Post-WAYGTDWYL fantasy album

[withahip]

They need to just start jamming like they did before OR and all albums after.

If we're being honest, the next Bunnymen album should be the album Will is doing with Les. Just have Mac add vocals and BAM the next Bunnymen album. It would probably be closer to an actual real Bunnymen album than anything released since the 80's.

I agree. The jamming would need Les. Will and Les seem to have fun. And Les has known Ian so long he wouldn't be intimidated by him.

And of course, my usual desire to hear Will's Glide influences come through.

[Dave Smith]

BUnnymen MK 2 mistakes:

1)the name
2)playing Bunnymen songs on the first tour
3)Not seeing the writing on the wall earlier such as when I saw them play to 18 people in Walsall.

They were such a good garage band though.

[withahip]

They should smoke cigars, too. I think that would help.

[black francis]

BUnnymen MK 2 mistakes:

1)the name
2)playing Bunnymen songs on the first tour
3)Not seeing the writing on the wall earlier such as when I saw them play to 18 people in Walsall.

They were such a good garage band though.

Literally 18 people?

[Dr Evil]

I think Robert Plant's latest effort shows that age is no excuse for poor songs. Age combined with drugs, alcohol and massive amounts of cigarettes are another matter.
Cocaine destroys the nasal linings-no wonder Mac often sounds as if he has a cold.
It's pretty ironic that even Freddie Mercury's last song beats anything on The Fountain- full blown AIDS had harmed Freddie's voice less than Mac's bad habits.
Mind you, they did need a good make-up artist for the video. Perhaps the management could hire them for Mac's next video? Also, what about Johnny Cash and his final effort? In The Margins could have been Mac's awesome swan-song, but he forgot to die, or failing that, fake his own death.
As for changing the Bunnymen's name, they had every right to that name-Reverberation is the album they should have made after Heaven up Here!
Give up after playing to 18 people? Since they were totally unpublicised, they were like a new band starting out. I saw my favorite singers play to about 30 people once, so a small audience doesn't preclude a band having superstar potential. But Warner's were determined to strangle the new Bunnymen at birth. Without publicity even the most amazing bands can go ignored. The Chameleons UK should have been bigger than U2 for example.

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

I saw Pulp play to an audience of 12-20 people circa 1994 and look what came of them one year later. An unknown Madchester band called Oasis also played at a venue nearby around the same time where the capacity was no more than 60-100 people. Usual amount going to this venue was 30 max, if they were lucky.

I still don't agree though that they should have used the name, you said yourself that they were like a new band, yet the name they were using was synonymous with a fairly popular band that had graced music magazines and the charts for the previous ten years before. Erm, don't think it should have come after HUH. I like Reverberation (especially in comparison to the albums we get today), but I prefer Porcupine and Ocean Rain to that anyday.

[Dave Smith]

Not unknown band name and cant compare to Pulp breaking through.

Nothing wrong with playing to 30 people.Ive done it enough times!

There were literally 18 people to see them two years after Reverberation.I know.I counted them.The gig was widely promoted locally and it was a Friday night-the main club night.First time they played Birmingham about 800 people there-I felt so bad for them.They sounded so great but people were just turned off by them thinking they were just a Bunnymen Covers band.If theyd have changed the name Im convinced they would have done better.After the gig I went and had a word basically saying how good they were and it must be a one-off or something.Damon Reece offered me a spliff.He looked a bit weird and wired so I turned him down.Will and Les looked shell-shocked by the turn out.Sad but true.

[Dr Evil]

After The Fountain, their name should be Mud. Some of the recent cack they have vomited over the fans shouldn't be going out under the glorious Bunnymen name-it breaks the trade description act. Operatic wail replaced by an old man with a cold, a rhythm section as great as The Chameleons UK replaced by no discernible beat or bass whatsoever, and the worlds greatest guitarist doing practically nothing when he's not AWOL with the Wild Swans-perhaps he's saving his efforts for them?

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

Not unknown band name and cant compare to Pulp breaking through.

I wasn't comparing them to Pulp or Oasis, just the numbers that attended the gig and how things evolved within a year, so a handful of people attending means nothing really as long as the band have something and a decent label throwing their weight behind them as they also think they have potential.

Still, I think they'd would have been better dropping the name and starting off from scratch, which it literally was - but that needed Warners to support them through to a second album from the start and not been blinded by thinking of just short-term $$$ and expecting past glories to be suffice to get success. Dr Evil may have got at least a second album to top Reverberation, as they tried even harder on the follow-up, even if it failed and they were dropped after that. Benefit of hindsight though, much like Mac perhaps taking more care of his voice circa early 1990s to ensure world domination when the original line-up minus one reformed later on.

[fat cherry]

Can you suddenly die after a long illness?

yes frequently. Well, it happens frequently to different people, not the same one. That would just be freaky. Obviously people expect that if you have a long drawn out terminal illness that you slowly get worse and fade away, that you'll get used to the idea of them slipping off this mortal coil, that you get a call one day to say 'their condition has deteriorated and you should come and see them', that you pop along and say your goodbyes, or even lie because you know the morphine is in control anyway - you're even lying to yourself because this shell in front of you is not your best mate, or your mum just some vile smelly creature that used to be them - and for some reason they're talking about making sancastles at whitby. They'll gasp a bit, close their eyes and not open them again. You'll walk in the rain and remember the good times. Go for a pint, get angry, get sad, have a cry and then go back to work. But no, fate is a cruel mistress and will take that last goodbye and possibly even the walk in the rain away. There alre loads of diseases that slowly eat away at their victim so that they appear pretty normal, thugh have to go to the toilet alot more than normal and pass blood when they shouldn't (like there is ever a time when you shoud you know). But to the outside world everything seems pretty much in order. You forget, because its not obvious that they are likely to 'pass over', or just die as we pragmatic, tell it like it is folks tend to say. Inside though the body struggles and one day just gives up. And then you get the call to say they're dead and the funeral's on wednesday - donations to charity please. So....., anyone watching the footy this afternoon?

CHez.

[Frank The Bunny]

I saw Pulp play to an audience of 12-20 people...

An unknown Madchester band called Oasis also played at a venue nearby around the same time where the capacity was no more than 60-100 people. Usual amount going to this venue was 30 max, if they were lucky.

Playing to 12, 18 or 100 people on your way up is one thing... but after you've played huge venues worldwide? Yeah... not quite as respectable

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

True, and that's why it is easy for me to say now with the benefit of hindsight that they should have changed their name and started afresh. Warners and the band obviously thought it would be fine, but got it so wrong. I know for one thing, if I was a bigwig at some record company in the late 1980s and a bunch of musicians came knocking at my door with the past that they had, I would have signed them on the spot as Echo & The Bunnymen.

[fat cherry]

i still disagree about the name. Dont think that would have made any difference at all. You would still be pissed off if only a handful of people came to see you because of the idea everyone should know wh oyou are. It was the singer that was wrong. Plus damon reece said in that interview, Rob Dickens said, if you do it as the bunnymen heres a load of cash. If you dont, there's the door. And historically it laid willl & les's claim t the band. Mac still talks about how he broke the band up when clearly he left thinking that would happen. And, as I've said before, Mac always says, whenever they do something thats seems contrary to the plain and sensible, "its a bunnymen thing to do", so obviously getting a new singer was a bunnymen thing to do - probably the ultimate bunnymen thing to do - no worse than the bleedin spice girls - though if you ask me they were OK, just the song was terrible.

I dont think we'd have the band today otherwise - though as this and many other threads go, that might not be as bad a thing as it sounds. I could have done without the fountain. oo, have we done that one already?

[Dave Smith]

My final thoughts-Bunnymen MK 2-fantastic garage band full of talented musicians.Were they the 'Bunnymen'?No.Too much weight and baggage with the name.

[Mr.Sparkle]

I agree about the name of MK 2 Bunnymen, never should've been called that. As much as I bitch about Mac on here, he was and is a huge part of the band. Without him you don't have the Bunnymen, same goes for Will and you could easily argue Les as well. I have a problem with bands keeping their name when they replace singers, it's a pretty tacky thing to do, IMO, unless the singer isn't really an important part of the band.