Echo And The Bunnymen Zimbo (All My Colours) Live at Bux

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Echo And The Bunnymen • Zimbo (All My Colours) • Live at Buxton Pavilion • 17 January 1981

This is the 2003 remastered version of Zimbo from the Shine So Hard EP, synced with the newly cleaned up Shine So Hard movie footage.

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Echo & the Bunnymen’s intensely beautiful song of loss, Zimbo AKA All My Colours, made its debut in a John Peel Session, 4th of November 1980. At that time it was given the provisional title All My Colours Turn To Clouds.

The song was first released, renamed Zimbo, as the version we have here - a live recording from the Shine So Hard EP, on the 10th April 1981. “Will (Sergeant) said, ‘This would make a good EP’. And the next thing you know it was out. No one consulted us.” – Ian McCulloch, 1981. “We didn’t want that released because there’s two songs off the new album on it, and the new album versions are a million times better” – Pete de Freitas, 1981.

That album was Heaven Up Here, released a little over a month later, 30th May 1981. Heaven Up Here was voted "Best Album" of the year, in the 1981 NME poll. And All My Colours is not only one of the finest tracks on the album, I think it’s one of greatest songs from the era.

Joy Division’s ‘Atmosphere’ had been released a few months earlier, and the two songs share some similarities. All My Colours is not as lyrically dense as Atmosphere, but it is it’s equal in quality and mood. In Atmosphere, Ian Curtis sings of a person who could leave a relationship without feeling any sense of loss or burden. In All My Colours, it’s, “…the loss of someone and the fact that people hold onto things that have already gone’, as Ian McCulloch put it himself.

Another similarity between the two tracks is that drumming dominates the music. In Atmosphere, softly rolling tom toms sound throughout. Then at the end of each bar in the chorus, there is the single magical "chime" of a treated tambourine. In All My Colours, Pete de Freitas pounds out an African tribal-sounding tom tom rhythm. Then in the chorus, after McCulloch has sung, “All my colours turn to clouds”, de Freitas adds to the end of each bar, a startling single thunderous clap from a synth drum pad. In both songs, these elements are strokes of musical genius, in my opinion.

I think Atmosphere, is very reliant on Martin Hannet’s magnificent studio production for its fragile beauty. Whereas the Bunnymen could very effectively recreate the startling chilly beauty of All My Colours live. And in quite large measure, that was down to Pete de Freitas' drumming. Bill Drummond, the Bunnymen’s manager during their early years, said of de Freitas “Generally, he was recognized as one of the great drummers of his generation.” If any proof were needed of de Freitas incredible musicianship, his playing here on Zimbo at the Buxton ’81 show, should be more than sufficient. Watch Pete at work in this video for the last minute or so of the song - from around 2:36 – it is thrilling to see his incredible playing.

In the Shine So Hard film Pete de Freitas sports a shaven head. According to the Bunnymen’s then-publicist Mick Houghton, in his book “Fried and Justified: Hits, Myths, Break-Ups and Breakdowns in the Record Business 1978-98” during the Buxton event, “...nobody was speaking to Pete, who had shaved his head the night before as a kind of protest against Bunnymen protocols. Shaved heads are common enough today, but in 1981 they were associated only with skinheads. Pete looked marginally less devilishly handsome, but he’s broken the rules – the Bunnymen didn’t do shaved heads”.

But Pete was an unpredictable guy who by all accounts took a lot of chances. And unfortunately 30 years ago, on the 14th of June 1989, Pete de Frietas was killed in a motorcycle accident, en route to Liverpool for band rehearsals. Before setting off on the journey, he had strapped a bulky video camera to his motorbike. His wife Jonson had warned him, “It looks too heavy Pete, just take the car”. But he replied, “Nah, it’s a beautiful day, I’ll take the bike”. Pete de Frietas was 27 years old.

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So here is the final installment - four of four - of my Shine So Hard stand alone music videos.

Hope you dig it!

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Musicians:
Ian McCulloch • vocals, guitar
Will Sergeant • lead guitar
Les Pattinson • bass
Pete de Freitas • drums

Video Source:
Shine So Hard • Directed by John Smith • Produced by Bill Butt • Director of Photography Patrick Duval • Released 13th of August 1981

Audio Source:
Shine So Hard EP • Produced by Bill Drummond & Hugh Jones • Released 10th April 1981

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I don't own the rights, and I'm not making any money out of this etc. Just a fan making videos for other fans.

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