Musical Monday: Echo & the Bunnymen

Posted on 22/08/2022 by Sheree

I’m still mining the list of artists I’ve seen more than once. This week I’m turning to Echo & the Bunnymen, one of the first bands I saw live.

Echo & the Bunnymen are an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1978. The original line-up consisted of vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bassist Les Pattinson. By 1980, Pete de Freitas joined as the band’s drummer.

Their 1980 debut album Crocodiles went into the top 20 of the UK Albums Chart. After releasing their second album Heaven Up Here in 1981, the band’s cult status was followed by mainstream success in the UK in 1983 when they scored a UK Top 10 hit with The Cutter, and the album which the song came from, Porcupine, hit number 2 in the UK. Ocean Rain (1984), continued the band’s UK chart success with its lead single The Killing Moon entering into the top 10.

After releasing a self-titled album in 1987, McCulloch left the band and was replaced by singer Noel Burke. In 1989, de Freitas was killed in a motorcycle accident. After working together as Electrafixion, McCulloch and Sergeant regrouped with Pattinson in 1997 and returned as Echo & the Bunnymen, before Pattinson’s departure in 1998. The band has done some touring and released several albums since the late 1990s to varying degrees of success.