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This
highly promising Liverpool group was assembled by vocalist Julian
Cope, a former member of the Crucial Three, which had featured
Ian McCulloch (later of Echo And The Bunnymen) and Pete Wylie
(later of Wah!). The Teardrop Explodes took their name from
a page in a Marvel comic and the original group came together
in late 1978 with a line-up featuring Julian Cope, Michael Finkler,
Paul Simpson and Gary Dwyer
After signing to Bill Drummond
and Dave Balfe's Liverpool record label Zoo, they issued Sleeping
Gas in early 1979. It was soon followed by the eccentric but
appealing Bouncing Babies. By then, Paul Simpson had left to
be replaced by Dave Balfe, who had previously appeared in the
short-lived Lori And The Chameleons
The exuberant Treason
(It's Just A Story) was the Teardrop Explodes most commercial
and exciting offering to date, and was unlucky not to chart.
The shaky line-up next lost Michael Finkler, who was replaced
by Alan Gill (formerly of Dalek I Love You)
A distribution
deal with Phonogram coincided with a higher press profile for
Julian Cope, which was rewarded with the minor hit When I Dream
Kilimanjaro
followed and displayed the group as one of the most inventive
and intriguing of their era. A repromoted/remixed version of
Treason belatedly charted, as did the stirring Passionate Friends
By
late 1981, Julian Cope was intent on restructuring the group;
new members included Alfie Agius and Troy Tate
Wilder further
displayed the wayward talents of Julian Cope and revealed a
group bristling with ideas, unusual melodies and strong arrangements
influenced by late 60s psychedelia
When the sessions for
a third album broke down, Julian Cope curtailed the group's
activities and in 1984 embarked on a erratic yet often inspired
solo career
The irreverently-title Everybody Wants To Shag
The Teardrop Explodes was posthumously exhumed for released
in 1990
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