The Teardrop Explodes
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The Teardrop Explodes were a British new wave band from Liverpool that existed from 1978 to 1983. She was one of the better known representatives of the neo-psychedelic movement. The face of the band was singer and bassist Julian Cope , who had previously played with Pete Wylie ( Wah! Heat ) and Ian McCulloch ( Echo and the Bunnymen ) in the group Crucial Three and who enjoyed further success as a solo artist after the breakup of The Teardrop Explodes .
Band history
Started with the indie label
Julian Cope (born October 21, 1957 , Deri, Mid Glamorgan, Wales ) formed the band in the autumn of 1978 with keyboardist Paul Simpson, with whom he played in a band called A Shallow Madness , and guitarist Mick Finkler. They were soon joined by drummer Gary Dwyer. They took their new name from a text bubble in a Daredevil comic by Marvel .
Bill Drummond became their manager, and they got a recording deal with the indie label Zoo, founded by Drummond and David Balfe (former keyboardists for Big In Japan and Lori & the Chameleons ) .
Her first single Sleeping Gas was released in February 1979; Simpson then left the band and was replaced first by Gerard Quinn (who plays on the second single, Bouncing Babies ) and then by Balfe. The band gained a considerable following through numerous concerts in Liverpool and the surrounding area. After the third single, Treason (It's Just a Story), the major labels vied for her, and The Teardrop Explodes signed with Mercury Records .
Success with the major label
For Mercury they recorded the LP Kilimanjaro in mid-1980 . While working in the studio, Finkler was replaced by Alan Gill (formerly Dalek I Love You ). The first single from the album was When I Dream - the song entered the British charts on September 27, 1980 and climbed to number 47. In the course of this, the LP was released in October and also entered the album charts immediately.
In 1981 the band reached the zenith of their popularity. At the end of January, the single Reward was released, on which Ray Martinez played the trumpet and which was her biggest hit with 6th place. Another top twenty hit followed in April, a new recording by Treason (It's Just a Story) . The success of the singles also revived the LP's chart career, Kilimanjaro rose to number 24 and stayed in the hit list for 35 weeks.
1981 was also the year of the changing line-ups: Alfie Algius became the new bass player, Jeff Hammer came for Balfe on keyboards and Troy Tate (later in the band Fashion ) replaced Alan Gill on guitar.
Poppies in the Field , another single from the first album, flopped in mid-1981, but by that time the band was back in the recording studio ; the expectations for the second LP were high. The pre-released single Passionate Friend in September gave further hope, but remained in the charts below the Top Twenty. The LP Wilder followed in November . But she too fell short of expectations and only came to number 29 in the charts in six weeks. Two more singles made it into the top 50.
The end of the band
At the end of 1982 the band went back to the studio - they now consisted of Cope, Dwyer and the returned Balfe; as a session musician, Ron Francois played bass. But now there were the so often cited “musical differences”: Cope wanted to play ballads and demanding pop songs , Balfe was more interested in synthesizer- based dance music . In early 1983, Cope finally broke up the band, although the recordings were not yet completed. The sessions partially formed the basis for Cope's first solo album World Shut Your Mouth in February 1984 ; on the other hand, they reappeared in 1990 on the album Everybody Wants to Shag the Teardrop Explodes .
As a solo artist, Cope regularly put singles and albums in the UK charts from 1984 to 1996 and has made a name for himself as the author of non-fiction books on music and prehistoric monuments . Dwyer first played in Cope's band. Balfe went into film production and headed Food Records ( Jesus Jones , Blur ) in the late 1980s .
Trivia
The single Bouncing Babies inspired the head of the band “The Freshies”, Chris Sievey, to his song I Can't Get 'Bouncing Babies' by the Teardrop Explodes in 1981 . The song, released as a single on Razz / MCA Records, addresses the difficulties that record collectors had in 1981 in getting the older singles of the Teardrop Explodes on Zoo Records into their collections.
Discography
Albums
- 1980: Kilimanjaro
- 1981: Wilder
- 1990: Everybody Wants to Shag… the Teardrop Explodes (Sessions from 1982/1983) (UK # 72)
- 1990: Piano (compilation of the songs on Zoo Records)
- 1992: Floored Genius - The Best of Julian Cope and The Teardrop Explodes 1981–1991 (compilation with six TTE titles)
- 2004: Zoology (compilation of demos and unpublished recordings)
Singles
- 1979: Sleeping Gas
- 1979: Bouncing Babies
- 1980: Treason (It's Just a Story) (Zoo)
- 1980: When I Dream
- 1981: Reward
- 1981: Treason (It's Just a Story) (Mercury)
- 1981: Poppies in the Field
- 1981: Passionate Friend
- 1981: Colors Fly Away
- 1982: Tiny Children
- 1983: You Disappear from View
Web links
- Profile at Popalphabet (1990)
- The Teardrop Explodes at allmusic.com
- Head Heritage Julian Cope's website
literature
- Julian Cope: Head-On / Repossessed . Thorsons Publishers, 2000, ISBN 0-7225-3882-0 (autobiography in two volumes).
swell
- ↑ a b UK chart history
- ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
- ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
- ↑ The comic page from Daredevil No. 77 with the name inspiration ( memento of the original from February 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
