“One of the best songs of all time,” according to Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen
In the late 1970s, a Liverpool band coagulated under the audacious banner The Crucial Three. True to its name, the band would have a crucial impact on the vast rock ‘n’ roll landscape of the 1980s and beyond, but not in this configuration. The crucial Ian McCulloch, Julian Cope and Pete Wylie performed a paltry run of local gigs over their six weeks of existence before Wylie’s departure; he would subsequently find his musical footing as the frontman of Wah! Heat.
Without its third corner, the triangle must be renamed. Hence, McCulloch and Cope continued exploring their passion as A Shallow Madness, later renamed The Teardrop Explodes. Shortly after the rebrand, McCulloch became estranged under the weight of acrimony between him and Cope and departed to form Echo and the Bunnymen.
As Julian Cope’s ongoing success with The Teardrop Explodes and as a solo act attests, he and McCulloch had too much ego between them for just the one band. During his initial run fronting the Bunnymen, McCulloch treated fans to five albums that fused Jim Morrison’s psychedelic mystique with the post-punk wave.
Between 1987 and 1993, the Bunnymen continued for a relatively unsuccessful spell with Noel Burke as a vocal replacement while McCulloch pursued a solo career. After rekindling their musical relationship as Electrafixion in the mid-90s, guitarist Will Sergeant and McCulloch reformed the Bunnymen in ’97 with original bassist Les Pattinson and Michael Lee.
For their emphatic comeback album, the Bunnymen would be without their drummer Pete de Freitas, who tragically died in a motorbike accident in 1989. Employing the highly capable Michael Lee as a session drummer, the group hit Doghouse Studios in Henley-on-Thames to lay down a sixth Bunnymen record, Evergreen.
Released in July 1997, the album was a critical and commercial success, reaching a respectable number eight on the UK Albums Chart thanks to its lead single ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’.
In a 2014 interview with Uncut, McCulloch discussed the single with unbound enthusiasm. “I’d had that song since 1990 in various forms,” he began. “The others were very negative – Will said, ‘It’s a bit pretty,’ and I thought, ‘You fucking idiot, that’s like calling ‘The Killing Moon’ a bit beautiful.'”
“To me, it’s the most important song I’ve ever written because it takes me back to being taken seriously, and it’s one of the best songs of all time,” he added candidly.
The song was given added vibrancy from a studio collaboration with Oasis’ Liam Gallagher. The iconic Britpop frontman was joined by Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs to perform hand claps and contributed backing vocals to the pre-chorus: “And I want more than I can get / Just trying to, trying to, trying to forget”.
“Oasis were in the studio next door doing Be Here Now,” McCulloch recalled. “Liam came in and listened to ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’, and he had ideas for tambourine and a backing vocal, and we thought, ‘Yeah, we’re having that.’ He was spot on, it really made that song great. With the lineage of frontmen through the years, having him on it made sense for me.”
Listen to the classic Echo and the Bunnymen track, ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’, below.
