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