Echo And The Bunnymen - London Royal Festival Hall, 3/2/2002

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 22 / 3 / 2002

intro

Anthiny Strutt finds Echo and the Bunnymen, despite a sick Ian McCulloch, in great mform on the second night of a British tour to promote their new album 'Live in Liverpool'j

This gig was the second date of a tour to promote the then unreleased new Bunnymen live album 'Live in Liverpool'. The gig started off with a set by Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant's side project Glide, which all went wrong from the first note. As it is post rock, and a lot of it involves using computers, Will gave in after about two minutes. Next on were Magic Alex who vocalist Ian 'Mac' McCulloch is producing, but I missed that as I was in the bar. Earlier on in the evening I had introduced myself to Peasey, the Bunnymen's manager, who told me that Mac was having an afternoon sleep and that he had a doctor by his side as he was feeling ill. He also mentioned that tonight's gig also had a bigger plan in Mac's scheme of things because Frank Sinatra had played here in 1970 or 1971, and he wanted to grace the same stage. This was all actually a bit strange for me, as, out of all the many times I have seen the Bunnymen, this was the first time I had sat down thoughout. I had had seats before for the Bunnymen, but I had never remained in my seat for long. The band tonight played for about 85 minutes , and, to be honest, still sounds like it did in 1987. They are well rehearsed, but this is down to Will Sergeant who puts the band through workouts, while Mac just turns up to sing the words. Although 'Live in Liverpool' has been released in many ways to plug the last studio album "Flowers', the band don't really push this far, and only three of the tracks on "Flowers' are played at this live outing, which is shame as it by far the best of the albums by the Bunnymen since they refomed in the mid 90's. Tonight the band look quite casual apart from the sick Mac and they plow through their back catalogue with grace, playing enough of their hits to please most of us who are here to relive the 80's. The Bunnymen are heading to Brazil soon before reurning to us in May and June where they will play with New Order in Finsbury Park. A greati-sh gig by one of my favourite bands, but what will they follow this up with ? That is the question.

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