Echo and the Bunnymen played at Half -Time.....

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One time they were neck and neck with U2, both up coming bands with a couple of good hits under their belts filling the same sized venues.

Then Ian McCulloch, the lead singer makes some bitchy comment that “U2 make music for plumbers”.

Bono comes back with some crack like “We are grateful hard working people like plumbers spend their money on our music” - next thing U2 sky rocket to stadium gigs and The Bunnymen all but disappear.

Sad because they weren’t bad.
 


Don't know much Bunnymen stuff apart from the obvious tracks. Know their early stuff gets tagged a bit Doors sounding, what's the best album for that sound? And don't say a Doors album ffs.


Get yourself these 4 albums:

Crocodiles
Heaven Up Here
Porcupine
Ocean Rain

All of them classics 👍
One time they were neck and neck with U2, both up coming bands with a couple of good hits under their belts filling the same sized venues.

Then Ian McCulloch, the lead singer makes some bitchy comment that “U2 make music for plumbers”.

Bono comes back with some crack like “We are grateful hard working people like plumbers spend their money on our music” - next thing U2 sky rocket to stadium gigs and The Bunnymen all but disappear.

Sad because they weren’t bad.


This ^^

It was 1984 and the Bunnymen had just released Ocean Rain which Mac said was the greatest album ever released....it should have put them in the top league of "stadium" bands at the time.

U2 release Unforgettable Fire and the rest is history......

I absolutely loved the Bunnymen back then...their first 4 albums are never off my record player.

The early to mid 80s such a great time to be young and a music obsessive and an NME reading disciple :cool:
 
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One time they were neck and neck with U2, both up coming bands with a couple of good hits under their belts filling the same sized venues.

Then Ian McCulloch, the lead singer makes some bitchy comment that “U2 make music for plumbers”.

Bono comes back with some crack like “We are grateful hard working people like plumbers spend their money on our music” - next thing U2 sky rocket to stadium gigs and The Bunnymen all but disappear.

Sad because they weren’t bad.
U2 decamped to the US for months on end to put in the hard miles plus their singer wasn’t tethered to an instrument and ran about all ower the stage to project into all sides of big venues, whereas mcculloch stood stock still with that huge flash guitar barely moving at all.
Whereas the Bunnymen toured the Scottish islands and Iceland becos their manager (Bill Drummond of KLF and money burning fame) loved his childhood holidays there And was obsessed with ley lines. I read in his book that he feels a bit guilty for semi f***ing up their career for his own enjoyment but they went along with it.
 
Simple Minds were the other band on a par at the time.

I went to see them do an acoustic set at the Hackney Empire not long ago for Radio 2 “In Concert” with Jo Whiley.

The wife in front of me was taping the whole thing on her phone.

It was only when I got home that I realised she would have had me singing lead vocal for the whole concert instead of Jim Kerr because I was singing right behind her.
 
U2 decamped to the US for months on end to put in the hard miles plus their singer wasn’t tethered to an instrument and ran about all ower the stage to project into all sides of big venues, whereas mcculloch stood stock still with that huge flash guitar barely moving at all.
Whereas the Bunnymen toured the Scottish islands and Iceland becos their manager (Bill Drummond of KLF and money burning fame) loved his childhood holidays there And was obsessed with ley lines. I read in his book that he feels a bit guilty for semi f***ing up their career for his own enjoyment but they went along with it.



U2 from the start wanted to "crack" America, and as you say out in the hard miles touring that vast country.

The Bunnymen wanted to do things differently....that tour for fans ending in a gig at Buxton Spa. Touring the Scottish Islands by boat and inviting fans to travel with them.

Iceland and that Porcupine album cover taken while in Iceland, the '83 gigs at Albert Hall, and the activities leading up to Albert Hall on the day.....

A great band, cool-as-fuck frontman, 4 classic albums, and the individual tours they organised.....not a bad legacy to leave.
 
Cracking album cover too.....dead fish thrown on to the beach in Wales and then waiting for the seagulls to arrive and take that "perfect" shot.

Won NME album of the year and 'Best Dressed Cover' for 1981 if I remember- always was a 'Sounds' man myself as you needed a dictionary for Morley and Penman's ramblings.:eek:
Heaven up here has the best opening three tracks of just about any album .

The first three songs on Side 2 werent bad either.
 
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Im a big fan too.
Dragged a few MLF's through to the Sage a few years ago to see Maculloch do an acoustic show.
Only for him to object to us arguing loudly after too much Jakehead IPA and walk off the stage during the intro to his biggest tune The Killing Moon (He came back)
 

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