocean Rain, the drama and dynamics of their 1984 album's title track played for full effect, hushed and sparse instrumentation, Mac crooning behind dark glasses, and everyone coming together for 'all hands on deck at dawn, sailing to sadder shores'.
It's a big weekend of music related activity coming up, starting tonight and running though until Sunday evening by which point I will be in need of a lie down. We'll go in reverse order. As the flyer above shows on Sunday The Flightpath Estate DJs (on this occasion Martin, Dan and me) are returning to Blossom Street Social in Ancoats for our third mission there, playing records from 3pm until 8pm. We are joined by guest Rob Fletcher, the man responsible for legendary 90s Manchester techno and electronic music club night Herbal Tea Party. The four of us will be playing back to back, three tracks each and then switching and it will be a seamless showcase of our track selection and turntable skills. Obviously.
If you're in Manchester on Sunday afternoon, please come down and say hello. Dan has a test pressing of our forthcoming double vinyl album Songs From The Flightpath Estate Volume 1, the album we're putting out with The Golden Lion featuring Two Lone Swordsmen, Justin Robertson, Andy Bell, The Light Brigade, Justin Robertson, Sons Of Slough, 10: 40, Richard Sen, Rude Audio and Hardway Bros, so some of those tracks, if not all, will get their first airing in public.
On Saturday night I'm at Manchester's Albert Hall to see Echo And The Bunnymen who are touring to celebrate 1985's Songs To Learn And Sing, Mac, Will and the rest of the current line up playing two sets with a short gap in between. I've seen them a few times in the last ten years and when they're good, they're very good. 'Lay down thy raincoat and groove', was the advice of the Bunnymen back in 1983 on the release of Never Stop- decent advice still.
The night before the Bunnymen (tonight in other words) we're at Manchester's Deaf Institute to see a second member of The Crucial Three, Pete Wylie, on tour with a full band promoting Teach Yourself Wah!, a Pete Wylie and The Mighty Wah! best of. A small venue, Wylie's between song storytelling and patter, some of the best songs of the 1980s, good reviews coming in from other gigs on the tour.. . I'm really looking forward to it.
Seven Minutes To Midnight came out in 1980, the second/ final single of Wah! Heat, a clanging, clamorous post- punk single written in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent moving of the hands of the doomsday clock to 11.53. In the intervening forty three years the clock's hands have moved back and forth a little and were altered most recently in January 2023, now set at ninety seconds to midnight. That apocalypse just creeps closer.
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.
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.
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.
More Velvet Underground following yesterday's Sunray/ Sonic Boom/ Ocean post. Today's post has The Velvets via Liverpool and Barking. The photo above is of Eric's in Liverpool, not the original Eric's- that closed a long time ago, 1980- but a live venue on Mathew Street under the same name and logo. Since The Vinyl Villain's guest post here a few weeks ago I've been vaguely obsessed with one of the performances in his post- Echo And The Bunnymen, a group firmly connected to Eric's, playing live with Billy Bragg, covering The Velvets' Run, Run, Run on OGWT in 1985.
Will and Billy have the Velvet twin guitar drone/ wired lead line nailed with Pete's thumping backbeat covering the Mo Tucker thump. Ian McCulloch gives it the full big hair, big coat, alternative rock star frontman, kicking off with 'show me the way to go home' and squealing/ crooning/ grunting as required.
In 1985 The Bunnymen set out for a tour of Scandinavia, a tour Ian has referred to as 'the last great Bunnymen tour'. They played support act to themselves, playing a set of covers every night, then going off for a break before returning to play their own songs. Many of the covers were chosen by Will Sergeant- Action Woman and She Cracked- along with Bunnymen favourites by Dylan, Television, The Doors and The Velvets. This take of Run, Run, Run was recorded onstage in Gothenburg by Swedish radio.
Will has also spoken of his enjoyment of the Scandinavian tour, playing the support set of covers through practice amps in small halls with no stage, staying at the promotor's house and having breakfast with them. 'I think', Will said, 'it was the last time we were a band really. The next tour we played was stadiums. I hated that. Playing places like Wembley... was everything the Bunnymen wasn't about'.
Run, Run, Run was on The Velvet Underground's debut, the banana album/ The Velvet Underground And Nico. Lou Reed wrote in on the back of an envelope while on the way to a gig at Cafe Bizarre. It's a belter of a song, with those speed freak guitars, rumbling rhythms and lo- fi, reverb production. Lou''s cast of characters- Teenage Mary, Margarita Passion, Seasick Sarah, Beardless Harry- are all on the streets of New York looking for a fix and/ or to be saved, drugs and religion mixed up. Lou's guitar solo is unlike other guitar solos from 1967, a trebly, wired, atonal freak out.
I spent last Thursday evening in the company of JC, the man behind the long running, standard setting blog The Vinyl Villain. He'd travelled down from Glasgow overnight and we met for a few drinks and a catch up taking in two legendary Manchester pubs- The Briton's Protection (grade II listed, serving beer since 1806- the year not the time- with a mural of the Peterloo Massacre down one wall) and The City Arms (a pre- Hacienda haunt for many back in the day, situated just across the road from Fac51). Earlier this week JC sent this to me. A few weeks ago I started an irregular series of Bands In Places They Shouldn't Be including Echo And The Bunnymen on Wogan, Prefab Sprout at Alton Towers, Ice T on The Late Show and Aztec Camera on Pebble Mill. I've got a few ideas lined up for further editions in the series but in the meantime JC has stepped in with a Bands In Places They Shouldn't Be Scottish Edition. Without further ado, then, over to JC...
I was quite tickled by Adam’s previous posts in which he dug
out some classic video clips of performances or appearances in the most
unlikely of places. So much so, that
I’ve come up with a few more, all of which feature singers/bands from Scotland.
First up are Aztec Camera and a rendition of Walk Out ToWinter that was broadcast on Switch, a series aired on Channel 4 between March
and September 1983. It basically took
over the Friday evening slot that had been occupied by The Tube, starting one
week after the end of the first series and ending one week before the second
series began.
Look closely and you’ll see that the normally immaculate
Roddy Frame and his bandmates are wearing identical and hideous
tracksuits. That’s because the footage
was from the afternoon rehearsals when they did their bit to help the camera
operators and lighting technicians do their thing, returning later on for the
actual performance that was broadcast.
Only thing is, the band decided not to perform the new single and thus
leaving the record label a tad upset. Which is why, no doubt after much
pleading with the producers of Switch, this footage was shown a few weeks
later.
Back in the days when the BBC actually were half-decent at
putting out music shows, they came up with the idea of a 24-hour broadcast
across BBC 2 and Radio 1, which was given the imaginary title of Rock Around
The Clock. I think there may actually
have been a couple of these, with the shows being a blend of live performances
from concert venues, studio performances, interviews, videos and specially
commissioned film clips. It also saw
musicians dropping in for chats, as was the case when Edwyn Collins, Paul Quinn and Zeke Manyika were interviewed, from recollection around 1am, and it’s fair
to say they were up for having a bit of fun.
I’ll divert for a few minutes, as the same show also had
Billy Bragg and Echo & The Bunnymen in the studio at an even later
hour. They teamed up for an
unforgettable cover of a Velvet Underground number.
Turning now to the first band ever to play at the Scottish
Exhibition Centre, the cavernous venue on the banks of the River Clyde to which
all the big names would flock after the legendary Glasgow Apollo was closed
down and demolished. History records
that UB40 were the first to play in what became known as Hall 4 in 1985, but
the truth of the matter is that a little-known local act called Snakes of Shake
were the first as evidenced by this clip which went out on The Tube in 1984:-
OK….the building was still under construction, but let’s not
split hairs.
That clip was part of a special on Scottish music that was
broadcast by The Tube. You’ll have to
bear with me on the next one as I can’t find a segment where it’s just the
song.
It’s a seven-minute piece of film, in which presenter Leslie
Ash turns up on a very wintry day in Dundee for a chat down in the dockside
area with Billy Mackenzie. The interview
takes place on what appears to be a tug boat, while Billy then mimes
outrageously to the Associates song ‘Waiting For The Loveboat’ on board the HMS
Unicorn, a 200-year old frigate that operates as a museum/visitor attraction in
Dundee. The music begins around 4 mins
and 24 seconds in.
You’ll have spotted by now that many of these clips are
courtesy of the hard work of an individual who goes by the name of
ScottishTeeVe who has taken hundreds of hours to take his VHS etc recordings
and put them up on YouTube for our enjoyment.
All the clips thus far, I also have on dozens of different videotapes
that are in boxes in a cupboard beneath the stairs, but I just don’t know how
to now put them in places where they can be shared and enjoyed more widely.
I’ll finish off with a cheat.
It’s a clip that doesn’t feature anyone from Scotland, but
it was filmed in Glasgow on 3 June 1990.
The location is Custom House Quay on the banks of the Clyde.
It was part of ‘The Big Day’, one of the
centrepiece events in a year-long set of festivities to celebrate Glasgow being
designated as the European City of Culture.
An all-day music festival that was free of charge across various
locations, with the big-name acts performing on stages at the main civic square
or in the largest of our inner-city parks.
Some more niche acts were put on at Custom House Quay, one of whom was
Billy Bragg. He didn’t let on that he was going to be joined for part of his set by some friends from America:-
You can see that the location is full to capacity, with
maybe a couple of hundred folk sitting down and maybe as many again standing up
at street level. No mobile phones, so no
way of letting anyone know that Michael Stipe and Natalie Merchant were singing
their hearts out. I don’t have this clip
on video, for the simple reason that I was out on the streets that day, among
what was estimated to be a crowd of 250,000.
Nor did I see it on the day…..I was half-a-mile away enjoying the one
stage where the music was quite eclectic, watching the likes of Aswad, Nanci
Griffith and Les Negresses Vertes put on great shows. It wasn’t until the next day, reading the
newspapers, did I learn about the Custom House Quay happening. The performance has become the Glasgow
equivalent of the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester in
1976 with thousands claiming to have
been there.
Massive thanks to JC for this time capsule, a hugely enjoyable post.
I came across this clip recently and thought it might make a good starting point for an irregular series- bands performing in places they really shouldn't be. This is Echo And The Bunnymen in their 1985 pomp, miming to their then current single Bring On The Dancing Horses on The Wogan Show.
In 2023 this maybe doesn't seem so odd, a big alternative act taking advantage of early evening television to sell their new single to a wider audience. In our post- irony world Terry Wogan is looked back on fondly, the man with the chuckling commentary at Eurovision. In the mid- 80s Wogan had no cool at all. The show was as mainstream as you could get. The Bunnymen approach it with customary insouciance, Mac all in black and miming his croon through his fringe, pale, beautiful and with those legendary full lips. Will, also all in black but with leather trousers and customised guitar. Les looks like James Dean with a bass guitar. Pete, again all in black, playing to the side not at the back, as they often set themselves out. Dry ice gathers round their ankles and the BBC's Wogan set flashes behind them. They do give the impression that they'd be somewhere else.
Bring On the Dancing Horses is a shimmering single with tons of hooks, Ian's vocals gliding on top of the synths and Will's gorgeous guitars. It's a real favourite of mine, a tug at the heartstrings song, one they still play live today. Some Bunnyfans are less enamoured with it- too poppy for some, too covered in Laurie Latham's slick production. The 12" version add two extra minutes, extending the intro with more guitars, more synths and FX.
My love for Echo And The Bunnymen in their eighties pomp is well documented at these pages. They are also very well served by live performances. This one from 1983 recorded for German TV show Rockpalast almost exactly forty years ago is an hour and a half of prime Bunnymen, the four Bunnymen taking the stage to dry ice and a madrigal intro tape and straight into Going Up's post- punk dread. As they play a stretched out intro to With A Hip its clear we're in the presence of men who want to do it differently. They play in a line, Pete's drum kit set up stage left rather than at the back, Will, Mac and Les in a line left to right. Ian's black top is held together by safety pins, his pale shoulders lit by a single spot. The set is drawn from the first three albums, Porcupine recently released at the time, the group taking it round Europe, a pretty much perfect pre- Ocean Rain set- Show Of Strength, Zimbo, The Cutter, Rescue, My White Devil, Crocodiles, All That Jazz, The Back Of Love.... all payed with a peculiarly Bunnymen sound that is both skeletal and sparse but filled out and widescreen too. Pete de Freitas' drumming is powerful, the tom tom thump that gave them a groove. Les' bass playing, entirely self taught is propulsive and melodic and Will switches between scratchy Velvets guitar and fluid, flipped out psychedelia.
The final section, from the frenetic nervousness of Heaven Up Here to Over The Wall's dark, funky gloom and onto the sturm and drang of Do It Clean is an early 80s joy. The band re- appear, Ian dedicating Villiers Terrace to a scouser in the audience and chucking in bits of Al Green and Gene Vincent into the extended section before bidding the crowd 'auf weidersehen'. They come back for more of course, the deep and dark seascape of No Dark Things, then back off and on (again) for a final flourish through A Promise, Ian pushing his voice to the edge, 'almost near/ almost far/ down came the rain'.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Heaven, it turns out, is situated on a side street in Magaluf. This may be news to the major religions of the world. The entrance seems to be more of a roller shutter too than the promised pearly gates but it's nice to have these things cleared up. There are loads of heavens in music- according to Belinda Carlisle it's a place on earth and standing in front of this venue last week I was inclined to agree. Back in 1987 I'd rather have poked my eyes out with forks than admitted liking this song but thankfully now I'm older I can come clean....
Heaven according to David Byrne, is a place where nothing ever happens, where the band play your favourite song, all night long and where 'it's hard to imagine/ that nothing at all/ could be so exciting/ could so much fun'. Talking Heads sound effortlessly sublime on this song, the sweetest moment their most bewilderingly brilliant album, a record that doesn't have any kind of weak spot, has some seriously deranged moments and sounds like the feverish work of a group of musicians at their absolute peak.
In 1981, two years after Talking Heads released Fear Of Music, Echo And The Bunnymen released arguably their best album, Heaven Up Here. The title track is a dark, frenetic, urgent piece of post- punk, the band flailing around and moving rapidly, all scratchy guitar and thumping drums. Ian sings of empty pockets and being unable to afford beer. 'The apple cart upset my head's little brain', he complains before settling on giving up the whiskey for tequila. The centre section, 'groovy groovy people' he sings, 'we're all groovy groovy people' is exhilarating, a rush, and then it's back to the main riff and Ian's found somewhere for the Bunnymen- 'it may be hell down there/ But it's heaven up here'. There's more rapid fire words, more drums and then a sudden dead stop.
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