ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN // BARBICAN CENTRE, YORK
ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN BRING THEIR UK TOUR TO YORK’S BARBICAN CENTRE ON A MONDAY NIGHT
ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN PERFORMING AT YORK’S BARBICAN CENTRE - 22.10.2018
PICTURE BY: LAURA TOOMER @TOOMERGIGPHOTOGRAPHY
★★★★☆
When I was 10 I remember sitting in my uncle’s bedroom watching with fascination whilst he used a surgical needle to pierce my older and somewhat cooler brother’s ears. I remember the evening well, it was 1983 and a very different time, music was changing and on the playlist that night were the latest sounds available on vinyl record ‘The Story of the Blues’ by Wah and Echo and the Bunnymens’ latest offering, ‘the Cutter’
Tonight’s gig fulfilled something of a personal ambition I had held since that night 35 years ago. I saw Pete Wylie perform ‘The Story of the Blues’ in York 2 years earlier and tonight I would complete the set of realising my first real experience of music with Ian McCullochs’ offering. No pressure then!
First up and kicking off the evening in fine style was Jonathon Jackson, unlikely to be a name many people will be too familiar with on the music circuit. Better known perhaps for his Role as Avery Barkley in the popular TV show Nashville you may have expected a country feel to his opening set.
This was definitely not the case and even the Stetson was cast aside in favour of the more stylish Fedora hat. This was a delightfully melodic opening to the evening, armed only with an acoustic guitar and of course the Fedora, Jonathan entertained the growing numbers in the auditorium with his exceptional voice. This wasn’t rock and roll or a set that had you up in the aisles dancing along too, but it was a real musical treat with the audience swept along by his impressive vocal range as every note was hit with perfection. His final number ‘The Coming Dawn’ was a really catchy treat to end on and set us up perfectly for tonight’s headliners.
So onto the ‘Mac’ and his Bunnymen. I’m never totally convinced by gigs in all seater venues, it always seem to take longer for the atmosphere to really get going. Although tonight’s might be more appropriate considering the average age of the audience. It’s easy to forget that the band’s first release was back in 1979 and they have been on the circuit covering dates over 5 decades.
I couldn’t help but chuckle as I took my seat and the guy at the end of the row had 2 pints of Guinness lined up under his seat alongside a packet of Rennies. Heartburn treatments are now the drug of choice for the Bunnymens followers!!
The gig started slowly to be honest, a sudden rush to the stage was limited to a handful of people who claimed the title of the ‘faithful’ and for the first few songs it felt a little lacklustre.
However slowly but surely the tempo picked up and all over the venue more and more were taking to their feet to join in and embrace the flow of emotion that was starting to take hold.
Bands like the Bunnymen deliver music that is from a different place. Ian McCullochs voice isn’t pitch perfect and he’d be unlikely to gain a chair in the 6 chair challenge but then he wouldn’t want to and nor would the people who follow the band and pay money to watch them.
This is music from the soul, from the heart, form the working class roots of those early days playing small venues in the pubs and clubs of Liverpool that my uncle frequented and I was too young to visit.
As the gig progressed so did the hits, the new album ‘The Stars, the Oceans and The Moon’ is a lively reworking of the old classics and some of them have been given a very different twist on the album. Tonight though we had the originals in all their glory. ‘Bring on the Dancing Horses’ and of course ‘The Cutter’ bringing a now very lively audience into full effect and by now everybody was fully on board.
Leaving the stage to cries of ‘more’ ‘more’ ‘more’ and perhaps a quick rennie to get us through the encore we only had a short wait until the band re-appeared for not one but two encores.
‘The Killing Moon’ ‘Lips like Sugar’ and ‘Ocean Rain’ being delivered in the typical mean and moody grunge that we had come expecting to see and demand of this performance. By the end, the faithful had grown from a handful into an army and my 35 year wait was worth every second.
SETLIST: | ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN : BARBICAN CENTRE, YORK - 22.10.2018
Going Up
Bedbugs and Ballyhoo
Rescue
Never Stop
All That Jazz
All My Colours (Zimbo)
Over The Wall
The Somnambulist
Villiers Terrace
Nothing Lasts Forever
Seven Seas
Rust
Bring On the Dancing Shoes
The Cutter
ENCORE:
The Killing Moon
Lips Like Sugar
ENCORE 2:
Ocean Rain