The end is near?

[black eyed susan]

How do

Long term fan (first gig Hammersmith Palais 1981) and ex forumite of days yore here. After a lengthy hiatus I've been having a sustained period of Bunnymen listening and marvelling at their one time brilliance. I think it was instigated by hearing Over The Wall on Radio6 with Radcliffe and Maconie which had me pulling over in the car and drifting away into memories of long lost gigs, places and people. Sigh.

Anyhoo as a follow up I thought I'd see what they were up to right now and I have to say it does not look or sound good. Mac sounds finished has it been like this for long? And how come Sgt Fuzz has been replaced by a bicyle repair man?

I followed The Fall for many years (RIP MES) but there came a point when it was clear that the game was up there. That got embarrassing and I'm afraid the recent Jools appearance of the Bunnymen was straying into that territory for me.

Am I being harsh or is there reason to be optimistic?

[Dr Cheese]

Am I being harsh

No.

[username]

yes

[Dr Cheese]

Compared to their glorious heyday the Bunnymen are a very pale and anemic shadow of their former selves. Plenty of people are happy that they're still peddling the setlist from 30-odd years ago but I bailed after the Crocs/HUH shows and I doubt I'll be back.

I still give Porcupine an occasional listen but all the post reformation stuff has mostly been consigned to the back of the cupboard. I keep threatening to choose a song or two off each of those albums to see if I can make one decent album out of them but so far I've not got round to it.

Now there's an idea for new thread ...

[black eyed susan]

yes

Elaborate! What've they done recently that's worth a listen? What's got loads of Will on it? Anything?

[black eyed susan]

Compared to their glorious heyday the Bunnymen are a very pale and anemic shadow of their former selves. Plenty of people are happy that they're still peddling the setlist from 30-odd years ago but I bailed after the Crocs/HUH shows and I doubt I'll be back

What was the story with those shows Cheeseman? Was that circa 2011? I was tempted at the time(my 2 favourite lps by anybody) but life got in the way. If you bailed then I take it they weren't a success?

I

[Dr Cheese]

What was the story with those shows Cheeseman? Was that circa 2011? I was tempted at the time(my 2 favourite lps by anybody) but life got in the way. If you bailed then I take it they weren't a success?

I

Cheeseman?

Those shows were great, I'd actually retired from Bunnymen gigs before then because I'd had enough of seeing the same show and virtually the same songs every time they performed, Mac was also being a bit half-arsed then and Will usually looked like he'd rather be washing the cat or something rather than playing The Killing Moon for the nth time. However as the Crocs/HUH gigs promised something different I got off my backside and went along and thoroughly enjoyed it, not been to see them since though for the reasons cited above.

I was almost tempted to go to the Phil gig earlier this year but I didn't agree with the ticket prices and judging by the reviews of that particular show it sounds like I dodged a bullet.

[fat cherry]

Compared to their glorious heyday the Bunnymen are a very pale and anemic shadow of their former selves. Plenty of people are happy that they're still peddling the setlist from 30-odd years ago but I bailed after the Crocs/HUH shows and I doubt I'll be back

What was the story with those shows Cheeseman? Was that circa 2011? I was tempted at the time(my 2 favourite lps by anybody) but life got in the way. If you bailed then I take it they weren't a success?

I

Been hit and miss live for the last 20 years really if you ask me. With Cheesey on these gigs, at oxford (small venue) you couldn't see the band for dry ice, but at brixton, huge stage, the camo and the ice worked really well. Only thing that spoilt it was when they came back to do the 'hits' section of the show Mac goes 'this is my favourite part', which was nice since ot was a full house paid to see the other bit. And that's probably been the problem, do you get a good mac or an out of tune grumpy mac. Sometimes do, sometimes don't.

[fat cherry]

yes

Elaborate! What've they done recently that's worth a listen? What's got loads of Will on it? Anything?

define recently? Been a slow set of (or maybe not) diminishing returns since evergreen if you ask me. What are you going to d with your life I have come to like over the years, but not much evidence of the sarge, but what there is is great and fits with the mccullochian mod of the thing. Says alot that theres only Mac on the front and he's walking away from the camera. Flowers and Siberia have guitar all over them and are kind of OK. The fountain has guitars, but most of em are Macs new writing partners of the time, forget their names, but I think they were known for working with bands such as Busted and McFly - though I can't remember. john someone or other. There's one song - Shroud of Turin, which is kind of daft wordplay all over it and one little tiddly riffette which is better than the rest of the album put together. Meteorites has some good guitar bits at the start but descends into middle of the road bollocks.

[fat cherry]

having said that there's nothing that's not not 4/4 verse chorus verse chorus middle eight chorus and fade or a bit, er, angular or weird. If you want farty bleeps and odd samples listen to sergeants solo stuff.

[billythekid]

Compared to their glorious heyday the Bunnymen are a very pale and anemic shadow of their former selves. Plenty of people are happy that they're still peddling the setlist from 30-odd years ago but I bailed after the Crocs/HUH shows and I doubt I'll be back

What was the story with those shows Cheeseman? Was that circa 2011? I was tempted at the time(my 2 favourite lps by anybody) but life got in the way. If you bailed then I take it they weren't a success?

I

Been hit and miss live for the last 20 years really if you ask me. With Cheesey on these gigs, at oxford (small venue) you couldn't see the band for dry ice, but at brixton, huge stage, the camo and the ice worked really well. Only thing that spoilt it was when they came back to do the 'hits' section of the show Mac goes 'this is my favourite part', which was nice since ot was a full house paid to see the other bit. And that's probably been the problem, do you get a good mac or an out of tune grumpy mac. Sometimes do, sometimes don't.

Funny you mention this, Mac saying greatest hits was his favourite part, a mate of mine flew from Norway to Holland because HUH was his favourite album, they got to the last three or four tracks and Mac stops says we’re running out of time or something like so we’re not going to finish the HUH but do Dancing Horses, KM and Cutter, think it was instead because I think you’ll prefer that! Still goes mad about it and swears it was because he was struggling with the HUH vocals.

[Dave Smith]

To be honest I'm bored of hearing Rescue, Horses,Moon,NLF, Villiers etc....what I dont get is that they rehearsed and played 3 albums (Rain, Crocs/HUH) recently in full yet the last tour was just the same old songs albeit witrh renewed vigour.
I think its Mac and his OCD/drugs effect.Can only remember certain songs and happier to play them live over and over again.On HUH/Crocs I went to 3 shows and each time he made up the words to Turquoise Days. Was still fantastic but lol

[billythekid]

To be honest I'm bored of hearing Rescue, Horses,Moon,NLF, Villiers etc....what I dont get is that they rehearsed and played 3 albums (Rain, Crocs/HUH) recently in full yet the last tour was just the same old songs albeit witrh renewed vigour.
I think its Mac and his OCD/drugs effect.Can only remember certain songs and happier to play them live over and over again.On HUH/Crocs I went to 3 shows and each time he made up the words to Turquoise Days. Was still fantastic but lol

Or they are easier vocally

[dodojojo]

Yeah, I imagine Back of Love and A Promise will never pass those lips again. Don't think he would be in the neighborhood of those songs nowadays.

[username]

yes

Elaborate! What've they done recently that's worth a listen? What's got loads of Will on it? Anything?

evergreen is a good album and the others have their moments (except metorites which i couldn't even finish) and live they are hit and miss but i would say you are over reacting as can you name one/two/five bands that got better with age? it is the natural progression of bands from raw to acumplished to slightly a parody. all othe albums have flaws but the ratio of hits to flaws is diminsihing but that is the standard rule of the law of diminshing returns from bands. i still enjoy songs from all albums and dislike some from all albums (except maybe ocean rain)