Songs to Learn & Sing to get a vinyl re-release on February 18, 2022, as Echo & The Bunnymen tour the UK

Founding member and lead guitarist, Will Sergeant, spent a little time talking with me about the band and their recent vinyl re-releases ahead of Echo & The Bunnymen’s Sheffield show at the City Hall, but not before we discussed some other things beforehand.

“It was originally three of us, and a drum machine. I’ve written about most of this time in my book, Bunnyman. It’s about growing up as a kid in the 60s and 70s, getting into music and then starting the band. We only ever did 10 gigs with the drum machine. It never really gets talked about, it was a great formative period while we figured it out”

People used to say the ‘Echo’ part of the name was because of the drum machine

“That wasn’t true, we made that bit up. I think it was Mac (Ian McCulloch) who made it up. People used to call him ‘Echo’ and he didn’t like it. It was just a convenient story to deflect, like he was Echo and we were just the Bunnymen, like minions.”

“The thing is, we didn’t even come up with the name that was chosen for us. It was some art school student.

How did you and frontman Ian McCulloch come to know each other?

“He was just some lad that used to come to Eric’s, a club that was in Liverpool. He’d been in a group with Julian Cope called The Shallow Madness, and I didn’t know much about him. All I knew was that he’d left or been kicked out of this band and somebody told me that he could sing, and I was like I had a drum machine and a guitar, I just thought that I could start a band. That’s what you could do. Start a band with very little.”

“It’s a weird thing because there is still an interest in the band, we’ve been going for 40-odd years. I’m surprised that we’ve managed to keep going and maintain people’s interest, somehow.”

Our conversation weaved it’s away across many topics, he gave his thoughts on politicians, “I just feel like they’re trying to find their way to line their pockets as they climb the greasy pole”, and his thoughts on getting through the pandemic, “I’ve had all the jabs but it’s not like the MPs are following the rules, so I suppose we’ve got to just crack on… yeah, we’ve got to crack on now”.

Will spoke about the continual reverence and relevance of Echo & The Bunnymen in 2022, “It’s a funny one, I don’t like to think about the ‘why’ so much, because I think it might break the spell.”

How do you still find the passion to keep on going and making music today?

“I don’t sit there thinking that I need to learn some Led Zeppelin riff or something like that. I just play, it happens or it doesn’t. I just go with however I’m feeling. It was only after about 20-years of playing the guitar that I realised the notes were in alphabetical order”, he laughs… that’s the thing about Will, he doesn’t take things too seriously, or literally for that matter.

“I think if you know too much, you just stick to the formula… and I don’t like sticking to that. I like to go with the flow.”

“That post-punk thing, we weren’t post-punk. We were called all kinds of things, like long-overcoat music, postmodernists, what we were called once. New psychedelia or something. We like the New York Dolls, Talking Heads, Pere Ubu and Suicide, have you ever heard of Suicide? You should check them out”, duly noted Will. “They’re just amazing and Television.

“You should definitely check out Television, Marquee Moon was a massive influence to me. Velvet Underground, we all liked them, Bowie, Scott Walker, The Doors and it’s what brought us together. And, when it went into punk, it was more… the intelligent side of punk. The more thoughtful, like Wire. It still had that sneery attitude, like this is all s**t take on things”

He also touched on his oft-fraught relationship with the band’s frontman, Ian McCulloch.

“We’re not that close, in fact I’ve not spoken to him. It’s not brilliant. Not like we’re two mates. It’s more cold silences”, but he laughs, “there’s always been a sort of clash of ideas, what it’s all about. He’s got his ideas and I’ve got mine that’s it… it’s just that he’s wrong”, even though there remains a simmering emotive clash between the two, they’ve both been together - albeit on and off - for so long and yet they still turn up and put on the show the fans want to see.

“We’ve done a lot of work together over the years, and despite what’s happened, I just wanted to stick with my mates”, and you can be as stubborn and singular minded as you like as a person… but together they manage to rise above it.

Echo & The Bunnymen’s UK tour coincides with the vinyl reissue of their first Best Of album Songs to Learn & Sing, which was originally released in 1985. You can buy tickets for their tour here: https://www.gigsandtours.com/tour/echo-and-the-bunnymen