Page 37 - RYAN'S GIG GUIDE AUGUST 2014

RGG August 2014 - p.37
The Bunnymen will always have a special place in my heart The legendary Birm
ingham Odeon was seemingly made for them and just thinking about some of the
times I saw them at that sadly missed venue brings a tear to more than one of my
eyes The Royal Shakespeare Theatre show in was also an incredible day for a
fair few reasons more than the performance itself which unfortunately I can’t go
into here But enough nostalgia eh? Just what are Echo & The Bunnymen still
doing here in and are they any good?
Of course one thing all old fans know for certain is they will never be the same
again The old Bunnymen finished for good when singer Ian McCulloch left in
and drummer Pete de Freitas died in though in reality they’d gone downhill
a couple of years previously with their eponymous fifth album I’ll skip over the Mc
Culloch less period that followed give a high five to Electrafixion which saw Mc
Culloch back with guitar supremo Will Sargeant in a heavier Nirvana inspired mode
and skip to the surprise reunion in of Ian Will and bassist Les Pattinson the
‘Evergreen’ album and hit single ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ Though Les jumped ship
afterwards to build them (true) the core of Sargeant and McCulloch have stuck to
gether and just released their twelfth studio album ‘Meteorites’ hence another tour
The reviews for this latest album have been generally favourable so it was a bit of
a shock when the original tour was cancelled as McCulloch had voice problems But
I’m pleased to say he was on fine form tonight from the opening title track of the
new album through ‘Rescue’ ‘Holy Moses’ the brilliant ‘My Kingdom’ with Will on
his old lacerating form a surprise in ‘Bedbugs And Ballyhoo’ and ‘Seven Seas’ ‘Con
stantinople’ from ‘Meteorites’ was up next followed by ‘Silver’ and the underrated
single ‘Never Stop’ before another newie ‘New Horizons’ then the still mighty ‘All
That Jazz’ from debut ‘Crocodiles’ After a pretty impressive round of applause
(there was a lot of love in the room tonight) they decide to play ‘Villiers Terrace’
from the debut as a thank you to the audience before the last (and best) from the
current album ‘Lovers On The Run’
It was then a three song blast of ‘Bring On The Dancing Horses’ the still stunning
‘The Killing Moon’ and ‘The Cutter’ to end the set before a two song extended en
core of ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ and ‘Lips Like Sugar’ to close There were a few glar
ing omissions in my opinion – ‘The Back Of Love’ and ‘Over The Wall’ for example
but this was a tour to promote a current album so they couldn’t play everything
obviously The answer to my ‘Were they any good?’ question is an absolute affir
mative but I’ll reserve any superlatives until the next time Yes I’d definitely see
them again and that in itself proved to me there’s still a place in my heart for Echo
& The Bunnymen all these years on Bongo Bryan