Echo and the Bunnymen coming to Fairfield

[In The Margins]

http://www.newstimes.com/entertainment/ ... php#page-1

Ever since forming in the late 1970s, Echo and the Bunnymen has never been able to carry over to the United States the incredible success that it has enjoyed in its native England.

While the Liverpool-based group cranked out several Top 10 albums on the U.K. charts, the highest point any of its albums climbed in the U.S. was 1987's self-titled album, which peaked at No. 51.

Still, as Echo and the Bunnymen prepared for another North American tour, singer and group leader Ian McCulloch was looking forward to playing in front of American crowds again.

"I love America for the fact that it has probably the least fickle audiences in the world," he said in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles, where the band was getting ready for a headlining spot at the three-day Coachella Festival in Indio, Calif. "I think Americans like the music and they stick with it.

"Over the years, I've been here umpteen times and I always love it. I always feel like I fit. We've got a great following here and I've always adapted well.

"I'm a Liverpool boy through and through and some places I go and I feel homesick quite easily, but America has got enough of England about it. It's nice knowing people who understand humor ... not quite as well as Liverpool people, but you're getting there."

Echo and the Bunnymen is touring to promote its latest album, "The Fountain," the group's fifth since re-forming in 1997. McCulloch had left the band for a solo career in 1988 and the rest of the group carried on for a few more years before fizzling out.

"The Fountain" is the first to be released on the group's own label, Ocean Rain Records, after years spent with Warner Bros.

With virtually no help from radio, McCulloch, 50, and guitarist Will Sergeant, the only other original band member remaining, know they will have a difficult time getting word of the new album out to the masses. In a way, according to McCulloch, it's a relief not having to worry about sales figures.

"The album's been received really well and it just seems like it has more life, more longevity," he said. "It feels like it has more time to be heard. With record companies, if they're not seeing returns in the first two weeks or they get a sign that this isn't a million-seller, they give up on it.

"It's more enjoyable to do it like this, rather than thinking it's a matter of life and death what happens in the first month of its release. Doing it this way, it seems it is what it is. Albums are quite often recorded thinking, `This is our statement for this year,' and it shouldn't be like that. It should be able to be appreciated any time, like a painting or something."

The touring the band does will help sell albums, but that's not the attraction for McCulloch.

"It's nice to just get out there," he said. "For me, it's more that I enjoy the playing side of it. I've never, ever done a gig thinking, `This will sell records. These people are going to love this.'"

Even though Echo and the Bunnymen is back up and running, McCulloch still has managed to put out solo work, which he said is "very important" to him.

"I write most of the Bunnymen stuff and I know that some of the stuff I write is not necessarily right for the Bunnymen," he said. "When I do the production of a solo album, I want it to be far removed from a Bunnymen record."

He hasn't put out a solo record since 2003's "Slideling," but, he said, "I've got another one brewing."

"I want to do it with just me, some piano, maybe some cellos, maybe accordion or something. I want it to be very European."

It will be another chapter in his musical career, which has now lasted for more than 30 years. McCulloch said that he's not surprised he's still making music, but that "it seems mad that I don't feel any older than I did at the start.

"It's what I always thought I'd do, but it has flown by," he added. "Thirty years, it isn't a long time. It seems it, but it isn't.

"It's great that I still feel fantastic about doing it. I always said if it wasn't the right thing, I'd go and become an assassin or something or a very bad bank robber."

[Dr Cheese]

"I want to do it with just me, some piano, maybe some cellos, maybe accordion or something. I want it to be very European."

[black francis]

"I love America for the fact that it has probably the least fickle audiences in the world,"

Does that mean we'll take any old slop thrown our way and be grateful for it?

[Kounelaki]

"I love America for the fact that it has probably the least fickle audiences in the world,"

Does that mean we'll take any old slop thrown our way and be grateful for it?

Yes.

[black francis]

[withahip]

"I love America for the fact that it has probably the least fickle audiences in the world,"

Does that mean we'll take any old slop thrown our way and be grateful for it?

That was definitely directed at VT.

[In The Margins]

Read the follow up sentence. It's directed to the British audience. In the past, he's said that the British audience is very fickle and jumps on whatever trend is happening, while the American audience is much more loyal. I think it's supposed to be a compliment to us Yanks.

"I love America for the fact that it has probably the least fickle audiences in the world. I think Americans like the music and they stick with it."

[black francis]

Oh I know ITM. I was just trying to start a race war. It's been a dream of mine since I was young.

[DivaDiana77]

The Horror...the horror...

Sounds like he wants to be Leonard Cohen. There's something to be said for a guy who knows his place in the world and sticks to his guns about it--Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Billy Bragg (the milkman of human kindness)--gotta love those guys. Mac has always struggled to find his place--and when he had it, he didn't appreciate it first time around as lead singer of the Bunnymen.

[JackT]

"I love America for the fact that it has probably the least fickle audiences in the world. I think Americans like the music and they stick with it."

I think I'm insulted.

[Kounelaki]

Ukraine, douze points