Julian Cope

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Julian Cope
Background information
Birth name	Julian David Cope
Born	21 October 1957
Origin	Tamworth, England
Genre(s)	Post-punk, Alternative rock
Occupation(s)	Singer/songwriter Author Antiquarian
Instrument(s)	Vocals Guitar Piano
Years active	1978 - present
Label(s)	Zoo, Mercury, Island, Echo, Head Heritage
Associated acts	The Teardrop Explodes Queen Elizabeth Brain Donor
Website	Head Heritage

Julian Cope (born Julian David Cope, on 21 October 1957) is an English rock musician and writer who came to prominence as singer of Liverpool post-punk band The Teardrop Explodes in 1978. The name for the band came from a Marvel comic (Daredevil no.77). Cope has since released many solo albums and is a founding member of the bands Queen Elizabeth and Brain Donor. In addition to his musical career, Julian Cope has written several books of non-fiction and autobiography.

Contents 1 Career 2 Discography 2.1 The Teardrop Explodes 2.1.1 Singles 2.1.2 Albums 2.1.3 Compilations 2.2 Solo 2.2.1 Albums 2.2.2 Side projects 2.2.3 Compilations 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Career

Born Deri, Mid Glamorgan, Cope grew up in Tamworth, Staffordshire, England. Attended City Of Liverpool College Of Higher Education (COLCHE - linked to Lancaster University) near Prescot - some years later the college became part of Liverpool Polytechnic as CF Mott Campus. Cope's musical career began as bass player with a band known as Crucial Three, which also featured Ian McCulloch (future guitarist and singer for Echo and the Bunnymen) and Pete Wylie. The band lasted for little more than six weeks, and disbanded without any public performances or formal recordings, although the song "Books" was later recorded by the writers Cope and McCulloch's subsequent bands. Cope went on to form other short-lived bands before first achieving fame and success as the singer, original bassist and primary songwriter of The Teardrop Explodes. In 1981 he compiled Fire Escape in the Sky: The Godlike Genius of Scott Walker, which was released by Zoo records, and sparked renewed interest in the work of the reclusive singer; though years later Cope commented that Walker's 'Pale White Intellectual' outlook on life no longer held any fascination for him.

After The Teardrop Explodes disbanded in late 1982, Cope returned to his hometown of Tamworth and soon began recording his first solo album, World Shut Your Mouth, released in 1984. This was soon followed by Fried, which featured a sleeve with Cope clad only in a turtle shell. Cope's third solo album was Saint Julian and produced the single "World Shut Your Mouth", which would become Cope's biggest solo hit, reaching the UK Top 20.

Cope was extremely displeased with his fourth solo album, My Nation Underground, feeling that he had been pressured by his management into recording something that did not represent his artistic intentions. He recorded his next album, Skellington, in secret during the course of a single weekend, playing in the same studio used for My Nation Underground. His management had no desire to release Skellington, and Cope refused to record any other material while he feuded with them to try to get his new work released. In the course of this stand-off, Cope began to write his first autobiographical book, Head-On, as an alternate creative outlet. Head-On primarily covered the years 1976 to 1982, focusing on Cope's time before and during the life of The Teardrop Explodes, and ending with the break-up of that band. This was followed a few years later by Repossessed, covering the years 1983 to 1989 and the recording of Cope's first series of solo albums, as well as the writing of Head-On. The books were republished in one volume in 2000, titled Head-On/Repossessed and both were critically heralded as amongst the best retrospectives covering the late-70s and 1980s popular music scene.^{[citation needed]}

In addition to these two volumes of autobiography, Cope has since written three other books of nonfiction. Krautrocksampler, released in 1996 and now out of print, covers the German krautrock musical movement, and became the subject of fierce controversy due to Cope's remarks that Can's Bel-Air was a 'shambles'. 1998 saw the release of The Modern Antiquarian, a large and comprehensive work detailing stone circles and other ancient monuments in the British Isles. The Modern Antiquarian was followed in 2004 with a study of similar monuments across Europe entitled The Megalithic European.

Cope has settled into relative obscurity in recent years, preferring to release and promote his work himself, rather than working with a major record label. He continues to record new material both under his own name and with regular collaborators under the band names Brain Donor and Queen Elizabeth. Most of these more recent releases are available either primarily or exclusively through Cope's website, Head Heritage[1].

Julian Cope has performed live in the UK (including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in 2003) and other parts of Europe in recent years. Due to his responsibilities to his family as well as his discomfort with air travel, Cope has not toured more widely in several years. In 2005, he dropped attempts to plan a tour of the United States because a work visa could not be secured through the INS.

Julian Cope currently lives near Avebury, Wiltshire (UK) with his wife, Dorian, and their daughters, Albany (Big Al/Alghost) and Avalon (Vince).

[edit] Discography

[edit] The Teardrop Explodes

[edit] Singles

• "Sleeping Gas" (1979)
• "Bouncing Babies" (1979)
• "Treason (It's just a Story)" (1980)
• "When I Dream" (1980) (#UK 47)
• "Reward" (1981) (UK #6)
• "Treason (It's Just a Story)" (reissued 1981) (UK #18)
• "Ha Ha I'm Drowning" (1981)
• "Passionate Friend" (1981) (UK #25)
• "Colours Fly Away" (1981) (UK #54)
• "Tiny Children" (1982) (UK #44)
• "You Disappear From View" (1983) (UK #41)
• "Serious Danger" (1990)
• "Count to Ten and Run for Cover" (1990)

[edit] Albums

• 1980 Kilimanjaro (UK #35, #24)
• 1981 Wilder (UK #29)

[edit] Compilations

• 1990 Everybody Wants To Shag...The Teardrop Explodes - (tracks from the band's unfinished 1982 album plus rarities)
• 1990 Piano (rarities)
• 2004 Zoology (rarities)

[edit] Solo

[edit] Albums

• 1984 World Shut Your Mouth (UK #40)
• 1984 Fried
• 1987 Saint Julian (UK #11)
• 1988 My Nation Underground
• 1990 Skellington
• 1990 Droolian
• 1991 Peggy Suicide (UK #23)
• 1992 Jehovahkill (UK #20)
• 1993 Rite (Julian Cope and Donald Ross Skinner)
• 1993 Ye Skellington Chronicles (an expanded version of Skellington along with the sequel Skellington 2)
• 1994 Autogeddon (UK #16)
• 1995 20 Mothers (UK #20)
• 1996 Interpreter (UK #39)
• 1997 Rite 2
• 1999 Odin
• 2000 An Audience With the Cope 2000/2001
• 2001 Discover Odin
• 2002 Rite Now
• 2003 Rome Wasn't Burned In A Day
• 2004 Live Japan '91
• 2005 Citizen Cain'd
• 2005 Dark Orgasm
• 2006 Rite Bastard
• 2006 Jehovahkill: Deluxe Edition, re-released with a disc of extra material

[edit] Side projects

With Queen Elizabeth :

• 1994 Queen Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth)
• 1997 QE2: Elizabeth Vagina (Queen Elizabeth)

With L.A.M.F. :

• 2001 Ambient Metal (L.A.M.F.)

With Brain Donor :

• 2001 Love Peace & Fuck (Brain Donor)
• 2003 Too Freud To Rock'n'Roll, Too Jung To Die (Brain Donor)
• 2005 Brain Donor (Brain Donor compilation)
• 2006 Drain'd Boner (Brain Donor)

[edit] Compilations

• 1990 Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye|Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye - A Tribute to Roky Erickson (album)|Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye Song: I Have Always Been Here Before (Sire Records US)
• 1992 Floored Genius ("best of" compilation of material with and without The Teardrop Explodes) (UK #22)
• 1993 Floored Genius 2 (compilation of material recorded for BBC Radio sessions)
• 1997 The Followers Of Saint Julian (rarities compilation)
• 1997 Leper Skin - An Introduction To Julian Cope ("best of")
• 2000 Cornucopea (various artists compilation of acts performing at Cope's Cornucopea festival)
• 2000 Floored Genius 3 - Julian Cope's Oddicon Of Lost Rarities & Versions 1978 - 98 (rarities)

[edit] References

Cope, Julian (1995). Krautrocksampler. ISBN-10: 0952671913. 

Cope, Julian (2000). Head-On/Repossessed. Thorsons Publishers. ISBN 0-7225-3882-0. 

Head Heritage. Julian Cope Presents Head Heritage. Retrieved on June 19, 2006.

[edit] External links

• Head Heritage - Julian Cope's own frequently updated site
• The Modern Antiquarian - An online community and resource on ancient sites in the UK & Ireland, inspired by Cope's book of the same name