The musical scene that developed out of the ashes of the New York Dolls, centered around a grotty club called CBGB’s down on the Bowery in New York City, must have been something to behold happening. It gave the world the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Richard Hell & The Void Oids and Television. 

Television were led by the twin guitars of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd. Now you must know by now that I’m no fan of what I disparagingly refer to as fretw@nk (twiddly-diddley-widdly-weee…look how fast I can play) but if all guitar playing were to sound as beautiful, mystical and intense as Verlaine and Lloyd did here on “Marquee Moon” then count me in daddio. These two showed there was another way to do virtuoso and do it without the cod-piece.

It begins in dizzying fashion with Verlaine and Lloyd’s guitars equal parts crunching rhythm while intricately weaving lines around each other and themselves during “See No Evil”. Somewhat unbelievably to me the title track was recorded live in one take (drummer Billy Ficca thought it was a rehearsal run through) ! Producer Andy Johns suggested that they record another take, but Verlaine told him "forget it”. I don’t usually have the attention span for long songs and especially long songs that feature extended guitar solo’s but as we have already established, this ain’t no fretw@nk happening here. In just over 10 minutes Television keep me transfixed.

It’s a record I never tire of hearing, I gotta admit it took me some years to appreciate its brilliance. It was unfairly grouped in by the press with the New York Punk scene, it’s so much more than that, and the Damned had a go at Television in the song “Idiot Box” on their second album. But once I got it, I got it completely.

A little whinge…I’ve mentioned before my utter disdain for Rolling Stone magazine and here’s another reason for that. Rolling Stone described “Marquee Moon” as a Post-Punk record. Can someone explain to me how a record written and recorded during 1974, 1975 and 1976 can be POST Punk ? It was recorded in New York City in September 1976, The Damned’s “New Rose” (generally regarded as the first Punk single) was released in October 1976 !

“Marquee Moon” walks a path all by itself. It is a breathtaking work of utter genius. Yes Television were lumped in with the Punk/New Wave scene but that was more lazy journalism than the reality, this is neither Punk, New Wave or any other label you want to pin on it, it’s simply Television. These guys were genuinely out there forging a path all of their own.

Marquee Moon - https://youtu.be/g4myghLPLZc?si=IPfIkd5vSq03o9E_

Dave Balfe once said of the Teardrop Explodes “we sounded like Vikings on acid fronted by a lunatic” and I can’t think of a better description than that. Everybody’s drug intake, a fraught US tour and Cope leaning more heavily on Balfe as his main creative foil (even though all songs are credited to just Julian Cope) saw a shift in sound on “Wilder” and ultimately the end of the Teardrop Explodes.

Lead single “Passionate Friend” suggested that “Wilder” would be a natural follow on from “Klimanjaro” but this turned out to be the only track on the album to feature the full touring version of the band. The sound here isn’t as upbeat as previously, many songs feature little or, at times, no guitars and there were songs just made up from Cope’s vocal and a synthesizer.

“Bent Out Of Shape” starts proceedings. It has all the ingredients of the Teardrops with Cope’s strident vocals and the horns in the refrain. It doesn’t have the urgency of previous Teardrops but some life is injected next by “Colours Fly Away”. The guitars are back alongside the horns coupled with Gary Dwyers driving beats in the verses. The real highlight on Side 1 is final track “The Culture Bunker”, a song which name-checks the Crucial Three and is one of the Teardrops very best.

Side 2 begins with “Passionate Friend” which comes on like a direct descendant of “Kilimanjaro”. “Tiny Children” is like a lullaby sung by a child, a distant relative of Bowie’s childlike songs, and is followed by the warped Psychedelic Funk of “Like Leila Khaled Said” (she was a Palestinian militant and activist). Which leads us to the final two songs, firstly the beautiful “…and The Fighting Takes Over”, just Julian Cope crooning over a hugely chorused and imperfectly played electric guitar, occasionally joined by a trumpet, it’s quite lovely. In a parallel universe “The Great Dominions” would be revered as and end of the night, lighters in the air stadium anthem, but this is the Teardrop Explodes instead. It’s the perfect end on a high to this musically confused album.

“Wilder” isn’t a bad record but it’s obviously a band who don’t really know in which direction to jump. Whatever the makeup of the musical backdrop there are some great songs on “Wilder”, “The Culture Bunker”, “…and The Fighting Takes Over” and the closing “The Great Dominions” are all top notch stuff and “Passionate Friend” gave them their final Top 40 hit. After some fractious recording sessions for a third album and a disastrous UK tour with no band but lots of synths and backing tapes the Teardrop Explodes, well, exploded. It set Julian Cope off on a a fascinating career path, including records, books and a life as an antiquarian which I’ve followed ever since. He really is a treasure.

The Great Dominions - https://youtu.be/S09LrFyP4lE?si=k5IQGMoUKlqgOF52

OK, now we’ve cleared up those waifs and strays let’s get back on track…I’d like to talk to you about the letter T…

The Teardrop Explodes are one branch that grew out of legendary Liverpool band The Crucial Three. That brief supergroup, before any of them were famous, consisted of Liverpool natives Ian McCulloch and Pete Wylie along with a student from Tamworth in the Midlands, Julian Cope. Just those 3 ego’s in the same room must have been trouble. The one song that I know came out of that formidable trio is “Books”, as it is titled on this album, or “Read It In Books” as it was on the B-side of Echo & The Bunnymen’s 1979 single “Pictures On My Wall”. There are stylistic threads twixt the Bunnymen and the Teardrops, hints of sixties psychedelia and Scott Walker about both, but nothing that would make you think they sounded just like each other.

The Teardrop Explodes, the name was taken from a caption on a panel in the Marvel comic Daredevil (#77), formed around Cope and drummer Gary Dwyer. They very quickly came to the attention of Zoo Records, a Liverpool Indie run by Dave Balfe (who joined the band on keyboards) and another mighty ego, Bill Drummond (KLF and all that malarkey). Three singles were released on Zoo, “Sleeping Gas”, “Bouncing Babies” (which inspired the tribute single “I Can’t Get Bouncing Babies By The Teardrop Explodes” by The Freshies telling of the difficulty in trying to obtain a copy) and “Treason”. All three appear on “Kilimanjaro”, the first two in re-recorded form and the latter as it was released in the single and that was the first thing I heard by the Teardrop Explodes, beginning a 5 decade long (!!!) fascination with Julian Cope.

“Treason” is 3 minutes of jangly pop perfection driven along by Balfe’s whiny keyboards and Cope’s singa -longa Julian chorus. New record company Mercury weren’t stupid, they re-issued it as the Teardrops third single for them and were rewarded with a Top 20 hit (#18 in May 1981). This was their 2nd hit as earlier in 1981 “Reward” had hit the dizzy heights of #6 in the UK chart, Cope’s opening line of “Bless my cotton socks I’m in the news” proving quite prophetic. Driven on by Balfe’s relentless drumming and a frantic horn section “Reward” proved a dancefloor filler across the land. Surprisingly it’s not on the original release of “Kilimanjaro” but was shoehorned onto the 1981 re-issue.

Me and my dear old friend Mick saw the Teardrop Explodes at Birmingham Odeon in the summer of 1981, right between the release of “Kilimanjaro” and their next album “Wilder”. It’s one that has stuck with me. It was a warm day (you could rely on summer days back then) and Julian Cope spent the entire gig swathed in his rather impressive WWII brown leather, sheepskin lined fighter pilots jacket, he must have been melting ! They were bloody great too…

Over their 2 albums the Teardrop Explodes enjoyed a very brief moment in the sun as proper pop stars but it wasn’t to last. Fall outs, musical differences and most likely drugs put a very quick end to them and Cope went on to forge his own way, making some mighty fine if slightly wacky records along the way.

Books - https://youtu.be/cl0IM1biOKM?si=AMRcuS2R1C7_ZTwB