Will Sergeant - Echoes # 1 Echo & the Bunnymen - Pictures on My Wall

 

'I would rate Bunnymen, without doubt, as one of the most enjoyable books I have read!'

Tim Jones

Yes, you can believe your eyes. That Tim Jones. The Tim Jones! Not Mick Jones, Joe's 'guitar hero' from Queensway chancers The Clash. Not bloody Bobby Gillespie or blooming Courtney Love or that bloke from Screaming Trees who's just made his way to wherever we all head next.

Tim Jones is not one of the great and good. Not one of those you see pictures of when you pick up the latest copy of Mojo or Uncut Magazine to skim through an article of old photos of the Punk glory days in the Roxy or The 100 Club or whichever dive X Ray Spex or Wire might have been playing that night. Unless he's in the audience. He might well have been.

I've known Tim for about 20 years now. We taught a teacher training course together on Riga, Latvia, when I was working there as a trainer. We got on and have kept in touch, meeting up occasionally since. Tim's great value for money whether he's on the subject of London, Politics, Music, Football or just life. He's a very good bloke to have a pint or several with. 

He sometimes posts photos of himself on Social Media when he was in his late teens and early twenties. A very good looking and stylish fellow at the height of Punk and Post Punk. He's one of those guys who saw everyone you longed to see. Just before you started going to gigs.

He loved the Bunnymen. Saw them a few times I think, certainly the famous time they played Peter Gabriel's Womad Festival in 1982 and from many punters perspectives stole the show, with a quite magnificent version of Zimbo (All My Colours) accompanied by The Burundi Drummers, which raised the hairs on the back of the necks of countless necks there.

It was one of many wonderful moments in the Bunnymen's career from 1979 to '84, regardless of what Ian McCulloch says, the ones that mattered. Will Sergeant, McCulloch's first lieutenant and a quite peerless lead guitarist, one of the best of that whole period, has just written and published the second volume of his memoirs Echoes.

If it's anything like as good as Bunnyman we're in for a proper treat. I'd echo, (sorry) Tim's praise. It was truly special stuff. Sergeant can really write, he puts you right there. He has no airs, but he's smart and sensitive as fuck and his writing is as good as I've ever encountered in a musician's memoirs and I'll start making my way through it from tomorrow on here with my own impressions. Really I'd suggest you just buy it and enjoy it for yourself.