Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Bunnies at the Hop
I'm off to se Echo and the Bunnymen tonight at Shepherds Bush Empire - yes, I did remember the date this time round! - and I'm really quite excited about it. This will be the first time I've seen them in a couple of years (due to aforesaid forgetting the date when they played at The Bloomsbury Theatre last year) and with the excellent new album just being released a couple of months back, most of the new material will be played and we'll see what older stuff they mix it with.
My memory doesn't really go back that far in too much detail, but I remember seeing the Bunnies many times in the late seventies and early eighties. I remember I saw them play at the YMCA, just off Tottenham Court Road in London, and also on the five-timer bill at The Lyceum one Sunday, where they shared the stage with The Teardrop Explodes, Manicured Noise, Psychedelic Furs, and A Certain Ratio. I believe on that mini-tour, the bands all took it in turns to play top and bottom of the bill, and all places in-between no doubt. At The Lyceum, MN were first up, then Teardrop, Bunnies, ACR, and the Furs last; it was a very good night!
I then started to see the Bunnymen again when they re-formed and started gigging regularly again in the mid/late nineties; most gigs since then seem to have been at the Empire, as with tonight, but I've also seen them play at the Royal Festival Hall and in Kentish Town I think.
I've never really met any of the band, but I did encounter Mac once while working at NME; I was sitting on the sofa in reception at the Carnaby Street office when Mac came in to deliver something for someone. He stood right in front of me as he handed over his offering, towering high up to the ceiling, peering down under his fringe, shades sitting on his nose, greatcoat swinging open, the epitomy of a future rock god!
A woman that I worked with at NME (Sunie or Sue Fletcher as she was sometimes known)thought Mac was georgeous at that time (1979-ish), and as she had done before with a few other well-known (punk/new wave) band members, set out to make him one of her conquests. I believe she went up to Liverpool to get close to him (she had very good means of doing that...) but actually ended up with the bands manager - Bill Drummond; I don't know if she ever got Mac between the sheets. Sunie had an on-off relationship with Bill for years, eventually bearing his child - her first - Alex, who will probably be about 20 years old now! I haven't seen or heard of Sunie for a long time now, but I hope she's happy and has had a good life...she may even be going to see the band tonight?!?
My memory doesn't really go back that far in too much detail, but I remember seeing the Bunnies many times in the late seventies and early eighties. I remember I saw them play at the YMCA, just off Tottenham Court Road in London, and also on the five-timer bill at The Lyceum one Sunday, where they shared the stage with The Teardrop Explodes, Manicured Noise, Psychedelic Furs, and A Certain Ratio. I believe on that mini-tour, the bands all took it in turns to play top and bottom of the bill, and all places in-between no doubt. At The Lyceum, MN were first up, then Teardrop, Bunnies, ACR, and the Furs last; it was a very good night!
I then started to see the Bunnymen again when they re-formed and started gigging regularly again in the mid/late nineties; most gigs since then seem to have been at the Empire, as with tonight, but I've also seen them play at the Royal Festival Hall and in Kentish Town I think.
I've never really met any of the band, but I did encounter Mac once while working at NME; I was sitting on the sofa in reception at the Carnaby Street office when Mac came in to deliver something for someone. He stood right in front of me as he handed over his offering, towering high up to the ceiling, peering down under his fringe, shades sitting on his nose, greatcoat swinging open, the epitomy of a future rock god!
A woman that I worked with at NME (Sunie or Sue Fletcher as she was sometimes known)thought Mac was georgeous at that time (1979-ish), and as she had done before with a few other well-known (punk/new wave) band members, set out to make him one of her conquests. I believe she went up to Liverpool to get close to him (she had very good means of doing that...) but actually ended up with the bands manager - Bill Drummond; I don't know if she ever got Mac between the sheets. Sunie had an on-off relationship with Bill for years, eventually bearing his child - her first - Alex, who will probably be about 20 years old now! I haven't seen or heard of Sunie for a long time now, but I hope she's happy and has had a good life...she may even be going to see the band tonight?!?
