THEY SHOOT DANCING HORSES, DON'T THEY?:

Echo Sounder: Still going strong after 25 years: how do the Bunnymen do it? It’s all down to my je ne sais quoi Ian McCulloch tells Leona Gillan (Sunday Herald, 11/23/03)

IAN McCulloch has been “belting towards” Echo And The Bunnymen’s 25th anniversary tour since early summer. “We wouldn’t be touring if it wasn’t for the fact that Warners were remastering five albums,” he cackles, “and I thought, ‘Bloody hell, it’s our 25th anniversary!’ Even though we had nine years off for bad behaviour.” [...]

Without getting misty-eyed, the tour has forced Mac to appraise the Bunnymen’s place in rock history, darkly persuasive and hugely influential. Recently, it’s helped to have such high- profile fans as Chris Martin of Coldplay, but even at the height of their fame, the Bunnymen seemed to be born outsiders.

“It’s just what I’ve always wanted to do. We were never tucked into a kind of age, it was never about rock’n’roll rebellion, it was always about thought and feeling and those kind of things. Timeless. That’s why the music has stayed timeless. I suppose the fact that I’ve still ‘got it’ helps. If I thought I didn’t have the je ne sais quoi I think I’d jack it. But it seems to be getting better.”

As ever, he is completely earnest in his self-aggrandisement and forces you to ride along with his cast-iron belief that the Bunnymen are the best band in the world.

They were a great band, but who knew they were even still together?

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 23, 2003 2:08 PM