The Teardrop Explodes - Kirby Workers Dream Fades (1982)

The Teardrop Explodes were an English post-punk/neo-psychedelic band formed in Liverpool in 1978, who are probably best known for their Top Ten UK single 'Reward'. The group originated as a key band in the emerging Liverpool post-punk scene of the late 1970's, including such groups as Echo And The Bunnymen, Big In Japan, Wah! Heat, and OMD. The group also launched the career of group frontman Julian Cope, who had arrived in Merseyside in 1976 as a student. His first band was Crucial Three, with two native Liverpudlians – Ian McCulloch (later of Echo & The Bunnymen) and Pete Wylie (who went on to form Wah!) – in which Cope served as bass player. Cope and Wylie briefly teamed up in The Nova Mob, along with future Banshees drummer Budgie, but they only lasted for one gig before Cope reunited with McCulloch in the similarly short-lived Uh! Cope and McCulloch went on to form a fourth group, A Shallow Madness, but their ongoing ego clashes led to McCulloch leaving the band during rehearsals, ultimately to form Echo and the Bunnymen. Cope, meanwhile, had befriended Liverpool scenester Gary 'Rocky' Dwyer and had suggested a new band name to him – The Teardrop Explodes, taken from a panel caption in the Marvel comic strip Daredevil # 77. With Cope taking on the roles of singer and bass guitarist, The Teardrop Explodes was completed by recruiting Paul Simpson and Mick Finkler from the wreck of A Shallow Madness, and proved a more hardy gigging proposition than its predecessors. The band were soon signed as label act and management clients to the up-and-coming Liverpool indie label Zoo Records, run by former Dalek I Love You & Big In Japan bass player David Balfe and future KLF man Bill Drummond. Another act on the label was Echo & The Bunnymen, who maintained a love/hate relationship and continuing rivalry with the Teardrops throughout their existence. 

The band released their first single 'Sleeping Gas' in February 1979, following which Simpson left the band by mutual consent after Cope decided that his stage presence was over-shadowing his own. His initial replacement was Ged Quinn, who played on the band's subsequent British tour, but Dave Balfe had also been lobbying for full Teardrops membership for a while, and by July 1979 he'd succeeded in ousting Quinn and taking his place as keyboard player. The band's next single was 'Bouncing Babies', and it inspired a tribute song of its own in 'I Can't Get Bouncing Babies by the Teardrop Explodes' by The Freshies, which was an ode to the difficulty of obtaining a copy of the record. In February 1980 the band released their third and final single on Zoo Records, 'Treason', which was recorded in London with producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, and in the summer of that year they began recording their debut album 'Kilimanjaro' at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire. It was during these recording sessions that Mick Finkler was fired, as Cope considered his attitude too complacent, and he was replaced by Balfe's Dalek I Love You colleague Alan Gill. In November 1980, Gill left The Teardrop Explodes, claiming not to enjoy the touring lifestyle, being replaced by former Shake guitarist Troy Tate, but by now Cope and Balfe's abrasive relationship had worsened to the point that Balfe was ousted as group keyboard player, although he continued to be involved with management. Their next single was a song that Gill had brought in before he left, and which was finished and released as 'Reward', reaching No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart. The band relocated to London to take advantage of their growing success, although by now Cope was retreating into a drugged lifestyle and beginning a period of unrestrained megalomania. In March, the band played their first American dates, and another single from the album, 'When I Dream', received airplay on progressive radio in the U.S., introducing the group to new fans. 

On their return to the UK, the band recorded the song 'Passionate Friend', which was allegedly about Cope's brief recent relationship with Ian McCulloch's sister, further increasing the friction between Cope and his former bandmate. The single reached No. 25 in the UK chart, and expectations were high for the band's second album 'Wilder', which was recorded in London during November 1981 with a nucleus of Cope, Dwyer, Tate and Balfe. Unlike the first album, which was more of a band effort, Wilder was mostly the work of Cope, who took sole songwriting credit on every track on the album, and it was a bleaker, more sombre work than its predecessor. Singles were released from the album, but they mostly missed the top 40, and by now Balfe had developed an interest in writing songs and lobbied to join Cope as band songwriter, with Cope retained predominantly as singer and frontman. In September 1982, the band reconvened at Rockfield Studios to record their third album around the nucleus of Cope, Dwyer and Balfe. Creative tensions were high, as Cope wanted to write ballads and quirky pop songs, while Balfe was more interested in recording synth-based music. Balfe took over the sessions and locked Cope and Dwyer out of the studios for much of the time, but Cope hated Balfe's instrumentals, and walked out of the sessions with only part of the singing done and the album incomplete, quitting the band after a disastrous UK tour to which they'd already been been committed before the fractious recording sessions. In February 1983, Mercury Records released a delayed (and now posthumous) Teardrop Explodes EP, 'You Disappear From View', which included songs salvaged from the aborted third album, but it performed poorly, and was that last official release from the band. Many of the singles they released had exclusive b-sides, and a few of these were collected together on the 'Piano' album in 1995, but none of their songs after 1980 were included, and so I'd always felt that it needed an upgrade to include the rest of their tracks which never appeared on their albums. It's topped off with their contribution to the Zoo compilation album 'To The Shores Of Lake Placid' in 1982, and I've housed it in a sleeve based around the Daredevil comic which gave them their name.  

Track listing

01 Sleeping Gas (single 1979)
02 Camera Camera (b-side of 'Sleeping Gas')
03 Kirby Workers Dream Fades (b-side of 'Sleeping Gas')
04 Bouncing Babies (single 1979)
05 All I Am Is Loving You (b-side of 'Bouncing Babies')
06 Kilimanjaro (b-side of 'When I Dream' 1980)
07 Read It In Books (b-side of 'Treason' 1980)
08 Window Shopping For A New Crown Of Thorns (b-side of 'Colours Fly Away' 1981)
09 Christ vs. Warhol (b-side of 'Passionate Friend' 1981)
10 Reward (single 1981)
11 Strange House In The Snow (b-side of 'Reward')
12 East Of The Equator (bonus track on 'Wilder' re-issue 2013)
13 Use Me (b-side of 'Treason' remix 1981)
14 Rachael Built A Steamboat (b-side of 'Tiny Children' 1982)
15 Take A Chance (from the 'To The Shores Of Lake Placid' Zoo compilation 1982)