Echo and the Bunnymen - Wakefield 16/10/15 "magnificently powerful"

The fact that warehouse 23 was packed is testament to two facts. Wakefield has been criminally starved of genuine headline names for many years, this venue and others such as Unity House are beginning to remedy this. Secondly, Ian McCulloch and co have tread an admirable line between retro and relevant, punters can be safe in the knowledge that for every People Are Strange there is a Villers Terrace..

In fact it was a trio of ‘hits’ from that first album Crocodiles that opened the show – the title track – Rescue and aforementioned Villers Terrace. The later nicely segued into Roadhouse Blues with a touch of Jean Genie added for good measure. Those unmistakable rich tones of McCulloch sounding rich and full which added a different but no less enjoyable tone to those early songs.

On stage there was little in the way of interaction, but those familiar with the Bunnymen expected nothing less. The dry ice and lighting was in full effect giving the impression of  a Sisters of Mercy show, I was at their gig earlier in the week and I couldn’t see them either…

Seven Seas must be the only song ever to include the words kissing the tortoise shell, it’s a classic and was met with some relief by the casual observers amongst us, it was a powerful song then and it retains that, Will Sergeants guitar driving the chorus while beer flew across the room as the swimming motion from the video is recalled and attempted.

People Are Strange could quite easily be seen as one of those quirky hits that a band would rather forget – not quite Bowies Laughing Gnome but you get the idea. Clearly no such thoughts as its delivered straight and true and memories of Kiefer Sutherland before he grew up into Jack Bauer come flooding back.

Constantinople is for me the stand out track on last year’s excellent Meteorites album, it’s one of two tracks, together with the title track to get a run out tonight, live they sound fresh and loud and would have been a good advert if only Mac had identify their provenance.

A run of sure file solid gold hits closes the show, Never Stop, the sublime Bring On the Dancing Horses  and the gloriously extended Killing Moon get a run before The Cutter (my personal favourite) has me grinning, singing, shouting, jumping and pointing, all at the same time.. its magnificently powerful, urgent and benefits from guitars over the originals sitars.

1997 surprise comeback hit Nothing Lasts Forever is still a classic and so fitting of that time, tonight it lends itself to include elements of both Walk on the Wild Side and less predictably, In the Midnight Hour.  Lips Like Sugar closes  the set.

Echo and the Bunnymen left a warehouse full of satisfied punters if the roar of approval was anything to go by, its true it was a near faultless set and virtually career spanning. Wakefield may be genuine headline band starved but tonight it got what it wanted and much more. Echo and the Bunnymen still relevant in 2015, I never would have guessed that 30 years ago at Glastonbury..