The Teardrop Explodes is a British pop band formed in Liverpool in 1978. Their name was taken from a panel in the Marvel comic book, Daredevil No 77.
The band was formed by Julian Cope who had previously been in the short-lived yet locally-renowned band Crucial Three along with Pete Wylie who went on to form Wah! and Ian McCulloch later of Echo and the Bunnymen.
The bands initial line-up consisted of Julian Cope, Mick Finkler on guitar, Gary Dwyer on drums and Paul Simpson on keyboards. The band also has the claim to fame of having Bill Drummond as their manager. Having personalities as larger-than-life as Cope and Drummond involved in the same project was always likely to produce interesting results.
The band released their first single 'Sleeping Gas' on the label 'Zoo' run by Drummond and Dave Balfe who quickly replaced Simpson on keyboards. Their next single 'Bouncing Babies' was a minor cult hit inspiring a tribute song of it's own: 'I Can't Get Bouncing Babies by the Teardrop Explodes' by The Freshies (a band led by Chris Sievey later to be known as Frank Sidebottom) - an ode to the difficulty of obtaining a copy of the song.
Several singles followed as was a well received debut LP 'Kilimanjaro'
They eventually broke into the British charts with the top 10 hit 'Reward' in 1981 and Cope's good looks made him into a rather unlikely teen idol. He gained a reputation as an eccentric and has happily grown into this role for the remainder of his, still ongoing, career.
Finkler was replaced on guitar by Alan Gill and later by Troy Tate and a second LP 'Wilder' was released.
Cope split the band up in 1983 after falling out with Balfe over the direction the band would take. Balfe was becoming more enamoured of electronics and tape loops whilst Cope's love was still primarily for the classic pop format although filtered through his own individual tastes and love for psychedelia and krautrock. Work had begun on a third album rumoured to be called 'Everybody Wants to Shag the Teardrop Explodes' and the tracks written for it were released many years later by Cope under this title.
