[10] When Wylie left, McCulloch and Cope formed the short-lived A Shallow Madness with drummer Dave Pickett and organist Paul Simpson, during which time such songs as "Read It in Books", "Robert Mitchum", "You Think It's Love" and "Spacehopper" were written by the pair.

[15][16] With the group now gaining wider attention, they were invited to record a four-song set for the BBC'S John Peel Show on August 22, at which time they were still using a drum machine.

Unlike the other band members, who were from working class Liverpool families, de Freitas was considered "posh"[17] - he came from an affluent background, grew up in the south of England, and attended an elite private school.

[18] De Freitas met the trio at their September 15, 1979 gig at Eric's in Liverpool and immediately joined the band, but his October 12 live debut with them at London's Electric Ballroom was less than auspicious.

62 on the UK singles chart but the album (co-produced by manager Bill Drummond and his business partner David Balfe of the Teardrop Explodes) broke into the Top 20, reaching No.

Designed by Martyn Atkins and photographed by Brian Griffin,[20] it became the first in a coordinated series of elemental-themed album covers by Atkins and Griffin, which spanned their first four LPs, each depicting the band posed at some distance from the camera, in a visually striking natural setting -- a forest (Crocodiles), a beach at sunset (Heaven Up Here), a frozen waterfall in Iceland (Porcupine) and a subterranean river (Ocean Rain).

It was primarily intended to provide material for the group's first music video, but Drummond and Butt's vision went well beyond the conventional three-minute pop-rock promotional clip, and it reflected their desire to capture Echo & the Bunnymen's live performance during this crucial breakthrough phase of their career.

After extensive consultation with their clients, Smith and Duval were "embedded" in Buxton with the band in the week leading up to the concert, and they were given a completely free hand to structure, shoot and edit the project.

This material was then assembled into an impressionistic sequence of seemingly disconnected images, which are gradually revealed to be a montage of the activities of the band members as they prepare for and head to the show.

The performance was filmed by Smith, Duval and cameraman Mike Tomlinson, with multitrack audio recorded on the Manor Mobile studio by Peter Woods.

The footage captures the band at the height of their early success, and documents both their musical prowess as a live act and the impressive staging and lighting designed by Bill Butt.

Titled Shine So Hard: An Atlas Adventure, it was given a limited UK cinema release, but Warner executives were reportedly dismayed by its avant-garde structure and the fact that the band don't even appear clearly until partway through the film.

[19] The cover image continued the elemental theme of Crocodiles, and depicted the group standing on a beach, with their backs to the camera, looking out to sea, silhouetted against a bank of storm clouds at sunset, with a flock of seagulls flying across sky in front of them.

Manager Bill Drummond and Korova label head, Rob Dickins, reportedly hated the image and Atkins, Griffin and the band had to fight to have it accepted as the cover shot.

Much of 1982 was taken with the difficult and protracted process of recording of their highly anticipated third album Porcupine, which reunited them with Crocodiles producer Ian Broudie (who was also Sergeant's housemate at the time).

Pete de Freitas produced and played drums on Liverpool band the Wild Swans' debut single "Revolutionary Spirit", and lead guitarist Will Sergeant recorded a solo album of instrumental music titled Themes for 'Grind' (1982).

[23] The original version of Porcupine was rejected by Warner Bros as "too uncommercial", so (over Sergeant's objections) the band agreed to re-record the entire LP,[24] and Drummond brought in noted Indian violinist and composer Shankar to add strings.

McCulloch later described the band's mood at this time as "horrible", and de Freitas stated that, in stark contrast to the quick and confident making of Heaven Up Here, he felt that "we had to drag it out of ourselves" with Porcupine.

April-May saw them playing concerts in Europe and the UK, followed by the second and more extensive leg of their U.S. tour during August-September, concluding with a show at the famed Greek Theater in Los Angeles on September 9.

The band then immediately undertook an intensive two-month UK tour, beginning in Dublin on September 15 and concluding at London's Brixton Academy on October 24 (their last concert of 1984).

Echo & the Bunnymen resumed work with a tour of Scandinavia in April 1985, performing cover versions of songs from Television, the Rolling Stones, Talking Heads and the Doors.

Echo & the Bunnymen returned to the studio to record more material with a new producer, Gil Norton, but in July, David Palmer left the group and de Freitas expressed his wish to rejoin.

[28] The revised lineup performed live on BBC TV in September, presenting two new songs, "The Game" and "Lips Like Sugar", but by this stage, they were under intense pressure from their label to create what Warners considered to be more commercial material.

Early sessions with Gil Norton took place at the famous Cologne studio of German producer Conny Plank, but both band and label were unhappy with the results and these recordings were shelved.

After a winter break they undertook another round of touring in the U.S. and the UK, to general acclaim, but the March 1988 single release of their cover of the Doors' "People Are Strange" drew withering reviews from the music press, with Melody Maker denouncing it as "a rancid effort".

[28] De Freitas was on his way to Liverpool from London to take part in the group's first rehearsal with Burke, when his Ducati motorbike collided with another vehicle on the A51 At Longdon Green in Staffordshire, killing him instantly.

After recruiting new drummer Damon Reece to replace de Freitas, the new five-piece Bunnymen recorded the psychedelic-tinged Reverberation in 1990 with renowned former Beatles engineer and producer Geoff Emerick.

Since August 2009 the group's touring incarnation has comprised McCulloch and Sergeant along with Stephen Brannan (bass), Gordy Goudie (guitar), Nicholas Kilroe (drums) and Jez Wing (keyboards).

The live line up was Ian McCulloch, Will Sergeant, Simon Finley (drums), Paul Fleming (keyboards), Gordy Goudie (guitar) and Steve Brannan (bass).

In 2018, Echo & the Bunnymen announced and released an album of reworked orchestral versions of older material and two new songs, titled The Stars, the Oceans & the Moon, to mixed reception.