Bounce Magazine October 2018

OCTOBER 2018 OCTOBER | ISSUE 2018 #72 | ISSUE | IAN #72 MCCULLOCH
what were you up to?
[Laughs] I was on the dole I did my A Levels at
school and failed.
music with him, I thought this man is so weird!
But I said yes! [laughs] we just sat there and
eventually it clicked and I said “we are going
to be the best band in the world ever”!
I knew when I was 13 what I wanted to do; I
wanted to be Bowie and borrow his clothes
that was my dream.
So I was on the dole for about 18 months,
in that time I had three job interviews, I
remember one, there was a panel and they
asked me what I thought the civil service was
about and I didn’t have a sodding clue!
He just looked at me with his mug of tea in
disbelief and I looked at him in disbelief at
his disbelief of what I had just said! I replied
what’s the point of doing this if we are not
going to be the best band in the world ever?
R: How did you come up with the band
name?
During another interview someone called me
out and said “you don’t want to be here do
you” and I said “no”. At least I was honest!
I was good at not getting jobs on purpose!
To be fair, I knew what I was going to do and
I would tell them “you’ll see me on the telly,
I am going to be in the biggest band of all
time!” without that self belief I wouldn’t have
been where I am now. I always felt there was
nothing else I wanted to do.
I didn’t; I shared a flat with a guy named
Paul. We called him Smelly Ellie, that was his
nickname, he was on a teacher training course;
he taught maths to kids.
I said to him one day “we’ve got a gig this
week” and he said “what are you called”,
and I said “I haven’t got a clue”. So he wrote
down about ten names and then Echo & the
Bunnymen was one of them and I thought that
sounds like us.
R: Were you in any other bands before you
formed Echo?
There was a band called the Crucial Three, but
it sounded so crap I would have to go and wait
in the living room until practice was over, we
were rubbish!
R: How did you first meet your fellow band
members?
It was someone’s birthday, and I was at a bar
in Liverpool, Will Sergeant was sitting at a
table and he goes “hello” [laughs] I think he
might have used his index finger to summon
me, and he said “I heard you’re a great singer,”
though I am not sure who he heard that from,
and he asked me to go to his to play some
At the time I thought we were like then men
that married bunny girls. Smelly Ellie did smell
and he did think of the name!
R: Well you have to thank him for that at
least!
I did thank him!
R: Your first album was released in 1980,
what’s been the secret to your continued
success? You’re still hear and you have your
new album coming out…
Washing your face kid, washing your face with
salt water and not worrying too much!
It was never about being on the front covers,
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