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Echo & The Bunnymen Brief Biography

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Echo & The Bunnymen are one of the finest groups to have come out of Liverpool in the last 40 years.

Formed in 1978, Echo & The Bunnymen originally, mythically, consisted of a drum machine named Echo, which was joined by Ian McCulloch (vocals), Will Sergeant (guitar, sitar), and Les Pattinson (bass). Their first album, 'Crocodiles', made the UK top 20 albums chart, and when Pete de Freitas replaced the drum machine, things got even better.

Echo & The Bunnymen's music certainly had an Eastern feel to it, with a mix of the theatrical, and McCulloch's unique voice, which could be vulnerable and moody at the same time. The band also wrote good songs, most notably a pop classic in 'Seven Seas', with arguably the strangest ever rendition of The Beatles 'All You Need Is Love' on the B-side - complete with the words of a disenchanted left wing Socialist voicing his support for Margaret Thatcher. Not a very cool thing to put on a record in the 1980s. The Bunnymen's other finest works included 'The Cutter' and 'Bring On The Dancing Horses'.

After an unbroken run of top 10 albums, McCulloch left the band in 1988. Tragedy then followed the next year, with the death of de Freitas in a motorcycle accident. Noel Burke was brought in to replace McCulloch, but Echo & The Bunnymen's success began to wane, understandably so after all that had happened. McCulloch, Sergeant, and Pattinson did get back together in 1997, and there was a revival of the band's fortunes, and, as often goes hand in hand, a reappraisal of just how important a group they actually were.

- Paul Rance/booksmusicfilmstv.com.


Echo & The Bunnymen CDs
 
Crocodiles: 25th Anniversary Remastered & Expanded Edition ~ Echo & The Bunnymen
B0000E2PY4 Porcupine: 25th Anniversary Remastered & Expanded Edition ~ Echo & The Bunnymen
B0001IMDSI Siberia ~ Echo & The Bunnymen

Echo & The Bunnymen DVDs

'Echo And The Bunnymen - Live DVD'
Echo And The Bunnymen - Live

Product image for ASIN: B00023GPG8
F.I.B. Heineken 2003 (features Echo & The Bunnymen)

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN - ALBUMS DISCOGRAPHY
(and complete list of UK chart positions)

(1980) Crocodiles - #17
(1981) Heaven Up Here - #10
(1983) Porcupine - #2
(1984) Ocean Rain - #4
(1985) Songs To Learn And Sing (Singles collection)
(1987) Echo & The Bunnymen - #4
(1990) Reverberation - #19
(1997) Evergreen - #8
(1999) What Are You Going To Do With Your Life? - #21
(2001) Flowers - #56
(2002) Live In Liverpool - #55
(2005) Siberia - #10
(2009) The Fountain - #63
(2014) Meteorites -
#37

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