I Got Can For My Birthday, Nietzsche For Christmas

Birthday wishes to Julian Cope, celebrating his 68th year today on this ball of mud, orbiting a mass of incandescent gas.

Typically, ICT issues (or possibly "The Man") have threatened my efforts to create and post today's doff of the cap - or should that be tug of the hood? - to the great man, so I've run out of time to write much.

 

However, I have created a new, 46 minute Dubhed selection, containing Cope compositions that haven't previously featured in one of the many, many compilations that I've posted here. At least, I'm 99.9% sure of it!

 

Here's to you, M'Lud!

 

1) Peggy Suicide Is A Jung'kie (1992)

2) Ain't No Gettin' Round Gettin' Round (1994)

3) The Great White Hoax (1988)

4) I Got With God (2007)

5) Zoroaster (2005)

6) I Want To Talk About Stone Circles (2023)

7) Mik Mak Mok (Single Version) (1984)

8) A Child Is Born In Cerrid-Y-Drudion (2007)

9) Too Freud To Rock 'n' Roll Too Jung To Die (2024)

10) Rachael Built A Steamboat: The Teardrop Explodes (1981)

11) Battle For The Trees (1996)

1981: Tiny Children EP: 10

1984: Sunspots EP: 7

1988: My Nation Underground: 3

1994: Autogeddon: 2

1996: Interpreter: 11 

2005: Dark Orgasm: 5 

2007: You Gotta Problem With Me: 8 

2009: Floored Genius 4: The Best Of Foreign Radio, Rare TV Appearances, Festival Songs & Miscellaneous Lost Classics 1983-2009: 4 

2023: Cope's Notes #5: The Modern Antiquarian: 6 

2024: Cope's Notes #6: Jehovahkill: 1

2024: Friar Tuck: 9 

I Got Can For My Birthday, Nietzsche For Christmas (46:26) (GD) (M)

 

 

I missed Julian's birthday in 2021 (sacrilege!), but here's a link to my previous annual tributes to the Arch Drude. 

 

Upwards @ 65 Degrees (2022) 

21 Revolutions Per Minute (2023) 

Need Some Identification? (2024) 

Cain'd, Fried & Alive, '95-'05, Volume 1: 1995

Just over a week ago, I had the sobering revelation that it was twenty years since I saw Julian Cope at The Fleece (then The Fleece & Firkin) in Bristol on 20th January 2005.

This came with the equally shocking realisation that it was thirty years to the day since I saw Julian perform a benefit gig for the Big Issue at the Bierkeller in Bristol on 29th January 1995.

 

The balance between the years passed since a gig and the age I was when attending said gig is increasingly and unwantingly shifting in favour of the former. Or, roughly translated, how did I get so old so fast?!

By way of compensation/denial (delete as applicable), I'm revisiting these two gigs in a couple of posts via the medium of the Dubhed selection. Yes, in time honoured and slipshod fashion, you dear reader get to listen to the songs that were played that night in a way that bears no resemblance to Julian's actual live performance.

And yet...there's always something in (re)creathing these setlists that highlights how unusual - and great - these shows were, and 29th January 1995 is a great example.

This was a one-off gig, ahead of a longer UK tour (and return to Bristol, this time to the University's Anson Rooms) in autumn the same year, to promote twelfth album 20 Mothers. And yes, I was at both Bristol shows.

20 Mothers was released in August 1995, the Bierkeller gig served as a preview of the album to come, with five songs performed that evening including Try, Try, Try, six months before it came out as the sole single, providing Julian with his first UK Top 30 hit since World Shut Your Mouth in 1986.

The show was also a delight. not only in it's selection of deep cuts - Poet Is Priest from Jehovahkill (1992), Las Vegas Basement from Peggy Suicide (1991) and Jellypop Perky Jean from Droolian (1990) - but also it's size, 24 performances and well over two hours. Though, that's nothing compared to the Anson Rooms, which tipped three hours...

 

My memory of specifics on the night is hazy and this is one night that the usually dependable Setlist site couldn't help with. Thanks therefore to Steve Doughty, who has amassed a formidable collection of Julian Cope live recordings spanning 1979 to 2012, all available to trade, and including both 1995 gigs.

 

In recreating 29th January 1995, I have taken the usual step of trying to include live bootlegs, demos, radio sessions and rare alternative versions of songs, editing and splicing them together, sometimes ruthlessly, to create an immersive listening experience. 

 

So, you get a 2:43 edit of Try, Try, Try preceded by over seven minutes of Poet Is Priest, the third section of the full length 21+ minute version. There's the latter half of Upwards At 45 Degrees, demo'd for the 1992 tour, and a Teardrop Explodes-era demo of World Shut Your Mouth, as well as an alternative version of Jellypop Perky Jean from 1993, considered as a potential single release.

 

There are a few omissions, which are in italics in the track list below. Socrates Mine Enemy and 'Sting Poem' were spoken word performances. I have no recollection of whether Driving On The Fast Side Of Slow was the same, but as it's the first line of Archdrude's Roadtrip from 1994's Autogeddon, I've included the song. This was followed on the night by Open Up & Bleed, which is a song by The Stooges, but again I have no memory of this and I couldn't find any bootlegs on You Tube.

 

8th February will mark five years since the last time I saw Julian, at the Barbican in London and shortly before the UK went into lockdown. To date, it was the last time he's toured the UK but I'm hoping not the last. As he so eloquently puts it in Las Vegas Basement, Julian was born to entertain and it would be wonderful to see him on stage again.

 

In the meantime, enjoy this trip back in time. I'll be revisiting the 2005 gig soon.

 

1) Julian H. Cope (Live @ Barrowland, Glasgow, 30th September 1995) 

2) Paranormal In The West Country (Part 1) (Album Version) (1994)  

3) Poet Is Priest ... (Full Length Version) (Part 3) (1992)

4) Try, Try, Try (Edit) (1995)

5) Stone Circles 'n' You (Album Version) (1995)

6) I'm Your Daddy (Live @ The Fleece, Bristol, 9th February 2020)

7) Pristeen (Album Version) (1991) 

8) The Great Dominions (Mike Read Session, 27th October 1980): The Teardrop Explodes

9) Wheelbarrow Man (Album Version) (1995)

10) Socrates Mine Enemy / Sting Poem 

11) The Greatness And Perfection Of Love (Radio Trent 301) (1982)

12) Upwards At 45 Degrees (Live Stage Tour Demo Version) (Edit) (1992)

13) Double Vegetation (Live @ Barrowland, Glasgow, 30th September 1995) 

14) Las Vegas Basement (Live @ Wilde Theatre, South Hill Park, Bracknell, 25th October 2011)

15) Sunspots (Live @ The Ritz, New York, 28th January 1987) 

16) World Shut Your Mouth (Instrumental Demo #1, Porta Studio, Liverpool, February 1981)

17) Love L.U.V. (Beautiful Love Version By Hugo Nicholson) (1991)

18) Jellypop Perky Jean (Alternative Version) (1993)

19) Land Of Fear (Single Version) (1984) 

20) Driving On The Fast Side Of Slow (aka Archdrude's Roadtrip) (1994)

21) Open Up & Bleed (Cover of The Stooges)

22) Soul Desert (Live @ The Fleece, Bristol, 9th February 2020) 

23) Robert Mitchum (Live @ Wilde Theatre, South Hill Park, Bracknell, 25th October 2011) 

24) Passionate Friend (Live @ Guildford Civic Hall, Guildford, 18 June 1981): The Teardrop Explodes

Volume 1: 1995 (1:23:36) (KF) (Mega)

Dave-hed Selection

In the same month that we lost David Lynch and David Bowie, I also take a moment to remember my friend Dave. 

When I first posted about Dave in 2022, I shared a link to a song called Amazing Dave by CocknBullKid aka Anita Blay aka CocknBullKid released in 2010, the year after Dave passed. 

At the time I wrote that "This may be the only song in my collection that includes the name Dave in the title, but it's a good one."

I've had a rummage around and, looking for Dave and David in the song title, it turns out that I had quite a few to choose from. I've picked ten, plus two songs featuring two Daves and a David, which had to be included. And, inevitably, ending with CocknBullKid.

I think after an understandable groan, Dave would have liked this selection. I hope you do too.

Cheers, Dave. 

 

1) A Song Called Dave: The Comsat Angels (1995)

2) David Bowie Never Had To: Stephen Solo (2017)

3) Like Queer David: Earl Brutus (1996)

4) David Jones (Is On His Way): The Times (1985)

5) Parade (Cover of Magazine): Dave Formula ft. David McAlmont (2010)

6) Dave Balfe, What's Got Into You? (Tamworth Session, Part II): Julian Cope & The Teardrop Explodes (2021)

7) David's Last Summer: Pulp (1994)

8) David's Soul (Demo): Tindersticks (1998)

9) Star Of David: The Field Mice (1991)

10) Brother: Humanist ft. Dave Gahan (2024)

11) Dave The Butcher: Tom Waits (1983)

12) Amazing Dave: CocknBullKid (2010)

1983: Swordfishtrombones: 11

1985: Boys About Town EP: 4

1991: For Keeps: 9

1994: His 'n' Hers: 7

1995: The Glamour: 1

1996: I'm New EP: 3

2004: Simple Pleasure (Expanded Edition): 8

2010: Amazing Dave EP: 12

2010: Satellite Sweetheart: 5

2017: Pii2: 2

2021: Cold War Psychedelia: 6

2024: On The Edge Of A Lost And Lonely World: 10

Dave-hed Selection (46:13) (KF) (Mega)

Decade I: 1981

Side 2 of a mixtape compiled 4th February 1990.

 

After setting the bar high with side 1, could I hope to match it on the flipside? Well, this is 1981 we're talking about here...

 

Although I didn't start buying records in earnest for another few years, when I had a Saturday job and therefore money to spend, 1980 and 1981 were perhaps the two years when my love of music became an obsession. 

 

I started sticking posters on my wall, mostly from Look-In, occasionally Smash Hits or one of the other pop mags that included pin-ups and lyrics for all the chart hits. I used to send blank cassettes to my uncle so that he could borrow albums from his local library and help build my collection. I was fascinated by the New Romantic and synthpop bands that would pop up with alarming regularity on kids' TV shows. 

 

And pop videos! It was a perfect time, musically speaking at least.

Making a return visit on this side are Visage, The Human League and O.M.D., others for the first time but destined to reappear in later volumes. Again, I'm really happy with the sequencing of this selection, although I ran out of tape on the original recording and had to go back and fade out Heaven 17 early in order to squeeze in Gary Numan. No such ignominy in this digital age, so you get the full version of (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang, as intended.

I will return to this series over the next few weekends but I have to confess that Decade volumes II and III (1982-1985) were lost many years ago on my travels. I don't have a note of the track listings either so I will aim to recreate selections that reflect what was in my collection at the time.

In the meantime, get that trench coat on, back comb that hair and go stand on a street corner looking moody whilst listening to this on your Walkman!

1) Vienna (Album Version): Ultravox

2) Europe After The Rain (Album Version): John Foxx

3) Mind Of A Toy (Album Version): Visage

4) Passionate Friend (Album Version): The Teardrop Explodes

5) Pretty In Pink (Album Version): The Psychedelic Furs

6) Grey Day (Album Version): Madness

7) Bedsitter (Album Version): Soft Cell

8) The Sound Of The Crowd (Album Version): The Human League

9) Joan Of Arc (Album Version): O.M.D.

10) New Life (Remix): Depeche Mode

11) (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang (Album Version): Heaven 17

12) She's Got Claws ('Modern Dance' Edit): Gary Numan

1st March 1981: Vienna (#3): 1

22nd March 1981: Penthouse And Pavement (#45): 11

29th March 1981: Visage (#13): 3

10th May 1981: 7 (#4): 6

24th May 1981: Dare (#12): 8

5th July 1981: Talk Talk Talk (#43): 5

2nd August 1981: Speak & Spell (#11): 10

30th August 1981: Dance (#6): 12

30th August 1981: The Garden (#40): 2

27th September 1981: Wilder (#25): 4

8th November 1981: Architecture & Morality (#5): 9

29th November 1981: Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret (#4): 7

Side Two (46:24) (GD) (M)

And Suddenly! Once Again

Side 1 of a cassette compilation featuring The Teardrop Explodes, recorded 30th August 1993. With apologies to blureu for taking nearly a year to get to it...!

 

It's been a long while since Julian Cope and The Teardrop Explodes have featured here, so what better way to counter what's so far proving to be a rather cold, wet and miserable June in the UK (well, this part anyway).

As I told in my previous post, I was already deeply committed to Julian Cope's music...and yet, by the summer of 1993 I still hadn't bought a copy of the 'lost' third album, Everybody Wants To Shag....The Teardrop Explodes, which had come out a few years previously. 

I was also trying to stoke the fires of passion for the Arch Drude in my then-girlfriend and, being a penniless student and all that, not for her flowers, romantic dinners and ad-hoc trips away, oh no. What could profess my affection more than a C90 cassette featuring 26 songs by The Teardrop Explodes? Hmmm, on reflection, it's no wonder we split up the following summer....

So, another three quarters of an hour of Cope & co. brilliance, originally culled from vinyl copies of Kilimanjaro and Wilder, a secondhand bargain purchase of You Disappear From View on 12" from Plastic Wax Records in Bristol and, opening this selection, Count To Ten And Run For Cover from the 12" single on loan from my friend Stuart. 

 

Mirroring the previous cassette side, the big hit (Reward) is dispatched by track two, but there's no let up in quality for the remainder of the compilation. Imagining this as a double vinyl album, I think this works well as two distinct sides, with Poppies getting the second side (or phase, as Julian was wont to use) off to an equally strong start.

Several songs on the You Disappear From View 12" were remixed by Chris Hughes and Ross Cullum, including a lovely string-laden version of Suffocate, arranged by Nicky Holland. Suffocate and Ouch Monkeys (and Soft Enough For You on phase 3) all differ from the versions that eventually appeared on Everybody Wants To Shag....The Teardrop Explodes, Hughes exercising more restraint and less bombast than on his later work on Tears For Fears' Songs From The Big Chair.

Things have been a little quiet on the Julian Cope front of late, with only a 'new' Queen Elizabeth CD emerging recently and no word of gigs since the previous tour was curtailed by illness and the COVID lockdown in 2020. 

 

After completing this post, I popped over to Head Heritage as I regularly do and was delighted to see that Julian's just released #6 in his Cope's Notes booklet/CD series, this time focusing on his 1992 magnum opus, Jehovahkill. Always an essential purchase as far as I'm concerned, this one includes 13 demos and unreleased outtakes which I'm looking forward to hearing. 

 

Head Heritage has also made the Jehovahkill T-shirt available again. I originally bought one from the merch stand when Julian was touring the album but it's been lost a long time, so I added it to the shopping cart. It's what all the hippest pagans are wearing, I hear.

 

Phase One

1) Count To Ten And Run For Cover (Single Version By Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley) (1982)

2) Reward (Single Version By Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley) (1980)

3) Seven Views Of Jerusalem (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

4) Brave Boys Keep Their Promises (Album Version By Bill Drummond & David Balfe) (1980)

5) Like Leila Khaled Said (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

6) Suffocate (Baroque Version By Chris Hughes & Ross Cullum) (1982)

7) The Great Dominions (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

Phase Two

8) Poppies In The Field (Album Version By Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley) (1980)

9) Treason (It's Just A Story) (Remixed Version By Hugh Jones) (1981)

10) Ouch Monkeys (Remix By Chris Hughes & Ross Cullum) (1983)

11) The Thief Of Baghdad (Album Version By Bill Drummond & David Balfe) (1980)

12) Pure Joy (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

13) .....And The Fighting Takes Over (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

 

1980: Kilimanjaro: 2, 4, 8, 11

1981: Treason EP: 9

1981: Wilder: 3, 5, 7, 12, 13

1983: You Disappear From View EP: 6, 10 

1990: Count To Ten And Run For Cover EP: 1

Phase One (24:05) (KF) (Mega)

Phase Two (22:04) (KF) (Mega)

 

Phases Three and Four can be found here.

Dear Annie

Celebrating Annie Nightingale, 1st April 1940 to 11th January 2024.

When I heard the sad news that Annie had passed at the age of 83 following a short illness, I didn't immediately post about it. To be honest, it was a real shock, I'd admittedly not followed Annie's continuing broadcasts in recent years but she seemed like she was immortal, that husky voice continuing to emanate over the airwaves forever. 

I was floored by Janice Long's death in December 2021 and Annie's has also hit me hard. When reflecting on Janice at the time, I wrote that "I probably listened to [her] more than John Peel on Radio 1 as a teen, mainly because her evening show slot usually coincided with doing homework or otherwise avoiding my family in my bedroom." This was even more applicable to Annie, whose request show followed the Top 40 countdown on Sunday nights.

I continued to listen to Annie as the powers that be moved her time slot further and further back, so that (at least, as far as I recall), her show became essential post-club listening.

I discovered so much music, new and old, via Annie Nightingale and I think my eclectic collection is testament to her own unabated passion for new genres and styles. Annie was also a reason to watch The Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC2. Bands that might otherwise have stuck two fingers up to the show and presenter Whispering Bob Harris were more amenable to appear when she was presenting.

 

As with Janice Long, this is another of those selections that doesn't begin to do justice to the breadth of Annie Nightingale's indefatigable love of music. More so, given that her career spanned six decades. 

I've cheekily lifted some of Annie's OGWT intros to link some of the music on this selection. The opening extract was from the show broadcast on 14th February 1981, featuring The Sound (well, it was them or Camel) and a three-song set including the magnificent Sense Of Purpose, included here.

 

I should say that only one song, by The Selecter, is an actual performance from The Old Grey Whistle Test. The rest are album and single versions, a remix here and there including one by Annie herself and some deep cuts from The Teardrop Explodes, The Crystal Method, Public Image Ltd., T.Power and Primal Scream remixed by Andrew Weatherall.

 

Big In Japan by Alphaville made the cut as it was the first song on a request show from 1985 that TSKC1984 taped off the radio and posted on You Tube. You can listen to the entire show in all it's hissy glory here, with another from Hollowe'en 1984 here.

 

I've also drawn inspiration from the three albums that Annie compiled in 1996, 2007 and 2015: Annie On One, Annie Nightingale Presents Y4K and Masterpiece. My selection ends, as Annie On One does, with Flowered Up's magnum opus and finest moment, Weekender, which I first heard on her show in 1992. 

I'll happily confess that I was in love with Annie: that voice; the effortless cool that set her miles apart from her contemporary (male) DJs on TV; the sheer rock 'n' roll-ness of her being. Actually, scratch 'was' for 'am'. 

 

In the many, many tributes in the past few days, Annie Nightingale has been rightly described as a trailblazer, a pioneer, one-of-a-kind. Annie was all of that to me. She was also a wonderful person and my favourite radio DJ ever.

Thank you, Annie, you were the best.

 

1) Old Grey Whistle Test (BBC2 Continuity Announcement & Introduction): Annie Nightingale (1981) 

2) Sense Of Purpose: The Sound (1981)

3) Liberation (12" Version): T.Power (1995)

4) Old Grey Whistle Test (Introduction: The Teardrop Explodes): Annie Nightingale (1982) 

5) Colours Fly Away (Live @ Club Zoo, Liverpool): The Teardrop Explodes (1981)

6) This Was The Sound (Adam Freeland & Sebi Spanks Remix): K-Swing + Beber (2007)

7) Come Back Clean (Annie Nightingale + Far Too Loud Remix): The Crystal Method ft. Emily Haines (2009)

8) Big In Japan (7" Version): Alphaville (1984)

9) Old Grey Whistle Test (Introduction: Japan): Annie Nightingale (1982) 

10) Ghosts (Single Version): Japan (1982)

11) Old Grey Whistle Test (Introduction: Public Image Ltd.): Annie Nightingale (1980)

12) Poptones (John Peel Session): Public Image Ltd. (1979)

13) Don't Fight It, Feel It (Scat Mix By Andrew Weatherall & Hugo Nicolson): Primal Scream ft. Denise Johnson (1991)

14) Duel (Album Version): Propaganda (1985)

15) Old Grey Whistle Test (Introduction: The Selecter): Annie Nightingale (1980)

16) Murder (Live on Old Grey Whistle Test, BBC2 TV): The Selecter (1980)

17) Cheft El Khof: Orange Blossom (2004)

18) Grey Clouds: The Orb ft. Alan Parker, Urban Warrior (2007)

19) Weekender (Full Length Version): Flowered Up (1992)

Dear Annie (1:15:17) (KF) (Mega)

21 Revolutions Per Minute

Happy birthday to Julian Cope, born 21st October 1957.

To celebrate, here's a 21-song selection covering The Teardrop Explodes, Brain Donor and of course, Julian's vast and ongoing solo releases. If I had been clever, I'd have made the selection 66 minutes long. You get 63 and a bit*, so I hope you don't feel short changed!

 

1) Wrong Side Of The Bed: Julian Cope (2023)

2) Trampolene (Album Version): Julian Cope (1987)

3) My Pagan Ass: Brain Donor (2003)

4) The-Way-Luv-Is (Edit): Julian Cope (2003)

5) Poor Spider: Julian Cope (1990)

6) I Come From Another Planet, Baby (Album Version): Julian Cope (1996)

7) Don't Take Roots (Album Version): Julian Cope (1995)

8) A Question Of Temperature (Cover of The Balloon Farm): Julian Cope (1988)

9) Falling Down Around Me (Bearshank Lodge Version): The Teardrop Explodes (1981)

10) Since I Lost My Head It's Awl-right: Julian Cope (1996)

11) Gogmagog: Julian Cope (1992)

12) Drink Me Under The Table (Album Version): Julian Cope (2017)

13) Screaming Secrets (Original): The Teardrop Explodes (1981)

14) Ephaedra (Extract): Julian Cope (2002)

15) Tiny Children (Fucked Up Version): The Teardrop Explodes (1980)

16) Whole Lotta Loki: Brain Donor (2003)

17) When I Dream (John Peel Session): The Teardrop Explodes (1980)

18) The American Lite: Julian Cope (1991)

19) You Think It's Love (John Peel Session): Julian Cope (1991)

20) Soldier Blue (Mix 2 By Michael Franti): Julian Cope (1991)

21) I Know What it’s Like To Be Believed: Julian Cope (2022)

 

1987: Saint Julian: 2

1988: Charlotte Anne EP: 8

1991: Peggy Suicide: 18 

1991: Soldier Blue EP (unreleased promo): 20

1992: Fear Loves This Place EP: 11 

1993: Floored Genius 2: Best Of The BBC Sessions 1983-1991: 19

1995: 20 Mothers: 7

1996: Interpreter: 6, 10

2002: Rite Now: 14

2003: Rome Wasn't Burned In A Day: 4

2003: Too Freud To Rock 'n' Roll, Too Jung To Die: 3, 16

2004: Zoology: 15

2007: Peel Sessions Plus (1979-1982): 17

2017: Drunken Songs: 12

2019: Cope’s Notes #1: 13

2021: Droolian's Mother: 5

2022: England Expectorates: 21

2023: Culture Bunker 1978-82 CD#4: The Great Dominions: 9

2023: Robin Hood: 1

 

21 Revolutions Per Minute (1:03:08) (GD) (M)

 

* with apologies to anyone who downloaded the selection earlier and got a 55-minute version, abruptly cutting off midway through You Think It's Love. The full 63-minute experience has been restored! 

And Suddenly!

Side 2 of a cassette compilation of The Teardrop Explodes, recorded 30th August 1993.

 

Just in case long-time visitors to this blog were wondering if I'd gone off Julian Cope, rest assured, I was merely biding my time...

June was a pretty good month if you are a Julian Cope fan. Not only did the Arch Drude release #4 in his Cope's Notes series, an excellent booklet/CD combo focusing this time on 2008 album Black Sheep, but The Culture Bunker 1978-1982, the long-promised box set of treasures by The Teardrop Explodes finally emerged blinking into the daylight. 

 

I've generally not had the desire (or the cold hard cash) to get into box sets but this was a no-brainer. I went for the CD version, which is a bit easier on the bank balance but completists will be driven nuts by the fact that both formats offer slightly different 'exclusive' albums. Much as I'd love the vinyl-only album of the band's 1979 set from TV show Band On The Wall, I'll keep my fingers crossed for a standalone CD or digital release...

I'll come back to both of these releases separately but suffice to say, it's been a joy to not only hear familiar songs but also the unreleased outtakes, demo and live versions. Anyone who has read Julian Cope's autobiographies, Head On and Repossessed, will know that the accompanying commentary is something to savour. Cope's Notes offers up a 48-page insight into Black Sheep, The Culture Bunker provides a lavish 10" 64-page hardback book with a 12,000 word essay by Mick Houghton, based on conversations with Julian, and lavishly illustrated throughout.

But I digress. Listening to The Teardrop Explodes inevitably got me reaching back into the mixtape archive to dust off this much-loved compilation from 1993... Christ (Versus Warhol), was it really 30 years ago?!

I was in love with a girl and, apart from being an all-round great person, she had a poster (ripped from Select magazine, if I remember correctly) on her wall. At that point, she only really knew him from Beautiful Love and Peggy Suicide so of course it was my duty to share my love of his music, going all the way back to The Teardrop Explodes. 

At that time, I think I had Kilimanjaro and Wilder (both on reissued vinyl), the 12" of You Disappear From View, which I'd chanced on for pennies during a vinyl trawl at Plastic Wax Records in Bristol and, courtesy of my friend Stuart, a loaned 12" of Count To Ten And Run For Cover which provided the source material. "Lost" third album, Everybody Wants To Shag....The Teardrop Explodes had been released a couple of years previously but judging by the tracklisting here, I clearly hadn't got hold of a copy by August 1993.

 

I'm biased of course but listening to it again, it just feels like hit after hit after hit, even though The Teardrop Explodes didn't actually have that many hits. I bought Wilder before Kilimanjaro which slightly edges it in my affections though it's splitting such a fine hair when both are so, so good. The posthumous You Disappear From View 12" was a gem too and all of the tracks made their way onto the compilation.

 

In keeping with Julian Cope's approach to his own albums in the 1990s, I'll split the cassette sides into phases, which also conveniently come in at the approximate duration of a (generous) vinyl side. I've recreated the split here so that you can enjoy the selection in two bite-sized chunks.

 

When I Dream is taken from the 21st century CD reissue of Kilimanjaro, which reinstated the full length 7-minute version of the song with ridiculously extended outro. My vinyl reissue had the edited version, which faded the song around the five and a half minute mark. To preserve the original cassette running time, I've done the same here. Needless to say, it doesn't make the song any less brilliant.

Phase Three

1) You Disappear From View (Single Version By Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley) (1981)

2) Ha Ha I'm Drowning (Album Version By Bill Drummond & David Balfe) (1980)

3) Falling Down Around Me (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

4) Soft Enough For You (Remixed By Chris Hughes & Ross Cullum) (1981)

5) Bent Out Of Shape (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

6) Went Crazy (Album Version By Bill Drummond & David Balfe) (1980)

7) In-Psychlopaedia (Single Version By Hugh Jones) (1981)

Phase Four

8) Colours Fly Away (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

9) The Culture Bunker (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

10) Bouncing Babies (Album Version By Bill Drummond & David Balfe) (1980)

11) Tiny Children (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

12) Second Head (Album Version By Bill Drummond & David Balfe) (1980)

13) When I Dream (Album Version By Mike Howlett) (Early Fade) (1980)

1980: Kilimanjaro: 2, 6, 10, 12, 13

1981: Wilder: 3, 5, 8, 9, 11

1983: You Disappear From View EP: 1, 4, 7

Phase Three (22:53) (KF) (Mega)

Phase Four (23:03) (KF) (Mega)

Strangely Committed

Back to our irregularly scheduled programme with Julian Cope, remixed!

In 2015, Strictly Rockers offered an embarrassment of Arch Drude riches courtesy of The Vinyl Villain, with a series of Imaginary Compilation Albums that included Cope Remixed, a pretty definitive take that featured the following selection:

1) Pussyface (Remixed)

2) World Shut Your Mouth (Julian Cope vs. Trouble Funk) (12" Mix)

3) Trampolene Warne Out! (Long Version)

4) Eve's Volcano 'Covered In Sin' / !Vulcano Lungo! (Extended Remix)

5) Love L.U.V. (Beautiful Love Version)

6) East Easy Rider (Easty Risin' Remix)

7) Heed: Of Penetration And The City Dweller (Head Remix)

8) Soldier Blue (Mix 1 By Michael Franti)

9) Paranormal In The West Country (Krankenhausmusik)

10) Planetary Sit-In (Radio Sit-In Remix)

It's hard to top that, not least because there generally aren't that many JC remixes out there, official, unreleased or fan-made, to begin with. Several of them also hit the 20-30 minute mark, so were out of the running for this C90-friendly selection. I've managed to keep duplicates of the above to a minimum, even if I have stretched the definition of a remix slightly (*cough* Treason in French *cough*).

 

Hugo Nicholson turns in a couple of stunning remixes of singles from the classic Peggy Suicide album (a third, Head, has appeared on a previous Dubhed selection). The French language version of Treason originally featured as a B-side on the 12" single whilst the remix/re-edit of Tiny Children was available online (possibly still is) via Soundcloud or the Head Heritage forum at the time. Likewise, the dance remix of O King Of Chaos is a fan-made effort that was doing the rounds online a few years back.

 

In 1991, Michael Franti, then riding high with The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, delivered a trio of remixes of another Peggy Suicide highlight, the Lenny Bruce-sampling Soldier Blue. Sadly, none of them were officially remixed but thankfully made their way online where I found them over a decade later. All three are quite similar, mainly varying in running time. Mix 3 is the longest, coming in at just under 8 minutes, replete with a brilliant rap from Mr. Franti himself.

Jezebell remixes and re-edits are always a treat and Safesurfer might have been the very first of theirs that I heard. It's still available, together with a dub mix by The Machine Soul, as a 'name your price' purchase on the wonderful Paisley Dark Records Bandcamp page.

A couple of '80s classics to close, with Eve's Volcano given extra percussive heft courtesy of Tom Lord-Alge and Trouble Funk remixing World Shut Your Mouth. The latter is the shorter, punchier 7" mix from the B-side of the limited edition 12" single.

So sit back, let M'Lud Julian take the driver's seat of the bus and take you into strange new landscapes. Refunds not available for this trip.

1) Love L.U.V. (Beautiful Love Version By Hugo Nicholson): Julian Cope (1991)

2) Safesurfer (Jezebell Edit By Jesse Fahnestock & Darren Bell): Julian Cope (2021)

3) Traison (C'est Juste Une Histoire) (Remixed Version By Hugh Jones): The Teardrop Explodes (1981)

4) O King Of Chaos (Dance Remix By Louis Scheuer): Julian Cope (2011)

5) Soldier Blue (Mix 3 By Michael Franti) (unreleased): Julian Cope (1991)

6) Tiny Children (Parjo1 Re-Edit): The Teardrop Explodes (2015)

7) Eve's Volcano 'Covered In Sin' / !Vulcano Lungo! (Extended Remix By Tom Lord-Alge): Julian Cope (1987)

8) East Easy Rider (Easty Risin' Remix Edit By Hugo Nicolson): Julian Cope (1991)

9) World Shut Your Mouth (Julian Cope vs. Trouble Funk) (7" Mix): Julian Cope (1986)

Strangely Committed (46:31) (KF) (Mega)