Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English rock musician, author, antiquary, musicologist, poet and cultural commentator. Originally coming to prominence in 1978 as the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band The Teardrop Explodes, he has followed a solo career since 1983 and worked on musical side projects such as Queen Elizabeth, Brain Donor and Black Sheep.
Cope is also an author on Neolithic culture, publishing The Modern Antiquarian in 1998, and an outspoken political and cultural activist with a noted and public interest in occultism and paganism. As an author and commentator, he has written two volumes of autobiography called Head-On (1994) and Repossessed (1999); two volumes of archaeology called The Modern Antiquarian (1998) and The Megalithic European (2004); and three volumes of musicology called Krautrocksampler (1995), Japrocksampler (2007); and Copendium: A Guide to the Musical Underground (2012).
Links To Peel[]
Following the demise of Teardrop Explodes in 1982, Peel maintained an interest in Julian Cope's solo career through the 80's and 90's.
Shortly after the death of Peel, Cope paid tribute to the DJ by choosing Tractor's eponymous 1972 LP on Dandelion Records as record of the month at his Head Heritage website. He also acknowledged the importance of Peel's wider influence, including on his own writing career:
Without Peel, Punk woulda most probably been a damp Londoncentric fashion squib, reggae woulda stayed marginalised or become commercialised into the toilet, and there would most surely have been no KRAUTROCKSAMPLER, because no other radio DJ woulda played Can’s ‘Turtles Have Short Legs’, Faust’s ‘Why Don’t You Eat Carrots’, Amon Duul 2’s ‘Archangel’s Thunderbird’ or (most especially) Neu!’s mesmeric ‘Hallogallo’.[1]
In 2016, Cope attended at a Classic Album Sundays event at John Peel Centre in Stowmarket to discuss the Teardrop Explodes debut LP 'Kilimanjaro'.[2] [3]
Festive Fifty Entries[]
- 2022 Festive Fifty: Cunts Can Fuck Off #09
Sessions[]
JULIAN COPE John Peel 5th February 1983
All sessions are available on Floored Genius 2 - Best Of The BBC Sessions 1983-91 (1993, CD, Nighttracks/Strange Fruit)
1. Recorded: 1983-02-05. Broadcast: 10 February 1983. Repeated: 28 February 1983, 04 April 1983
- Head Hang Low / Lunatic And Fire-Pistol / Hey High-Class Butcher / The Greatness And Perfection Of??
2. Recorded: 1984-05-29. Broadcast: 11 June 1984. Repeated: 28 June 1984, Karl's Tape June 1984, Gumtree Late June 1984, Peel Early June 1984
- Me Singing / Sunspots / Search Party / Hobby
3. Recorded: 1991-04-11. Broadcast: 04 May 1991. Repeated: 01 September 1991
- Hanging Out And Hung Up On The Line / You Think It's Love / The Mystery Trend / Soul Medley: Free Your Mind/Everything/Hung Up
Live[]
Recorded at the Reading Festival: 1996-08-24. Broadcast: 25 August 1996
- Wheelbarrow Man
- Try Try Try
- Sunspots
- World Shut Your Mouth
- Trampolene
Other Shows Played[]
Quizmaster
- 1983
- 28 November 1983 (BBC World Service): Sunshine Playroom (12" EP) Mercury COPE 112
- 1984
- 20 February 1984: Quizmaster (album - World Shut Your Mouth) Mercury / Phonogram MERL 37
- 22 February 1984: Bandy's First Jump (album - World Shut Your Mouth) Mercury MERL 37
- 22 February 1984: Strasbourg (album - World Shut Your Mouth) Mercury MERL 37
- 06 March 1984: Quizmaster (album - World Shut Your Mouth) Mercury MERL 37
- 12 March 1984 (BBC World Service): Quizmaster (album - World Shut Your Mouth) Mercury MERL 37
- 1985
- 18 February 1985 (BBC World Service): Sunspots (7") Mercury
- 1986
- 10 September 1986: World Shut Your Mouth (7") Island
- 16 September 1986: World Shut Your Mouth (7") Island
- 1987
- 07 January 1987: Trampolene (DJ Promo 12") Island
- 02 March 1987: Shot Down (LP - Saint Julian) Island
- 1988
- 18 October 1988: Christmas Mourning (EP – Charlotte Anne) Island
- 24 October 1988: Vegetation (LP – My Nation Underground) Island
- 1991
- Mainly Peel Feb 1991 (09 February 1991): 'I Have Always Been Here Before (Compilation CD-Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye - A Tribute To Roky Erickson)' (WEA International Inc.)
- 23 February 1991 (BFBS) (Peel 172 (BFBS)): 'I Have Always Been Here Before (Compilation CD-Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye - A Tribute To Roky Erickson)' (WEA International Inc.)
- 1992
- 14 November 1992: Akhenaten (album - Jehovah Kill) Island
- 20 November 1992: 'No Hard Shoulder To Cry On (LP - Jehovah Kill)' (Island)
- 1993
- 26 November 1993: The Greatness & Perfection Of Love (album Floored Genius 2 - Best Of The BBC Sessions 1983-91) Strange Fruit
- 27 November 1993 (BFBS): The Greatness & Perfection Of Love (album - Floored Genius 2 - Best Of The BBC Sessions 1983-91) Strange Fruit
- 11 December 1993: Head Hang Low
- 1994
- 15 July 1994: ‘Madmax (LP – Autogeddon)’ Echo
- 16 July 1994 (BFBS): Madmax (album - Autogeddon) Echo
- 1995
- 07 July 1995: Try Try Try (CD Single) Echo
- 23 July 1995 (BBC World Service): Try Try Try (7") Echo
- 04 August 1995: Try Try Try (7 inch) Echo
- 18 August 1995: 'Wheelbarrow Man (CD-20 Mothers)' (Echo)
- 19 August 1995: I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud (CD - 20 Mothers) Echo
- 26 August 1995 (BFBS): 'I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud (LP-20 Mothers)' (Echo) (JP: 'Sounding very 1967 on that track.')
- 02 September 1995: 'I'm Your Daddy (CD-20 Mothers)' (Echo)
- 1996
- 24 June 1996: You Think It’s Love (session) (John Peel's Classic Sessions)
- 14 July 1996: I Come From Another Planet, Baby (7") Echo
- 21 July 1996: I Come From Another Planet, Baby (CD - I Come From Another Planet Baby) Echo
- 27 July 1996 (BFBS): 'I Come From Another Planet, Baby (white vinyl 7")' (Echo)
- 29 July 1996 (BBC World Service): I Come From Another Planet, Baby (CD Single) Echo
- 05 August 1996: Me Singing (session) (John Peel's Classic Sessions)
- 12 October 1996: I've Got My TV & My Pills (album - Interpreter) Echo
- As Rabbi Joseph Gordan
- 15 July 1985: Competition (7") Bam Caruso International NRICO 30
- 22 July 1985 (BBC World Service): Competition (7") Bam Caruso International NRICO 30
- 22 July 1985 (BFBS): Competition (7") Bam Caruso International NRICO 30
- 06 August 1985: Competition (7") Bam Caruso International NRICO 30 (JP: 'Believe by many citizens to be Julian Cope, that can't possibly be the case')
- 03 October 1985 (BFBS): Competition (7") Bam Caruso International NRICO 30