Ian McCulloch Quotes

“People here are always asking me, "Can you play 'Lips Like Sugar' on an acoustic guitar?" And I'm like, "No!" It was an OK song, I suppose, but it didn't sound like us. We just got sucked into a new mentality on that last album, the sound of Radio America. It did great here, but by then I just thought we weren't good enough any more. It was pretty happening, the States was building and building but it didn't feel good on stage. We weren't really communicating as mates and stuff. I mean, I was used to believing that we were the best group going.”

“I mean, even Joy Division are a bit over-rated, I think. They're very good live, but on record…”

“From when Oasis first started I thought, "Thank Christ someone has picked up on that simple technique of saying they're the best thing on the planet and just fronting it." Liam is a part of a great ancestry of lippy, insecure bastard frontmen.”

“They were always going to be the biggest band in the world. We wanted nothing to do with success the way U2 saw it. It wasn't to do with conquering the world; it was to do with those lads, like me and Ian Curtis, who liked the Silver Surfer and Bowie. At some point everyone seemed to go toward that Live Aid goal of being seen everywhere, in every sodding street, in every sodding nook and cranny in the world. I never wanted that.”

“I wanna play football for the coach — Liverpool’s coach!”

“I only ever wanted, since the age of 13, to be the best singer of the best band in the world.”

“Adams, Chris (2002). Turquoise Days: The Weird World of Echo & the Bunnymen. Soft Skull Press: New York..”

“When the Teardrops and the Bunnymen started, Mac and I wanted to be absolute megastars. We wanted to be the biggest cult heroes in the world, to be millionaires, to look brilliant, and to be total bastards.”

“It feels like there's hundreds of bands in Liverpool. There's some okay ones… But really we're the only one I can think of as being a potentially great band…”

“It did cause problems at one point. Part of it was down to the name of the group—people tended to think I was Echo. That's why we named the drum-machine Echo because I definitely wasn't.”

“I plan on not dying, but if I have to, I want to die in Liverpool.”

“I listen back to some of Porcupine now and… well, not blush exactly, we were great and all that… but we could have been just anyone, you know?”

“We weren't managed from the word go, like U2 or Simple Minds, to get bigger and bigger and take over the planet.”

“I just can't understand why they carried on with the name. It did them no favours, and however it can be defended, it spoils the memory. It's not so much that it's unforgivable, but it is a pity that we don't see each other and never talk to each other.”

“How I wanna be exciting is by hitting a great note and people going, "Whoo!" I'm more Tony Bennett. He sings notes that don't exist! The hooter, the hair, the man's like a chiseled Roman god. With the Bunnymen, I was much more Mick Jagger holdin' me willy on stage and wearin' no undies and all that. Now I'm more Cary Grant.”

“People who leave groups generally sell less records. I feel better and more worthwhile selling less than the last Bunnymen record. I feel more important.”

“I like Americans now. They're dead nice. More polite. They aren't like the English, 'Ey Mac, comin' for a pint round the corner, yer twat?' I hate all that stuff, all that wanting you to be like you were in 1982. I've made up me mind that where I'm gonna regain the lost ground is over here in America.”

“There was even talk at one point of getting Del Shannon to produce our first album.”

“When all's said and done, I wish them well. I wasn't just the one that ranted a bit in interviews and thought he was great. I thought the group were great.”