Avalanche for £20

[Ivan]

The Avalanche masters were long gone by the time of the re-release. So, a copy of the CD (or maybe the 128kbps mp3s) were used for mastering of the reissue

[Ivan]

Peter probably got all of these copies for free. By selling these, he can finally be paid for his services.

Gimmemusic gave quite a number of copies to Peter when he was running his echoingthebunnymen site. They gave me a few as well, when I was running bunnywebcentral. Then the remainder of their stock (about 10 copies), a couple years later... which Ian proceeded to hand out to chicks with huge fake tits at a Seattle show, when I was trying to get him to sign them for fans who'd won them through a bunnymen.com giveaway

I remember when Avalanche first came out and folks asked, What's it about??? Cocaine???? NO! Peter said adamantly. He certainly toed the company line back then. HAHAHAHAHAH!

Yeah... that was probably me. And I have no shame in admitting I deleted cocaine references in forum threads at the time. Mimi was young, and was starting to poke her head around her dad's website. Didn't want her reading that kind of shit about pops

[Mr. Brian]

So that means the original came out when Frank was doing the website or did you get some advance copies and it came out when you took over?

Also I recall you having a hand in getting this re-released, maybe just in the way of friendly persuasion, since Gimmemusic did such a poor job with the original. True?

My original 2000 copy is signed by Ian and Will, that must have been from you. Once I got that one I traded my original to someone online for some CD-R's of some bootlegs. I got ripped off. They got their Avalanche but I never heard from this person again.

[Ivan]

So that means the original came out when Frank was doing the website or did you get some advance copies and it came out when you took over?

I came onboard just after the Avalanche fiasco, and just before they started recording Flowers.

Also I recall you having a hand in getting this re-released, maybe just in the way of friendly persuasion, since Gimmemusic did such a poor job with the original. True??

Will asked my opinion on it. Since it had been released so horribly before, and it was going to include the Baseball Bill tracks which I didn't have a good digital copy of, I told him I thought it was a good idea.

[black francis]

"Then the remainder of their stock (about 10 copies), a couple years later... which Ian proceeded to hand out to chicks with huge fake tits at a Seattle show, when I was trying to get him to sign them for fans who'd won them through a bunnymen.com giveaway"

Sounds like you had your priorities misplaced my friend. Huge titties trump all.

[Mr. Brian]

Sounds like you had your priorities misplaced my friend. Huge titties trump all.

Ivan has grown so much since those days.

[black francis]

Ivan has grown so much since those days.

I for one am proud to have been instrumental in Ivan's personal growth as a person.

[Malbert]

Huge titties trump all.

Joan Rivers said it best with this book she wrote: "Men Are Dumb and They Like Big Boobs".

[meh]

Ivan has grown so much since those days.

...and now has big titties and can get his cd signed

[Ivan]

...and now has big titties and can get his cd signed

No... they gotta be fake ones to get free stuff. Mine are real

[Mr. Brian]

I gave them a listen.

The 2000 original sounds slightly muddier than the 2003 re-issue. This surprised me. From what Ivan says it couldn’t have been remixed so they may have EQ’d it differently for the 2003 version. Nothing to get excited about but it seems to pop a little more in the re-issue. But again, it is ever so slight, I swapped CD’s a few times during the tracks to compare different parts.

I hadn’t listened to this EP in a while and a few things came to mind.

This is the first official release that did not have any song with Les on it. Ironically the re-issue contains a song by Electrafixion, the band that brought Mac and Will back together to reform the Bunnymen with Les just a few years earlier. The Electrafixion song that appears here, Baseball Bill would appear as a new recording on Evergreen with Les.

The choice of songs Bunymen songs to re-do is strange. I enjoyed the more guitar oriented Silver but I’ve always thought of Zimbo as a Pete song so it falls a bit flat. Angels and Devils is the other new version of an old Bunnymen song. I don’t recall how different it is from the original but it seems to be straight cover rather than a new version like Silver.

The only original song, Avalanche is OK but in hindsight I could see how this was leading to Flowers. The whole EP reminds me of Flowers actually.

The cover of Hang On To A Dream is pretty good but I really enjoyed It’s All Over Now (Baby Blue) which is closer to the Van Morrison Them version than Dylan’s. I think this is the best track on the EP.

I would say if you are seeking this EP out, get the re-issue. It sounds slightly better and it has the two Baseball Bill versions that appear nowhere else.

[fat cherry]

didn't they do a poll to choose which old songs to revisit? I think hang on to a dream is the best on the ep though the dylan one is pretty good - though I do prefer the gothenberg bootleg version (??) that appeared some time or other is better, mac's voice was killer. I also think with zimbo they just tried to drag it as far away from the tomtom centric pete version as possible, but din't pull it off.

Avalanche was shite - Am I correct in saying that Will, in one of his 'sounds like....' totally misleading statements said it had a working title of 'roxy-wire' because that was the kind of groove it had, so i had my hopes up and then thought the end result was crap, with crap words (driven like the snow, purleease) ands apparently crap production values.

[Malbert]

I gave them a listen.

Mr. Brian, your audio comparison surpasses the expectation I had after reading the packaging comments. Bravo, sir. I'd buy you a drink, but this is as close as you're probably going to get

Also, since "Flowers" is my least favorite album, I no longer feel the need to add "Avalanche" to my collection (although I'd love to hear the ext. "Baseball Bill").

[Mr. Brian]

Mr. Brian, your audio comparison surpasses the expectation I had after reading the packaging comments. Bravo, sir. I'd buy you a drink, but this is as close as you're probably going to get

Also, since "Flowers" is my least favorite album, I no longer feel the need to add "Avalanche" to my collection (although I'd love to hear the ext. "Baseball Bill").

You could buy me a drink via that PayPal button down there...

[Dave Smith]

Worth it for the two covers only.Avalanche is a real nothing song based around a Will riff.and the re-makes...well ok as fillers.Rialto also did this who supported them in 1998.