Nardwuar: Oh yeah, Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen, Courtney says "Also, let Ian know I didn't diss him at the "chatea" last year. I was really busy and would totally like to take him to a great dinner."
Ian McCulloch: Was that the Chateau?

OK. Yes. She emailed me these questions and some of her typing is a bit confusing. So what was that about? "Also let Ian know I didn't diss him at the Chateau last year. I was really busy and would totally like to take him to a great dinner."
Oh, that'd be brilliant! I'd love to! We're back out in America in November, but if she wants to do this song with me, it might be even sooner, I might come out if she's in LA. I'd come out there and we'd hang and stuff. I think it was just a tentative kind of meeting planned, but she couldn't make it. Nothing happened "weirdly." We just didn't make the rendezvous, but we were trying to hook up, you know.

Now Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen, there's a whole section here on Michael Mooney. Now for people who don't know, who is Michael Mooney? I understand he's the guy that Courtney lost her virginity to.
I believe so, yeah. A great lookin' lad. Played with the Bunnymen, he did a tour with us in '83, so he's been around for ages, you know. I'd heard his bands. And then I got him in to come in and play rhythm guitar cause I wanted to concentrate on singing. He was good looking, very good looking dude, kind of like a Tom Cruisey face, you know. Last time I heard, he was quite a lot older looking. No Dorian Gray going on. But he was a great laugh. I think he's living in Bristol now. He always made me laugh.

Isn't he in Spiritualized too?
He's not anymore.

Well, Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen, here is Courtney Love's "Michael Mooney section" of questions directed towards you. Courtney says, and we kind of already answered this but, "Ask Ian, whatever happened to Michael Mooney and tell him I don't care what Michael says, I was a virgin and had a like a really sweet night with him."
Ahhhhh, well obviously Mike's being less than gentlemanly about what he said (about Courtney) and you know, Mike's been through... his memory is probably not what it should be due to, you know, "things" shall we say - the same as all of our memories. That's a lovely thing that Courtney's just said. Of course she was a virgin, cause she wouldn't of said it otherwise.

Just winding up here with Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen and in case anyone's wondering,, we're asking questions of Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen emailed to me from Courtney Love. So I guess I'm the "via" person here. I'm the "Via"! Courtney Love Vs. Ian McCulloch VIA Nardwuar the Human Serviette, me here, live from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. So Courtney says, "Tell Ian that I, Courtney, would never have gotten so obsessed with Michael Mooney if he hadn't written me a 20-page letter asking to come to California because I'm sure it's legend that I wrote him a 20-page letter back."
Yeah, I heard kind of on the grapevine by this point...um...Mike was a really good laugh, but maybe not right for relationships, and obviously he wasn't if he's denying what he did or kind of trying to rewrite history. I find that pathetic. It's fine if you've gotta cover something up, because you're trying to protect yourself or a loved one you know? Say for instance you're married and you don't want all this crap coming out - but as far as I was aware Mike's never been involved in that kind of relationship.

Do you know what Courtney's talking about in that 20-page letter? I found it a bit confusuing.
No I don't know. Again, I thought at the end of the day her obsession was really with me and all the other people were kind of just satellites.

Ian of Echo and the Bunnymen, Courtney says "Ask Ian if Michael Mooney turned out to be gay."
Haha! (laughs) I think he might have had those kind of tendencies, but I'm not sure. It's a fair question and the only fair answer is to say I don't know. But I know what she's talking about, I think yeah. Not for meself, but I can understand why she might think that he could turn out that way.

Ian did you diss your last Bunnymen record? : Did you diss your last Bunnymen record?
No, never.

Because here's a question from Courtney Love to you Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen and it says, "Tell Ian, he shouldn't diss the last record because me and Michael Stipe believe fiercely, as does Jim, my boyfriend, that that record is a total soundtrack to being in your mid-thirties."
Awwwww, that's nice that Stipey likes it as well. Tell Courtney I've never dissed it. It's my second favourite Bunnymen record. If not me favourite you know, it's either that or "Ocean Rain". I love it. It's Will who's dissed it, cause he doesn't understand what the songs are saying. He doesn't understand lyricism. She's talking about "What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?" Which I'm glad she loves. I think it's probably the best thing I've ever done. So tell her "no, no, no" . I just don't think Will felt he was "on" it , you know , and that's why he found it hard to take, you know. And I can understand that, but as a record, I think Will, if it was by anyone else, he'd say "I'd really like that." It's possibly my favourite album. There's a woman who goes to loads of Bunnymen shows in America and Europe and wherever, and it's her favourite Bunnymen record. Her mum died kind of during that period and it helped her through it. And for me, I love it. And I'm glad that Stipey loves it and Jim as well. And I find it funny - it's Jim Barber, as in Robin Barber, her best friend when she came out to Liverpool - the other girl.

That's interesting isn't it?
Jim Barber .Yeah. And I remember her being concious about how her hair should look as well.

You really love hair, don't you Ian?
Yeah, I love it.

Speaking of hair and stuff, what sort of hairstyles offend you? Are there any hairstyles that offend you?
Mullets. Definitely, mullets are the worst. And Bono did have a mullet, I mean God love him but he was a mullet-wearing dude. And I don't like skinheads. I don't like the fact that it's now kind of "the look". The reason God gave us hair is to grow it and do something with it.

Were you into the mod revival at all? Were you into any of those bands like the Chords, the Purple Hearts or the Prisoners?
Nah

None of that stuff?
Never liked that. I wasn't into the Who much, y'know? I was into the Velvet Underground the Doors, nothing to do with London... with BOWIE's London . I hated all that kind of Scooters and Brighton Beach, you know, and chains around the wrists...

But you guys did like the 1965-67 English Freakbeat scene, didn't you?
Will probably did. I probably don't have one record coming from that scene so I wouldn't know, but I was more into the American scene... you know, Bowie was English I was into Bowie, and Lou Reed and the Velvets, Iggy Pop and the Doors. Probably Nirvana and, of course, Hole. That kind of music is always so dark and jeery.

Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen, Courtney Loves says "Ask Ian why I have never played Liverpool. Is there even a hotel there?!?"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (laughs) Oh, God, she's good. Yeah... we've now got about [thinking] oooh... apart from the rubbish ones, we've got probably about five hotel's that even Courtney would care to stay at.

Ian McCulloch of Echo and the BunnymeCourtney Loves says, "Ask Ian what happened to Will's ex-girlfriend Laura, the nice, blonde girl?"
She was a bitch. (laughs) No, I mean, Laura she was all right, but she was weird. And Will fell in love with someone and he married her. But I don't know what happened to Laura... I don't know if she's still in Liverpool or... But she was a little bit weird and she said a few weird things that weren't true, like she said to Lorraine that I'd been with Natassja Kinski and I hadn't. And it got back to Liverpool. Natassja Kinski had phoned the hotel and stuff, but I've never even met her... But Lorraine picked up Laura in the street, this is while the Bunnymen were on tour. So it was New York-Boston-Iceland, then Denmark, Glasgow... But I was in Glasgow, and it was just after being to New York. And we played Roseland and Natassja Kinski had gone... phoned the hotel, you know, "Ian, I loved the show, phone number, and blah blah blah. " And then I got back to Liverpool. Obviously I told the boys. They were at the reception at the hotel when the bloke gave me the message saying Natassja Kinski had called. I thought, "Bloody hell! Natassja Kinski phoned!" Some of the band went back to Liverpool, straight from America... the kind of superfluous members, playing bongos and stuff. And one of them, decided to... he was a dozy sod anyway, but he was a lovely bloke. He's dead now, but he was a lovely bloke. A little bit stupid, and it got back to Laura. And Lorraine picked her up on the streets, giving her a lift cause she saw her standing at a bus stop, said "Do you want me to drop you off somewhere?" So she gets in the car and says ...and, well you know how gurls-and fellas-can be: horrible. "What's this about Ian who's been seeing Natassja Kinski?" What a thing to do to someone who's at home in a city, you know. To say that and it wasn't even true. So I don't really care what happened to her after that, to be honest, Courtney.