Will Sergeant: 'We hated The Smiths'

Echo & The Bunnymen's Will Sergeant has said that his band hated The Smiths in the 1980s.

The guitarist told Xtaster that the Liverpudlian Bunnymen were not fond of their Mancunian contemporaries.

Sergeant said: "Everybody used to go and watch everybody else, but it was generally to slag them off.

"That was kind of normal. Liverpool had a very bitchy vibe then. We didn't like The Smiths, we hated them. We thought we were the best and nobody else was worth worrying about."

He confirmed that the reformed group only need to mix their 11th studio album The Fountain before its release later this year.

Echo & The Bunnymen will headline the John Peel Stage at this year's Glastonbury, where they will play their Ocean Rain LP, which was recently taken into space by a NASA astronaut.