Echo And The Bunnymen | Over The Wall | Dutch TV | 1981

Details

Description

This video is a new edit of rare footage of Echo And The Bunnymen, appearing on a Dutch TV show called Götterdämmerung 2000. Over The Wall was one of several songs the band performed from their Heaven Up Here album, which was released this week forty years ago, the 30th of May 1981.

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Celebrating this misery

Back in the day, I loved the debut Echo And The Bunnymen album, Crocodiles. It’s an album of short, sharp songs with catchy hooks and choruses. The bright bouncy production was by The Chameleons - Bill Drummond & David Balfe - pretty much the same sound they had also lent that year to The Teardrop Explodes similarly brilliant debut album, Kilimanjaro. So Crocodiles follow-up album Heaven Up Here, was hugely anticipated by me.

I went into Croydon to buy my copy of Heaven Up Here the day it was released in May 1981. Going home on the bus, I poured over every detail of the record sleeve. I would soon discover that the grim wintery indigo sleeve art completely suited the new sound. Heaven Up Here was a very different proposition to its predecessor - The Chameleons production team was out, and in was Hugh Jones. Bright, bouncy and catchy was replaced by a dark, cold, funky sophistication and pounding drums high upfront in the mix.

In the book Rip It Up and Start Again... Simon Reynolds described the sound of Heaven Up Here as having been filled out with "guitar overdubs, keyboard glints, vocal multitracking and atmospheric vapours". Comparing Heaven Up Here with Joy Division's 1980 album Closer, Reynolds said they are "harrowed by the same things - hypocrisy, distrust, betrayal, lost or frozen potential".

I was not disappointed with Heaven Up Here; it became my favorite new album and The Bunnymen became my favorite new band. Towards the end of 1981, I saw them for the first time, at the Hammersmith Palais in London. I was 14 years old, and the show was sublime. Barny Hoskyns reviewed the Liverpool show the following night in the NME, and he concluded, ”…currently the most urgent and accomplished live performance you’re likely to see”.

Heaven Up Here remains for me Echo And The Bunnymen’s finest hour, and is I think one of the greatest rock albums of all time. I remember reading at the time Bunnymen arch-rival Liverpudlian Julian Cope saying that the first three tracks from Heaven Up Here were as good as any music ever made. Well, here’s the third of those magnificent tracks.

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Speak up, I can’t hear

The original Götterdämmerung 2000 clip left a lot to be desired. As per, I scrubbed-up everything as best as poss and synced the clip to a decent audio source. But that wasn’t even half the fight. Some of the original editing really sucked; missing great moments of Mac’s vocal and de Freitas drumming, and not a single close up or really clear shot of Will or his guitar playing. Also, the original clip is marred by the pretty rubbish “special” effects, added here and there throughout the clip. Lastly I have to mention how spectacularly bad Mac’s vocal miming is! He either can’t remember when his lines come in, or he simply can’t be bothered to lip sync correctly, once even omitting an entire line!

To cut a long story short, I massively reedited the clip and hopefully you will enjoy the fact that the worst of these offenses have been remedied!

Thanks for watching!

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Huge thanks for sending me the original file of the Götterdämmerung 2000 show:
www.youtube.com/user/TravisBickle1963

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Credits

Video Source:
Echo And The Bunnymen • Over The Wall • Performed on the Dutch TV show Götterdämmerung 2000 • July 1982

Audio Source:
Echo And The Bunnymen • Over The Wall • From the album Heaven Up Here • Recorded at Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, Wales • Recorded March 1981 • Released May 30, 1981

Personnel:
Ian McCulloch • vocals, guitar
Will Sergeant • lead guitar
Les Pattinson • bass
Pete de Freitas • drums

Hugh Jones • Production

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