Sleeping Gas
Version One - Zoo Records CAGE 003 - recorded 1st December 1978, released 4th February 1979
Julian Cope -.vocals, bass
Paul Simpson - organ
Mick Finkler - guitar
Gary Dwyer - drums
Version Two - "Kilimanjaro" album, recorded Spring 1980, released October 1980
Julian Cope -.vocals, bass
David Balfe - organ, piano
Mick Finkler - guitar
Gary Dwyer - drums
Hurricane Smith, Ray Martinez - Trumpets
Version Three - "Zoology" compilation album, recorded 1981, released 2004
Julian Cope - vocals
Jeff Hammer - keyboards, piano
Troy Tate - guitar
Alfie Agius - bass
Gary Dwyer - drums
Luke Tunney, Ted Emmett - trumpets
Version Four - extra track on "Tiny Children" twelve inch single, recorded at Club Zoo December 22nd 1981, released June 1982
Julian Cope - vocals
David Balfe - keyboards
Troy Tate - guitar
Ron Francois - bass
Gary Dwyer - drums
Luke Tunney, Ted Emmett - trumpets
Written by The Teardrop Explodes (credit on Zoo single and "Tiny Children" single), Dwyer / Cope / Finkler / Simpson (credit on Kilimanjaro album), Cope / Pickett / Finkler / Simpson (on Zoology)
Four glimpses of Teardrops exploding
Glimpse One - Autumn 1978
The only way to get rid of the drummer was to break up the band, so that's what A Shallow Madness did. It was coming to some kind of conclusion anyway - their singer Ian McCulloch was drifting away, talking to Will Sargeant now that Sargeant's unit Industrial Domestic had ceased because Paul Simpson was now playing organ in A Shallow Madness. But everyone agreed that drummer Dave Pickett was crap. But rather than confront him, the band just split up. Even if it was only for a week. A Shallow Madness was over but what came next?
Julian Cope and Paul Simpson were looking through Simpson's comics. And there it was, hiding in plain sight - there's a battle between superheroes, it reaches a climax, the sun blots out and for no reason at all, The Teardrop Explodes. In a post punk era of short snappy dour names, this stood out like a rose in a dustbin. Not long afterwards they found their drummer - Gary Dwyer - who taught them discipline and gave them direction and purpose, not least to get on stage and play. So many Liverpool bands of the era were theoretical - a concept involving musicians rather than musicians making music together. Cope had already been in the ultimate theoretical Liverpool band - The Crucial Three - alongside Pete Wylie and Ian McCulloch. According to Cope, their one rehearsal had involved more discussion than music making, but even amongst these three nobodies the egos were too big to be a suburban living room, let alone a band. Since that point in early 1977 Wylie, McCulloch and Cope had bounced around different bands together and apart while watching the punk scene at Eric's develop into a post punk scene where anything could happen. If Big In Japan could get on stage and make a record then anyone could. But by the Autumn of 1978 it was clear that the days of concepts were gone, it was time to become serious or give up.
The Teardrop Explodes was a fantastic name for a band. It wasn't obvious, it harked back to psychedelic bands of the sixties like The Electric Prunes and the Chocolate Watch Band, but it was still snappy enough to be remembered instantly. You could imagine them appearing midway through Side Three of "Nuggets" between the Amboy Dukes and the Blues Magoos. And now they existed - Cope, Simpson and Mick Finkler from A Shallow Madness and Dwyer - they also had a deadline, their first gig was set for November 15th, at Eric's. A private party, but in front of all their friends. Support would come from Echo and the Bunnymen - the new band put together by Ian McCulloch and Will Sargeant. No pressure then. The Teardrops needed a set of songs, and "Sleeping Gas" was one of the first they wrote, based on a jam from the closing weeks of A Shallow Madness, which was named by Pickett (hence his writers credit, eventually)
It was inspired by Patti Smith's "Ain't it strange", but faster in tempo and without the reggae touches that Smith brings to it. The song cycles between two choppy chords on guitar while Simpson's organ plays single note octaves, except for a middle eight minor chord drone. Dwyer adds a disco styled drum beat, Cope's bass keeps the cyclic nature going. After recording a rehearsal where the band jammed for a side of a C90 tape, Cope came back with a lyric which was quite unique. A mix of questions ("Sometimes I wonder..."), references to pop culture ("Rafferty" was a one series wonder for Patrick McGoohan, AAP made Popeye cartoons) and non sequiturs, it could mean anything and nothing.
The Teardrop Explodes made their live debut at Eric's on 15th November, with a set containing "Sleeping gas", "Camera Camera", "Seeing through you" and more. It was well received enough to gain them a second show at Eric's a week later and after that Bill Drummond asked them to record a single for Zoo Records. "Sleeping Gas" was the obvious A-side.
Now here's where there's a difference of opinion. The sleeve of "Sleeping Gas" states it was recorded on 1st December 1978, and a tweet by Paul Simpson agrees with this date, yet Cope states in "Head on" the recording session took place on 6th December. Either way, it's still barely a fortnight since their first live show yet it doesn't really show. Recorded at MVCU studios (Merseyside Visual Communications Unit), a small four track facility, the recording didn't proceed too smoothly, tensions between Cope and co-producer Dave Balfe (the other half of Zoo Records with Drummond, also the producing team known as The Chameleons) led to some kind of standoff - Balfe insisting on another take, Cope asleep on the vocal booth. Eventually another take was made and it was superior enough to become the finished article.
When "Sleeping Gas" was released in February 1979, it was very well received. John Peel played it, naturally. Sounds made it single of the week, calling it "absurdly basic, thoroughly hypnotic" and comparing it to "96 Tears" and "Louie Louie" - comparisons that must have pleased the band. It certainly is basic, as you would expect for a band barely two months into their existence and recording in a four track studio. Cope's vocals overlap carelessly, Simpson's organ drones in the right places, Finkler's chords provide most of the musical changes, while the rhythm section lumbers along. It fades out, then fades back in again, a false ending not quite up to the standard of "Strawberry Fields Forever". An auspicious debut? Maybe. But it was a start, and it made a splash.
Glimpse 2 - October 1980
By 1980, the friendly rivalry between the Teardrops and Echo and the Bunnymen was turning toxic, not helped by the fact both bands were managed by Bill Drummond and Dave Balfe via Zoo. Balfe was also playing keyboards in the Teardrops too, which caused enough tension on its own. The Bunnymen had signed to a major label via Sire in the US and Warners in the UK, and their debut album "Crocodiles" had been recorded at Rockfield studios in Monmouthshire in the early months of 1980. On the other hand major labels weren't snapping at the Teardrops yet, so Drummond remortgaged his house to gain the funds to record their debut album at the same studio in March. The plan was to issue the album on Zoo, under the title "Everybody wants to shag the Teardrop Explodes", but listening to the album back in Liverpool it didn't sound right, let alone perfect.
Part of the problem was Mick Finkler's guitar parts. What had sounded fine on stage didn't work in the studio. Also, Cope had become obsessed with Scott Walker and Love's "Forever Changes" and wanted to reflect these in the album. While Walker's lush orchestrations were going to be impossible, a righteous horn section was totally possible, bringing a touch of "Forever Changes" to the music. And Phonogram Records were taking an interest too.
There were decisions to be made.
The first decision was to sack Finkler. Balfe wanted his friend Alan Gill to be guitarist, and this worked well for Phonogram too as Gill had already recorded for the label as half of Dalek I Love You. A deal was struck with Phonogram too - the Teardrop Explodes' records would be issued through their Mercury subsidiary (home of the New York Dolls - predating Morrissey's tendency to reactivate dormant labels at his whim by almost ten years) and Phonogram would pay for the album to be rerecorded, allowing Cope to include the horn section he so desired. Everybody wins. And Dave Bates - A&R at Phonogram - had this crazy idea that Cope could be a pop star.
So the band returned to Rockfield to finish their debut album with a new attitude. This attitude was also chemically enhanced. Up to this point Cope had been very anti-drugs, even going as far as criticising what he called "the hippies in the band" on stage after he'd caught them smoking a joint backstage. But Gill - and to a lesser degree Balfe - changed all that. Soon cannabis and acid were all the rage at Rockfield, and there's plenty of tales in Cope's "Head On" about that if you want to read it. But it did change the attitude towards the album being created. Now Cope wanted it to be an event, he would dress as Lawrence of Arabia to sing his vocals. And that album title had to go too, especially if Cope were to become a pop star. The album became something heroic, such as... "Kilimanjaro".
When "Kilimanjaro" was released in October 1980 there was some comments in the music press that all three of the band's Zoo singles were included on the LP. Was this the kind of post punk value for money the pop kids were expecting? On the other hand, there had only been a few thousand copies of the original Zoo "Sleeping Gas" and the rerecorded version knocks spots off the 1978 version. Maybe it's not as pure to the "indie aesthetic", being recorded on 24 tracks instead of 4 tracks but it fits into the overall sound of the album. It fades in smoothly, the trumpets triumphantly blast through, the rhythm section is on one - the true bubblegum trance - and Balfe's droning organ work is unobtrusive, while Cope's doubled vocals overlap and merge messily. Maybe the "yeah yeah yeah" in the second chorus is a nod to the original Liverpool sound? The instrumental section is more pronounced here too - cymbals crash, guitars and organs get atonal - before the final verse. As the final chorus repeats, the organ goes wilder again, Cope's vocals turn on themselves and wander over each other, some crazy piano joins in, running up and down the keys like a chimpanzee, and those triumphant trumpets return for another blast or two, first in the same broken chord as at the start, then further up the broken chord, and it fades out as it faded in.
An interesting side note. Considering the band considered Mick Finkler's guitar parts not suitable for the record, it's his guitar that is on "Sleeping Gas" and the majority of the album. The parts can't have been that bad then?
This is the version of "Sleeping Gas" which most people know and recognise. I remember the first time I heard it - May 85, I'd bunked off school, caught the train to Cardiff and bought the album from HMV. I thought it was a perfect slice of psychedelic pop, and still feel the same. It still intrigues, it still feel fresh and timeless, it could last forever. And sometimes, in concert, it would.
Glimpse 3 - June 1981
This lineup of the Teardrop Explodes was very different to the one which had recorded "Kilimanjaro" a year before. Alan Gill's departure at the end of 1980 led to Julian Cope taking even more power over the band. He sacked Dave Balfe, decided to stop playing bass to concentrate on singing and had to recruit three new band members. After extensive drug addled auditions, the new lineup consisted of Cope on vocals, Dwyer on drums, Troy Tate on guitar, Jeff Hammer on keyboards and Alfie Agius on bass guitar. It was the version of the Teardrops who performed on Top of the Pops, who toured America in the winter and spring of 1981, gaining a reputation for themselves. And it was this version of the Teardrops who toured the UK in June 1981 as unprepared pop stars.
In the middle of the tour the BBC recorded a show for broadcast - Guildford Civic Hall on the 18th of June. This became a bootleg - I bought a tape of it in 1986 - and it shows the band at the peak of teenybopdom. Teenage girls scream between each song, song titles are greeted by more screams, it's the sound of hysteria. Remember that at this point there's an apocryphal story that John Taylor of Duran Duran was asked who it's competition was and replied "The Teardrop Explodes, as long as Julian keeps it together".
(Correction - it isn't apocryphal, the quote is from Smash Hits in October 1981, an interview with Duran Duran in New York)
(With huge thanks to ColinPB for suggesting Smash Hits as the source and Graeme Wood for the scan)
Was Julian keeping it together? On this night yes he was. He knew he was being recorded for posterity and didn't go off on any strange trips. As for the band they are very professional at all times. However once or twice they're let off the reins and allowed to go wild - and "Sleeping Gas" is one of those occasions.
It starts with Tate playing an echoing guitar figure while Cope mumbles into his own echoing void, before he screams "Hey hey what's that sound?" - the chorus of "For what it's worth" by Buffalo Springfield - and the band hurtle in, at a higher tempo than the album version. Cope can barely keep up with the pace, and the cyclic riffs work better at this urgent pace. Leading into the instrumental break Cope lets out a long high pitched scream and then all hell breaks lose. Jeff Hammer plays a breakneck atonal piano solo - not quite Mike Garson on "Aladdin Sane" but not far off, it genuinely sounds like he's hammering (pun slightly intended) the piano into the ground, ending on a crazy ascending figure. Maybe they weren't quite professional after all? Cope then improvises while the band cycle manically, Cope rapping against the echo on his voice, becoming incoherent, and the band pound away to a sudden stop climax - and the audience goes nuts. It seemed that whatever psychedelic experience the band threw at the audience - and this is a pretty freaky performance - they lapped it up. What could Cope do?
(Note - the sleeve notes to "Zoology" state the live recording of "Sleeping Gas" was from the bootleg "Petulance" but as far as my research shows that bootleg is a live show from 1982. As soon as I heard this "Sleeping Gas" I recognised it as the BBC Transcription Disc show from Guildford)
Glimpse 4 - December 1981
It seemed that Julian Cope couldn't - ahem - cope with fame. He started to do things to alienate the teenage fanbase he had attracted. He cut off his long shaggy hair, he sacked Jeff Hammer and Alfie Agius, reinstating Dave Balfe as keyboard player, and set about recording a second album which would be misunderstood by almost everyone and fail to sell in sufficient numbers, though their label had made it top priority for the autumn season. The Teardrops' audience exploded (as in "went pop") and disappeared from view. (Sorry). Which is why Club Zoo happened - to bring back a sense of reality to a band increasingly strung out, tripped out and far out. In order to perform live they added Ron Francois on bass, fresh from the Sinceros, and he brought a new funkiness to the live sound. Also the recently released album gave the band an expanded setlist, and there were new opportunities to extrapolate certain songs - usually the set closer "The Culture Bunker" and the encore "Sleeping Gas".
For some reason the show on 22nd December was recorded, and "Sleeping Gas" from that night was added as a bonus track on the 12 inch single of "Tiny Children" released during the summer of 1982. It is a fascinating recording, especially compared to the Guildford recording six months earlier. It starts in a similar manner - Tate's echoing guitar figure plays while Balfe fiddles with his synths, but Cope sounds bored as he intones the lines from "For what it's worth", before slowly becoming more animated as Tate's guitar gets more powerful. Once the whole band come in, the mix is slightly off - not enough bass or guitar, Cope's vocal is way too loud - but it's live, what do you expect? It's fast, Cope sounds breathless during the verses, and seems to catch his breath during the instrument break. At this point, Balfe blarts some synth horn chords, while an almost inaudible Tate has a guitar freak out. It's a very different vibe to the Guildford recording. Then Cope starts to improvise - dogs, Crufts, he's barking (mad). "You're gonna be the first audience ever to be savaged by the lead singer of a group". He growls. Tate returns to the echoing guitar part before returning to atonality. Cope rants about people throwing things at him, "boo sucks to you". He repeats "This is the real crass version of 'Sleeping Gas'", then changes "crass" to "Christmas" adding "Wow, what a crass version..." The rap continues, Sleeping Gas becomes a person, the band rage, some of Cope's rhymes are abymsal, yet funny. "You're all washed up Sleeping Gas"... Maybe he's talking about the band... The band ebbs and flows, sinks down while Cope repeats phrases... Tate starts making low droning noises from his guitar like a plane... Cope announces he's doing a "face solo"... The band have almost faded to nothing, just Tate's droning guitar and occasional trumpets... Cope encourages the band and audience to gatecrash into 1982... Then a very telling phrase appears in the rap... "See how much energy we can control because we have the horizontal and the vertical" then a pause followed by "But you ... Have the money" and that thought stops him in his tracks for a few seconds. We're now eight minutes into the song and Cope intones "Sleeping Gas, fading out..." before picking up on Tate's droning plane noise and starts to improvise on a plane landing, "2000 feet and closing..." Even throwing in a reference to someone else's song - "Ready for war, 'Mercenaries' by John Cale - have you heard it?" - you're landing a sodding plane Copey, why are you asking us to check out John Cale's back catalogue? As the plane goes down, the band get more frantic and freeform, the landing gets treacherous, one of Sleeping Gas' propellers is broken... Then Cope gets more hysterical as the countdown gets into single figures...
And then, as Balfe and Francois repeat the keyboard and bass riff for the millionth time over nine minutes, there's a smattering of weak applause and Cope asks "Did we make it?"
Of course you did, you wild and crazy bunch of lunatics.
This would be the last recording issued by the Teardrop Explodes while they existed as a band. Quite fitting in a way, the circle is completed.
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