Exploding The Teardrops - an introduction

I fell in love with the Teardrop Explodes in May 1985 when I bought their "You disappear from view" double seven inch single for 50p from my local Oxfam store. I was aware of their hit singles from 1981 and knew Julian Cope was a bit of an acid casualty from the interviews and record reviews in Melody Maker in 1984 associated with his "World shut your mouth" and "Fried" albums, and I'd already bought the "Sunspots" double 7 inch by then, but I didn't know what to expect from the Teardrop Explodes. It turned out I vaguely remembered "You disappear from view" from the Spring of 1983 when it was released, but the collected b sides were something else - the tense "Suffocate", moody "Ouch Monkeys" and "Soft enough for you" and the frantic electropop of "The in-cyclopedia". I wanted more, and within days I'd bought their debut album "Kilimanjaro" and it sounded like a totally different band. Soon I was hunting through second hand record racks for their second album "Wilder", then collecting as many singles as I could find, every so often being astonished by the crazy b-sides. 

Once I'd bought all the records it was time to head into the realms of illegality - I snapped up bootlegs by the score, the Zoo compilation "To the shores of Lake Placid", live tapes, studio outtakes and demos, radio sessions and more. There was also a bootleg video containing the seven song live video they had issued in 1982, a number of TV appearances on Top Of The Pops and Swap Shop, plus a fascinating "live in the studio" set for the Old Grey Whistle Test. I devoured as much information as I could - interviews old and new, Mark Cooper's "Liverpool Explodes!" book, Pete Frame's "Rock Family Trees". If anything new came on the market I bought it - the "third album" "Everybody wants to shag the Teardrop Explodes" was a disappointment, "Zoology" was a mixed bag, "Peel Sessions Plus" wasn't complete, the deluxe 2 CD edition of "Wilder" was frankly all over the place, but it was all information, as was Julian Cope's book "Head On". There seemed to be confusion in the band's timeline, where old members left and new members joined, and I wanted to clarify that if I could. We'll see when we get there. There have been rumours of a big boxed set of Teardrops material to be issued this year - at the time of writing (early October) this seems unlikely, but you never know. If it happens I'll be in the queue and it may well cause some changes to this blog.

So what is the blog? Good question.

I suppose I'll know when I've written the first entry. I intend to write about every song recorded by the Teardrop Explodes in chronological order, discuss different versions which are available, live takes, session recordings, TV appearances, hopefully there will be YouTube links. A lot of TE songs were developed over time, recorded a number of times with different musicians, and hopefully I can explain the differences and what each member of each line up of the band brought to the table. For instance, "Sleeping Gas" - the first song I'll tackle - has had four recordings by four different line ups of the band. It should be a great place to start. I'll also deal with unreleased songs which fell by the wayside, such as "The tunnel", "Clematis" and their cover of the Zombies' "Butchers Tale".

As for song explanations, well that's all subjective. I can write what each song means to me, and how I parse some of the lyrics, but you might feel differently. My opinion is probably different to yours, and mine isn't definitive. Like I said, we'll see how it goes.

This might be a short project or it might be a long one. I have no idea how it will progress and I'm not setting myself any deadlines. I'll do as much research as I can and hopefully you will enjoy each entry when it happens, but don't set your alarm for it. 

Does this sound interesting? I hope so. This will be an accumulation of all my Teardrops knowledge gained over the years. I'm happy to be corrected by anyone who knows better - and there are members of the band online who will be sure to correct mistakes I've made. 

Onwards to 14 Bliss Street....