This week I went to see Echo and the Bunnymen on their "Celebrating 40 years of magical songs' tour with my good friend Stu.
Now on the surface this might not seem a big deal, I was a big fan of the band back in the early/mid-eighties, but we went to see them at the end of 2010 and they were terrible. I mean really bad. I didn't want to see them again, I didn't really want to go to gigs any more, I wondered whether it was worth leaving the house in future. Can you tell how disappointed I was?
So there was a bit of trepidation before this one and that built when they didn't take to the stage before 9:30pm. And that didn't go away over the first few songs which, although the music was excellent, were slightly truncated or altered so singer Ian McCulloch didn't have to take on the high notes.
But then, Over the Wall! Fantastic, as good as I've heard it! It set up the second half of the gig which was excellent. There was a squeezy jar of honey on stage that Mac took a shot of once in a while so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was looking after his voice early on so that he could keep going. If that was a tactic it paid off, the evening ending with a flawless Ocean Rain.
I'm choosing Over The Wall though as it was the turning point in the group's live redemption for me. It's from the group's 1981 album, their second, Heaven Up Here which you'd have thought might turn up at some point in my 80s album chart that I put together in 1990.
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