ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN, one of the most influential British bands in modern history announced a major UK tour for March 2024. The tour celebrated the songs that have brought the band twenty Top 20 hits and nine Top 20 albums so far during their incredible 40+ year career.

The band’s seminal albums Crocodiles, Heaven Up Here, Porcupine and Ocean Rain have been a major influence for many groups such as Coldplay, The Killers, The Flaming Lips and Hole, whilst later albums Evergreen, What Are You Going To Do With Your Life and Siberia & Meteorites demonstrate what an amazing body of work the band has. Their latest studio album The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon was released in 2018 with Q Magazine calling it “Magical”.

Echo & The Bunnymen completed a lauded sold out run of Ocean Rain concerts in 2023 with The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra which included a hometown show at Liverpool M&S Bank Arena.

We were fortunate enough to be invited to their Bristol show which took place at Bristol’s Beacon venue, read on to see how the evening went.

Opening the show was the one and only ERICA NOCKALLS, a name which many may know from her sterling work with The Wonderstuff and The Proclaimers. Her set was eclectic, varied and very interesting, some around me referred to it as ‘screechy’, but to me, it was utterly beautiful.

Echo & the Bunnymen’s set consisted of tracks lifted from nine of their thirteen albums, they kicked off with ‘Going Up’ and from the get go, I was amazed at teh pure clarity of the vocals, maybe some of the recently spent £132 million were spent on the sound system as it sounded INCREDIBLE!

I’ll admit that ‘Rescue’ was the first track that this reviewer recognised and this was followed by a new offering ‘Brussels is Haunted’, which I really enjoyed, Ian however, mentioned that it might be time to slip to the bar at this point!

‘All My Colours’ was followed by ‘Never Stop’ which was followed by a lengthy chat from Ian, I struggled to decipher any of his words, and by the looks of things, the people around me were in the same boat!

‘Bring on the Dancing Horses’ bought the groove that we so desired from tonight’s performance, this saw the close to ‘act 1’. As I refreshed my drink, I thought to myself “How can a man sing so clearly and beautifully, but sound so incomprehensible when talking?”

Act 2 started with ‘Show of Strength’ and followed closely after by ‘Over the Wall’, another new one which sounded to this reviewer like an older track that had been ‘re-worked’ in a perfect synergy to the more familiar tracks from their back catalogue.

‘Seven Seas’ saw a marked change in the overall tempo of the show, this didn’t last long as they followed this by ‘Nothing lasts Forever’, a true crowd pleasing classic which did the trick in plastering smiles all around the hall. The track merged into Lou Reed’s ‘Take a Walk on the Wid Side’ which saw Ian singing “Hey Bristol, Take a Walk on the Merseyside’ with the entire room joining in with the ‘doo-de-doo’ section at the end, a real moment for this reviewer.

‘Bedbugs and Ballyhoo’ saw the introduction of a jazz piano section, which was a surprise, albeit a nice one as was completely unexpected.

One of the most recognised tracks, ‘The Killing Moon’ kicked off with a different tempo from the one that you and I are familiar with. Despite this, it sounded incredible and with the audience participation, sounded as classic as it ever did and left a lingering memory in my ears.

‘The Cutter’ saw the close to act 2 and the band leave the stage for what seemed like a very long time, I guess a band like this can take their time…

When the band took to the stage for their 2 track encore, Ian spent some time berating BBC 6 Music, saying that Jo Whiley has size 98 feet and that she ‘uses them to paddle’, this confused me as Jo Whiley doesn’t host a show on BBC 6 Music, maybe he was referring to ‘The Beeb’ as a wider basis, who knows?!

‘Lips Like Sugar’ kicked off the encore, this was seemingly cut short, Ian talked fro 5 minutes about his crushing OCD, football and desoite the good humour, it was apparent that the audience were keen for the track to restart. This was followed by ‘Ocean Rain’ which sounded incredible, I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have to rush back in after ‘Lips Like Sugar’, thinking that it was all over and I had one up on everyone else as was nearly out of the hall when it started!

Summary

A perfectly curated set, which mixed the classics with the new, it was clear that the tracks had been selected to match Ian’s vocal range, which has naturally changed over the years.

Act 2 was more of a mixed bag, ‘Killing Moon’ left me a little deflated as I so in love with the original version, but hey, you need to keep an open mind and to hear it with the new tempo was refreshing. Maybe this is a ploy to allow Ian to approach the track a little differently, he must be well used to singing it ‘as it should be delivered’, either way, I’m over it!

The encore chit-chat seemed drawn out and unnecessary, which seemed to stop the flow of the show somewhat and frustrate many of the audience, though it was amusing to hear Ian rant on about whatever was on his mind!

Tonight was a treat for this reviewer who at one point in the afternoon, wasn’t planning on attending after a very long afternoon, but she did and she was SO GLAD that she made it!

Words and Pictures by Charlie Pope

Setlist