The Teardrop Explodes – in concert at Guildford Civic Hall -June 18, 1981 – Live And Loud.com –
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The Teardrop Explodes in concert to end out the five-day week. Recorded in concert at Guildford Civic Hall on June 18, 1981 and spiffed up, tweaked out and turbo-charged by the folks at Live and Loud.Com.
The Teardrop Explodes were a post-punk/neo-psychedelic band formed in Liverpool in 1978. Best known for their Top Ten UK single “Reward” (which is still a staple of 1980s alternative pop compilations), the group originated as a key band in the emerging Liverpool post-punk scene of the late 1970s. The group also launched the career of group frontman Julian Cope as well as that of keyboard player and co-manager David Balfe (later a record producer, A&R man and founder of Food Records). Other members included early Smiths producer Troy Tate.
Along with other contemporary Liverpudlian groups, The Teardrop Explodes played a role in returning psychedelic elements to mainstream British rock and pop, initially favouring a modernised version of lightly psychedelic late ’60s-influenced beat-group sound (sometimes described as “bubblegum trance”) and later exploring more experimental areas. In addition to their musical reputation, the band (and Cope in particular) had a reputation for eccentric pronouncements and behavior, sometimes verging on the self-destructive. These featured strongly in contemporary press accounts and were later expanded on in Cope’s 1993 memoir Head On.
Interest in the band would continue long after their demise. Cope, however, has always resisted pressure to reform the band. When asked in 2000 if the Teardrop Explodes would ever get back together, he said: “Would you ever return to having your mother wipe your asshole?” In the course of a 2008 interview which dealt with his more current activities (including outsider politics, Neolithic archaeology, shamanism and the promotion of Krautrock) he commented “Supposedly intelligent people say to me: “Don’t you think you’d be more successful if you re-formed The Teardrop Explodes?” I’m doing all this stuff to keep myself invigorated every day, hanging out with people I believe are culture heroes, and you think I’m doing all this because it hasn’t yet occurred to me to reform The Teardrop Explodes?”
For a reminder of their 1981 period, hit the play button and crank up this 1981 concert and hold your breath for the weekend.
