Buxton in Derbyshire is what is laughingly referred to as a spa town. The English do not really do spas like here in France, where taking of the waters is not only normalized but forms part of the basic health care system. Nor like the Germans where, in combination with self flagellation with particular shrubs and bushes and rolling naked in the snow, spas are a much loved healthful activity. For a gallant few years in Regency England the upper classes went to towns like Buxton, Cheltenham, Lymington and of course the longest running show in spaszle-dazzle, Bath. I can confidently assert that after the fall of the Romans the baths in Bath were an underused resource, the English not being overly fond of water or strong on personal hygiene. So when the Regency court decreed that “taking the water” cured all ills the fashionable ‘ton’ took off to stay in these genteel sleepy country towns, see and be seen, and drink the naturally occurring waters that flowed from the local springs. Like Bridgerton, but with mineral water and less multicultural sex. Note that ‘taking of the waters’ was to drink it, still at this point we were not too keen on getting into it and cleaning off any accumulated dirt and detritus.
Buxton in January 1981 was a sleepy forgotten town, this predated the English rediscovery of drinking bottled water so the spa element of the town’s history was reduced to the public rooms like the hotels and council offices forming the original Crescent, a copy of the one in Bath, and the Pavilion Gardens. I had recently discovered the latest thing to come out of Liverpool, Echo and the Bunnymen, through their remarkable debut album ‘Crocodiles’. The closest place to where I was living at the time to see them was Buxton and thanks to the NME and a special invite off we forayed. They played under a camouflage net and had this serious nothing can touch us attitude, part Scouse, part being on that crest of acclaim that comes with Peel sessions, positive noise from NME and Sounds. Their sound live back then was driven by Pete de Freitas machine gun drumming, fills and rolls and the bass and guitar chugging the rhythm along, this was not a band to come to see if you wanted long guitar solo improvisations. At this point in their career Ian McCulloch’s voice was reasonably strong, before the booze and cigs ripped out what little range he had. Live, they drove a hard sound anchored in the drums but with the ‘Heaven Up Here’ album, which they were starting to play tracks from, the bass heavy Echo of their best period was to the fore. The closed the set with Over the Wall and All My Colours (or Zimbo as most of us know it as). McCulloch loved to improvise the endings with snippets from hits by the Stones, Del Shannon and the Velvets sprinkled among the original words. The audience laps that shit up as you all know the words and sing along. Will Sergeant wore sunglasses throughout the whole gig.
‘Heaven Up Here’ even now is a regal album, full of confidence and brimming with creative energy. They knew they were good and enjoyed showing off. ‘Porcupine’ was the follow up, more doom and less pop, They were tired out and starting to get tired of each other, Ian Broudie was guitarist Will Sergeant’s flatmate and his upbeat production could not make it a happy album. Iceland was the ideal backdrop for the album artwork and the videos that supported it and they look miserable, cold and lacking inspiration amongst the stalactites and frozen waterfall backdrops.
They released some great 12″ singles over this mid 80s’ period and you got an interesting sense of where and how they were experimenting on the B-sides. They somehow got over their creative hump and ‘Ocean Rain’ the 4th album did good box office and creatively expanded their sound to a richer more symphonic swell. Whereas the debut ‘Crocodiles’ was all scratchy guitars, ‘Heaven Up Here’ hard bass and drum driven anthems, ‘Porcupine’ was the angular peaks and troughs of dark days, ‘Ocean Rain’ was acoustic guitars and string sections, brushes not bass drums, it even included glockenspiel and xylophone . They still maintained the elemental graphic image, this time on a boat in a cave in Cornwall. The album produced two classic singles, The Killing Moon (much abused in every werewolf movie and tv show but they obviously need the royalties) and Seven Seas.
And then it all went a bit pear shaped. Any band that records, tours and plays nonstop for 7 years gets tired. They all react differently to the fame, the pressure for repeat success and the underlying hard work takes its toll. As I said as much as McCulloch’s voice and lyrics, his world view, whether dark or romantic, was the sound of Echo, the anchor was Pete De Freitas’s drums and Les Pattinson’s bass. De Freitas had major mental and drug issues by the time they were pressurized to record a new album by Warner Borthers (WEA) in 1987. And not just produce any old album but to do their version of Gabriel’s ‘So’, Will Sergeant was apoplectic that Warner executive Rob Dickens played them Gabriel’s album, declaring “I want you to sound like this!”. So not much of a surprise then that the next album was crap.
They could not even be bothered to come up with an interesting title. I couldn’t be bothered to buy it, I got the cassette at some point of “Echo and the Bunnymen’ but it was released in 1987. They got two hit singles off it in the US, ‘Bedbugs and Ballyhoo’ and ‘Lips Like Sugar’. They got some movie song exposure and then it became the last real Bunnymen album. McCulloch was sick of it and left the band. The other three tried to continue – which was ironic in that De Freitas was a paid employee rather than in the band for the last year due to his drug and health issues. They brought in another singer and made a terrible album.
And then De Freitas got killed in a motorbike accident so it really was over. Will and Ian made an album in 1995 as ‘Electrafixion’, which was pretty rubbish, they then worked with Les Pattinson again and made another 7 albums, not one of which I have bought or listened much to. They obviously worked out how to co-exist as creators together for the long haul, they both have done solo projects and Will Sergeant has done lots of atmospheric instrumental stuff. There have been several remixes and numerous Echo compilation albums and they still play live, usually for the summer festival and 80’s revival crowds.
For me though, they will always be the dark heroes under the camouflage net in Buxton Pavilion Gardens in January 1981. You can hear how great they sounded that night yourself as 4 songs were released as the live EP ‘Shine So Hard’. I owned this as a Cassette single in a cigarette box style packaging and had no idea where it had been recorded. Later it got re-mastered in 2003 and the credits listed the location and I realized I had actually been there.
Here then is my selection of the best of Echo: Listen here.
Pictures on My Wall [Original Single Version] 1979. The original Echo as in the drum machine, catchy little pop number!
Rescue – 1980. The spiky guitar sound appears first
All That Jazz – 1980. That drum sound first appears (Shine So Hard live version from Buxton)
The Puppet – 1980. …and it all comes together on this single
Show of Strength – 1981. Heaven Up Here opener.
A Promise – 1981.
Over The Wall – 1980 (Shine So Hard live version from Buxton)
All My Colours – 1982 (the best version is Live at Womad with Burundi Drummers but too random for Spotify so this is also from Buxton)
Broke My Neck -1981 B-side to A Promise single
Fuel – 1982 – B-side to The Back of Love
The Cutter – 1983 Opener to Porcupine
The Back of Love -1983
Clay – 1983
Heads Will Roll – 1983 yes, they added strings to their bow
The Killing Moon – 1984 ( John Peel session version without strings)
Angels and Devils – 1984 (B-side to Silver)
Nocturnal Me – 1984 ( John Peel session version without strings)
My Kingdom – 1984
Seven Seas – 1984 “Good news they’re bringing”
God will be Gods – 1983 -Alternative version
Anecdotes and Antidotes in Burgundy 