MOJO EYEWITNESS
THE TEARDROP EXPLODES ACCEPT THEIR REWARD
Careering out of Liverpool’s post-punk scene, The Teardrop Explodes and Orphic pin-up JULIAN COPE looked set for hugeness when existential piledriver Reward stormed the Top 10 in March 1981. Yet their fame-year of escape, adventure and psychedelic colours nosedived when heroic second LP Wilder tanked. “It was mad fun, and everyone was involved,” recall members and affiliates, of supporting Queen, playing Macca at pool and tripping on Top Of The Pops. And then? “Disaster.” Tom Sheehan
Interviews by IAN HARRISON
The popstars are in the field: The Teardrop Explodes take a break from recording at Bearshank Lodge studios, Oundle, April 1981, (from left) Alfie Agius, Julian Cope, Gary Dwyer, Troy Tate, Jeff Hammer.
• Portrait by TOM SHEEHAN
Bent out of shape: Julian Cope faces up, 1980
The Teardrop Explodes in 1980
Alan Gill, David Balfe, Dwyer, Cope; (below) the ’82 touring Teardrops (clockwise from left) Ronnie François, Tate, Balfe, Luke Tunney, Ted Emmett, Dwyer, Cope.
Avalon.red (7), Shutterstock (2), George Chin/IconicPix
Julian Cope: The first time we did Top Of The Pops [for Reward, on February 19, 1981] it was everything we’d ever dreamed of since we were kids. And we had to take acid on Top Of The Pops, and be in the middle of a trip, because who the fuck wants to be on Top Of The Pops? Fuck that! But we desperately wanted to be on it. That’s the great duality of human beings, isn’t it?
David Balfe: I had a very complicated relationship with The Teardrop Explodes. I started out as the [Zoo] record label head with Bill Drummond, then I arranged gigs, I was the manager, and eventually stepped in as keyboard player. We’d got a guy called Alan Gill in on guitar, and one day at my flat in Liverpool he was doodling this really good riff on my grandad’s piano. I said, “Let’s do that with big trumpets”, and what we called the soul beat, and it just really worked. I was out of the band when they roped me in to do Top Of The Pops when Reward was a big hit. I took acid and mimed playing trumpet, off my nut.