Julian Cope

Julian Cope

Julian David Cope (born October 21, 1957 in Bargoed , Wales ) is an English musician (bass, guitar, vocals) and songwriter.

Beginning in different bands

Julian Cope began his musical career in May 1977 when he formed the band Crucial Three in Liverpool with friends Ian McCulloch (vocals), Pete Wylie (guitar) and Stephen Spence (drums). However, it only lasted a few weeks. After that, Spence retired from the music scene, while McCulloch later founded Echo & The Bunnymen . Julian Cope then formed the Mystery Girls with Wylie, which also included singer Pete Burns and drummer Phil Hurst. After a few months and an appearance in the opening act of Sham 69 , this group fell apart again. Burns and Hurst founded the Nightmares In Wax, which later became the group Dead Or Alive . The next joint station for Julian Cope and Pete Wylie was the band Nova Mob in December 1977, which stayed together until May 1978. After that, Cope and Wylie also parted ways.

The Teardrop Explodes

In July 1978 Julian Cope formed the band A Swallow Madness with guitarist Mick Finkler and keyboardist Paul Simpson. After drummer Gary Dwyer had completed the group in November 1978, the band was renamed The Teardrop Explodes . With their unique blend of psychedelic rock and electronic pop, they rose to become one of the most influential groups of the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, Cope's dictatorial style of leadership repeatedly led to reshuffles. In March 1983 the band finally broke up.

Solo career

In 1983 Julian Cope made his solo debut with the LP World Shut Your Mouth . The songs were still very reminiscent of the Teardrop Explodes , which was not surprising, since Cope had originally composed the material for his old band. Live he caused a stir when he slit his stomach open with a broken microphone stand during his first solo concert. In 1984 the second LP Fried was released . It was an album full of confusing and disturbing songs that were heavily inspired by the solo work of Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett . Then Cope changed the record company and signed a record deal with the famous label Island .

In the spring of 1987 Julian Cope had his biggest hits with the loudly guitar-driven and yet poppy LP Saint Julian (GB # 7) and the single Trampolene , produced by Warne Livesey . The album My Nation Underground , released in autumn 1988, could not repeat this success and received mixed reactions. The subsequent LPs Skellington (1990) and Droolian (1990) consisted largely of material that Cope had already recorded in the early 1980s.

In the 1990s, Julian Cope was more adventurous. With the double album Peggy Suicide in 1991 he brought out a wild mixture of soul , folk , punk and psychedelic rock . The single Beautiful Love brought him back into the top 50 of the British charts. Encouraged by this, Cope presented the material live on a tour. The double album Jehovakill followed a year later , on which Julian Cope lived out his predilection for the German Krautrock of the early 1970s. In 1995 Julian Cope published the book Krautrock Sampler , in which he dealt intensively with the development and significance of this musical genre.

In 1993 he broke with his record company and Julian Cope had to publish his next, almost disturbingly varied works Autogeddon (1994) and 20 Mothers (1995) on an independent label. On the LP Interpreter , released in 1996 , he again offered compact pop songs, which he dressed in extremely unusual psychedelic arrangements.

In 2001 Julian Cope started the short-lived band Brain Donor , who played very hard and punk guitar rock on their two albums Love, Peace & Fuck (2001) and Too Freud To Rock 'n' Roll, Too Jung To Die (2003). Julian Cope then released the album You Gotta Problem With Me as a soloist in 2007 . Other solo albums such as Black Sheep (2008), Woden (2012), Psychedelic Revolution (2012), Revolutionary Suicide (2013), Drunken Songs (2017) and most recently Self Civil War (2020) followed.

Others

Julian Cope is married and has two daughters. In addition to music, he also deals intensively with the European megalithic structures of the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. In 1998 he published the book The Modern Antiquarian - A Pre-Millennial Odyssey Through the Megalithic Britain , which deals with the stone age monuments of Great Britain. This was followed in 2004 by The Megalithic European - The 21st Century Traveler in Prehistoric Europe , a richly illustrated travel guide to the most important megalithic monuments in Western and Central Europe.

His 1995 book Krautrocksampler (Head Heritage) about the West German Krautrock bands of the 1970s led to a revival of this musical genre. In 2007 Julian Cope dedicated another book, Japrocksampler: How the Post-war Japanese Blew Their Minds on Rock 'n' Roll (Bloomsbury), the "Japrock", the Japanese equivalent of Krautrock.

Discography

For releases with The Teardrop Explodes see here .

Solo albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		UK	US
1984	World Shut Your Mouth	UK40 (4 weeks) UK	-
	Fried	UK87 (1 week) UK	-
1987	Saint Julian	UK11 silver (10 weeks)UK	US105 (12 weeks) US
1988	My Nation Underground	UK42 (2 weeks) UK	US155 (13 weeks) US
1991	Peggy Suicide	UK23 (7 weeks) UK	-
1992	Jehovahkill	UK20 (2 weeks) UK	-
1994	Autogeddon	UK16 (3 weeks) UK	-
1995	20 mothers	UK20 (3 weeks) UK	-
1996	interpreter	UK39 (2 weeks) UK	-

More albums

• 1990: Skellington
• 1990: Droolian
• 1993: Rite
• 1993: The Skellington Chronicles
• 1997: Rite 2
• 1999: Odin
• 2000: An Audience With The Cope 2000/2001
• 2001: Discover Odin
• 2002: Rite Now
• 2003: Rome Wasn't Burned In A Day
• 2005: Citizen Cain'd
• 2005: Dark Orgasm
• 2007: You Gotta Problem With Me
• 2008: Black Sheep
• 2012: Woden
• 2012: Psychedelic Revolution
• 2013: Revolutionary Suicide
• 2017: Drunken Songs
• 2020: Self Civil War

Live albums

• 2004: Live In Japan '91
• 2019: Barrowlands - live in Glasgow 1995

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		UK	US
1992	Floored Genius: The Best of	UK22 (3 weeks) UK	-

More compilations

• 1993: Floored Genius 2 - Best of the BBC Sessions 1983-91
• 1997: The Followers of Saint Julian
• 1997: Leper Skin - An Introduction To Julian Cope
• 2000: Floored Genius 3 - Julian Cope's Oddicon of Lost Rarities & Versions 1978-98
• 2002: The Collection
• 2007: Christ vs Warhol
• 2009: Floored Genius 4 - The Best of Foreign Radio, Rare TV Appearances, Festival Songs & Miscellaneous Lost Classics 1983–2009
• 2015: Trip Advizer - The Very Best of Julian Cope 1999-2014

With Brain Donor

• 2001: Love, Peace & Fuck
• 2003: Too Freud To Rock 'n' Roll, Too Jung To Die
• 2006: Drain'd Boner
• 2009: Wasted Fuzz Excessive

Solo singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		UK	US
1983	Sunshine Playroom World Shut Your Mouth	UK64 (2 weeks) UK	-
1984	The Greatness and Perfection of Love World Shut Your Mouth	UK52 (7 weeks) UK	-
1985	Sunspots Fried	UK76 (3 weeks) UK	-
1986	World Shut Your Mouth Saint Julian	UK19 (8 weeks) UK	US84 (4 weeks) US
1987	Trampolene Saint Julian	UK31 (6 weeks) UK	-
	Eve's Volcano (Covered in Sin) Saint Julian	UK41 (5 weeks) UK	-
1988	Charlotte Anne My Nation Underground	UK35 (6 weeks) UK	-
	5 O'Clock World My Nation Underground	UK42 (4 weeks) UK	-
	China Doll My Nation Underground	UK53 (3 weeks) UK	-
1991	Beautiful Love Peggy Suicide	UK32 (6 weeks) UK	-
	Easy rider Peggy Suicide	UK51 (3 weeks) UK	-
	Head Peggy Suicide	UK57 (2 weeks) UK	-
1991	World Shut Your Mouth (1991) Floored Genius	UK44 (3 weeks) UK	-
	Fear Loves This Place Jehovahkill	UK42 (32 weeks) UK	-
1995	Try Try Try 20 Mothers	UK24 (3 weeks) UK	-
1996	I Come from Another Planet, Baby Interpreter	UK34 (2 weeks) UK	-
	Planetary Sit-In Interpreter	UK34 (2 weeks) UK	-

More singles

• 1985: Competition (as Rabbi Joseph Gordon)
• 1991: Safesurfer
• 1994: Paranormal in the West Country
• 1997: Propheteering
• 2008: Preaching Revolution

Video albums

• 1989: Copeulation

bibliography

• 1990: Crazy Diamond: Syd Barrett and the Dawn of "Pink Floyd"
• 1994: Head On
• 1995: KrautRockSampler One Heads Guide To The Grosse Kosmische Musik. Translated by Clara Drechsler and Ronald Rippchen. Werner Pieper's MedienXperimente, Löhrbach 1996 (= Der Grüne Zweig 186), ISBN 3-925817-86-7 )
• 1998: The Modern Antiquarian
• 1999: Repossesed
• 2004: Megalithic European
• 2007: Japanese rock sampler

literature

• Julian Cope: Head On / Repossessed . Thorsons, ISBN 0-7225-3882-0 .

Web links

• official homepage
• Julian Cope at Discogs
• Julian Cope at Allmusic (English)
• The Modern Antiquarian project

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: UK US
2. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK