Echo & the Bunnymen

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Echo & the Bunnymen
Live 2005
Live 2005
General information
origin Liverpool , England
Genre (s) Post-punk , new wave , pop
founding 1978
Website www.bunnymen.com
Founding members
Ian McCulloch (born May 5, 1959)
guitar
Will Sergeant (born April 12, 1958)
Les Pattinson (born April 18, 1958)
echo
Current occupation
Vocals, guitar
Ian McCulloch
guitar
Will sergeant
former members
Drums
Pete de Freitas († 1989) (1980–1986, 1988–1989)
Drums
Blair Cunningham (1986)
Vocals, guitar, piano
Noel Burke (1990)
Drums, percussion
Reece (1990)
Jake Brockman († 2009) (1990)

Echo & the Bunnymen are a British rock band , whose musical style from a psychedelic colored New Wave in the late 1970s and early 1980s to a melancholy pop developed. After several line-up changes, the band today essentially consists of the two founding members Ian McCulloch (guitar, vocals) and Will Sergeant (guitar).

history

founding

The band was founded in 1978 by McCulloch, Sergeant and bassist Les Pattinson in the vicinity of Eric's Club , a nucleus of the Liverpool post-punk scene, which also includes the bands The Teardrop Explodes and Wah! came from. They originally performed with a drum machine called the Echo, which gave the band its name. Another version tells guitarist Sergeant:

“We had this buddy who suggested us all these names like The Daz Men or Glisserol and the Fan Extractors . Echo and the Bunnymen was one of them. I thought he was just as silly as the others. "

The drum computer was replaced in 1980 by the drummer Peter de Freitas.

First successes

With this line- up , the group quickly achieved cult status with the albums Crocodiles (1980) and especially Heaven Up Here (1981) on the label "Korova" created especially for the band. The New Musical Express praised Heaven Up Here as a "flawless masterpiece" that "did for rock what Tamla Motown did for dance music ". With the three following albums Porcupine (1983), Ocean Rain (1984) and Echo and the Bunnymen (1987), the band also achieved major commercial success. The single The Cutter reached number 8 in the British singles charts in 1983, the album Ocean Rain came to number 4 in the British album charts, in which it held its own for 26 weeks.

Personal changes

In 1988 McCulloch left the band to begin a solo career. In 1989, de Freitas was killed in a motorcycle accident. The remaining bunnymen hired Irish singer Noel Burke and drummer Damon Reece and recorded the album Reverberation in 1990 , which sold quite well in the United States , with criticism that McCulloch's distinctive vocals were lacking but not well received. In 1994 Sergeant and McCulloch teamed up with bassist Leon de Sylva and drummer Tony McGuigan to form the band Electrafixion, but the commercial success of the 1995 album Burned remained moderate.

reunion

Since Elextrafixion always played material from Echo & the Bunnymen on their live performances, McCulloch and Sergeant decided to bring the band back to life. In 1997 they recorded the album Evergreen with founding bassist Les Pattinson and drummer Michael Lee , which was very well received by critics and audiences. The released single Nothing Lasts Forever (Backing Vocals: Liam Gallagher ) reached number 8 in the British single charts. Pattinson left the group in 1999, McCulloch and Sergeant released the albums What Are You Going to Do with Your Life? With changing accompanists . (1999), Flowers (2001), Siberia (2005) and The Fountain (2009)

style

Especially on their first albums, Echo & the Bunnymen combined the energy and nervousness of the New Wave with a "pompous psychedelic" that was based on the Velvet Underground and the Doors . The lyrics of this time dealt with disturbing drug experiences ( Villiers Terrace ), cries for help ( Rescue ), despondency in life ( The Disease ), but McCulloch often sang, according to the authors of the Rock Lexicon , also simply "Rock-lyricism [...] full of nonsense- Rhymes, obscure ambiguities, claused banalities ”. The singer explained that musically it is primarily a matter of sound :

“I just write songs that sound good and have a nice melody. We just want to do something that is good and atmospheric. "

From 1984 the sound of the group expanded to include strings and sitar playing . The eponymous album, released in 1987, endeavored to produce more commercially pleasing sounds and less morbid lyrics, which disappointed many fans from the very beginning. The Rolling Stone criticized the album sounded "as empty as pretty." With the record, Echo & the Bunnymen acknowledged their preference for the Doors, whose keyboardist Ray Manzarek contributed a solo to the track Bedbugs and Ballyhoo . In the same year coverten Echo & the Bunnymen and The Doors classic People are strange for the soundtrack of the American horror film The Lost Boys . The sound after the reunification is more poppy than that of the early years, strings, woodwind instruments and keyboard sounds are used in many pieces , which is rated differently by the critics. The New Musical Express praised the What are You Going to Do with Your Life? : "The arrangements posit Burt Bacharach leading the Love Unlimited Orchestra , with only the occasional edgy guitar motif to remind one of Will Sergeant's presence" ( The arrangements create the impression that Burt Bacharach is conducting the Love Unlimited Orchestra, with only the angular Guitar motif reminds of Will Sergeant's presence ). The magazine Mojo describes the music on the album The Fountain as "mid-tempo, middle of the road, middle-aged pop-rock" ( medium-tempo pop-rock suitable for the masses for middle-aged people ).

Discography

Albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
UK UK US US
1980 Crocodiles UK17th
gold
gold

(6 weeks)UK
-
First published: 1980
1981 Heaven Up Here UK10 (16 weeks)
UK
US184 (2 weeks)
US
First publication: 1981
1983 Porcupine UK2
gold
gold

(17 weeks)UK
US137 (9 weeks)
US
First published: 1983
1984 Echo & the Bunnymen - US188 (3 weeks)
US
First published: 1984
Ocean Rain UK4th
gold
gold

(26 weeks)UK
US87 (11 weeks)
US
First published: 1984
1986 Songs To Learn and Sing UK6th
gold
gold

(15 weeks)UK
US158 (9 weeks)
US
First published: 1986
1987 Echo and the Bunnymen UK4th
silver
silver

(9 weeks)UK
US51 (37 weeks)
US
First published: 1987
1990 Reverberation - -
First published: 1990
1997 Ballyhoo - The Best Of UK59
silver
silver

(3 weeks)UK
-
First published: 1997
Evergreen UK8th
silver
silver

(11 weeks)UK
-
First published: 1997
1999 What Are You Going To Do With Your Life? UK21 (3 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1999
2001 Flowers UK56 (1 week)
UK
-
First published: 2001
2005 Siberia UK83 (1 week)
UK
-
First published: 2005
2006 The Very Best Of - More Songs To Learn UK47 (2 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 2006
2007 Killing Moon - The Best Of UK-
silver
silver
UK
-
First published: 2007
2009 The Fountain UK63 (1 week)
UK
-
First published: 2009
2014 Meteorites UK37 (1 week)
UK
US138 (1 week)
US
First published: 2014
2018 The Stars The Oceans & The Moon UK11 (2 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 2018
2019 The John Peel Sessions 1979-1983 UK65 (1 week)
UK
-
First published: 2019

More albums

  • 2001: Crystal Days 1979–1999 (4 CD Boxed Set)
  • 2002: Live in Liverpool
  • 2006: More Songs to Learn and Sing
  • 2006: Me I'm All Smiles - Live

EPs

  • 1981: Shine So Hard
  • 1984: The Sound of Echo
  • 1984: Life at Brian's - Lean and Hungry
  • 1988: The Peel Sessions
  • 1988: New Live and Rare
  • 1997: World Tour EP
  • 2000: Avalanche
  • 2019: Live from Glasgow

Singles

year Title
album
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
UK UK US US
1980 Rescue
Crocodiles
UK62 (1 week)
UK
-
First published: 1980
1981 Crocodiles
crocodiles
UK37 (4 weeks)
UK
-
First publication: 1981
A Promise
Heaven Up Here
UK49 (4 weeks)
UK
-
First publication: 1981
1982 The Back of Love
Porcupine
UK19 (7 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1982
1983 The Cutter
Porcupine
UK8 (8 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1983
Never stop UK15 (7 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1983
1984 The Killing Moon
Ocean Rain
UK9
silver
silver

(6 weeks)UK
-
First published: 1984
Silver
Ocean Rain
UK30 (7 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1984
Seven Seas
Ocean Rain
UK16 (7 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1984
1985 Bring On The Dancing Horses
Songs to Learn & Sing
UK21 (9 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1985
1987 The Game
Echo & the Bunnymen
UK28 (4 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1987
Lips Like Sugar
Echo & the Bunnymen
UK36 (4 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1987
1988 People Are Strange
The Lost Boys OST
UK29 (5 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1988
1990 Enlighten Me
Reverberation
UK96 (1 week)
UK
-
First published: 1990
1991 People Are Strange [1991]
UK34 (4 weeks)
UK
-
First publication: 1991
1997 Nothing Lasts Forever
Evergreen
UK8 (6 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1997
I Want To Be There When You Come
Evergreen
UK30 (2 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1997
Don't Let It Get You Down
Evergreen
UK50 (2 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1997
1999 Rust
What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?
UK22 (3 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 1999
2001 It's alright
flowers
UK41 (2 weeks)
UK
-
First published: 2001
Make Me Shine
Flowers
UK84 (1 week)
UK
-
First published: 2001
2005 Stormy Weather
Siberia
UK55 (1 week)
UK
-
First published: 2005

swell

  1. Mark Cooper: Liverpool Explodes! . Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1982
  2. Quoted from Barry Graves and Siegfried Schmidt-Joos : Das neue Rock-Lexikon . Vol. 1, Rowohlt, Reinbek 1990, p. 253.
  3. ^ Barry Graves and Siegfried Schmidt-Joos: The new rock lexicon . Vol. 1, Rowohlt, Reinbek 1990, p. 252.
  4. ^ Barry Graves and Siegfried Schmidt-Joos: The new rock lexicon . Vol 1, Rowohlt, Reinbek 1990, p. 253.
  5. Quoted from Barry Graves and Siegfried Schmidt-Joos: Das neue Rock-Lexikon . Vol. 1, Rowohlt, Reinbek 1990, p. 253.
  6. What Are You Going To Do With Your Life? In: New Musical Express, March 6, 1999 ( online , accessed June 2, 2012).
  7. ^ Johnny Sharp: Echo & The Bunnymen: The Fountain . In: Mojo , issue 192 (November 2009), p. 91
  8. a b Chart sources: UK US
  9. Music Sales Awards: UK

Web links

Commons : Echo & the Bunnymen  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files