40 Years — A Tale of Two Bands

When WEA set up Korova records as its pseudo indie label in 1979, it was primarily as a means of releasing material from an exciting up and coming Liverpool band called Echo and the Bunnymen. By the time the first release hit the shops in 1980 however it was also the launch pad for The Sound, a London based band that became its second signing.

Here we are on the 40th anniversary of both bands’ debuts. Fanfares may differ but for both bands they still ring out.

1980 was certainly a time of dizzying creativity in British indieland. Punk was long gone and in its place came a restless and dizzying procession of music that the terms ‘new wave’ or ‘post punk’ were desperately incapable of defining. This is exemplified by just a few debut singles or albums of the year from the Durutti Column, Orange Juice, The Birthday Party and Dexy’s Midnight Runners to Associates, Bauhaus and Soft Cell. Into this came ‘Crocodiles’ by Echo and The Bunnymen (catalogue KODE 1) and ‘Jeopardy’ by The Sound (catalogue KODE 2.)

Rolling Stone magazine’s David Fricke introduced readers to Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch as a specialist in ‘apocalyptic brooding’ and positioned his role in the debut album as ‘a portrait of the singer as a young neurotic.’ Unsurprisingly much of the background to the new band was told in the context of its genesis — McCulloch having been one of the Crucial Three along with Pete Wylie and Julian Cope, seen as Liverpool indie gentry at the time. The album though marked a very clear delineation between McCulloch’s band, The Teardrop Explodes (Cope’s) and Wha! Heat/Wha! (Wylie’s) — Fricke defines McCulloch’s focus on ‘Crocodiles’ as ‘fears of isolation, death, sexual and emotional bankruptcy.’ Along with comparisons to Jim Morrison, this may all sound bleak but the record was anything but. Propelled by a creative and driving rhythm section of drummer Pete DeFreitas and bassist Les Pattinson, McCulloch’s expansive vocals were more than matched by the distinctive guitar of Will Sergeant. As a unit, the band had a swagger right from the off and this debut revealed them pretty much fully formed. Some bands take two or three albums to hit their stride but not this one.

By contrast, The Sound’s arrival came with little fanfare. There was no backstory (they had descended from little known Wimbledon punk outfit The Outsiders) but the searing intensity of the Nick Robbins produced ‘Jeopardy’ made unexpected waves. Dave McCulloch was an early and consistent advocate, writing in Sounds that the band packed ‘a clout, meaner and more effectively focused than any other band I’ve heard this year‘ whilst Steve Sutherland in Melody Maker was similarly unequivocal, describing the album as having ‘more spirit, more soul and more downright honesty about it than any other record I’ve heard this year.’ As frontman, Adrian Borland was a very different beast to McCulloch, his intensely impassioned vocals and guitar screamed direct aggression. The band’s approach — built on the brooding bass of Graham Bailey, the unusually un new wave keys/sax combination of Bi Marshall and the precisely driven drumming of Mike Dudley — certainly had more to it than a visceral punch. ‘Intensity’ would however be the recurring description of the The Sound over the years and it was front and centre right from their debut.

The two bands toured the UK and the Netherlands together to promote the albums in 1980. Their commercial success however had already started to diverge. ‘Crocodiles’ peaked at 17 in the UK signalling that the Bunnymen had well and truly arrived. For The Sound, in spite of the critical plaudits, recognition was harder to come by — especially at home in Britain.

This initial divergence set a pattern. The Bunnymen’s career continued with Korova on subsequent albums over 5 years which included UK top 5 success for ‘Porcupine’ and ‘Ocean Rain.’ By the time the Sound released their third album in 1982 they had been transferred from Korova to the parent WEA Records and were under pressure to produce something chartable as their former stablemates had. Band and label were reportedly fed up with each other by then so when the spikily discordant and belligerent ‘All Fall Down’ was delivered the result seemed predestined. The band was dropped.

However, The Sound were not finished in 1982 and the Bunnymen’s continued ascent was not guaranteed beyond 1985. The music biz is never so predictable.

By 1984, The Sound were again firing (this time on indie label Statik) and over the next two years would release a mini album (‘Shock of Daylight’), a double live set from The Marquee (‘In The Hothouse’) and a full studio album (‘Heads & Hearts’) before Statik went bust. Their last home was Play It Again Sam which released final album 1987’s ‘Thunder Up.’ A year later they folded.

That same year — 1988 — McCulloch left the Bunnymen and the band’s future appeared very tenuous when in 1989 drummer DeFreitas was tragically killed in a motorbike accident. To some people’s surprise however, Will Sergeant and Les Pattinson put together a new line up and produced the rather unloved 1990 album ‘Reverberation’ before The Bunnymen too called it a day

And that might have been that.

The Bunnymen though returned. Sergeant and McCulloch reunited as Electrafixion in 1994 and were then joined by Pattison three years later so that the Bunnymen name was resurrected for 1997’s ‘Evergreen.’ The band (in one form or another around the McCulloch and Sergeant axis) has remained active ever since.

Borland’s career too was far from over. First with The Citizens then solo and occasionally with side projects such as White Rose Transmission, he continued treading his very personal path through the 90s. Largely ignored at home, he found enthusiastic, loyal and supportive audiences (as his band had done) in Europe especially in the Netherlands. Tragically however, the brooding intensity of Borland’s music had been driven by his emerging bi-polar disorder which eventually led to his suicide in 1999.

Fans of both bands remain passionate about their musical importance. In 2021, audiences will be celebrating the Bunnymen’s 40-year anniversary (delayed by Covid) in a 19 date UK tour across major venues. This comes 19 years after receiving Q Magazine’s ‘Inspiration’ award in which McCulloch took great pride in the fact that the band’s long history was driving music right now.

For fans of The Sound there is a far more modest recognition in the vinyl reissues of four of their albums (not ‘Jeopardy’.) In the absence of awards, a belief that the band has been unfairly neglected in favour of contemporaries (including The Bunnymen but certainly also Joy Division) will certainly reverberate. On the basis of commercial clout there is only one headline but history looks different when viewed by the loser rather than written by the winner.

‘Crocodiles’ and ‘Jeopardy’ are both great records even today — yet one sold and one didn’t. ‘From the Lion’s Mouth’, the Sound’s follow up, is probably their best album and arguably stronger than the Bunnymen’s ‘Heaven Up Here’ (their follow up to ‘Crocodiles’) yet sales went in contrasting directions.

Did Borland’s ill health contribute? Probably not — in fact his restless brittle energy was actually the very heart of the band’s best work. Certainly it had a tragic impact on his life and those close to him over subsequent years but it seems that band members didn’t define it as really problematic until towards the end of the band’s tenure when, following a breakdown in 1987, Borland was advised by the other three members to take some time away for treatment.

Did marketing have some part to play? Maybe — certainly McCulloch’s good looks and natural expressiveness made him a gift for interviewers (on its release he described ‘Ocean Rain’ as ‘the greatest album ever made’) whereas Borland and his bandmates were not naturally comfortable with the media spotlight.

Fashion had its part to play too — the Bunnymen were always a cool badge to wear and The Sound never were. This has always played a part in the fate of bands in Britain whereas it’s far less important outside; the Sound’s relative recognition in Europe may be a case in point.

Musical development certainly mattered too. The Sound simply never produced sweeping, anthemic songs that cut across indie and mainstream barriers in the way that ‘The Cutter’ and ‘Killing Moon’ did for the Bunnymen. It takes a special skill — and desire — to achieve this.

There was too an internal and more self-inflicted issue which Mike Dudley recalled in 2004. “The Sound were never an easy band to deal with even amongst ourselves let alone the……..people that you have to deal with to survive in the music business.” This suggests a degree of irascibility that undoubtedly became a greater problem as sales remained underwhelming. He describes the band as “always argumentative and pulling against everybody.” It’s often been said that ‘From The Lion’s Mouth’ deserved to be much bigger — indeed to some it’s inexplicable that it wasn’t; Dudley saw it similarly as ‘an opportunity’ missed by the band ‘spending too much time being unhelpful.’

The sense of an opportunity missed reverberates through the history of The Sound and is a foundation pillar of Marc Waltman’s excellent 2016 film ‘Walking in the Opposite Direction’, the very existence of which is seen as vindication by many fans of the man’s legacy.

Maybe this debate doesn’t matter in the end. Adrian Borland always wanted The Sound to be ‘The Velvet Underground of the 80s’ (in Mike Dudley’s words) and, in the same way that the Velvets remain revered and seen as trailblazers, respect for The Sound endures. Likewise, McCulloch’s ambition for the Bunnymen to achieve ‘cool, great, timeless music’ has clearly been achieved 40 years on as they sell out venues across the country.

40 years is a long time. That these two bands and their debuts are still being discussed says much about their achievement.

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Sources — John Elsasser (2003) interview with Ian McCulloch (Magnet 2006); John Clarkson interview with Mike Dudley (Penny Black Music 2004); John Fricke review of Crocodiles (Rolling Stone April 16 1981)