The Teardrop Explodes

The Teardrop Explodes came roaring out of Liverpool's post-punk scene in 1978 with Julian Cope out front, singing, writing most of the songs and saying the kind of things that got a frontman noticed. Along with their Liverpool contemporaries, they were dragging psychedelia back into British pop, taking the jangle and color of late '60s beat groups and shooting them full of nervy new wave energy.

Kilimanjaro, the 1980 debut, is the full technicolor trip: bright, lightly psychedelic guitar pop with Cope yelping like a man seeing visions. "Treason" is a breathless thrill, and "When I Dream" and "Poppies In the Field" drift off into dreamier territory. "Reward", a Top Ten hit in Britain, is the song they're best remembered for. Wilder, in 1981, went electronic and experimental, with "Passionate Friend" the most immediate thing on it.

Around Cope came a rotating crew: keyboard player and co-manager David Balfe and drummer Gary Dwyer, plus Alan Gill, Troy Tate and Paul Simpson, later of the Wild Swans. But the band's reputation for eccentric, sometimes self-destructive behavior, Cope's above all, tore it apart in 1982. Cope went solo, Balfe went on to produce records, work in A&R and found Food Records, and a third album surfaced after they were gone.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.