Reward

Version one recorded October 15th 1980 for a Mike Read BBC Radio 1 session, broadcast 27th October 1980, available on "Kilimanjaro" 3CD and "Peel Sessions Plus" CD

Julian Cope - bass, vocals
Dave Balfe (aka The Evil Wasp) - keyboards
Alan Gill (aka The Emotional Jungle) - guitar
Gary Dwyer (aka Rocky) - drums
Luke Tunney, Ted Emmett - trumpets

Version two, recorded November 1980, available on US edition of "Kilimanjaro".

Julian Cope - bass, vocals
Dave Balfe - keyboards
Alan Gill - guitar
Gary Dwyer - drums
Luke Tunney, Ted Emmett - trumpets

Version three recorded November 1980, remix of version two, available on "Reward" single, January 1981 and "Kilimanjaro" reissue, June 1981.

Julian Cope - bass, vocals
Dave Balfe - keyboards
Alan Gill - guitar
Gary Dwyer - drums
Luke Tunney, Ted Emmett - trumpets

Written by Alan Gill and Julian Cope

When "Kilimanjaro" was released in October 1980, Julian Cope admitted to Bill Drummond that the Teardrop Explodes had no new songs to record. Cope knew it was a problem, there was momentum behind the band at this point with the small scale success of "When I dream" and "Kilimanjaro", and everyone - the band, the management, the record label - were expecting something to happen next. Nobody really knew what would happen though, especially if there were no new songs.

Drummond had a knack of booking his bands in for BBC radio sessions to kick start their creativity. He did this with Echo and the Bunnymen in 1982 to give them a boot up the arse after the glory of "Heaven Up Here", hoping they would turn no ideas into some kind of future for the band. I suspect the BBC session for Mike Read in October 1980 was booked for the same reason for the Teardrop Explodes. Sure, it would promote "Kilimanjaro" and the forthcoming tour, but surely the band couldn't just do the same songs again? Of course not. As seen in the last two entries, it energised the creative juices and gave the band some new directions to explore. It would also produce the song which would change the band's career forever.

The story of "Reward"'s creation is well recorded. Cope has said in numerous places how Gill came into a rehearsal with a riff and a title. It sounded like a 60s spy theme, Gill showed the band the riff, they jammed on it for a while, and Cope came up with the melody and lyric "Until I learn to accept my reward", and said he'd complete the lyrics for the BBC session being recorded the following day. Come the next day, the band are recording the session for Mike Read, the backing track is recorded and Cope is ready to sing his freshly written words, the rest of the band are sitting on the floor staring up at him to encourage his performance.

"Bless my cotton socks, I'm in the news..."

As opening lines go, it's up there with "I read the news today, oh boy" and "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine". In eight words it captures a gleeful innocence, but with a self aware knowledge of what's happening. The listener is hooked in - who is this person, why are they in the news, and did they really just say "bless my cotton socks"? There's a mix of "what the hell is happening here?" and "I wonder what will happen next? Let's stick around and find out".

Back in the BBC studio the three other members of the Teardrop Explodes were in uproar. First they said they hated the lyric. Then they said they loved the lyric. Then some kind of sense prevailed and they realised it was an utter pop classic and possibly a hit single. After all, an opening line like that would grab the average listener by the lapels as it has done with the rest of the band.

There are two early recordings of "Reward" which sound odd considering the familiarity of the hit single version. The BBC version has a drum and bass and piano introduction before the descending riff which kicks off the single mix. Balfe's organ is tinny and static in the verse, Gill plays guitar all over the song from start to finish, the trumpets aren't quite there yet either and for all Cope's brilliance lyrically, his vocal wavers and isn't as surefooted as it could be. But then it seems they've only just learnt the song so we can forgive them. The lyrics offer nothing profound, but Cope projects them with enthusiasm.

It was this version which was given a TV debut on The Old Grey Whistle Test in November 1980 (see also "Ha ha I'm drowning"). The band were all high on amyl nitrate and sounded out of it and nobody really liked the trumpets at the time but it makes its point nicely.

The original studio recording of "Reward" follows the same arrangement as the BBC version from the drum and bass intro to Gill's overactive guitar part. It's so nearly there, but not quite ... Balfe claims that the studio recording was made a week after the OGWT version and the producer said "Oh I hope we're not doing that song"... So can we pinpoint the recording session? Well OGWT was broadcast on 8th November but the dates of the Daktari tour show no gaps in their schedule for a TV show so who knows?

But something wasn't quite right with the studio recording which is why Cope went into the studio with Bill Drummond and remixed it before the single was released. He knew it wasn't perfect, it needed to make as much impact as possible. Cope now says he wanted it to sound frenetic, like it was playing in an ice-rink. So the intro was binned, allowing the song to start on the contrapuntal descending organ / ascending bass line. Poor old Alan Gill's guitar was mixed out almost completely apart from one clanging chord after the line "Suddenly it struck me very clear" in the closing bridge. A bit unfair considering Gill had written the music. There's some subtle effects going on during the verse too - some kind of phasing effect is audible on the organ / piano during the second verse in particular - and the remix is generally more upfront, more compressed and more excitable than the first recording. Cope wanted the trumpet solo to sound like "wild elephants" and it certainly does - it's a crazy jazzy abandoned freak out of a solo - and a lot of time was spent getting the final trumpet fanfare correct - the right voicing, again for maximum impact. Cope claims Dwyer could only play in two styles - reggae and soul and it's the latter here, more northern soul than anything else. Dwyer rises to the occasion too, allowed a brief solo after the second chorus (has anyone ever sampled this? It would make a great break for someone) and an empathetic drum roll before the finale. If Love hadn't already beaten them to the punch with "Seven and seven is", all the song needs is an explosion at the end. It's compulsive, short, sharp and shocking. Cope's remix emphasises all the right things to push the song into the listener's face - hyper compressed, it sounded great on tinny transistor radios.The sudden ending was also a test for radio DJs - would they notice the song had finished and speak immediately, or would they fuck up and end up with a second or two of dead air? Always fun to hear. It was the kind of record that radio loved too, and maybe there was some kind of sales force behind it giving the song a push but it worked.

Of course it sounded like nothing else on the radio in the early months of 1981. Sure, Dexys had the brass section and an equally odd brand of pop sense, but whereas Kevin Rowland was like an enthusiastic friend hectoring you, Julian Cope was the new best friend, eager to please and tell you all his news. "Reward" truly was a breath of fresh air and fitted in with the emerging New Pop ideology. This was post punk embracing pop but on its own terms, aiming for success and hopefully crossing over. Which is odd considering that the Teardrops' PR Mick Houghton claims that Phonogram thought "Reward" wasn't the right choice as a single, though everyone who heard it thought it was a smash.

Back in December, a video was filmed by Bill Butt for a song, a post apocalyptic vision featuring the band (old and new members - Troy Tate, Jeff Hammer and Alfie Agius are there alongside Paul Simpson) friends from the Liverpool scene (all the Bunnymen minus Mac are there) and family (Cope's wife Kathy). That's Les Pattison and Troy Tate miming the trumpets up on top of that wobbly platform in the sky (an image which would end up on the cover of "Colours fly away" towards the end of the year). Only Balfe was excluded from the video shoot, but then he'd been kicked out by Cope not long after Gill left. Cope was taking over.

Of course "Reward" was a hit. It was released towards the end of January - always a good month to launch a chart bid - and slowly crept up the charts - 61, 43, 45, 41... And it was that 41 which did it. That was close enough for them to get onto Top Of The Pops. So they made their first appearance on the show on March 1981 but it was a very different Teardrop on TV to the band who recorded it. Sure Cope was upfront, Dwyer was on drums, but there's Alfie Agius bouncing around on bass, Jeff Hammer on keyboards and somewhere in the background Troy Tate and Dave Balfe playing trumpet (Balfe blowing so hard his lips bled). It was a magnetic appearance, Cope extracting every second of camera time to get his point across, the band looking like they're having the time of their lives.  Yes drugs may have been involved. Did you guess?

And "Reward" continued to climb the charts, even while the Teardrop Explodes were out of the country touring parts of America. And what kind of lunatic (eg Bill Drummond) sends a band to America while their potential breakout hit climbs the charts in the UK? Maybe the kind of manager who doesn't want the press and the general public to know what kind of drug related antics Cope and the rest (ok, maybe some) of the band were getting up to abroad *. While the band's success grew at home, they were hailed as psychedelic warriors in America. This dichotomy would have to be sorted at some point in the near future, and it wouldn't end well. Meanwhile the Teardrops' fame at home seemed disproportionate to their number of hit singles.

As I've said many times already on this blog, "Kilimanjaro" was reissued eight months after its original release with a new sleeve, a few remixes and the addition of "Reward". Whoever slipped the Hit Single into the track listing did a good job. It fits perfectly between the jarring cut tape end of "Second head" and the moody introduction of "Poppies in the field". As this is how most people know the album it seems peculiar that none of the CD reissues since the mid 90s have used this track listing - the 2000 edition shunts "Reward" to the end of the album after "When I dream" while the three CD edition puts it on the second disc. I suppose in the days of streaming and playlists you can force it back into its place but it's still a bit annoying. Apologies - I've said this before in the "Kilimanjaro" entry but it's still worth saying again.

"Reward" broke the Teardrop Explodes, in more ways than one. It gave them the success they clearly wanted and deserved, but were totally unprepared for. They were no longer just appearing in the weeklies like the NME and Melody Maker, now they were in Smash Hits and Jackie and other magazines aimed at teenagers. Cope became inescapable for a while, and a battle raged in the letters page of Smash Hits about whether the Teardrops had sold out their true fans, if they'd even wanted success in the first place and who were all these post-"Reward" fans anyway and what exactly did they want and expect? Oddly enough the same battle raged in Cope's head throughout most of 1981.

The Teardrops played "Reward" three times on Top Of The Pops, twice when it was in the charts and once more at the end of the year in the TOTP Christmas Day special. The band was in a very different position in December 1981, and Cope knew it. He put on a dirty flannel nightshirt and flailed about but, as he says, "I felt as though we were history. We were".

"Reward" would always be a popular song live. As soon as it became a hit single Cope would introduce it as "a modern classic". Every live incarnation of the band played it from October 1980 onwards. Which version was best? Hard to say but it's easier to say which is the worst - the final three piece version of the band. Cope describes it as "played too fast on a dinky synth". There are bootlegs on Youtube. It's not worth the effort, trust me.

Success was truly a double edged sword for Cope and the Teardrop Explodes. It was what the band and the record label had wanted, but it set unachievable expectations for future developments, especially from the record label. Spoiler alert - Cope would be happier as a cult artist. But "Reward" would remain a high point in the band's trajectory, and is still fondly remembered. It has appeared on countless 80s compilations, from the period up to now, and has been the subject of a "How We Made" article in the Guardian (without which this post would be shorter, of course). It was also mysteriously reissued in the mid 80s, as a double A side with "Treason" (and the twelve inch has both b sides). Yet another record I lost in the house move. Sigh. Are there cover versions of "Reward"? I know the Fat Tulips did it on their "The Tulip Explodes" EP (a tenner on Discogs? Hahahaha). Setlist.FM says it has been covered live by the Sneaker Pimps, The Coral and a few others. Cope has played it occasionally in his early live shows but hasn't played it since the late 80s. I suppose "Reward" is such a singular song that it can't really be covered. The Teardrop Explodes got it right, and the repercussions would ripple outwards for a long time.

And yet...

Most of the above is the facts of the matter as can be found from a decent amount of research. But how do I feel about "Reward"? Well it is my first Teardrop Explodes record, bought from the Penarth branch of Oxfam in the summer of 1984 for 50p and quite frankly I didn't play it that much at the time. I felt it was already too familiar to me, overplayed in a way even though at the time it wasn't really played on the radio. Maybe it was from hearing it endlessly in the Spring of 1981 that did it? Either way, it was there in my collection and I was more likely to spin the B side (more on that in two posts time) than the A side. I would play it on "Kilimanjaro" and it would just be another song on the album. What I'm trying to say is... It's just a good song really. I understand how important it is, but that importance doesn't make me like it any more than any other song. It's fine, it fills up it's two minutes and whatever seconds, but it's not my favourite Teardrops song by a long chalk and probably a lot of fans feel the same. Yes it was a gateway into the band, yes it's great that it was a hit, but yes it's overexposed in the way other songs of theirs aren't and yes there's better songs in their catalogue. I'd imagine most readers of this blog will throw their hands up in despair - "How could you, Rob?" - but it's my blog and my thoughts. Defend it in the comments if you wish. You'll have to learn to accept my (view on) "Reward".

Having said that, I listened to it one more time and bloody hell it's good. A jolt of adrenaline, a burst of energy, a frantic dash of a song. So maybe I do like it after all.

* In his book "45" Bill Drummond claims he wanted The Teardrops to "become a proper band, not just a bunch of tossers waiting for pay day", adding "Great bands are melded by having to spend their early years playing a shit-load of gigs in the worst possible circumstances". He uses this to justify the Club Zoo gigs in Liverpool in late 81, but it works just as much for sending the band to America in the Spring of 1981.