Belladrum Festival: Echo & The Bunnymen
Echo & The Bunnymen
Simply put Echo & The Bunnymen were the best band there! OK I am a fan from the very early days but, under pretty extreme conditions, Mac's professionalism and wit cut through like the proverbial knife through butter! Will's guitar was stunning (as per usual) but for The Cutter - what can I say - SUPERB - I really wanted to take a closer look at his rig to see how he got the sound :-O
Plagued with problems, that were apparent even when the engineers were setting up, Mac managed to perform under blazing lights for the first three songs. After this he asked the press pack to "fuck off" - it wasn't nasty in the slightest - and he was met with abuse from the shits. They were in his face! I felt guitly firing off my flash so many times from the crowd but, at times, these guys were inches away! Anyway they went and Mac asked for the lights to be dimmed and set to side lights and the gig kicked off proper ;-)
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, there were technical problems a plenty but the most frustrating was a very distinctive echo on the foldback monitors. We could hear it at the front but it would not have been apparent further back. Mac complained several times to the engineers but I do not know iof they eventually sorted it or we just cancelled it out mentally - how Mac (Iain McCulloch) kept his cool I do not know but he did give one engineer a tongue thrashing after getting the crowd to scream wildly to cover the verbal onslaught - clever!
Sadly most of the crowd was unaware of the problems and just saw Mac moaning. This created a rather negative atmosphere but there were genuine Bunnyment fans in the crowd who enjoyed every minute and balanced the overall mood. In the centre of the pit (front centre) there appeared to be a small crowd that were creating in some way - positive or negative I do not know but at the end of the set they started to BOO ! Bastards, as if we would get an encore after that abuse! Overall we enjoyed the set and were amazed at the sound generated from just guitars, bass, drums and vocals, another memorable gig for both positive and negative. Personally (possibly because we are scousers) I enjoy it just as much when Mac is being bitchy as when he is buzzing with the crowd.
The Liverpool wit and sense of humour is world renowned but seldom fully understood....
Below are a few of my photo's from the gig, the last is a photo of Will that looks very much like Jonathan Ross - very funny - I might send it of the Ross unless Will asks me not to LOL ;-) Any publicity is good pulicity?
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Belladrum Festival: Tartan Heart