Bunnymen Blues Continue....

I was having a look through some previous postings last night when I suddenly realised that one of my more recent ones had "disappeared". I then found it had changed to draft status. At first I thought that I had changed it by accident so I then re-posted the "offending article".

It was only this morning that when checking my email that I found out this was not the case. My bad luck with the Bunnymen seems to be continuing as, yes you've guessed, those lovely DMCA people have visited the blog. Not sure if it's because the track is on Warners or not - maybe someone with more experience of this can enlighten me.

I suppose there is a certain irony in the fact that I have been doing Spools Paradise for almost a year now and only put a disclaimer up last week. Perhaps they just didn't appreciate my Bunnymen review !!

I have re-posted the Bunnymen review with a video of one of the first times that we got to hear the majestic Ocean Rain live on The Tube.

The Redskins - Keep On Keeping On

It's A Shame About Ian....

Considering they are one of my favourite bands of all time I'm not really sure why I have never done a post on Echo And The Bunnymen before. Sadly this was not the post I intended but is a review of sorts of their gig last night at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow.

Ocean Rain is, for me, one of the greatest albums ever made and last night was a one off opportunity to see and hear it performed in its entirety, accompanied with strings.

The gig was split into two parts with the first being a 40 minute set comprising mostly classic Bunnymen tunes such as Rescue, Dancing Horses and a terrific version of Never Stop. So far so good. During this part there was a lot of banter between McCulloch and the crowd, most of it lighthearted and in no way shape or form did it affect the performance.

No idea what occurred during the interval before the band re-appeared to perform Ocean Rain but Mac's mood had changed completely and instead of banter we had him challenging members of the crowd and generally being abusive to sections of the audience. His ramblings between songs were largely incoherent, some lyrics were forgotten and most tracks were not finished. Sadly it got worse with McCulloch storming off stage seemingly due to him not liking the crowd's singing. There was also a fair amount of abuse being thrown at him in return from sections of the crowd, most of it understandable in the circumstances.

After about 20 minute the band re-appeared with only the pinnacle of the album still to play. Instead of the band playing Ocean Rain, however, they played The Killing Moon again at McCulloch's request. Then the most bizarre twist of the evening occurred when he threw his mic down whilst berating Will Sergeant before exiting stage left leaving the rest of the band and the six piece string section not knowing whether he would return. As there was no sign of that the show was effectively over.

In the end we did not get to hear the mighty Ocean Rain but saddest of all was the condition of McCulloch himself who was in no fit state to perform.

Ocean Rain was proclaimed by McCulloch upon it's release as "the greatest album ever made" and although that may not be entirely accurate it is certainly up there and deserves it's place at the top table. Such a shame that the good people of Glasgow did not get to hear it in all its majesterial glory.