When I announce my birth place to a non-Brit as Liverpool, the usual response is a joyous “Home of The Beatles!”, to which I reply, “And the Bunnymen!” The Fab Four may be ingrained into every aspect of my home town’s culture, but they’re hardly the only band to go from Liverpool to global reception. The “Pool of life” has been a setting for some of the most important moments in musical history. In the late Seventies an exciting new wave of bands emerged in the city, including Echo & The Bunnymen. They were among northern England’s voices of the post-punk movement and 40 years on from the start of their career they're still an essential addition to your music library.
When I say post-punk your mind probably goes to Joy Division. Fair enough if so: those Salford lads were a symbol of musical change whose lead singer passed away on the eve of their break into America (AKA, one of music's most tragic tales). But while Ian Curtis and co were experimenting with a sparse energy at the end of the Seventies, Ian McCulloch, Will Sergeant and Les Pattinson were fusing popular punk gloominess with lush string arrangements and majestic vocals. Put simply, they were planning an orchestral intervention in British punk music. That’s a grand claim, I know, but it’s also an accurate one because the regard for their music is still just as high. This year’s evidence for such: their upcoming album.
Set to drop on 6 September, it’s titled The John Peel Sessions 1979-1983 and is comprised of 21 recordings. They’re all original radio performances and they were integral to the Bunnymen’s success (the band’s guitarist, Sergeant, even said so himself). This national coverage in the early Eighties was courtesy of John Peel: the famed Radio 1 presenter from neighbouring county Cheshire who had a knack for featuring new musicians on the BBC. With other guests around the same time including The Cure, The Fall, The Smiths and Public Image Ltd, it was safe to say that if Peel got in touch you had something about you.
Rightfully so – the Bunnymen did. Pete de Freitas joined the existing trio as the drummer in 1980 and across the decade their music rose to add mainstream success to their cult following, especially in America. They kicked off their studio career with the dark and angular Crocodiles, which hit No17 on the UK album chart. A year on, Heaven Up Here reached No10 in the UK and entered the American Billboard 200. In 1983, Porcupine reached No2 (with its esoteric hit “The Cutter”). But it was the Bunnymen’s fourth LP, Ocean Rain, which ensured their legacy. Incorporating a 35-piece orchestra into recordings, the album breathed a pure degree of baroque into a music genre that was otherwise prescribed with more literal aggression. Its golden (and lead) single was “The Killing Moon”.
I first heard the song in Richard Kelly's 2001 cult thriller Donnie Darko. I watched the film when I was about 12 – still a few years younger than its advised certificate – but I wasn’t absolutely terrified. I was more so transfixed, in part due to Jake Gyllenhaal’s breakout performance, in part due to its soundtrack. “The Killing Moon” backs the beginning of the movie, with its stellar arrangements and McCulloch’s vocals slotting brilliantly behind the young Donnie as he cycles through a vast landscape. It was a good way of introducing millennials to the Bunnymen and today even Gen-Z has had a greeting through “Nocturnal Me”, which closed out a series one episode of Stranger Things. Basically, the Bunnymen boast an ageless appeal and live recordings of those two songs open side four of their upcoming record release.
Those John Peel Sessions were played on the radio 40 years ago, but have never been compiled into a full LP before. So why are they being released now? Quite likely to time with the anniversary of the band's debut single and nod to the years that welcomed their cinematic sensibilities in music. But that's not to say that these songs play simply as a moment of their time. How could compositions that sound punky and angular yet classic and cinematic ever be dated? The Bunnymen create a one-of-a-kind atmosphere through their music and although I didn't live through their flourishing period, that's the main reason why they're always blasted through my home. You don't feel like you're listening to Eighties hits; their music acts more like a trigger for introspection.
Granted, the Bunnymen have come a long way since 1979. Uncertainty in 1988 following McCulloch's departure, tragedy in 1989 when de Freitas was killed in a motorcycle accident, a new name – Electrafixion – when McCulloch and Sergeant teamed up again in 1994 and a return to their roots when the third surviving member, Pattinson, returned in 1997 and “Nothing Lasts Forever” was released. It's been a duo of McCulloch and Sergeant since the start of the millennium, but their unique approach to music is still heard. Forty years, 30 singles, 12 studio albums, a host of live and compilation albums on, the release of The John Peel Sessions is set to be a valuable addition to their discography. Liverpool isn't just about the Merseybeat – preorder this album now to find out why.
The John Peel Sessions 1979-1983 is out on 6 September. Echo & The Bunnymen play Liverpool's Sefton Park on 30 August.
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