IT barely registers as a footnote in the annals of Irish music history but it’s a story that has its roots firmly in West Belfast and is set to be replayed to audiences in Belfast, Liverpool, London and Glasgow this autumn. After his band St Vitus Dance went on extended hiatus at the tail end of the 1980s, singer-songwriter Noel Burke from the Glen Road was recruited by the remaining members of legendary English band Echo & the Bunnymen to replace lead singer Ian McCulloch who had left to pursue a solo career. And although the Liverpool four-piece were one of the most influential post-punk British bands of their generation with hits including Killing Moon, Never Stop and The Cutter, as well as the classic album Ocean Rain, Noel’s association with the Bunnymen has been much overlooked and is one of the lesser-known stories from the Irish music scene of that period. The Gransha man spent three years fronting Echo & the Bunnymen, touring Europe and America and releasing the album Reverberation as well as several singles before the line-up was dissolved in 1992. Although unfairly dismissed by UK critics at the time, the Geoff Emerick produced album did well in America and has gone on to quietly achieve cult status among Bunnymen fans as a psychedelia tinged classic, selling 60,000 copies in the States alone. For those who have never had the opportunity to see the album performed live that’s all about to change. In the autumn Noel Burke, along with the reformed St Vitus Dance, are set to perform Reverberation when they embark on a tour taking in Belfast, Liverpool, Glasgow and London where they will play the album live, 35 years after it was first released.
