Bunnymen win battle of the banter
Twenty seven years ago, your humble scribe stood in awe as Ian McCulloch emerged through a shimmer of smoke, shouts and dry ice to show what indie music was all about.
Echo and the Bunnymen,
Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
It was an epiphany later to be shared by everyone from Kurt Cobain to the Gallaghers to Editors and a thousand other Bunnymen wannabees.
Almost three decades later, pounding opener 'Going Up' – used to great effect in current hit film Away Days – still sets the scene with McCulloch silhouetted against a monochrome backdrop, lit only by a grainy trademark film screen and lightning fast bursts of strobe.
Three songs in,the angled opening chords of Rescue really fired the touchpaper and the anthems just kept coming; Silver, Bring on the Dancing Horses, Back of Love, Seven Seas and All That Jazz soaking up cheers and applause. Bedecked in obligatory parka, shades and perma-cigarette, there were times when McCulloch's voice seemed to be straining for his full depth of range.
But not enough to mar a memorable performance from the motormouth in which impressive material from critically-acclaimed new album The Fountain, released yesterday, was mixed in and stand-out track I think I Need It Too was warmly received.
Will Sergeant's sweeping guitar lines raked across the hall and at times matched anything their erstwhile contemporaries U2 have ever produced – but always without the bombastic pretension that led a young McCulloch to send Bono packing when he suggested they conquer the world together.
By the time the epic Killing Moon kicked in, the main man had the packed 40-something crowd eating from his hand and was in full 'Mac the Mouth' mode, hushing the hubub and banning any whistling 'on the grounds of taste'. The often-hilarious good-natured banter with the front rows reached a peak during stunning encore of Nothing Lasts Forever, when McCulloch decried those who sang along at the wrong point as "musical cretins" and everyone else as "only slightly less ignorant", before dissecting Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side to prove the point.
The only down side was an ongoing technical problem which McCulloch felt made it sound like he was "singing through Peggy Mount's knickers".
But as seminal indie classic The Cutter brought the curtain down on a brilliant night, it made no difference as the crowd took over lead vocals for a storming finale.
They were probably just glad to get a word in edgeways.
By Keith Harrison
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