Teardrop Explodes and Club Zoo, November 1981
"Am I singing in tune or is it just Dave that sounds odd?"
The Teardrop Explodes’ residency that went under the name Club Zoo has gone down in legend. It wasn’t the obvious next move from a group who’d made it to Top of The Pops and Smash Hits, and it raised some doubts about where they were going next.
The event took place in the Pyramid Club, one of those small backstreet Liverpool venues that never had much of an identity of their own but seemed to have always been around.
The idea was that the band would play two sets a night, three nights a week for six weeks. In the words of (then manager) Bill Drummond, “they’ll be so bored, they’ll have to get good.”
In Julian’s words: “The first night was a shambles. About 50 people came. No-one would believe that we would play in such a dump. The next night, a few more people arrived. Most of them couldn’t even find the place. I didn’t care. I was in Liverpool again and away from the strain of being successful.”
The full story is in Julian’s excellent memoir Head On. As he describes it, Club Zoo was characterised by a combination of drug taking and ego tripping that meant it was continually on the edge of falling apart.
The club night that I reviewed (I assume it was one of the earlier ones) seems to have been more together than some later events in the series.
Cope's human league
MELODY MAKER, November 28, 1981
TEARDROP EXPLODES
Club Zoo, Liverpool
CLUB ZOO is a vital context for a group caught so suddenly into the pop star machine - a return to reality, a chance to take stock, redefine their place and their music. Or even just the chance to relax, show a human face again.
"You can heckle if you like" Julian Cope tells the audience. "In the future we'll be doing so many gigs everyone can take turns to come down here and heckle - it'll be like Speakers Corner."
Julian guides the proceedings throughout, in a highly individual way that sometimes makes you worry for his mentality. He jumps from honesty to mockery. He gives a running commentary on the performance. He's even funny. And singing, he can be melancholy and vulnerable, or sing with a passion that's almost embarrassing.
And the music covers an equally bewildering range of styles and moods - first contemplative, then rhythmic. The sets are deliberately loose, consciously casual. "Am I singing in tune?" asks Julian anxiously after the first song, "or is it just Dave that sounds odd?"
People leave the stage for short periods. There are pauses while they decide what to play next. It's almost like a conscious imitation of the early amateurish club dates.
The difference is the playing: the looseness is by design not accident, and the professionalism is there. Today's Teardrop Explodes are a five-piece, with Dave Balfe back on keyboards and bassist Ron (recruited from a past with the Sinceros and Lene Lovich) in addition to Gary, Troy and Julian.
Although Julian is undoubtedly the focal point they are a unit; and when Julian takes an old song like "Sleeping Gas" and turns it into a new song and then drifts into a stream of consciousness monologue, the band behind him never falter.
Somewhere among this confusion there are songs, and ones which could prove to be very good. In fact a large proportion of the LP does eventually get played. They also return to their beginnings with songs like "All I Am Is Loving You" (B side of "Bouncing Babies"), and "Read It In Books", both appearing among a handful of acoustic songs from Julian solo before the second set began.
There are the cult singles, the hit singles, even "Treason" in French, an exploration of their history as well as their future. A set ends with "Colours" and it reminds me of "Do You wanna be a rock 'n' roll star?"
I don't think they do, any more.
"Head On" is one of my favorite musician reads. This was a fantastic article, thank you.