Echo & The Bunnymen | Artist

Band member Pete de Freitas died in 1989 at the age of 27, tragically joining that illustrious group of brilliant yet ill-fated artists known as the "27 Club"

Echo & the Bunnymen is an English rock band formed 1978 in Liverpool by original line-up vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bassist Les Pattinson, supplemented by a drum machine. By 1980, Pete de Freitas joined as the band's drummer. The band's dark, swirling fusion of gloomy post-punk and Doors-inspired psychedelia, driven by the majestic voice and outsized persona of singer Ian McCulloch and the frequently brilliant guitar work of Will Sergeant, achieved for them enduring cult status. McCulloch began his career in 1977, in a band called Crucial Three with Julian Cope and Pete Wylie. When Wylie left to form Wah!, McCulloch and Cope renamed the band to A Shallow Madness, adding drummer Dave Pickett and organist Paul Simpson. When Cope sacked McCulloch from the band, A Shallow Madness changed their name to The Teardrop Explodes, and McCulloch joined forces with Will Sergeant and Les Pattinson to form Echo & the Bunnymen. In November 1978, the band made its debut at Liverpool's Eric's Club supporting The Teardrop Explodes. The band played one song, a 20-minute version of "Monkeys". Their debut album, 1980's Crocodiles received critical acclaim but only modest attention at the time. Their next album, Heaven Up There (1981), was an even bigger critical and commercial success, reaching the UK Top Ten. The third album Porcupine yielded the major single "The Cutter" and the fourth album Ocean Rain became their most successful album of all and, arguably, their best. The band still works, under the helm of McCulloch and Sergeant, with some new players, and have released a total of 14 albums to-date, Standout albums include the first four, which are masterpieces of psychedelic post-punk: Crocodiles (1980), Heaven up Here (1981), Porcupine (1983), and Ocean Rain (1984). Other standouts include Echo & the Bunnymen (1987), Live in Liverpool (2002), and The John Peel Sessions 1979-83 (2019). In 2002, the group received the Q Inspiration award for inspiring "new generations of musicians, songs and music lovers in general." The band were said to be worthy winners as they have done much to promote the Mersey music scene. In Magnet magazine, McCulloch said "It validates everything that we've tried to achieve—cool, great timeless music. It's not like an inspiration award affecting the past, it's affecting the current music." In the 1982 book Liverpool Explodes!, Will Sergeant explained the origin of the band's name: "We had this mate who kept suggesting all these names like the Daz Men or Glisserol and the Fan Extractors. Echo and the Bunnymen was one of them. I thought it was just as stupid as the rest."

Artist Website: bunnymen.com

Featured Albums: Echo & The Bunnymen

Related Artists: Echo and the Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch, Poltergeist, The Serpents, Wah!, The Teardrop Explopdes, Julian Cope

Collections: 27 Forever