Echoes of the past

[Fish Hook Girl]

Lots of info here:

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment ... 27529.html

Echoes of the past
Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch tells Eamon Sweeney why he’s looking forward to Oxegen, why he told Coldplay their songs weren’t good enough and why he just had to be in the ‘best band in the world’

By Eamon Sweeney
Friday July 04 2008

'If you think I Will Follow by U2 is an anthem, then I Will Lead is the song I would have written." Such grandiose statements are typical from the man nicknamed Mac the Mouth, renowned for an unshakeable belief that his band, Echo & the Bunnymen, are none other than the best band in the world. Not of all time, just the best band in the world.

Their 1983 masterpiece, Ocean Rain, was actually marketed with the modest tagline, "This is the best album ever made". Years before the Gallagher brothers would trumpet themselves as the saviours of rock 'n' roll, Ian McCulloch was the undisputed master of overstatement.

To be fair, Ocean Rain still stands up as a remarkable album and I fondly recall being endlessly enchanted by a battered cassette copy in my youth. Its signature tune and lead single, The Killing Moon, memorably soundtracks the opening credits of Donnie Darko, and its gorgeous lilting melody is also used to mesmerising effect in Gia and Grosse Point Blank. Despite all the bluster, there is no denying the fact that at their best, Echo & the Bunnymen are a band apart.

Ian and his cohorts return to Oxegen 2008 after their appearance in 2005 and a Witnness slot in 2003. " I love being backstage at Oxegen, not because the dressing rooms are particularly great, but you get to meet everyone," he enthuses. "It's not full of poxy portacabins like other festivals, so it's a good place to mingle and it's dead relaxed. I'm not really a big eater on gig days, but I like the good old-fashioned food they serve up there with loads of roast potatoes."

Moving swiftly on before Ian turns festival-goers green with envy, there is the forthcoming matter of The Fountain, the band's imminent 11th studio album. "I'm not going to give the game away yet, but this one is very unusual," he teases. "If we manage to pull this off, it will be the first time anyone has done this sort of thing. Right now, we're thinking about early January. We want to focus on the Ocean Rain shows this year. Rather than sideline the new stuff, I'd rather go into the New Year with proper new shows."

The Bunnymen's most iconic album will be performed in its entirety with a full orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall, New York's Radio City and a hometown show in Liverpool. "I didn't want to do some fortnight of classic albums in the (Camden) Roundhouse," he says. "We wanted to bring it back to the Albert Hall because our manager spent a year convincing the powers that be in there that we should play there as all rock bands had been banned. That's something that is never remembered and it opened the floodgates for every other Tom, Dick and Harry to play there. We blazed a trail and we always wanted to do things differently. I know the records are there, but sometimes it p***es me off that we're not credited with things like that."

In addition to writing a solo album and a series of compositions for his daughter, Ian is currently completing his memoirs, which are due to be published next year. "They're not really memoirs, it's like a dream," he adds mysteriously. "It's a total mish mash. It's the way I think and talk. I try to capture the feeling of Ziggy Stardust coming out when I was 13. During that year, everything just sparkled. There are a lot of poignant moments in it and a lot of laugh-your-head-off bits as well. It won't be about what we've done as a group, but my life up to then and why I had to be in the best band in the world."

Ian is enjoying moonlighting as an author. "I find writing classic songs easy," he boasts. "Any time I write 10 songs, I know three of them will be classics and the other seven might be as well. Everyone says The Cutter is great, but it's not in the same class of The Killing Moon or Nothing Lasts Forever."

McCulloch was also mysteriously credited as an "associate producer" on the second Coldplay album, A Rush of Blood to the Head.

"That made me laugh!" he cackles. "Brian Eno just took over my role! I was amazed when I read that. I just came in and did a bit of Bowie dancing and a few impressions. Then I told them the songs weren't good enough, and just f***ed off or hung around in the bar. I'd basically just crack jokes and make them laugh.

"It was great that they recorded in Liverpool. I immediately got a sense that they were a band that was just meant to be together. I had to be in the best band in the world because that's why I was born. It wasn't because I needed to write music."

Mac the Mouth is on a roll. "People think being in the gig guide of the local paper means something," he continues. "For Coldplay, they'd already written Yellow when they started. From day one, they had a blueprint. Chris (Martin) would say, "Hey Mac, I think we've done our Ocean Rain." I'd say, "Give us a listen," and tell him it's nowhere close and that I never want him to darken my doorstep again. It was just funny hanging out. I was a Bowie impersonator and a gag-teller, not an associate producer."

For the record, Ian currently digs Glasvegas, MGMT and Nouvelle Vague, whom he will be recording with in Paris after Oxegen. It's time for Ian to pack his bags on the eve of three shows in Brazil, but he doesn't seem to be in any particular hurry to sign off.

"Can I end with a stereotypical cliché?" he asks. "Have you got any tips for the 7.45 in Redcar? I actually won on the National this year, but I forget the name of the horse." (I try to tell him that it was Comply Or Die and that I backed it too, but he doesn't seem to hear me.) "The names of the horse don't seem to be as nice or alluring anymore... Now, it's all -- "Thick as Pigs***" or "Hung Like a Donkey", rather than "Falling Haven". Anyways, buy us a pint at the festival, and I'll buy you two! Ta ra." n

- Eamon Sweeney


[/b]

[Dr Cheese]

there is the forthcoming matter of The Fountain, the band's imminent 11th studio album. "I'm not going to give the game away yet, but this one is very unusual," he teases. "If we manage to pull this off, it will be the first time anyone has done this sort of thing.

Now what do you suppose that means?
And it looks like we're not going to see it this side of Christmas either!

[Crystal Days]

..................

[guitarplayer on here too]

That old Coldplay story... the mad dancing... gets me everytime I read it.




This is serious shit if The Fountain is now going to be released in Jan 2009. What a bugger. I have heard two tracks off the album now, including what was supposed to be the first single, and was waiting to hear more as it got nearer to release. Seems a very long time away now. I doubt Think I Need it Too will be released in July now, more like next year prior to the album coming out.

What they should do is offer it as a full free online download [now!] and then release it on CD in January. Go with the expected endless play of tracks on radio from the new Bunnymen album that won't even see the light of day for another six months.

[withahip]

I give them the benefit of the doubt that the producer has convinced them to do something new. I am even hopeful the producer got wind Will's Glide stuff and has them using his turntable/sampling skills. It would be nice...................

I was such a little dreamer then.

[Kounelaki]

What happened to the comment about Will?

Spooky!

[moondance]

Thanks for the article FHG. He's always amuzing even if he did say JANUARY!

[tonywojo]

A series of compositions for his daughter?

[black francis]

A series of compositions for his daughter?

That's the first thing I thought.

I hope the Fountain isn't being delayed and pushed back for quality reasons. That's usually not a good sign. I just don't want an over-cooked fish. I'd love to hear Mac and the Bunnymen rock again.

And no Jack I still don't consider Candleland rockin'.

[guitarplayer on here too]

My feeling is that it's being given more time for the PR machinery to do its business. Quite frankly, the way that "Think I Need It Too" has so far been promoted has been worse than what Cooking Vinyl did. No video, no download, nothing on myspace, nothing on Warners' website, a couple of airplays on Janice Long mixed with Mac getting the lurgies and being unable to go on the show, interviews on Brazilian radio and TV, Coldplay name-checking articles in tabloid papers and no sign of Will at all. Had the single been out in what six or more days as originally planned, it would have completely flopped. Same with the album.

[Fish Hook Girl]

Some more interesting things culled from the interview:

- He's been writing a solo album.
- His memoirs (term used loosely) are expected to be published next year.
- He is supposed to be recording with Nouvelle Vague in Paris after Oxegen.
- He's betting on the ponies.

I don't like the interviewers and their fixation on Ian's relationship with Coldplay/Chris Martin. Either the interviewers are really only interested in that topic or they're lazy and don't really know EATB and only know their Coldplay connection. I find it shortchanges EATB greatly. I wish Ian would tell them that if they want to know about Coldplay go ask them. He used to have some stones.....

Speaking of stones, if possible listen to the last few minutes of the Brazilian interview where he does the snippet of Lips Like Sugar. It's, like, hauntingly beautiful. And don't tell me I've sniffed too much dry ice.

[tonywojo]

Some more interesting things culled from the interview:

- He's been writing a solo album.
- His memoirs (term used loosely) are expected to be published next year.
- He is supposed to be recording with Nouvelle Vague in Paris after Oxegen.
- He's betting on the ponies.

I don't like the interviewers and their fixation on Ian's relationship with Coldplay/Chris Martin. Either the interviewers are really only interested in that topic or they're lazy and don't really know EATB and only know their Coldplay connection. I find it shortchanges EATB greatly. I wish Ian would tell them that if they want to know about Coldplay go ask them. He used to have some stones.....

Speaking of stones, if possible listen to the last few minutes of the Brazilian interview where he does the snippet of Lips Like Sugar. It's, like, hauntingly beautiful. And don't tell me I've sniffed too much dry ice.

Stones - you mean nads?

Thanks FHG.

I work for a company that puts odds in betting shops!

[Less Than Zero]

A series of compositions for his daughter?

On top of a trusting daughter finishes the embarrassing leather.

[withahip]

I give them the benefit of the doubt that the producer has convinced them to do something new. I am even hopeful the producer got wind Will's Glide stuff and has them using his turntable/sampling skills. It would be nice.

I was such a little dreamer then.