Today we celebrate a milestone birthday reached by the one of (partially self-proclaimed) great band frontmen to come out of the 1980s.
He is a hugely talented singer and writer, but who has sometimes been noted as much for his blunt assessments of others, as for his music.
One of the Crucial Three!
Ian McCulloch was born on 5 May 1959 and bought up in Norris Green, north east of Liverpool city centre.
His early musical career was as part of the twisted family tree that made up the Liverpool music scene in the late 1970s. His first band of note has become a thing of legend, despite the fact that they never recorded anything, or even played live. The Crucial Three played their part in the legend of Liverpool's second musical wave across six weeks of May and June 1977, in Pete Wylie's bedroom.
Wylie would have hits with Mighty Wah!; second band member, Julian Cope, would later form Teardrop Explodes and have a long life as a solo artist and expert on British neolithic culture and mythology. The last member was McCulloch.
From there, he and Cope, along with other future Teardrop's Mick Finkler and Paul Simpson, plus Dave Pickett, formed A Shallow Madness. They too, never got as far as recording or performing - lasting through to October 1978.
Bring on the Bunnymen
Next, he got together with guitarist Will Sergeant and bass player Les Pattinson, and a drum machine, with the rest becoming, as they say, history. The story that the drum machine was the 'Echo' in Echo & The Bunnymen, has always been denied by the band - they say the name was just one of a list of silly options suggested by a friend.
In November 1978, they made their live debut at legendary Liverpool club Eric's. That was followed the next May by their debut single, The Picture On My Wall, released on Zoo Records, and then an opportunity to record a session for John Peel. By the end of 79, the drum machine was out and Pete de Freitas was in on drums.
Echo & The Bunnymen: Rescue (Live on Rockpalast, 1983)
As was common at the time, the albums came thick and fast. First up was 1980s Crocodiles, a well received record that broke the Top20. Heaven Up Here followed in 1981, as did their first tour of the US. There was something of a pause in output through 1982, as recording of album number three became quite tortuous, with McCulloch later remarking that the mood of the band by the time Porcupine came out in 1983, was "horrible".
Echo & The Bunnymen: The Cutter (Official music video)
Then, in 1984, came what is generally accepted as their masterpiece. McCulloch was quick to say that Ocean Rain was the greatest album of all time, but many others tended to agree to some degree. It contains The Killing Moon, the band's second Top10 hit (after The Cutter) - quite probably one of the greatest songs ever written. Mac tends to agree with me on that, saying, "I know there isn't a band in the world who's got a song anywhere near that."
Echo & The Bunnymen: The Killing Moon (Live on Old Grey Whistle Test)
Deaths and solo projects
The Bunnymen ended up limping to their end, which actually ended up being more a long hiatus. 1987's self-titled album, which ended up being totally re-recorded because de Freitas had left and come back again, didn't fare well with the critics. McCulloch left the band, thinking they would all stop without him, and was more than a little peeved when they gamely tried to carry on with another singer, Noel Burke.
When de Freitas was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident in June 1989, the second Bunnymen experiment was ended, and it also played on McCulloch's mind (along with the recent death of his father) as he recorded his debut solo record, Candeland.
Ian McCulloch: Proud To Fall (Official music video)
1990s Candleland was followed by Mysterio two years later. In 1993 McCulloch began working with Johnny Marr, with that music forming the basis of his next project Electrafixion, which also saw Sargeant return to the fold. They released one album called Burned.
Electrafixion: Sister Pain (audio only)
Return of the Bunnymen
With Mac and Sargeant working together it again, it was perhaps unsurprising that the next step saw Pattinson back as well. The Bunnymen were back, and in 1997 returned in style with the wonderful Evergreen.
Echo & The Bunnymen: Nothing Lasts Forever (Live on Later.... with Jools)
Since then, the cycle of recording and touring seems to have remained fairly constant, although Pattinson would leave after 1999s What Are You Going To Do With Your Life? to look after his mother (and later emigrate to Australia). 2005's Siberia, includes the song Parthenon Drive, which recalls that Norris Green street where McCulloch grew up.
Mac the Mouth
Ian McCulloch has always found time to provide blunt and sarcastic analysis of others, earning him the nickname Mac the Mouth. As he said himself, "I'm the most opinionated person I've ever come across."
He has had lots to say over the years about other musicians. Perhaps the most notable was his constant attacks on Bono. "Had he been in Liverpool, he would have been laughed out of the place" he told one journalist in 2011. There was plenty more of that over the years, although he would later concede - "Me saying from the word go that I thought he was a buffoon. He obviously isn't a buffoon. He's a clever bloke and he's written some good tunes - nothing with any profundity, I don't think - but some decent melodies."
He would occasionally pour scorn on Joy Division, before later admitting, "They blew us away in terms of stage presence and putting on a great rock n roll show."
There weren't even kind words for original Liverpool legends, the Beatles. He told Classic Pop magazine - "But Sgt Pepper's... was shit in my opinion. It was embarrassing. Lennon dressed like he was auditioning for a Spaghetti Western or something."
Or there was that pithy one liner about Elbow - "They strike me as a band in search of a chorus."
There was an amusing take down of fellow 80s icons, The Smiths. "I think the idea that The Smiths were the most significant British group of the 80s is just soddin' nonsense.... If the Smiths were symbolic of the 80s, maybe that's why music ended up going nowhere in a cul-de-sac in Rochdale."
He was more positive about Oasis and the sheer front of frontman Liam Gallagher, perhaps something of a reflection in self-promotion? "From when Oasis first started I thought, 'Thank Christ someone has picked up on that simple technique of saying they're the best thing on the planet and just fronting it."
Mac the man
David Burke, writing in Classic Pop, sums up Mac the man and Mac the singer very well.
His voice is soaked in the experience of a life well lived, a dance between grace and danger.... [he is] a freewheeling symphony of sarcasm, mischief, truthfulness, sensitivity and savvy... When Mac the Mouth talks, he sounds like a wounded but wise man full of tales and trickery. And when he sings, he still sounds like the boy who should have been King.
Perhaps we'll leave this look back at the first 65 years of Ian McCulloch with something from the man himself. Whether or not you agree with him, he's been giving it his best shot.
"I only ever wanted, since the age of 13, to be the best singer of the best band in the world."
Happy 65th Birthday Mac!!
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