by username » Wed Jul 11, 2018 11:14 am
Critical
ROCK. Ian McCulloch and the Bunnymen together are in Parisian concert tonight. Echocentrisme. Echo and the Bunnymen, in concert tonight at 7:30 pm at Bataclan, 50 bd Voltaire, Paris XI. Super Furry Animals in first part.
By Laurent RIGOULET - February 25, 1998 at 18:09
On recent photos of Echo and the Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch poses
often alone. Will Sergeant and The Pattison, his acolytes are wearing pale. We understand them. Twenty years after the first formation of the group in Liverpool, it is as if they keep the mark of excesses, age and remorse for them. In comparison, the freshness and brilliance of McCulloch seem insolent. Especially to those who have followed, from near or far, his descent into the underworld of the 90s. "In the attic of his Liverpool home, wrote last year a London observer, there must be a portrait that disfigures day after day. "A naught of cranky accent at the hour of politeness also suggests that Mac The Mouth," big mouth "of Liverpool, still preserves, at the approach of quarantine, the disconcerting strength of his 20 years. Over the conversation dark glasses and dimmed light, it flaps a little anyway. The successful reformation of the Bunnymen saved him from a certain defeat. He does not want to ruin his second chance. That night, in an upscale Wembley studio, he brings one last touch to a key song (On Top Of The World) that could become the anthem of the England team for the World Cup football and bring back the group near the peaks from which he spectacularly unscrewed at the time of separation in 1989. He "crosses the fingers", made listen, by the way, two tracks of the next album already on the way: "I will not relax . I know what I can aspire. I also know that in a year I can cross the desert again. "" Arrangement ". Under the spell of excitement, in a room where the violins were recorded for some James Bond, he sees himself growing old and succeeding in "Macharach", writing luxurious songs in the manner of Burt Bacharach, without losing sight of the First model, Leonard Cohen: "I realized with years that it was him. This is the road I want to follow. I had some fixettes at the teenage Bowie, Lou Reed, the Doors but the songs of Cohen have left a trace that has never faded. On the contrary. At 14, they touched me as the premonition of the future existence. Today, the resonance is deeper still. "To see him thus pose bridges between the ages of his career, one would almost forget that McCulloch chose to do again common cause with the Bunnymen. This assumed egocentrism is no doubt an explanation for the success of the comeback. The group does not bother to cheat and deal with appearances. After the hatreds of recent years, their reconciliation, "last chance arrangement", is more of an amicable contract than a renewal of friendship. "I need Bunnymen. They need me, said McCulloch. I had lost all my confidence at the time of separation. Only my judgment had value in my eyes. But I felt that I was losing him. "" Everyone advances with his faults and weaknesses. "In Liverpool, where his fame dwindled, McCulloch made himself unbearable by an explosive mix of coke, alcohol and bitterness. His acolytes kept the name of the group and replaced the founder with a singer who was quickly forgotten.The adventure resulted in an exemplary shipwreck McCulloch just forgave the betrayal: "I offer them purgatory." They tarnished the image of the Bunnymen, now they have to follow me to make it shine again. "Last year, Will Sergeant braked with both feet when the singer proposed Nothing Last Forever (the success that revived the Bunnymen). I did not let myself go, said McCulloch, if we had not registered we would not be gone today. "
"The resentment and the ego quarrels go hand in hand with the group," he continues, "it will always be so, but we will find a less exhausting modus vivendi. I do not care if the money is evenly distributed among us but I want the places to be clearly recognized. I was always the one who stayed in the studio to fine tune, the one who came home to rot his life to find the best song. I will not continue to act as if it were not true. In more glorious times, the still fragile balance of the group pushed him to strange stratagems. During the rehearsals that led to the album Ocean Rain, touchstone of their career, he pretended to feed the collective and compose on the spot not to offend his partners. "Killing Moon, I wrote it at home, I did not show it, if I said it, it would have been rejected". In an interview with the Times, Ian Broudie, who was a long time producer of the Bunnymen, confirms that their few albums were born at the price of an exhausting tension: "I always thought that after having worked with them I could manage with any group, he says. They were very close but their arguments were particularly salty. McCulloch arrived with a song and the others refused to play it. Will was polishing a guitar solo for hours and Ian was evacuating it in a second. Now, Mac has softened and gives space to his alter-ego guitarist: "I'm still in the running to record the best album of all time. I will not do it without him. He has a unique sound. The Bunnymen give me confidence. "
Thrill. Like those of Evergreen, the album of return, the new compositions Rust, Fools Like us sway between fever ("conquest") and melancholy ("destiny"). "I can write more directly," he says. I do not feel the need to hide anymore. It must be said that I had gone quite far in the deception in recent years. I had the feeling of controlling everything in my life because I was the only one to know all the lies. My father was a gambler and a compulsive drinker. I always thought there was a part of him that I had to wear as a curse. Today, I'm not so sure anymore. " He is not convinced either. His wife is worried about his backlash on the rock front. "She expects to see the demons reappear": alcohol, drugs, megalomania, cruelty. A few weeks ago, a quick crisis in the studio shivered in the back of his entourage. "They looked at me with horror" He has not changed, it will start again as before I know what I can do On a scale of dementia that goes from 1 to 10, I'm just Mac 6 ".
(special correspondent in London)
Laurent RIGOULET
Dave Smith's second account