The Teardrop Explodes

The Teardrop Explodes were an English post-punk/neo-psychedelic band formed in Liverpool in 1978. Best known for their Top Ten UK single "Reward", the group originated as a key band in the emerging Liverpool post-punk scene of the late 1970s.

Along with other contemporary Liverpudlian groups, The Teardrop Explodes played a role in returning psychedelic elements to mainstream British rock and pop. They initially played a modernised version of lightly psychedelic, late 1960s-influenced beat-group guitar-pop sound, sometimes described as "bubblegum trance", which was typified by their debut album Kilimanjaro. Gradually assuming a more electronic direction, the group diversified into more experimental areas with their second album Wilder and would extend this into their posthumous third album, Everybody Wants to Shag... The Teardrop Explodes.

In addition to their musical reputation, The Teardrop Explodes (and frontman/main songwriter Julian Cope in particular) had a reputation for eccentric pronouncements and behaviour, sometimes verging on the self-destructive, resulting in the band's breakup in 1982. Cope went on to a solo career, while keyboard player and co-manager David Balfe continued as a record producer, became an A&R man and eventually founded Food Records. Other members included sometime Smiths producer Troy Tate, Paul Simpson (later of The Wild Swans) and drummer Gary Dwyer.

Career

Origins

Having arrived in Merseyside in 1976 (as a student attending C.F. Mott College of Education), Julian Cope became involved in Liverpool's emerging post-punk scene. His first band was Crucial Three, with two native Liverpudlians – Ian McCulloch (later of Echo & the Bunnymen) and Pete Wylie (who went on to form Wah!) – in which Cope served as bass player.

Cope and Wylie briefly teamed up in The Nova Mob (along with future Banshees drummer Budgie) which lasted for one gig before Cope reunited with McCulloch in the similarly short-lived Uh! (which also featured drummer Dave Pickett). Cope and McCulloch went on to form a fourth group, A Shallow Madness, retaining Pickett as drummer but recruiting organ player Paul Simpson and part-time guitarist Michael "Mick" Finkler. Cope and McCulloch's ongoing ego clashes led to the latter leaving the band during rehearsals, ultimately to form Echo and the Bunnymen. Cope, meanwhile, had befriended Liverpool scenester Gary "Rocky" Dwyer and had suggested a new band name to him – The Teardrop Explodes, taken from a panel caption in the Marvel comic strip Daredevil (No. 77). Dwyer's initial response was a laconic "that’s a weird one you’ve got there, Jules." Dwyer did, however, take the idea seriously enough to learn how to play drums in order to take it further.

With Cope taking on the roles of singer and bass guitarist, The Teardrop Explodes was completed by recruiting Simpson and Finkler from the wreck of A Shallow Madness and proved a more hardy gigging proposition than its predecessors, soon establishing itself as a live act. The band were soon signed as label acts and management clients to the up-and-coming Liverpool indie label Zoo Records, run by former Dalek I Love You & Big in Japan bass player David Balfe and future KLF man Bill Drummond. Another act on the label was Echo and the Bunnymen, who maintained a love/hate relationship and continuing rivalry with the Teardrops throughout their existence.

Early singles and Kilimanjaro

The Teardrop Explodes released their first single, "Sleeping Gas", in February 1979. Simpson's stage presence was now such that he rivalled Cope as the band's onstage focus, and by mutual agreement the two decided that the group wasn't big enough for both of them. Simpson left the band in the spring: he went on to form The Wild Swans and then link up with Ian Broudie to form Care. His initial replacement was Ged Quinn, who played on the Teardrops' subsequent British tour. However, co-manager David Balfe had also been lobbying for full Teardrops membership: by July 1979, he had succeeded in ousting Quinn and taking his place as keyboard player. (Quinn then rejoined Simpson in The Wild Swans.)

The band's next single, "Bouncing Babies", inspired a tribute song of its own: "I Can't Get Bouncing Babies by the Teardrop Explodes" by The Freshies, an ode to the difficulty of obtaining a copy of the song. In February 1980 the band released their third and final single on Zoo Records, "Treason", which was recorded in London with producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. The B-side was a version of the Cope/McCulloch song "Read It in Books", which Echo & the Bunnnymen had already released as the b-side to their debut single, "The Pictures on My Wall". Both bands recorded different versions of "Read It in Books" in the future, and Cope also re-recorded the track as a solo artist.