At a “special” show to mark their 30th anniversary, Echo & the Bunnymen performed their album Ocean Rain accompanied by a 16-piece orchestra in the grandeur of the Albert Hall.

Released in 1984, Ocean Rain was acclaimed as the Bunnymen’s masterpiece — a mixed blessing given that the band, led by the singer Ian McCulloch and the guitarist Will Sergeant, have been unable to duplicate, let alone surpass, their majestic musical sweep, despite having a fitful presence on the pop scene until the present day.

With its lush instrumental textures and haunting refrains, the album has held up well, and songs such as Silver, Thorn of Crowns and The Killing Moon sounded timeless and surprisingly contemporary. The orchestra, conducted by Rupert Christie, added a warm, sophisticated dynamic to the performance, which clearly encouraged the band to rise to the occasion.

While Sergeant and the others were dressed in formal grey suits, McCulloch wore an incongruous hooded coat and sunglasses, and maintained a traditional rock-star air of mild truculence. His voice remained remarkably unaffected by the passage of time (and cigarettes), and he navigated the soaring melodic heights of Seven Seas with confidence and grace.

With virtually no interaction between the members of the band, or communication with the audience, it was a performance of unsentimental rigour in which the music was presented purely for what it was. The only embellishment was a non-stop slideshow of photographs of the group in their youthful pomp, which were shown throughout the performance on screens above the stage.

This, coupled with the evocative nature of the music, produced an intensely nostalgic effect, almost a feeling of sadness as you saw the pictures of these proud young men, including the drummer Pete De Freitas, who died in a road accident in 1989, with their lives ahead of them, juxtaposed with the reality of a band (and audience) gazing wistfully back to a golden moment in the distant past.

It ended with the soulful, slowly rising air of Ocean Rain. There was no encore.

Echo & the Bunnymen play the Loopallu Festival, Ullapool, Ross and Cromarty, tomorrow

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