Non-English interviews compiled here

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Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby dodojojo » Mon Jul 09, 2018 12:55 pm

Indulge me as I revive my too late 80's fandom. I've been googling and reading and catching up on things I missed over the years...gulp, decades.

Thought I would group some interesting interviews that I've come across and store them here. They would not generate enough interest for their own threads. Google Translate isn't perfect of course, but close enough. I find the French interviews to be most revealing. They really tolerate Ian's mad bad lead singer persona.

http://next.liberation.fr/culture/1998/02/25/rock-ian-mcculloch-et-les-bunnymen-reunis-sont-en-concert-parisien-ce-soir-echocentrisme-echo-and-th_227259
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby Kounelaki » Tue Jul 10, 2018 7:28 am

Thanks for posting. Hadn't seen that one.

"A Liverpool où sa renommée diminuait, McCulloch s'est rendu insupportable par un mélange détonnant de coke, d'alcool et d'amertume." (In Liverpool where his fame was diminshing, McCulloch became unbearable due to an explosive mix of coke, alcohol and bitterness.)
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby fat cherry » Tue Jul 10, 2018 7:52 am

......said a poster on villiersterrace.com
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby Kounelaki » Tue Jul 10, 2018 7:55 am

fat cherry wrote:......said a poster on villiersterrace.com

:lol:
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby dodojojo » Tue Jul 10, 2018 8:15 am

Lots of interesting bits--many of which have been discussed and speculated upon. Like the reformation happening with Will and Les accepting (begrudgingly, I'm sure) Ian taking the reins. And his wife's fear of the return of all the bad habits along with the Bunnymen. Check.
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby dodojojo » Tue Jul 10, 2018 8:32 am

The band refusing to play Ian's songs, Ian ditching Will's solos--it's a wonder the Bunnymen achieved what they did.

Imagine that early magic combined with longterm camaraderie, good management, stellar work ethic and sensible attitude towards the drink/drugs...guess I just described U2 :razz:

Ian's claim he was the one slaving over songs and studio production was also interesting. I was under the impression it was the band who worked in the studio, mostly apart from Ian and he would come in do his vocals. What with all the talk of boozing it up in pubs/bar rather than being bored in the studio. I always thought it was Will who was the driving force in the studio--at in least in production, if not songwriting. Ian himself said that Heaven Up Here was Will's album.
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby allthatjazz » Tue Jul 10, 2018 2:15 pm

Thanks for posting...The article seems to show more than any other, the weirdness was always there among them...I don't blame Les for leaving it behind...As much as I would love to see the three of them do one last tour.
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby fat cherry » Wed Jul 11, 2018 3:34 am

Hindsight is brilliant isn't it@

That night, in an upscale Wembley studio, he brings one last touch to a key song (On Top Of The World) that could become the anthem of the England team for the World Cup football and bring back the group near the peaks from which he spectacularly unscrewed at the time of the separation in 1989

....as is google translate :-)
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby dodojojo » Wed Jul 11, 2018 8:24 am

fat cherry wrote:Hindsight is brilliant isn't it@


As mentioned, I'm catching up on old interviews and I get this feeling all the time. Sometimes it's funny and sometimes it's sad. Hindsight truly is 20/20.
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby Kounelaki » Wed Jul 11, 2018 9:18 am

fat cherry wrote:Hindsight is brilliant isn't it@

That night, in an upscale Wembley studio, he brings one last touch to a key song (On Top Of The World) that could become the anthem of the England team for the World Cup football and bring back the group near the peaks from which he spectacularly unscrewed at the time of the separation in 1989

....as is google translate :-)


:-)

"Ce soir-là, dans un studio cossu de Wembley, il apporte une dernière touche à une chanson clé (On top Of The World) qui pourrait devenir l'hymne de l'équipe d'Angleterre pour la coupe du monde de football et ramener le groupe près des sommets d'où il a spectaculairement dévissé à l'heure de la séparation en 1989."

That evening in an upscale [bravo google translate] Wembley studio, he added the finishing touches to a key song ("On Top of the World") that could become the England team's World Cup anthem and bring the group back up to the heights from which they spectacularly fell when they split up in 1989.
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby fat cherry » Wed Jul 11, 2018 9:24 am

lol
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby username » Wed Jul 11, 2018 11:14 am

Critical
ROCK. Ian McCulloch and the Bunnymen together are in Parisian concert tonight. Echocentrisme. Echo and the Bunnymen, in concert tonight at 7:30 pm at Bataclan, 50 bd Voltaire, Paris XI. Super Furry Animals in first part.
By Laurent RIGOULET - February 25, 1998 at 18:09

On recent photos of Echo and the Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch poses

often alone. Will Sergeant and The Pattison, his acolytes are wearing pale. We understand them. Twenty years after the first formation of the group in Liverpool, it is as if they keep the mark of excesses, age and remorse for them. In comparison, the freshness and brilliance of McCulloch seem insolent. Especially to those who have followed, from near or far, his descent into the underworld of the 90s. "In the attic of his Liverpool home, wrote last year a London observer, there must be a portrait that disfigures day after day. "A naught of cranky accent at the hour of politeness also suggests that Mac The Mouth," big mouth "of Liverpool, still preserves, at the approach of quarantine, the disconcerting strength of his 20 years. Over the conversation dark glasses and dimmed light, it flaps a little anyway. The successful reformation of the Bunnymen saved him from a certain defeat. He does not want to ruin his second chance. That night, in an upscale Wembley studio, he brings one last touch to a key song (On Top Of The World) that could become the anthem of the England team for the World Cup football and bring back the group near the peaks from which he spectacularly unscrewed at the time of separation in 1989. He "crosses the fingers", made listen, by the way, two tracks of the next album already on the way: "I will not relax . I know what I can aspire. I also know that in a year I can cross the desert again. "" Arrangement ". Under the spell of excitement, in a room where the violins were recorded for some James Bond, he sees himself growing old and succeeding in "Macharach", writing luxurious songs in the manner of Burt Bacharach, without losing sight of the First model, Leonard Cohen: "I realized with years that it was him. This is the road I want to follow. I had some fixettes at the teenage Bowie, Lou Reed, the Doors but the songs of Cohen have left a trace that has never faded. On the contrary. At 14, they touched me as the premonition of the future existence. Today, the resonance is deeper still. "To see him thus pose bridges between the ages of his career, one would almost forget that McCulloch chose to do again common cause with the Bunnymen. This assumed egocentrism is no doubt an explanation for the success of the comeback. The group does not bother to cheat and deal with appearances. After the hatreds of recent years, their reconciliation, "last chance arrangement", is more of an amicable contract than a renewal of friendship. "I need Bunnymen. They need me, said McCulloch. I had lost all my confidence at the time of separation. Only my judgment had value in my eyes. But I felt that I was losing him. "" Everyone advances with his faults and weaknesses. "In Liverpool, where his fame dwindled, McCulloch made himself unbearable by an explosive mix of coke, alcohol and bitterness. His acolytes kept the name of the group and replaced the founder with a singer who was quickly forgotten.The adventure resulted in an exemplary shipwreck McCulloch just forgave the betrayal: "I offer them purgatory." They tarnished the image of the Bunnymen, now they have to follow me to make it shine again. "Last year, Will Sergeant braked with both feet when the singer proposed Nothing Last Forever (the success that revived the Bunnymen). I did not let myself go, said McCulloch, if we had not registered we would not be gone today. "

"The resentment and the ego quarrels go hand in hand with the group," he continues, "it will always be so, but we will find a less exhausting modus vivendi. I do not care if the money is evenly distributed among us but I want the places to be clearly recognized. I was always the one who stayed in the studio to fine tune, the one who came home to rot his life to find the best song. I will not continue to act as if it were not true. In more glorious times, the still fragile balance of the group pushed him to strange stratagems. During the rehearsals that led to the album Ocean Rain, touchstone of their career, he pretended to feed the collective and compose on the spot not to offend his partners. "Killing Moon, I wrote it at home, I did not show it, if I said it, it would have been rejected". In an interview with the Times, Ian Broudie, who was a long time producer of the Bunnymen, confirms that their few albums were born at the price of an exhausting tension: "I always thought that after having worked with them I could manage with any group, he says. They were very close but their arguments were particularly salty. McCulloch arrived with a song and the others refused to play it. Will was polishing a guitar solo for hours and Ian was evacuating it in a second. Now, Mac has softened and gives space to his alter-ego guitarist: "I'm still in the running to record the best album of all time. I will not do it without him. He has a unique sound. The Bunnymen give me confidence. "

Thrill. Like those of Evergreen, the album of return, the new compositions Rust, Fools Like us sway between fever ("conquest") and melancholy ("destiny"). "I can write more directly," he says. I do not feel the need to hide anymore. It must be said that I had gone quite far in the deception in recent years. I had the feeling of controlling everything in my life because I was the only one to know all the lies. My father was a gambler and a compulsive drinker. I always thought there was a part of him that I had to wear as a curse. Today, I'm not so sure anymore. " He is not convinced either. His wife is worried about his backlash on the rock front. "She expects to see the demons reappear": alcohol, drugs, megalomania, cruelty. A few weeks ago, a quick crisis in the studio shivered in the back of his entourage. "They looked at me with horror" He has not changed, it will start again as before I know what I can do On a scale of dementia that goes from 1 to 10, I'm just Mac 6 ".

(special correspondent in London)
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby dodojojo » Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:53 pm

A long but compelling read. I was bit taken aback by how much Ian revealed and to a lesser extent, Will. Interviewed in 1997 so it's got Ian, Will and Les though of course the emphasis is on Ian. It was written by JD Beauvallet, who interviewed Ian in the You Never Walk Alone documentary in 1992.

https://www.lesinrocks.com/1997/07/02/musique/echo-the-bunnymen-ombre-lumiere-11232252/
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby Kounelaki » Mon Jul 16, 2018 7:28 am

Beauvallet, editor of Les Inrocks, has always been a big Bunnymen fan.
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Re: Non-English interviews compiled here

Postby dodojojo » Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:53 am

He can't be accused of being an Electrafixion fan though. I agree with him.
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