Echo & The Bunnymen
Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here UK Tour
December 2010
Interview & Photography: Steve Bateman

“Echo & The Bunnymen's dark, swirling fusion of gloomy post-punk and Doors-inspired psychedelia brought the group a handful of British hits in the early '80s, while attracting a cult following in the United States. The Bunnymen grew out of the Crucial Three, a late-'70s trio featuring vocalist Ian McCulloch, Pete Wylie, and Julian Cope. Cope and Wylie left the group by the end of 1977, forming the Teardrop Explodes and Wah!, respectively. McCulloch met guitarist Will Sergeant in the summer of 1978 and the pair began recording demos with a drum machine that the duo called "Echo." Adding bassist Les Pattinson, the band made its live debut at the Liverpool club Eric's at the end of 1978, calling itself Echo & The Bunnymen.


In March of 1979, the group released its first single, "Pictures On My Wall"/"Read It In Books," on the local Zoo record label. The single and their popular live performances led to a contract with Korova. After signing the contract, the group discarded the drum machine, adding drummer Pete de Freitas. Released in the summer of 1980, their debut album, Crocodiles, reached number 17 on the U.K. charts. Shine So Hard, an EP released in the fall, became their first record to crack the U.K. Top 40. With the more ambitious and atmospheric Heaven Up Here (1981), the group began to gain momentum, thanks to positive reviews; it became their first U.K. Top Ten album. Two years later, Porcupine appeared, becoming the band's biggest hit (peaking at number two on the U.K. charts) and launching the Top Ten single "The Cutter."
"The Killing Moon" became the group's second Top Ten hit at the beginning of 1984, yet its follow-up, "Silver," didn't make it past number 30 when it was released in May. Ocean Rain was released that same month to great critical acclaim; peaking at number four in Britain, the record became The Bunnymen's first album to chart in the U.S. Top 100. The following year was a quiet one for the band as they released only one new song, "Bring On The Dancing Horses," which was included on the compilation Songs To Learn & Sing. De Freitas left the band at the start of 1986 and was replaced by former Haircut 100 drummer Mark Fox; by September, de Freitas rejoined the group.


Echo & The Bunnymen returned with new material in the summer of 1987, releasing the single "The Game" and a self-titled album. Echo & The Bunnymen became their biggest American hit, peaking at number 51; it was a success in England as well, reaching number four. However, the album indicated that the group was in a musical holding pattern. At the end of 1988, McCulloch left the band to pursue a solo career; the rest of the band decided to continue without the singer. Tragedy hit the band in the summer of 1989 when de Freitas was killed in an auto accident. McCulloch released his first solo album, Candleland, in the fall of 1989; it peaked at number 18 in the U.K. and number 159 in the U.S. Echo & The Bunnymen released Reverberation, their first album recorded without McCulloch, in 1990; it failed to make the charts. McCulloch released his second solo album, Mysterio, in 1992. Two years later, McCulloch and Sergeant formed Electrafixion, releasing their first album in 1995. In 1997, the duo re-teamed with Pattinson to re-form Echo & The Bunnymen, issuing the LP Evergreen. Two years later, they returned with What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?


The new millennium brought Echo & The Bunnymen back to the basics. The British press touted the band's storybook flair found on 1983's Ocean Rain and figured such spark would be found on their ninth album, Flowers. Issued in spring 2001, it reflected McCulloch's dark breezy vocals and Sergeant's signature hooks. Live in Liverpool, a concert disc capturing the band's two gigs at Liverpool of Performing Arts while on tour in support of Flowers, followed a year later. For 2005's Siberia, McCulloch and Sergeant joined producer Hugh Jones for the band's most classic effort since their 1997 comeback. A second proper live album, 2006's Me, I'm All Smiles, captured The Bunnymen's gig at Shepherds Bush Empire while on tour in support of Siberia. In early 2008, the band announced that they would be releasing their next album, The Fountain, as well as playing a show at Radio City Music Hall to celebrate their 30th anniversary.” ALLMUSIC BIOG

As the legendary Echo & The Bunnymen prepare for their December 2010 UK Tour, where they will be playing their first two albums, Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here, live and in their entirety (see the full list of tour dates at the end of this article), I had the privilege of speaking to the band’s iconic frontman, Ian McCulloch – who was doing a day of phoners from his Management’s office in Liverpool – about these gigs and much more! With Ian coming across as a real character, frequently going off on tangents while answering my questions, by telling anecdotes, jokes, commenting on current affairs and doing a myriad of impressions! So, like The Bunnymen’s music, this was an interview that I will never forget…


Lucy: Your band have been quite quiet for the last few months. Are you looking forward to playing gigs again?
Katie Jane Garside: I think I give very obtuse ans


1.Speaking about his role in The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards famously said, “Mick Jagger’s rock and I’m roll.” But which would you say yourself and Will are?

“I saw that in that film about Exile On Main Street and I have thought about it (laughing) – Will’s Richard Burton and I’m Elizabeth Taylor (laughing again)! I always said that we were the Burton and Taylor of rock, mainly to kind of explain the reformation and the comeback. But Burton and Taylor are more legendary than sodding Keith and Mick! Who else did I say as well (thinking)… Jack and Vera, Stan and Hilda – who you probably won’t remember – Stan and Hilda Ogden from Corrie. Whoever really, but if Mick’s rock and Keith’s roll, then I’d like to say that I’m avant and Will is garde.”


2.Why did you decide to play Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here, live and in their entirety now?
“Well, we did the Ocean Rain shows – we did about 6 or 7 of them, special shows with an orchestra and stuff – in London, Liverpool, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto and São Paulo and they worked so well! We did the Ocean Rain album front-to-back, had a little break and then did more or less our normal set, minus any Ocean Rain songs. It just seemed to kind of focus – or refocus – what we’re about, because we were always about being one of the greatest bands of all-time and a classic band! I just think sometimes, because things in the music world (pausing), everything’s usually so shite and so fragmented and temporary and ephemeral, but with The Bunnymen, we were never about just being a vague concept, it was always about the statements that we made! From day one, we made statements about where we would be playing, you know, special gigs, where nobody knew exactly where the sodding venue was, as well as other statements that I made, like the greatest album ever made and remarks about U2 (pausing). I’ve now realised that Bono – and I know ideally that his name should be Bonko to make this anagram work – but Knobo is a much better name for that dude (laughing)! What a name! And Edge could be called Privet, Adam Clayton will probably still be called Adam Clayton (laughing), because nobody knows who the fuck he is anyway. It’s all about things like that, trying to make our identity well and truly clear you know? I’m a Scouser, so a lot of it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but maybe not as tongue-in-cheek as a lot of things that maybe some other people would say are, like Liberace wasn’t that tongue-in-cheek, if you know what I’m saying, he’s a fine pianist (laughing), but I do digress. So the Ocean Rain thing worked and that was like, “Wow!” But it wasn’t a nostalgic thing, because when we did it, we were like, “Bloody hell, this album is still ahead of its time. We might have to put it away for another 25 years, when people can understand (pausing),” well, not understand what it’s about, because it’s just songs. I remember the NME reviewed it and the headline was, ‘Bad Poetry In Ocean’, and I thought, “Wow, you just got what I wanted you to get from it – your idea of what The Bunnymen are,” because he wasn’t a fan. He had a false name as well, it was something like Christian Dildo or something (laughing), but he went under the name Biba Kopf – I think he scoured the German phonebooks looking for the weirdest name and pretended it was his name. So he reviewed it, and later, I asked to be interviewed by him after the album had been released and he said, “Actually, I like you now,” basically because I charmed the cecks off him! But, I just thought, “Well, some of it is shitty poetry,” and it certainly was then. But when I got to sing it live, it was like, “These words work,” because of the way I was singing them and it’s often in the way you kind of sing (pausing), in those days, I was still thinking that I was David Bowie meets sodding Jacques Brel meets Mario Lanza and someone, all the way through. And I was none of those things, and that’s probably why I got away with it, because it sounded like some bloke singing quite well. If I listen to the record now – and it’s difficult to listen to the Ocean Rain songs, but I had to, just to refresh my mind and check that I had all of the lyrics right. Because I thought, “God, I hate the way that I sung then,” and a lot of it makes me cringe, except for when I sing it live, it’s like, “Wow, these words now resonate properly to me” you know, and I realise why I wrote those words. Anyway (laughing), getting back to your question ‘Why did you decide to play Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here, live and in their entirety now?’ Ocean Rain worked and I thought, there seems to be a lot of bands who get programmes on T4 or sodding Music On 4 or whatever, and they’re always headlining 100,000 capacity festivals sort of thing. I don’t get it, it’s like Mungo Jerry a lot of it to me, and I never saw them headline sodding Knebworth! In The Summertime by Mungo Jerry, that could be Kings Of Leon’s next big ‘hit’! So, I just thought the whole reason we set out, some of it was a little bit (pausing), not self-indulgent, but you know, I’d just left school so I was trying to prove to my elder brother that I was as good as him at metaphysical kind of thought. In fact, I was a lot better even then. So there’s a little bit of posing and kind of getting away with not reading any of those existentialist writers, but knowing how to pronounce the names. But, I just thought there’s not a lot of bands whose first two albums are as good as that and can work currently. Because there doesn’t seem to be much spikiness about anyone anymore, or it’s either songs called Fuck You or bands called Harold & His Wanking Parrot (pausing), that’s not a bad band name actually that I’ve thought up on the spot (laughing + asking his Manager, Peasy, to write the name down and copyright it). There’s loads of bands and it’s like, hang on a sec, it’s all very well this kind of everyone going to gigs together, liking the same bands and feeling a part of some whatever, movement or sodding belonging to a band, but the music’s generally shit. I haven’t heard them yet and I’m sure they’re gonna be crap, but I like the look of Hurts – I love the fact that they’ve gone, “Here’s our photos, we want to look like Kraftwerk meets Bowie around 1976, and we’re going to be called Hurts and we’re going to sit here and hardly move.” I like that, because that hasn’t happened for ages – it’s like bloody hell, somebody’s actually gone to the shop and bought like a proper, expensive shirt. I do want to hear them, because the name’s great as well and it doesn’t look like they’re actually having a joke. It’s like they’ve thought, “Alright, enough of this scruffy shit that we’ve been having to go with,” because I think I am now a scruffy shit sometimes (laughing)! They’ve sort of inspired me to go and actually get a proper pair of shoes and cecks with no real crease in them, which don’t get wet all the time and fray, because whoever makes jeans these days is making them too long at the back. But Hurts are putting a bit of suavity into music (laughing).”


3.As an iconic frontman, what do you think makes a great frontperson?
“Um, I suppose having a good 3 or 4 musicians behind you, who are good at just being behind an iconic frontman – less than iconic band members, but above being no marks, somewhere in-between, because you don’t want them getting too full of themselves. With Will Sergeant, it’s like having the perfect foil who kind of (pausing), Will helped because when I used to say “Hello” everytime, whether it was meeting in rehearsal rooms or on a Tour Bus or accidentally in town – which didn’t happen very often – but I’d go, “Hello,” and to not hear “Hello” back, that gets you, you know? It’s like when I came out of the womb, the vicar mispronounced my name, I was actually meant to be called Iconic Ian Stephen McCulloch, but you know, it was too much of a gobful for the vicar (laughing), they should’ve gone for the priest (laughing)! But yeah, I think just knowing who the sod you are and knowing how to (pausing), I mean, I always felt that, but the minute you walk onstage and you can’t even twiddle your toes, you’re sort of that sodding, I suppose nervous. But you don’t want to twiddle your toes, because an iconoclastic, elasticated, plastic man in a plastic overcoat, does not twiddle his toes – that’s a hell of a sentence, I wouldn’t mind you writing that down and sending it back to me please (laughing)! It’s stage-presence and all of that, it’s like, “Wow, it does exist,” and it happens to be sodding around me! And having crap eyesight really helps, even though now, I wish I could wake-up one morning and see the end of my nose, because apparently, that’s where my eyesight is, on the end of my bloody nose (laughing)! So it’s just having a little swagger, without having to be able to walk like you’re carrying lino in each arm you know?”


4.Has the way you approach making music changed over the years – from arrangements to instrumentation – and once a track is complete, do you like to have some distance from it before assessing its nuances and qualities?

“I’ve always approached making music in a forward kind of direction. Sometimes, I’ll sidle sideways, but I never approach making music backwards you know? I think we’re exactly the same really, but I think Crocodiles was maybe growing-up thinking everyone’s a dickhead, or most people. Songs like All That Jazz on Crocodiles, it was about other people and thinking, “Who are these bastards?” It’s about conformity and the fact that at weekends they’re all (pausing), they’re knobheads, but in the middle bit I go, “No matter how I shake my fist, I know I can’t resist it,” because we all are to some extent, we all have to conform, because otherwise we’d be walking around in the nude with some weird stuff stuck on our funny bits. You can leave that to people from East Anglia (laughing)! I don’t write in that way much anymore, but I’ve been watching the news a lot and somebody really has got to write a song about Ed Miliband’s mouth, because I think it’s an elastic-band and I think his real name is Ed ‘elastic-band’ Miliband, worse than his brother David Miliband, band, band! And what is a Miliband? That’s a thousand sodding bands and do we need another thousand bands? Ed Balls was better – you should’ve put Ed Miliband’s elastic-band around Ed’s balls and maybe then, that would have been a Coalition we would’ve been proud of. Anyway, hands-up for Nicky Clegg, or Cleggy as I think David calls him. “There’s only one David Cameron,” David will be singing – he’s a fan of ours as well, Cameron, yeah! His favourite band were probably The Smiths, so I blame Morrissey – we should all blame Morrissey for this Lib-Con Party thing. But they’re getting stuck in, I think he’s going to probably blow-up The Houses Of Parliament as well (laughing), because it’s costing us too much in electricity! He does seem to be a man possessed and he’s much better than Margaret Thatcher, especially in bed I would’ve thought, especially the way she is now. I blame her husband, that Dennis, and do you know his name backwards is Sinned. But I like the fact that Dennis is named with two n’s, which is perfect for Sinned, because otherwise, he’d have to be an anagram of Dines or Snide… I do anagrams all the time, for everything (laughing), you might have noticed! Ted Coin is Icon Ted, that’s what I was doing all last night, I was sat there thinking of a word that you can anagramatise in any order.”


5.What do you think has been your most creative period so far?

“This last 10 minutes to be honest, it has, it’s fantastic – it’s genius! No, I don’t know what my most creative period has been? At the minute, I’ve written a song – I’ll give you a scoop – it’s called Castle In A Dream and I wrote it in half-an-hour, the lyrics and everything and it’s in D-sharp, which I’ve never done before. I went, “I’ll just slide it up,” and then I went “Ahh (excitedly),” as it makes the song sound different and that’s a revelation in the way I write. Because I’m normally so lazy, that I don’t even pick the guitar up, I just think of chord progressions in my head. So once I run that through one side of my brain, the kind of artisan end and then the creative, artistic, iconoclastic, genius side of my brain – which is most of it to be honest – I sing the words and I also sit and watch the telly and do crosswords. But this one, I picked the guitar up and I thought this is nice, but it feels a bit late, I hope the neighbours aren’t listening. And then I put it down again, the guitar, because it was in my way – you know when you want to stand up and you’ve actually got the guitar on your knees and your lap? It’s a funny way of standing up, unless you think you’re a real musician like say Keith Richards, who probably does make toast while wearing his guitar (laughing)! He probably spreads the butter with the machine heads or the maple neck… but that’s enough about his neck (laughing)!”


6.Of all your achievements to date, which are you most proud of?
“Probably that sentence – iconoclastic, elasticated, plastic man in a plastic overcoat – that was good, or thinking about ways to say Bono – Knobo – I rather like that! No, it’s probably personal stuff like kids, but I’ve got a lot to feel ashamed about, like some b-sides. I don’t know really, some people think The ‘80s, but it feels like now, because it has taken a while for people to actually go, “Bloody hell, The Bunnymen, they inspired us!” And it’s usually the right kind of band, like Arcade Fire, who I do actually like. He’s a bit tall like, to be honest though, he is John Lithgow you know, the actor in 3rd Rock From The Sun? He wants to fucking duck a bit man, the top of his head must be boiling! All of these bands who like us, it’s nice, even though I don’t have to like them. In fact, I usually slag most of them off, but I just tell them White Lies… do you get it? But I don’t want to tell anymore fucking porkies, so I must say, I think White Lies should stop and stop singing songs about their rocking horse not being as good as their next door neighbours, in their thatched-roofed, detached, big countrified home that they grew-up in when they were kids. I never had a rocking horse, I didn’t even ever see one you know? I’ve seen a proper horse’s knob though having a slash, Jesus Christ, bloody hell, now that’s a rocking horse, one that can do that (laughing)! Rocking horses, schmoking horses, fucking get off your horse and drink your sodding milk-powder!”


7.I have long loved your voice, but personally, what do you try to achieve vocally?
“Well, you’ve got one of the sweetest and loveliest voices in the history of time man, and that’s a hell of a long time! Yeah, it’s lovely, it’s fantastic and I know that you’re laughing at my jokes, even though you know you have to keep it together to ask the next question (laughing). With my vocals, I just smoke as much as I can and have a bevvy. I do a lot of swallowing with brandy, but no exercises, because I’m the laziest grafter and I can’t be arsed. I also believe that my voice (pausing), my singing has been unbelievable lately and (singing) “Everybody tells me so!” But with warm-ups, could you imagine Frank Sinatra – even though I disapprove of Bourbon, because it tastes horrible – I’m sure he would have had a little Bourbon with a bit of ice and then hit the stage and given it (singing), “Come fly with me…” How else would Frank Sinatra have warmed-up? Honestly, people say to me, “Should you be smoking?” And I’m like, “Well yeah, I’ve bought these ciggies, so I suppose I should be smoking!” But if I ever thought about it being that ‘thing’, it would kind of crumble what I’ve built inside me, like this self-confidence that’s built around my voice – knowing that I’ve got a fantastic voice, because I’m totally crap at everything else. I’m not the world’s greatest croquet player, that’s for sure! I like to write the words that will make my voice sound true and mean something. In Castles In A Dream, I just came up with this one phrase, because I thought, “Hang on, I’m writing these lyrics and they’re great, but only a certain kind of person might listen to the words over and over again,” and I hate that! I want one song on the next album to be more like All That Jazz, carrying on that theme of idiot, fucking human-race dickheads, who don’t listen to the words. And it’s not just about songs, it’s about anything, because some people don’t even listen to what they’re thinking in their head, which you then have to make in to sentences. Most people, they’re not arsed and that’s more destructive now, that kind of thing, which is why the world is falling to bits, because people don’t listen to words.”


8.As lyrics are very important to you, are there any specific songwriters who you also think could be classified as poets?

“Yeah, well Leonard Cohen, definitely! His own poetry books I don’t like actually, because you need a tune (suddenly and referring to a loud noise outside), what the hell’s that? I think somebody’s just shot themselves in Liverpool… Just as well really, because somebody else would have done it (laughing)! Anyway, I like some of the words the Arcade Fire did (pausing), as much as I like T.S. Eliot’s titles, the actual poems are like, “Fucking hell, where’s the rhyme?” And then he gives you the rhyme on page 57, stanza 125 on the first fucking line! But anyway, there’s Arcade Fire bloke, certainly not Jeff Buckley – I thought he was a terrible artist, screechy and whiny, bloody hell! I’m sure he meant it, but you can get lotion for crabs now, hence his unnecessary caterwauling. So, who the fuck do I like at the minute (thinking)… The last thing that I really loved and thought was total poetry – well, it wasn’t the last thing because I’ve heard things since – but it was Streets Of Philadelphia by Bruce Springsteen (laughing), from 1994 – it’s still great now! There must be something else, God, you’ve hit me with a terrible thing there. I love that thing by (pausing), I think it was by Shelley, “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings”… imagine that to music! I wrote this poem about some fella from Trinidad and Tobago, massive legs he must have had – not just because he was born in Trinidad and Tobago – but because of the thing in-between, it was absolutely massive! Basically, he’s a virgin, but he’s got a very good job (laughing) waiting for him in the shitty end of Europe, where pornography is quite popular. So he builds his own raft and his rudder and paddle (pausing), he doesn’t sail by the light of the silvery moon this dude, or by the Northern Star, it’s just wherever his thing is pointing and he hopes therefore, that his raft will get him to Europe because it’s a long way (laughing)! I wrote this on the Tour Bus and I tried to make it as poetic as possible and the opening goes (singing with a Caribbean accent), “Every night I praise the lord for sweet navigation, I will use my pork sword and hopefully get to my destination.” That’s the first part and I think it’s up there with Mungo Jerry (laughing)!”


9.Brian Eno famously said that “hardly anyone bought The Velvet Underground’s albums when they were released, but most everyone who did, formed a band.” Are there any other artists / records that you also think have had a similar effect on musicians?
“No, I mean The Velvets (pausing), Bowie was why I formed a band and it was him that got me into The Velvets, because he would mention them in interviews and also because in those days, you only ever saw fantastic pictures taken by someone like Pennie Smith – beautiful photographs! It would be like you could pick who you like. For example, some people would pick Robert Plant, but it was all fantastic, iconic, special photography. Now you see bands with custard pies in their faces, as if the music magazine has decided it’s custard pie week and “My Chemical Romance, you will be getting some cherry trifle in your fucking face!” I’d rather be photographed by Anton Corbijn with a horse eating the back of me sodding neck kind of thing. But like The Velvets, it seems we’re one of those bands that influence a lot of people and what’s weird is, is that a lot of these bands go fucking massive and sell about 7 million albums! Which is good, but they never invite me round.”
*I ask Ian if he thinks age / career length in music is important*
“I think age and knob length are important (laughing)!”


10.If you had to place 5 songs from your career in a time-capsule for future generations to hear, what would they be?
“The Killing Moon, Nothing Lasts Forever – not even this time-capsule, if you find it, it’s lasted until now and it will probably last a bit longer, but certainly not forever. I’d probably put in Bring On The Dancing Horses, because that’s a song that over the years has become more and more (pausing), I love it and I was singing it earlier today in my head and thinking why – oh (suddenly), it’s because a phrase was on the telly. I heard it and I thought, that’s like Bring On The Dancing Horses in a way. Rescue probably, and I’d put in a song called Hands Off The Time-Capsule You Cheeky Bastards (laughing)! No, Rust maybe, because that would be happy if I put it in a little tin box. Actually, can I have a couple more songs? The Idolness Of Gods and an as-yet-unrecorded track called Little Dwarf, which is a classic that will see the light of day, but it might be in a couple of hundred years. If I also had to include some things that influenced me in my life, along with Bowie, Lou Reed, Sinatra and my Dad, Sweep from The Sooty Show would be in there! I used to go home from Sixth Form, before I should, and it was on at about 4.20pm and because it was a good 45-minute walk, I’d have to sack history or whatever I studied, although I did have a disinterested mind. But by doing that, I have my own history now, the history of Sweep (laughing)! The Sooty Show was fantastic and there was an episode where they’re in bed and Matthew’s behind the table, and Sooty and Sweep are in bed on top of the table fast asleep, and Matthew’s going, “Sooty, Sweep, come on, you’ve got to get up for breakfast.” I mean, what’s so important? They could eat that kind of crap in bed, but Sweep doesn’t say much and he looks at Sooty as if to say, watch this and he’s got a pair of Hobnail boots on string by the side of his bed, and he makes them move while he’s still half-asleep, like he’s walking round the room getting ready to go for breakfast (laughing)! Sooty does the same – he’s probably got a pair of fluffy slippers or something – but I used that in later life, it was brilliant! It was beyond just patting the floor, this was actual boots on string! I told my elder brother about it (trails off)… So yeah, I think Sweep would be in my time-capsule, along with Muhammad Ali, Bill Shankly, Spike Milligan, Eric Morcambe and the Queen. Come on, let’s hear it for the fucking Queen!”


11.As this interview is for R*E*P*E*A*T, I can’t let you go without asking one question about the Manic Street Preachers, so what was it like recording Some Kind Of Nothingness with them?
“It was lovely, it was fantastic – it didn’t feel like work and I did some great impressions for them. Do you want to hear some of them?”
*Ian proceeds to do uncanny impressions of Sir Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Jude Law*
“But it was a pleasure – completely – they’re lovely! It was weird, because I went down to (adopting a Welsh accent) Cardiff boyo, and I was rubbing their heads and basically, being a bit patronising, because let’s face it, they’re Welsh you know, I’m not exactly going to treat them as fucking equals (laughing), no! But they were lovely and I loved it! I was down in London to do the Brixton shows and then (adopting a Welsh accent again) James boyo, Harry Secombe boyo, James’ voice went. Fucking hell, that’s like saying a lion can’t fucking roar! A lion doesn’t go to Harley Street getting a throat specialist looking down his gob – no, no, no boyo (jokingly)! I’ll do another impression if you’d like to hear it?”
*Ian does some more uncanny impressions, this time of David Bowie, Samuel L. Jackson and an absolutely hilarious Robert Mugabe asking if someone can pass the HP Sauce*


12.Lastly, chips or cream buns?
“This is a question and a half as the last question – wow! It’s got to be chips, because although they’re very cloying, with cream buns you know it will be half-an-hour of thinking you might throw-up at any moment, because they just hang around like a bastard. But with chips, you get full of them and then you go, “I’ve still got to have more!””

A very special thanks to Ian, to Louise @ Academy Music Group, and to Echo & The Bunnymen’s Manager Peasy, for all of their time and help.


www.bunnymen.com

www.myspace.com/thebunnymen


‘Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here’

UK Tour Dates

Dec 3 ‘10 – Gloucester Guildhall

Dec 4 ‘10 – O2 Academy Birmingham

Dec 6 ’10 – O2 Academy Oxford

Dec 7 ’10 – The Ritz Manchester

Dec 8 ’10 – O2 Academy Glasgow

Dec 9 ’10 – O2 Academy Brixton

Dec 11 ’10 – Liverpool Olympia

Dec 12 ’10 – Liverpool Olympia

Editor's 'interesting' note
- in issue 10 of R*E*P*E*A*T (1998), Will answered the chips and buns question with 'blackcurrant tarts and champagne' and said the Manics were 'whiney...'

wers to questions...It's never about looking forward to it. Actually maybe I should change the
script, maybe we are looeir musicm the 3rd album?