Echo and the Bunnymen : Pictures On The Wall
On May 5, 1979 Bill Drummond and David Balfe's Zoo Records released 4000 copies of Echo and the Bunnymen's debut single "Pictures On The Wall" b/w "Read It In Books". At the time the Liverpool band was still a trio made up of singer Ian McCulloch who was celebrating is 20th birthday that day, guitarist Will Sergent, bassist Les Pattinson and a drum machine.
Both Sounds and Melody Maker declared "Pictures On The Wall" the Single of the Week. Critic Red Starr of Smash Hits praised the song :
Liverpudlians and another excellent single. Great song, mysterious, eerie and melodic, grippingly sung over acoustic guitar and Mellotron. Magic --Love it!
When the band played with Joy Division at the YMCA in London in August, they were met with more rave reviews. Sire Records signed the band within two months. Echo and the Bunnymen hired a real life human drummer, 17 year old Pete de Freitas and rerecorded both songs for their debut album Crocodiles, released in 1980.
The B-side "Read It In Books" is interesting because McCulloch wrote it in 1977, when he was in Crucial Three with Pete Wylie and Julian Cope. Cope's band, Teardrop Explodes, also recorded the song as a B side to their UK#3 Indie hit "Treason (It's Just a Story)".
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