Echo & The Bunnymen play first Brighton gig in a decade, but was it worth it?

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN + ERICA NOCKALLS – BRIGHTON DOME 3.3.24

It is widely believed that Echo & The Bunnymen are one of the most influential British bands in modern history, having initially formed in Liverpool back in 1978. They gigged and later toured with The Teardrop Explodes as the new breed of bands flying the flag for the exploding post-punk scene. The Bunnymen were initially signed to David Balfe and future KLF legend Bill Drummond’s Zoo Records, but by the time they dropped their debut album, ‘Crocodiles’ in 1980, they were recording for Korova, an imprint of WEA. During this time, the band travelled south and played two concerts here in Brighton, the first of which being at Brighton Polytechnic on 12th June 1980 and the second was at Jenkinson’s on 28th September that same year. Jenkinsons would also see the appearance of The Teardrop Explodes a few weeks later on 2nd November 1980 and I was there! The Bunnymen returned to Brighton at the Top Rank Suite on 6th May 1981 in support of their second long-player ‘Heaven Up Here’. Their debut performance for Brighton Dome was on 27th January 1983, a few days ahead of the release of their third album ‘Porcupine’. I attended this concert as I still have my ticket as well as two later ones. I’m still trying to desperately recall if I had attended any of the earlier shows.

So here we are back at Brighton Dome 15,011 days after The Bunnymen’s debut performance here and the band have still managed to sell out the venue. After a gap here of 41 years, this is mighty impressive! But will the band be as good this time around? Let’s see shall we……

The current Bunnymen strictly speaking only consists of vocalist Ian McCulloch aka ‘Mac’ and guitarist Will Sergeant, who have been on the whole journey. The 1983 lineup also featured Les Pattinson on bass who was with the outfit from 1978–1993 and then again from 1996–1998; and also Pete de Freitas on drums from 1979 until his untimely death in 1989 at the age of 27, where he was on his 900cc Ducati motorcycle on the A51 in Longdon Green, Staffordshire when he collided with a motor vehicle. Tonight’s lineup features four other musicians, keys, drums, bass and second guitar. Sadly ‘Mac’ does not introduce any of them and as a result it feels like the newbies are simply just filling in. The internet suggests these fellows might well be Stephen Brannan (bass), Simon Finley (drums), Pete Reilly (guitar) and Mike Smith (keyboards).

This evening is the second night of their 14-UK tour having played in Norwich last night. This tour is in celebration of the songs that have brought the group twenty top 20 hits and nine top 20 albums so far during their incredible 40+ year career. Sadly it’s not to promote a new LP as their last studio album ‘The Stars & The Oceans & The Moon’ was released way back on 5th October 2018. Tonight we get served 15 compositions from their 1980 to 2001 period and two unreleased numbers. This being one more song than their 1983 concert, but in fact one song less than Norwich last night.

As you would expect the band comes on to warm applause and a loud cheer. ‘Mac’ swooshes up to the mic in his trademark dark shades, which ironically prove problematic when endeavouring to depart at the end of the set, cue roadie with a torch! Will Sergeant is house left and is by far the most visible of the sextet (or is that 2+4?) with the others hidden in a dry ice haze with washes of colour and effectively silhouetting the frontman and the other performers. This is a deliberate act of mysticism, which is reinforced by the fact that the press photographers present are only allowed to shoot from the rear of the circular hall, as opposed to up-close-and-personal in the photographers pit, like is the normal practice. The fog-bound show gets under way, but unknown to the band our allocated seats are almost overhanging the side of the stage and so we can see what’s going on.

Having wandered on at 9:04pm during the intro tape of Gregorian Chants (‘Officium Tenebrarum: Resp.: Sicut Ovis’ from 1977 ‘Officium Tenebrarum (Gregorian Chants)’ album by Pierre De La Rue, Johannes Gardano, Bernardus Ycart – Utrecht Students’ Choir), the band launch into ‘Going Up’ and ‘All That Jazz’ both from 1980’s ‘Crocodiles’ album. The latter benefitting from some rather fine drumming. ‘Mac’ then states “Cheers thanks for coming cheers. After all these years. Mad”. They then launch into the slower grunging rocker ‘Flowers’ from the 2001 album of the same name. Crowd favourite ‘Rescue’ also from the ‘Crocodiles’ album is their next offering. ‘Mac’ then informs us that they are going to play a new one, this turns out to be ‘Brussels Is Haunted’, this being the exact same song I heard them play 697 days ago in Bexhill. Yes it’s still unreleased, but 697 days referring to new, hmmm I doubt it. Having said this, it is actually a top quality tune with a David Bowie vibe mixed in there somewhere, and the keys are to the fore. I wonder when this will see the light of day?

It was now time for one of the set highlight’s, this being the solid ‘Never Stop’ found on 1983’s ‘Porcupine’ album, mind you, for me this was bettered by the following number ‘All My Colours’ (aka ‘Zimbo’) from 1981’s ‘Heaven Up Here’ long-player, which benefits from slow keys and heavy faster drumming combo beat. This was a great rendition. ‘Mac’ seemed to be rather talkative this evening in parts, but with his extreme Scouse accent, I wasn’t able to hang onto every utterance. What I did catch was that the next track, the 1985 single ‘Bring On The Dancing Horses’ would be the last in set one. Eh, what’s this, yet another interval? What for? There is seriously no need for this interruption in their set and after this track they waltz off having only played for 34 minutes! Oh dearie me!

For the unwanted extra 13 minute interval, we were entertained by a few tunes which included the Clash’s ‘Straight To Hell’ (which sounded terrific) and T. Rex’s ‘Ride A White Swan’. On this similar subject I was listening to ‘Ride A White Horse’ live here last night as performed by Alison Goldfrapp – Read that review HERE.

Back to this evening and set two commenced at 9:50pm with 1981’s ‘Show Of Strength’ from their ‘Heaven Up Here’ album. The bass and drums combo was very much within PiL territory and was most enjoyable. Next up was 1984’s uplifting ‘Seven Seas’ which can be found on the ‘Ocean Rain’ album. There was a real Gallagher brothers (Oasis) vibe going down during ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ (from 1997 ‘Evergreen’ album). This incorporated segments of ’Walk On The Wild Side’. The second new tune was to be played, this was ‘Unstoppable Force’ which I understand made its live debut on 29th February at a gig in Guilford. So this was a new tune. It’s a quieter one and my friend’s choice track of the night as well as the aforementioned ‘Seven Seas’.

The funkiest The Bunnymen ever get is on ‘Bedbugs And Ballyhoo’ and this reminded my other friend of The Doors on ‘An American Prayer’ on account of the cracking solo on electric piano. Heading for the home straight and ‘Mac’ and the lads have the stage totally bathed in striking red light as they release ‘Heads Will Roll’ (from ‘Porcupine’), but the concert goes up several notches with the arrival of both ‘The Killing Moon’ and ‘The Cutter’, the latter which ‘Mac’ refers to as the “second best song of all time!”. I wonder what his favourite is?.

The guys vacate the stage for quite some time and when they do actually reappear ‘Mac’ is perched on a stool for some reason. Is he having a rest, or unwell or trying to croon his way through the sole final number ‘Lips Like Sugar’. I’m unsure and undecided. Last night they had a two song encore and tonight ‘Mac’ simply gets up and leaves (without acknowledging us all) and the others follow. A roadie starts to retune Will’s guitar, but then the house lights go up, then this is immediately followed by mass booing. At 10:39pm that was it. Set two lasted 49 minutes, and so in total we had 1 hour and 23 minutes of them on stage, which equates to something like £3 per tune. Now if you are going to down a barrel of tequila before this performance then it’s going to be your gig of the year. However, if you have solely had one beer and have witnessed The Bunnymen previously on at least four separate occasions down the years, then you will be fully aware that if The Bunnymen had a school report it would state “C- Must try harder!” for tonight’s performance.

Echo & The Bunnymen:
Ian McCulloch – vocals
Will Sergeant – guitar
? Stephen Brannan – bass
? Simon Finley – drums
? Pete Reilly – guitar
? Mike Smith – keyboards

Echo & The Bunnymen setlist:
Set 1:
‘Intro tape’ (‘Officium Tenebrarum: Resp.: Sicut Ovis’ from 1977 ‘Officium Tenebrarum (Gregorian Chants)’ album by Pierre De La Rue, Johannes Gardano, Bernardus Ycart – Utrecht Students’ Choir)
‘Going Up’ (from 1980 ‘Crocodiles’ album)
‘All That Jazz’ (from 1980 ‘Crocodiles’ album)
‘Flowers’ (from 2001 ‘Flowers’ album)
‘Rescue’ (from 1980 ‘Crocodiles’ album)
‘Brussels Is Haunted’ (unreleased)
‘Never Stop’ (a 1983 single)
‘All My Colours’ (aka ‘Zimbo’) (from 1981 ‘Heaven Up Here’ album)
‘Bring On The Dancing Horses’ (a 1985 single)

Set 2:
‘Show Of Strength’ (from ‘Heaven Up Here’ 1981)
‘Seven Seas’ (from 1984 ‘Ocean Rain’ album)
‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ (from 1997 ‘Evergreen’ album)/’Walk On The Wild Side’ (Lou Reed cover)
‘Unstoppable Force’ (unreleased)
‘Bedbugs And Ballyhoo’ (from 1987 ‘Echo & The Bunnymen’ album)
‘Heads Will Roll’ (from 1983 ‘Porcupine’ album)
‘The Killing Moon’ (from 1984 ‘Ocean Rain’ album)
‘The Cutter’ (from 1983 ‘Porcupine’ album)
(encore)
‘Lips Like Sugar’ (from 1987 ‘Echo & The Bunnymen’ album)

www.bunnymen.com

Support this evening came from Erica Nockalls who is the special guest for the whole tour as chosen by Ian McCulloch. Her name seemed vaguely familiar to me but I couldn’t actually place where from. On investigation it only turns out that this is the same Erica Nockalls that has been a member of Stourbridge’s finest export, The Wonder Stuff, for almost two decades! Erica is also one-half of acoustic duo Miles Hunt & Erica Nockalls, as well as being a live fiddle player for The Proclaimers.

Erica is an artist in her own right and tonight she is promoting her solo material. Her Bandcamp page offers up an insight of what we are to expect: “Her songwriting is removed from the pop norm: Gritty drum machines, generous synths, cutting tones mixed with unusual violins and glass-sharp vocals. Erica Nockalls chooses danger and experimentation with her violin, making it a tool of creation, rather than accompaniment. Blunt. Honest. Generous. There’s a lid boiling on her British reserve.”

The Dome lights go down at 7:57pm and two figures clad in black take to the stage. One being Erica and the other being her fiancé/producer/partner in crime, namely Jean-Charles Versari. They both live together in Paris and have come over to play the whole tour. They have previously supported Echo & The Bunnymen at the Royal Albert Hall on 18th September last year on the UK leg of the ‘Ocean Rain’ tour.

Tonight we are given a seven song selection across 31 minutes, with a half dozen of these being found on Erica’s nine track ‘Dark Music From A Warm Place’ album from 2021. Not having witnessed Erica live before I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Last year, I did distantly walk past The Proclaimers whilst they were performing at ‘Latitude Festival’, but I can’t recall seeing her on stage.

This evening they kick off with ‘Build Me A Ship’, which is an intriguingly moody piece. Erica holds court as lead vocalist, whilst Jean-Charles standing by her side plucks away at his guitar. Behind Erica there is a drum machine unit placed on top of a speaker and in front of her is a small box of tricks that I suspect alters her vocal deliveries. Tune two was ‘Mouth Full Of Something’ and for this Erica brings forth her violin for its first outing, whilst Jean-Charles offers up backing vocals. This track is more urgent than its predecessor and all the better for it. However, both of these tracks are bettered by 2022’s ‘This Silent Dog’ single. After which there’s a nod to their chosen residence with the offering of ‘Eiffel’s Eye’, which is even better! Erica opens up her vocal chords even more for track five, ‘House Of Erica’, which if the Cocteau Twins had been Gaelic then this would be their sound. Their penultimate selection was ‘The King Of Want’ with its Toni Basil ‘Mickey’ style intro drumbeat. They signed off with the slower, reflective ‘Making Friends With An Alien’ and at 8:28pm they were done. During their performance the crowd had steadily grown and at the set culmination, the duo were playing to a fair sized audience, and one which most certainly gave the couple their just reward. It had been quite a unique performance and it would be interesting to catch Erica and Jean-Charles again.

Erica Nockalls:
Erica Nockalls – lead vocals, violin
Jean-Charles Versari – guitar, vocals

Erica Nockalls setlist:
‘Build Me A Ship’ (from 2023 ‘Build Me A Ship’ / ‘In Every Dream Home A Heartache’ single & from 2021 ‘Dark Music From A Warm Place’ album)
‘Mouth Full Of Something’ (from 2021 ‘Dark Music From A Warm Place’ album)
‘This Silent Dog’ (from 2022 ‘This Silent Dog’ single)
‘Eiffel’s Eye’ (a 2021 single & from 2021 ‘Dark Music From A Warm Place’ album)
‘House Of Erica’ (from 2021 ‘Dark Music From A Warm Place’ album)
‘The King Of Want’ (from 2021 ‘Dark Music From A Warm Place’ album)
‘Making Friends With An Alien’ (from 2021 ‘Dark Music From A Warm Place’ album)

www.ericanockalls.com