Singer Songwriters From England

"Pornography takes all the reality out of sex and Disney does that to family life."

"And if you have a minute why don't we go Talk about it somewhere only we know? 'Cause this could be the end of everything, So why don't we go Somewhere only we know?"

"We are the youth, we can make coolness for our future, it's up to us. Go green and hate hate."

"I'm not trying to say, That I'm smelling of roses, But when will we tire, Of putting shit up our noses."

"I’ve actually broken up with boyfriends for inspiration."

"I don't know what's right and what's real anymore And I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore And when do you think it will all become clear? 'Cause I'm being taken over by the fear"

"Riding through the city on my bike all day Cause the filth took away my license It doesn't get me down and I feel OK Cause the sights that I'm seeing are pricelessEverything seems to look as it should But I wonder what goes on behind doors A fella looking dapper, but he's sitting with a slapper Then I see it's a pimp and his crack whore."

"Get up in the morning and you like your tea milky, You fumble for your glasses coz without 'em you cant see, It's funny how I come round your house and I'm 20 and I still have to wear all the presents you sent me. I walk into your kitchen everything's got a label, you done your Christmas shopping and we're only in April. And you wont leave the house unless your wearing your thermals, you're covered all in cat hair and you're stinking like Strepsils, Your heading down the Bowls Club, have another orange squash. Balls are rollin rollin rollin. You can't walk right coz things aren't what they were, your ankles are swollen swollen swollen."

"I was so lost back then, But with a little help from my friends I found a light in the tunnel at the end. Now you're calling me up on the phone, So you can have a little whine and a moan. And it's only because you're feeling alone."

"We took loads and loads from the Bunnymen certainly in terms of being inspired, so, you know, we'd already stolen all his ideas."

"”I wanna play football for the coach — Liverpool’s coach!”"

"When the Teardrop and the Bunnymen started, Mac and I wanted to be absolute megastars. We wanted to be the biggest cult heroes in the world, to be millionaires, to look brilliant, and to be total bastards."

"Suzanne Vega has mentioned me in a few interviews, Nick Cave covered 'Avalanche' and when I last toured Britain, in 1985, Ian McCulloch came to a couple of concerts and talked to me afterwards on the bus. I can see a certain kind of rapport between my work and the work of these people."

"How I wanna be exciting is by hitting a great note and people going, "Whoo!" I'm more Tony Bennett. He sings notes that don't exist! The hooter, the hair, the man's like a chiseled Roman god. With the Bunnymen, I was much more Mick Jagger holdin' me willy on stage and wearin' no undies and all that. Now I'm more Cary Grant."

"I just can't understand why they carried on with the name. It did them no favours, and however it can be defended, it spoils the memory. It's not so much that it's unforgivable, but it is a pity that we don't see each other and never talk to each other."

"I only ever wanted, since the age of 13, to be the best singer of the best band in the world."

"I listen back to some of Porcupine now and... well, not blush exactly, we were great and all that... but we could have been just anyone, you know?"

"We weren't managed from the word go, like U2 or Simple Minds, to get bigger and bigger and take over the planet."

"They were always going to be the biggest band in the world. We wanted nothing to do with success the way U2 saw it. It wasn't to do with conquering the world; it was to do with those lads, like me and Ian Curtis, who liked the Silver Surfer and Bowie. At some point everyone seemed to go toward that Live Aid goal of being seen everywhere, in every sodding street, in every sodding nook and cranny in the world. I never wanted that."

"People here are always asking me, "Can you play 'Lips Like Sugar' on an acoustic guitar?" And I'm like, "No!" It was an OK song, I suppose, but it didn't sound like us. We just got sucked into a new mentality on that last album, the sound of Radio America. It did great here, but by then I just thought we weren't good enough any more. It was pretty happening, the States was building and building but it didn't feel good on stage. We weren't really communicating as mates and stuff. I mean, I was used to believing that we were the best group going."

"People who leave groups generally sell less records. I feel better and more worthwhile selling less than the last Bunnymen record. I feel more important."

"I wasn't into glam-rock. I was just into him. I never really saw him as glam-rock. Actually, I liked T-Rex too. Electric Warrior was great. But Bowie made me think. I just got lost in it—Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust—that era. I thought it was just magical, although I was dead impressionable then. But I though he looked brilliant—I still do. I hated the following he had though, especially around the Aladdin Sane era—it just destroyed his mystique. He doesn't hold that mystique for me now—he's just a normal bloke, I suppose. But I remember in 1972 when he was on the telly doing "Starman"—I couldn't believe it! It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. It's meant to be a bit of an embarrassing admission now to have liked that kind of thing, but I really did. And I remember when I grew out of it and I couldn't get into Ziggy Stardust the way I used to. I felt really sad about it. I played it and nothing happened."

"When all's said and done, I wish them well. I wasn't just the one that ranted a bit in interviews and thought he was great. I thought the group were great."

"It did cause problems at one point. Part of it was down to the name of the group—people tended to think I was Echo. That's why we named the drum-machine Echo because I definitely wasn't."

"I'm basically an 'appy person, but I'm just not into fun things that much."

"From when Oasis first started I thought, "Thank Christ someone has picked up on that simple technique of saying they're the best thing on the planet and just fronting it." Liam is a part of a great ancestry of lippy, insecure bastard frontmen."

"There was even talk at one point of getting Del Shannon to produce our first album."

"It feels like there's hundreds of bands in Liverpool. There's some okay ones... But really we're the only one I can think of as being a potentially great band..."

"I mean, even Joy Division are a bit over-rated, I think. They're very good live, but on record..."

"I was always really dubious about them actually. I'd heard some of Morrison's rambling poetic stuff, and I thought it was really pretentious... But now I think they're a great group, I must admit."

"I like Americans now. They're dead nice. More polite. They aren't like the English, 'Ey Mac, comin' for a pint round the corner, yer twat?' I hate all that stuff, all that wanting you to be like you were in 1982. I've made up me mind that where I'm gonna regain the lost ground is over here in America."

"How can you not sell the first three Bunnymen albums? It's like, how can you not sell the Mona Lisa, Van Gogh's Sunflowers, and The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch?"

"I plan on not dying, but if I have to, I want to die in Liverpool."

"If you're wondering by now who I am, look no further than the mirror, Because I am the greed and fear - and every ounce of hate in you."

"I am out of season all years round - watch machinery roar to my empty sound. Touch my heart and feel winter, hold my hand and be doomed forever."

"If you gave me a fresh carnation, I would only crush its tender petals..."

"You'll see kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns - And the public wants what the public gets - but I don't get what this society wants."

"Those braying sheep on my TV screen - Make this boy shout! Make this boy scream!"

"Some people might say my life is in a rut, but I'm quite happy with what I've got."

"Days of speed and slow time Mondays - Pissing down with rain on a boring Wednesday..."

"The more I see - the more I know, The more I know, the less I understand."

"I first felt a fist - and then a kick, I could now smell their breath, They smelt of pubs - and Wormwood Scrubs - and too many right-wing meetings."

"If you see me in the street - look away, 'cause I don't want to ever catch you looking at me, Mr Clean. 'Cause I hate you and your wife, and if I get the chance I'll fuck up your life."

"Is happiness real? Or am I so jaded I can't see or feel - like a man been tainted. Numbed by the effect - aware of the muse Too in touch with myself - I light the fuse."

"Two lovers kissing amongst the screams of midnight, Two lovers missing the tranquility of solitude."

"The morning slips away in a Valium haze and catalogues, And numerous cups of coffee, In the afternoon the weekly food is put in bags - as you float off down the high street. The shop windows reflect, play a nameless host to a closet ghost - A picture of your fantasy, a victim of your misery..."

"I play out my role, I've even been out walking - They tell me that it helps, but I know when I'm beaten..."

"The lords and ladies pass a ruling That sons and girls go hand in land From good stock and the best breeding Paid for by the servile class."

"The fingers feel the lines, they prod the space - your ageing face, The face that was once so beautiful, is still there but unrecognisable..."

"Life is a drink and you get drunk when you're young."