Rail On #14

As you can see, I've archived the page. For those of you who are new to the site, you can read the old posts via the Rail On Archives...

Andrew - Glad to have you back! How far north are you exactly? i.e., what's your latitude?

Travis

Trav,

Not sure what latitude I am at. Ft. McMurray is about 5 hours north east of Edmonton, Alberta. It is quite northern, but not arctic, it is surrounded by beautiful boreal forests for miles and miles. It is probably on a parallel with southern Alaska, so its not quite polar bear region. So far the weather has been crazy, one minute its about 10ºC, the next it is snowing. Winters can be brutal here, -30º to -40ºC isn't uncommon, but the summers are hot, plus it doesn't get dark until about midnight and in winter you have the Northern Lights doing their thing in the sky. Spring is almost here, or so I am told.

There are lots of aboriginal peoples here so I'm hoping to learn a few things about native culture etc. Perhaps we could convince Julian to do a book about north american native sites and convince him to come over here for a while.

Andrew

Having just purchased the 'Leperskin' compilation, ( which as an introduction to JC does appear an odd selection of songs ),it did bring to mind the previous compilation by Island Records, 'The Followers...'. At the time of its release, I noticed a flyer from Island Records on the wall of my local record shop, which stated that 'The Followers..' would be the first of three compilations released that year.

The second compilation was to be called 'Under Peggy', which at the time, I assumed, if it followed the same format as 'The Followers...' would feature the singles and B-sides that accompanied 'My Nation Underground' and 'Peggy Suicide'. The third compilation was muted to be a live album.

Obviously their releases were cancelled. Does anyone have any idea why? Poor sales of 'The Followers...' I would suspect!

I was surprised that JC was involved in the compilation of the 'Leperskin' CD, particularly in light of the comments he made at the time that Island Records were considering releasing a compilation called 'Creaming Off'

Trav - received the CD this week, many thanks. Comments to follow in due course....

Another pluget for the zine: Screaming Secrets is the Julian Cope magazine - a glossy B/W publication packed with stories, reviews and gossip. Although a lot of the rare early issues have sold out, we have copies of later ones still in stock. We even have T Shirts!

Follow the URL above for more info (ask Trav - he loves 'em!).

Paul B

OK. Here's another question for you knowledgable people to answer. Who was Leila Khaled? I seem to remember reading somewhere that there was a female Isreali terrorist of that name. I'm never too good at working out lyrics (especially with my crappy old tapes)so I haven't a clue what the song is about. Any ideas?

Similarly what's the story of "Trouble with Julian" on the first Blur album. Sure it's about our man but what is the background. I gather there's a Balfe connection.

Had a great time out on Fyfield Down on Easter Monday. For some reason we always seem to end up down near Avebury at Easter! The Devil's Den is really cute but the philistine farmer has ploughed all around it since the photo on the back of Peggy was taken.

Take care. Andrew

And confidence is valued in these days

From 'The Independant' 21st Feb 1996

Middle East

The Independent also carries a feature on Israel's decision to allow Leila Khaled, a former Palestinian airline hijacker, to return to Gaza. It recalls that she first made headlines when she hijacked a TWA flight from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv in 1969, and that her gun-toting portrait once competed as a revolutionary icon with that of Che Guevara. She now lives in Jordan, and is reported to have moved closer to the mainstream policies of Yasser Arafat.

No ideas about 'The Trouble With Julian'

John.

Not to be too pendantic (if thats even the right word) but on Blurs second album the track you refer to is called Pressure on Julian. Dont know how it refers to JC but there's also a track called Coping. So you get pressure on Julian Coping. Can you tell I'm bored?

didn't david balfe own food records, blurs label ?

Balfe did own Food Records. I think Blur are on Parlophone now though. I was wondering if anyone across the pond could tell me exactly how big Julian is over there. Obviously here in America he's not very big. So what's it like? Anyone?

I recall reading an old interview with Julian where the topic of Leila khaled was brought up...apparently he had seen a photo of her and;to paraphrase him slightly he thought,"she was a fox and I wanted to shag her"....not sure if that helps much,but does leave me curious to see a picture now.....

it won't take me to paradise for the day..

re : Blur

Blur are still on Food Records.

What is also interesting about the first Blur albums is the fact that they were produced by none other than Steven Lovell, the bloke who collaborated with Julian on "Fried".

Seems to be another proof that there must be a bond between Blur and Cope.

Who can help ??

By the way : Blur`s "13" is great

Marc ( Blurred )

For anyone who want's to know how big Julian Cope is in Britain, my friends take the piss out of me for liking him. Does that answer your question?

But hey, just because it isn't popular doesn't mean its shit right?

Unfortunately anyone I speak to still thinks of Cope as someone who "had a few hits in the eighties". Philistines.

The dopes not the thing, oh how I wish that someone would ring.

Here in America no one even knows that he was big in the eighties. Our culture has completely burnt out it's short term memory. And if you do play Cope for someone they're completely confused by the fact that it's not top forty radio and end up pissing on you. Some things are the same in england.

too many people say it's good for you

Here's the differencve between the States and the U.K. If I tell someone I like Julian Cope, they just say "who"? They don't even know the man had a few hits in the '80's, let alone that he dropped a few hits after that!

Talk about Philistines!

Also, on the Courtney thread. Anyone out there seen the liner to Hole's Celebrity Skin. All those references to Drowning make me think of Peggy Suicide.

I've recently randomly encountered two books with Julian Cope in them. Fordor's has a travel guide titled "Rock &Roll Traveler - Great Britain and Ireland" which highlights locations relevant to rock music from yesteryear to yesterday in GB and Ireland.

The Liverpool section has a photo of Julian on the opposite page which is a pleasant surprise considering most folks going down to Liverpool are looking for you-know-who sights. Julian is described as "marveously eccentric" in the brief description of the late 70's Liverpool music scene. Besides all the you-know-who sights listed in the section, some of the various clubs and record stores related to the Teardrops/Cope are also cited (even though if they no longer exist).

The second book is called, "Kaleidoscope Eyes - Psychedelic Rock From the '60s to the '90s." It's written by Jim DeRogatis and he not only traces the development of psychedelic rock, but also argues that most of the artists have produced their best work when embracing it. I tend to agree with his thesis. If I were forced to choose, for example, I'd rather listen to Syd's Floyd than Roger's Floyd.

There's a chapter titled "Passionate Friends:The English Psychedelic Eccentrics"(there's that "e" word again). The chapter features Robyn Hitchcock, Andy Partridge, and Julian. DeRogatis succintly covers Cope's musical history up to "20 Mothers"(the book was published in '96) and considers "Peggy Suicide" a "masterpiece of pop-rock weirdness."

If you are at all a fan of psychedelic music(and how could you not be as a fan of Julian Cope?) I recomend the book. I picked it up at a used book store.

Trav - I'm still enjoying the "Tiny Children" CD. Well done to all of the muscians who contributed to it.

i went looking for a picture of leila khaled on the web, but couldn't find any, anybody got one ?

while on the subject of people in cope songs does anyone know who gary mitchell is ?

as in "trying to get into gary mitchells drawers, na na na naaaa.........."

Or indeed Jimmy Jones?

I was mad at him from when the lights went out...

I'm glad people like the Tiny Children CD! :)

I was thinking about releasing some old For Against material on CDR but I just found out today that the original band members don't talk to each other, so the chance of me ever getting permission for that are very slim. Therefore, my CDR effort can focus exclusively on Cope. For now, at least!

Screaming Secrets is great, guys - you should all check it out. I can't believe I didn't get into reading it earlier. Paul, are there any plans to re-release the old [out-of-print] issues in an archived collection? Also, when's the next issue due out, and what other mags have you worked on?

Over the past 2 weeks I've downloaded around 30 hours of Phish MP3s. [At about 1 meg per minute of audio, that's 1.8 gigs that I've downloaded, all over a 28.8 connection!] Anyway, this was my first heavy exposure to MP3s and I must say it's addictive as heck.

It would be interesting to start a live Cope MP3 repository. What do y'all think? A 60 minute concert would take me about 6 hours to upload. Not bad, since I could do it overnight.

In my opinion, this would be an attractive alternative [or addition] to the Live Cope CDs I had planned. The pros and cons of making a live MP3 repository instead of a collection of live CDs are:

PROS:

• MP3s are free.
• MP3s are considered "less illegal" than CDRs, mostly since there's no money involved.
• An MP3 repository can grow incrementally. A collection of CDR releases has to grow in spurts.
• MP3s are upload-and-forget. Once you upload a gig, you don't need to do anything else [like keep making CDs and shipping them].
• A public MP3 site lets everyone contribute.
• MP3s' slight loss in audio quality is insignificant compared to the wildly differing quality of live recordings.

CONS:

• MP3s take time to download. People w/o gobs of Internet access will need CDRs of MP3s shipped to them. [10 hours of MP3 audio per CD]
• An MP3 site is far more visible than a CDR release. The chances of getting in trouble w/ a label or musician, in my opinion, much higher. Phish fans can get away with it because Phish has given everyone permission to bootleg any live Phish recordings they want. However, I doubt Cope has made a similar gesture.
• MP3s need a computer [or special MP3 player]. This makes them less portable than CDRs. You've have to make your own dubs [on CDR or tape] if you want to take them in your car or play them on your girlfriend's stereo.

I personally prefer the idea of a live Cope MP3 repository to a set of live Cope CDRs. Maybe we can do both? Complete gigs in MP3, but a best-of live compilation on CDR every once in a while?

However, as for tribute CDs, I think we should stick with CDR instead of MP3. Reasons:

• MP3 quality loss is more noticeable [though still slight].
• CDRs are more tangible and rewarding for contributors. "See, honey, look at my name on this CD!" versus "See, honey, here's an MP3 of my song..."
• There's an opportunity for contributors to get reiumbursed for their efforts. Right now I've sold so few INTERPRETERS CDs [sold 7 and gave away 13] that it's not a factor, but once I've sold 20 I will be able to start reiumbursing the contributors. MP3s offer no opportunity for reimbursement whatsoever.

Feedback welcome!

Trav

On the subject of the Cope/Blur conspiracy. Kate St. John plays on one track on The Modern World is rubbish, and is it just me or is the vocal melody of Colin Zeal not a total rip off of Sleeping Gas.

On Thursday I visited Longleat and swung past the really rather impressive Cley Hill landscape figure and then the inevitable Stone Henge. Tommorrow I'm off to Avebury for the day. If anyone is in the area look out for me, I'll be the one whose trying to grow a beard.

It'll all wash down when it rains.

been a long time since i've posted, but i'm glad to be done this term at school.

1. for andrew (and other curious parties):
   • Fort McMurray
   • Province/Territory : Alberta
   • Feature type : Unincorporated area
   • Location : 89-9-W4
   • Latitude - Longitude : 56° 44' 00" N - 111° 23' 00" W
   • NTS Map : 074D11
   • data from : http://GeoNames.NRCan.gc.ca/
   • distance between Fort McMurray and Vancouver : 1141km (713mi)
   • Syncrude: http://www.syncrude.com/0_00.htm
   • Suncor Oil Sands process: http://www.suncor.com/OilSands/01oil22.html
   • i love thier applet. watch the little scrolling window to see the pipeline over the river and some nice aerial shots of their facilities.
   • Winspeaker magazine: http://www.ammsa.com/windspeaker/
   • Aboriginal star knowledge (the Lakota information is particularly interesting): http://indy4.fdl.cc.mn.us/~isk/stars/starmenu.html
2. for trav: i've been using mp3 for passing around music for a couple of years and the one major drawback to mp3 is that i have never been able to encode a live track at 128kbit and 44kHz and achieve the same quality you would get from encoding a studio track at the same specs. i've found, countless times, that live tracks end up sounding washed-out or under-water unless you go up to 25gkbit and 44kHz, in which case you double the file size! second, be very careful which encoder you choose. some encoders speed-up their operation bu cutting the dynamic range below 20Hz and above 20kKz before encoding...
3. for all: my copy of Modern Antiquarian smells a little funny--musty, glue-like. anyone else notice this? do all publications from britain smell like this?

jason.

does anyone know where I can get hold of Rite on CD (head Heritage have sold out) or Everybody wants to shag... on CD? I have never seen the latter in a music store but need it to complete my set.

Thanks Jason, now I know exactly where I am! It really is quite beautiful around here, just had a great weekend with temperatures up to 18ºC. The big event around here seems to be the spring break up of the river, should be anyday now!

I'm trying to find out if there are any native sacred sites in this area to check out.

Andrew

P.S. Re funny smelling Modern Ant: All of Britain smells like that, its something to with all the history over there! (Just kidding, I couldn't resist it)

Andrew

The UK does smell like that at the moment its all the bullshit thats on the TV over here. On a lighter note the new BLUR lp is the best thing i've listened to in a long time. I'll try and get the rest of the cope images on my site linked in the next week or so!!. If there are any of the discography pics you think would do well from a larger image let me know. I've got to add a few pics to the discography as well MNU jacket/toy cars ect over the next few days........... Has anyone had trouble with IE5 this is the first day i've been on line for days it just F@!KED my PC up

Russ

Greetings fellow Drudes:

I apologize in advance for the length of this message.

I've been happily rooting through the archives ('like a pig doin' a cartload of sausages') having a blast with the new-found trivia answers. I was delighted to see someone else noticed the Blur-Cope connection on Modern Life is Rubbish. I was all set to weigh in with my observations about Lovell, Kate St. John, Balfe/Food, and the song "Coping," only to find them posted further down. Did anyone catch the line on Interpreter about "commissioner Damon wants to have a baritone?" Possibly another Blur reference.

Jimmy Jones, aka Jim Jones, was the cult leader of Jonestown in Guyana, Mexico. (My spelling may be off.) This is the place where, in 1977, several hundred followers at his urging knowingly ingested cyanide-laced Kool-Aid with predictably horrific results. (I think the Food and Drug Administration made the makers of Kool-Aid pull that flavor.) Cope has at least two songs on this subject: "Me and Jimmy Jones" off Skelington, and the song "My Nation Underground."

I finally got to met the Arch Drude himself March 11th in Gloucester. I left Atlanta to spend a conjugal week in London with my luvily english sweetheart, and we found ourselves in Wales without enough time to drive back to London to see a play for which she already had tickets. (We spent way too much time at Pentre-Ifan and one other cromlech from the MA). Fortunately, I remembered Cope would be in Glouc, so we stopped. After the lecture, I introduced myself by saying: "meeting you is probably like you meeting Arthur Lee and Scott Walker all at once." He was visibly pleased as punch with the compliment and went into full glam-rock mode. We then spoke for about 6 or 7 minutes on a wide variety of topics, including a tiny standing stone near Dover Hill he had never heard about (he made me draw him a map). I mentioned that my favorite song was Search Party, and he told me about his plans to write the follow-up to Head-On and referred to this period as depression filled dark years.

I handed Julian my girlfriend's copy of MA to have him sign it. I forgot that I had previously forged Julian's signature and handwriting on the inside flap so that it read: "To Jane, everyone knows you are the real inspiration for this book--Julian Cope." He got a good laugh when he saw it and admitted he had done the same thing with a Steven Tyler book once. Finally, I got my photo made with Cope as he wrapped his big fake-fur trench coat around me.

My favorite Cope albums are: Fried, Wilder, WSYM, Skellington Chronicles, Droolian, Rite, St Julian, etc.

Following Copes' musical influences is highly worthwhile. I urge everyone to become huge fans of Arthur Lee by finding "Forever Changes" by his former band LOVE. Also, the Scott Walker compilation "Boy Child" is just unbelievable. But you must be prepared for something completely different, and you must be willing to give it at least six listenings to begin to appreciate it. Soon you will develop a taste for dreary weather and cigarettes at sunrise.

Finally, does anyone know what ever happened to Cope's fellow Crucial Three band member, Pete Wylie (of Wah! fame)? I heard he had a single out called "Heart as Big as Liverpool" and that he had suffered a really bad fall a few years back. His 1991 LP Infamy was brilliant.

'..showed an empty crisp packet and said Christo was here.'

theo-

great post and thanks for mentioning Forever Changes..I've been praising that album around here for quite some time..glad to have a partner

welcome to Rail On

nice to have you

..oh no,I'm not sure about those things that I cared about..

hi,

i got to see cope in dublin tuesday night

it was great, the best lecture i've ever attended.

he looked great in faux fur and 3" platforms

he spoke about why he wrote MA, about being 'scott walkered of a monday morning', glam rock, about the new book which is a three-parter, in a sleeve like MA (i gathered).

he looked pretty caned but had notes because as he kept saying, he was a pragmatic artist, and also that he would go back to dorian and she would say "you didn't just talk for hours did you ?"

i asked him to sign my book afterwards, but i didn't have anything to say so i just smiled

db

"i was busy thinking, i was thinking of a way to impress you"

That's interesting about the MP3 encoding rate. Yeah, some of the Phish MP3s I downloaded sound "swishy". However, many sound great, and they all seem to take up 1 MB per minute audio, so I assume they're all using the same encoding rate. However, maybe the better ones are twice the sampling rate, but mono instead of stereo?

In any case, I think MP3s are fine to collect as background music and for getting a decent "taste" of the music. RealAudio is great for getting a taste, but it's not even close to CD quality and I doubt I would ever collect it or leave it playing all day in the background. Plus, everyone's streaming it nowadays, hiding their .ra files behind .ram files, so you can't download the whole thing, thus defeating would-be-collectors.

http://www.amazon.com/ doesn't have The Modern Antiquarian yet. Hopefully they'll get it soon. I order all my books from Amazon.com these days. They're fast, cheap, and have a great selection [except for no MA]. Plus, seeing all those reader viewers is extra cool. If they had a used section [or if they do have one, if they made it more visible], they'd be just about perfect. How can the local bookstores compete? Unless they sell used books, they can't.

Also checked: http://www.books.com/ (no luck).

I used to see Everybody Wants to Shag in the cut-out bins; that's where I found my CD of it, if I'm remembering correctly. Maybe I got it used. I don't remember. As for Rite, I've never seen it in any store. I'd say keep checking the used bins, and keep checking Rail On to see if anyone mentions having an extra CD.

You also might want to find local Cope fans. I got My Nation Underground [admittedly not nearly as hard to find as Rite!] from a hallmate who had gotten into Cope a few years previously and then "went Goth" and never listened to light n' fluffy Cope anymore. If you are in school, you might consider posting a WTB [wanted to buy] on the local bulletin board or newsgroup.

Speaking of schools and "going Goth"... How many parents kept their kids home from school today? When I have kids, I'm gonna think seriously about home education. Either that, or I'll move to stinky ole England. Or, are there any other countries where guns are rare?

Not that I'm against guns - I'm all for the NRA. Although I'm not a hunter [at least for now], I support what people like Ted Nugent are doing. However, guns aren't always used as fishing poles, and there's that empowerment factor; guns in the wrong hands are really scary [unlike fishing poles] because they let sickos and kids kill more people than they could by driving drunk. The scale of the mistake / lashing out is bigger with guns than cars, knives, fists, and fishing poles.

In lighter news, did anyone celebrate yesterday? I couldn't, because I have a big meeting this morning and I need to be in top mental form. :)

Trav

But Celebrating yesterday is the thing to leave one in top mental form. Hope everyone else had as good a holiday as I.

Theo,

You asked about Pete Wylie. Well Pete Wylie and his group THE MIGHTY WAH! released a limited-edition EP on Columbia, 'Heart As Big As Liverpool', on November 23. It is very rare for only 1000 copies on Cd were pressed up. I have it And I think it is a great single and if you like Pete wylie then you will like his new songs.

If anybody wants to obtain a copy of the single then your best bet is to contact HMV. For to my knowledge they were the only major record chain to stock the single and one of their branches might still have a copy for sale. Incidently there was also a 4 track promo cd in a card sleeve that was backed with two different songs not on the EP.

Recently he has won his court case, on february 5th, against his his Ex Wife. The NME reported that:'Wylie is pleading not guilty to threatening to kill Michelle Bass and John Milton on February 5 this year. He also denies causing fear of violence to Bass between September last year and February 5 by making telephone calls in which he allegedly made threats to kill her.'

THE MIGHTY WAH! are also soon to release an LP called 'Songs Of Strength &Heartbreak'. The release date I think is sometime in May.. The exact date I don't Know.

Also they were due to release another Limited Edition Single called 'Loverboy', I have heard it and it is another good song from Pete Wylie. Some have said that it is one of the best songs on his forthcomming LP. Its release date which was supposed to be a couple of weeks ago has been put back and as yet no record store can tell me the new date of release.

I will put the release dates for this single and the Lp as soon as I get them, on this site.

Richard Winchester.

I've also seen 'Everybody Wants to Shag...' in the deletes bin. And that's where it belongs if you ask me. Ouch.

Trav, if your looking for a place where guns are rare, you just need to look north to Canada. We take after the Brit model as far as guns go (almost), and its not the least bit stinky.

I just cannot believe what happened in Colorado. Extremely disturbing.

Derek

Some fathead on the box this morning was sure that there should be no change to the gun laws over the pond. Guns are inextricably linked to the revolution and overthrowing the English king. They are a crucial element of American history and what the US is. Marvelous.

The opposing viewpoint included the argument that men shoot people because they don't have any buffaloes to aim et anymore. Equally marvelous.

And Charlton Heston was in there putting the case for the NRA, presumably meaning that Colorado (and its ilk) makes no difference. Not even sarcastically marvellous. I'm so glad the Drude wrote about Robert Mitchum.

Greedhead Detector...

A message to everybody, but mainly to you across the ocean, in the U.S. You spoke about what happened in Colorado. Yesterday I heard Clinton condemning the use of guns and the increasing violence: I couldn't believe my ears, I couldn't stand to watch his face. I can hear planes flying over my head: they leave my country (Italy), they fly to Kosovo and drop bombs that kill both innocents and killers. Some families go with their children to see those new American planes take off.

I feel ashamed and guilty because I'm here playing with my dreams, my nice little things, planning to go out, planning to go to Liverpool. I feel stupid and small. With the face of peace, my country is at war.

The T.V. is full of sickening stories that were told before, only now murderers and murdered seem to have swapped places again: it's been going on for some years, you know...But I suppose it's so faraway for you. It used to be faraway for us here, and it's so ugly to admit that I pay attention now because I'm frightened. These are moments when you're not sure what to think anymore, and you feel you are being manipulated, you who thought knew the right stuff through the right people. Maybe I'm just thick, but I think I never really saw the colours until Derek Jarman showed them to me, and maybe it's just because of Julian that I realized my planet is me, and ignoring it would be like ignoring myself.

What has been destroyed so far, and what it's being destroyed there now doesn't belong to the Serbians or to the others, and no-one will ever give it back.

You might ask yourself why I'm posting this to Rail On, or think that I'm nobody, but, as I said, there are things you'd better not to ignore, and I'm trying to clean up my mind and put it together again, to get to know things first-hand. I'm trying to feel less alone with things I don't understand: I'm asking best friends their opinions, and I'm asking you.

And actually things like war are there in Cope's universe, even as an important issue. Unfortunately I don't manage to catch all the words: are songs like Disaster and Lunatic And Fire-Pistol about war? Does anyone know the lyrics? Does anyone know what Julian's actual opinion on war and peace is?

Thanks and take care to all.

Vava

The Colorado incident is tragic and my prayers are with the victims, their families and their community. But why has this topic it found a home on this page?

Isn't "Rail-On!" is a site to dicuss Cope's music and life?

Brian

Ba ba ba ba,ba ba ba ba ba...

Yes this is a place for Cope talk but its aslo a place where people can talk about whats on their mind as well. If the US wants guns then thats OK but to let kids have access to guns is sick and Charlton Heston can talk has he ever had one of his children shot and killed or someone close!. People in the world today should have a better insight in to whats going on and guns don't belong in a world thats heading down the pan at the speed of light. Whats wrong in getting back to mother earth as cope keeps pointing out. Vava's right to speak his mind both the US and the UK leaders are always looking for a fight to prove how big they are and how they both are doing it for world peace!!!!!

Russ

Hi,

Check out this site for an alternative tour of megalithic Britain/France/Italy: www.stonepages.com

I got a chance to speak to Julian at some length after his performance in Aberdeen a while back. I couldn't help getting caught up in the enthusiasm of the man, it's just infectious. I also thought the performance to be excellent and very informative. You rarely know what's in your own backyard until it's pointed out. The best part for me though was finding out that Julian used an illustration from a book I gave him a couple of years ago in the MA. The illustration of Tomnaverie stone circle was used (forget the page number) as it is almost impossible to photograph without an aerial view. Checked for me name in the credits, but no such luck. The book 'Antiquities of Cromar' got the mention.

Got to get in on some of the side issues here. Legally minors are prohibited from possessing firearms in the States, in fact the USA has thousands of gun laws. The problem is that they are just not enforced. Unfortunately guns cannot be un-invented, and criminals will not give them up. On the side to this; everyone focusses on the weapons themselves, not the fact that had any of these psychopaths been given some attention and help/support by society/social work/parents/schools all or some of these attrocities may have been avoided. This includes Thomas Hamilton, Michael Ryan etc. Don't know about the Colorado shooters, but previously it was discovered that over 95% of adolescents in the states who carried out mass shootings were on Prozac at the time - just pop a pill and your troubles will disappear.

One for you Derek: Canada actually has a high gun ownership, it's just that Canada has less of the social problems than yer Southern neighbours. Look at your own press for the massive fighting over the ongoing Canadian gun registration scheme. In the civilised Western World, Canada is only second to England in the rate of violent crime (not gun crime) per head of population; even higher than the US, believe it or not.

S'later,

Johnny.

Got my "Shag" in a cut-out bin at Target. The case was cracked and an agressive foot was apparently the culprit as it left a print. A few of the tracks are unlistenable because of a scratch on the CD that causes it to skip. I guess there are those who would rather step on the Teardrops than shag them. At any rate, I think we've firmly established to check the cut out bins for this CD.

"Forever Changes" is a great album too.

Where would it be possible to get in touch with Julian Cope directly.

Could someone mail me an address please.

The Drude got a mention in last week's NME in article about imaginary three-way fights between artists. Copey was up against Ian McCullough and Bono. No clear winner. Stupid article.

I work at Aston University and our Ents people have started running a club night called Club Zoo. No relation and nothing to report about it, just a piece of Cope related ephemera.

It's impregnated in my Daffy Duck shorts...

Thanks Richard very much for the update on Pete Wylie. "Heart as Big..." is just a single or is it an EP? Wow, I didnt know Wylie had so much legal action going on. Your report referred to him winning a case, but then your quote sounded as if his ex-wife was bringing criminal charges against him. Oh, well..

I loved the part in Head On where Ian McCulloch, and Julian gathered in Pete's living room to play. Ian was too embarrassed to sing, so they just sat around slagging current bands while Pete's mum brought them tea and biscuits. The Crucial Three indeed!

Trivia:

1. Julian has recorded at least two songs for which Ian McCulloch shares songwriting credits. Name them.

2. ALso, when I got to see Julian mid-March, he mentioned that Smelvin had died a few days earlier. What caused Smelvin to almost die back in the late-eighties?

3. Is it really sad that I should know trivia about some bloke's dog?

Finally, Kosovo, Littleton, Dunblain, makes me think that this old world lies helpless on its side. I hope these pages can be a refuge of sorts from all that.

..my eyes click like fingers where you used to lie....

I find it very hard to contain myself any longer after what happened last week in Colorado and after reading some of the varying views here. There are always two sides to every argument concerning guns and gun control but I am biased towards one--strict gun control. I am by no means a supporter of the NRA--I abhor guns and the militia-styled mentality of those who believe that we MUST be armed or whatever the right-winged extremist view exactly is--I've never been too certain as to what they're on about. Charlton Heston is a charlatan and a lying panderer. Back in the '60's, he marched with Martin Luther King. Now he's droning on about how great the NRA is. If (an that's a very big "if") I am correct, the American Constitutional right to bear arms is NOT meant as a call to have an arsenal large enough to invade a small, 3rd World nation readily at your fingertips, but as a PRECAUTION, should there be an unlawful invasion by enemy troops in a military action/crisis/emergency--keep in mind, this was written in 1787. Unfortunately, the Constitution is CONSTANTLY and CONVENIENTLY mis-interpreted for the wanton use of (again, forgive the anger in my tone) and dangerous people who use the Constitution and the name of God as their means or reasoning to get away with (no pun intended) MURDER.

Fact: these two murderers in Colorado are just that--murderers. Evil. I won't sit idly by and listen to people say that they were misunderstood or it could have been avoided if there had been some way to intervene. Okay--you want intervention? Where were the fucking parents when they were smashing glass to make the bombs? Or where were the parents when the two were arrested on prior occasions? Where were the so-called "concerned" school authorities when they'd march up and down the school hallways shouting "Sieg Heil"? What kind of school is it when students can do this kind of thing?

There are two kinds of people on this planet--good and bad--no in betweens. This was the work of evil, sick and twisted bastards and there should be no wringing of the hands, no "oh, what do we do now?"--how did they get the fucking guns and how did their parents not have any inkling that there was a serious problem right under their noses?

Episodes like this (amongst many others) make me ashamed to call myself an American, BUT then again, NOWHERE on this planet is Nirvana--not Canada, not Blighty (whatever happened to the Great Empire?). Certainly not Italy--remember that guy called Mussolini? Friend of Der Fuhrer, you know... People want to slag off the United States and the fucked up things the American government does but you know what? I don't agree with a lot of it either, but I don't appreciate the fact that a lot of GOOD people are being generalized by you lot who want to say that people like myself are all war mongerers or whatever--I don't want Americans getting killed in Kosovo for Milosevic's evil misdeeds. But then again, I don't think the Italians are going to aid anyone in particular themselves.

Don't lay the blame on me because I happen to be an American--BLAME THE ONES DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE.

Re: Theo's questions:

Answer #1

Books &Spacehopper

Answer #2

Smelvin overdosed on rat poison. (...accidently)

Answer #3

Nah

New Question:

Which Cope song is named after a part of the Roman Legislature?

Gee, before the 1968 Gun Control Act, ANYONE could send a check or money order to a mail order company and get a army surplus Colt .45 pistol for about $15.00. There was a couple bucks for postage and for a few more bucks, ammo would ship with it. Where was the school carnage then eh? WHERE ?????!!!!!

There was still some memory of God in school but do you know what the biggest concerns of teachers were in the 50's?

1. Gum chewing
2. talking out of turn &
3. blue jeans...things have changed.

There are more than 20,000 gun laws on the books including one from the '68 G.C.A. that states that ANY convicted felon found in possesion of a firearm must receive a minimum 20 years sentence. That doesn't happen because of deals made for snitching or pleading down charges. I am for swift certain punishment of anyone who uses a firearm in the commission of a crime. We need to stop placating to the self-esteem of these kids. But it's clear by now that the ways things are runs in schools are f#cked up.

That brings me to another point. Though only .002% of all firearms are used in all crimes (FBI stats) Every single death caused by a HUMAN PULLING THE TRIGGER is not a saintly life. Sorry. Ever read your paper about some scum with a long criminal career being found dead behind a bar or in a back ally or when someone defends their family from attackers or intruders? This is called 'The Good-Riddance Factor'. Gun deaths are less than autos, falls, disease, fires, diabetes, heart attacks etc... The press here in the states hates firearms. Last week ABC televsion issued a press release boasting of their increased ratings due to the Colorado shooting! Better than Lewinski's interview ratings. What are their true intentions?! Certainly not news. That means the Truth is at risk too.

Pipe bombs are illegal. As was one of the guns they used. Yet they still used / had them. Laws do not deter EVIL. EVIL will do what it has to to acheive it's goal. Remember a few years ago all the tourists being killed in Florida after leaving the airport? The press sure didn't report it. There was, and still is, a concealed carry gun law for Citizens of Florida. Why would a crimminal want to risk robbing a local person who MIGHT BE ARMED when they could rob/shoot a person who having left the airport they KNEW THEY were FAIR GAME. They were SHEEPLE. It was safer for the crimminals to go after the tourists. They don't like 'victims' who can shoot back.

Thank-You for your time to read this.

Brian

Excellent Answers Brian!

"SPQR" should answer yours.

Right, Im off to post some Cope trivia in the gun control chat rooms.

"..so lunatic and fire pistol deep into my brain..."

I've recently downloaded all the Cope b-sides off of Head Heritage and they're fantastic. I definitely recomend them to anyone who is a Cope fan (certainly no one on this page). Does anyone have any favorite Cope B-sides they can turn me on to and if so where can I find them? How on earth did poor Smelvin get a hold of rat poison?

In answer to your question theo heart as Big as Liverpool is a 4 track EP containing 4 new songs avaliable on CD only. More news regarding Pete Wylie is that while speaking to a friend at the Bunnymen Concert at Brixton, (which was excellent), last friday, I found out that he has just been dropped by Columbia Records. As a result Columbia will not be releasing the 2nd single Loverboy or the Album Songs of Strength and Heartbreak. For the moment they have been shelved, but a 1 track promo CD for the single Loverboy was circulated to the press, radio Stations etc before he was dropped and copies of this promo have been turning up in secondhand record stores. It is worth trying to find a copy.

Richard Winchester

Hello,

Was anyone out there at the Bradford concert of the HEAD ON tour earlier this decade, there was a song he sang during the accoustic stage that I hadn't heard previously or since. I haven't come across a bootleg of this concert either.

Also during the 2nd phase of head on tour His 4 nights he played in London were being filmed professionally-do you know if these will ever see the light of day (these are not related to the flyers being handed out post gig)

Has you heard Queen Elizabeth 3 yet, didn't get round to hearing the Drude speak on the 2nd leg of the book tour just got to see him 1st night Oxford St, Virgin Megastore

Regards

Andy

Just a tip for the Canucks...www.Chapters.ca has The Modern Antiquarian for $52.76. Seems like a very good price.

Derek

city living at ninety degrees, the sweat stays on in beads...

On the last musical tour, the Drude was playing a great number called (I think) 'Everything Blows My Mind'. Unrecorded as far as I know and I haven't heard a boot from the tour yet. Nothing to do with Andrew's query I know, but there you go.

This is Electrical Stormgirl...

Electrical Stormgirl! Excellent little song. Also, London Underground is another one that's just a little too short.

Do we have any guitar players out there able to shed some light on the 12 string intro to Search Party, or is that a little too obscure?

Has anyone ever heard of the now-defunct band called CUD? Brilliant they were.

...take these hands and do the dishes....

Speaking of deadly weapons, Nirvana, the UK, and music... Too bad about Adrian Borland, eh? I can't see Cope ever doing that, thank God.

How many of Cope's songs have a "goodbye" theme to them? How many could possibly be interpreted as "warning signs?" To me, the thought of killing myself, or Cope killing himself, is laughable. I think humor is the key, and I don't know how much humor Cobain or Borland really had. Cobain's music is gloomy and frustrated, focusing more on problems than solutions; Borland's is mellow and, to me, pretty devoid of humor; Cope's is funny, solution-based [though sometimes the solutions are zany], self-aware. Although you might consider "Peggy SUICIDE" to be a signal of sorts. I wonder if Borland had a wife and kids.

Okay, switching to a MUCH cooler topic... Cover songs! Feel free to send them in [my mailing address is on my main Cope page]. Like I said, my goal is to release the second INTERPRETERS CD near the end of the summer. So, there's no rush to send in tapes [Mickey] if you still have more songs you'd like to contribute.

Finally, DVD writers are out! Has anyone actually seen one? 5 GB would store about 75 hours of MP3's!!! :)

Okay, well, that's the good news. The bad news is that my printer is acting up. The black ink cartridge does not work at all. I can print color, but not black. I put in a new cartridge a month ago and I thought it was working then, but it certainly isn't now. I've tried auto-cleaning, calling tech support, taking the black cartridge out, shaking it, and stirring up the ink [yes, the ink is still wet] but it's not printing anything! It goes though the motions of printing, but no black hits the page, not even the faintest smears.

So what this means is that I can't print any more CD covers any time soon, unless you don't mind getting the liner notes in dark purple! :) I still have some CDs ready to ship, but anyway, my point is, well, to be honest I don't ready have one!

Time for breakfast: cereal and coffee! Every day! Same cereals, too: corn flakes and pops. Skim milk. Strong coffee.

I am curious; what do you eat for breakfast? It's the one meal of the day where you have [pretty much] total control of where, when, and what you eat. A fun little poll! :)

Trav

Weekdays it's usually Weetabix &Tea (milk, 2 sugars). Which is all well and good I suppose, except I always spoil it by having one of the wonderful bacon sandwiches they make at work. Don't often have lunch mind you.

Weekends often involves an exotic switch to toast (buttered), with peanut butter if I'm really living on the edge. Always with tea though.

Not like in Liverpool, or junior school...

I've recently been having the super-healthy breakfast of a Fudge Round (Little Debbie Snack Cake thing) and a Dr. Pepper. It does wonders for the constitution. Wonder what Cope eats for breakfast. He seems like the type to get plenty of "square meals". But is he a health nut or what?

Wonderful, Chris - thankyou! It will have me chuckling on the bus going home.

Whether the Drude is a health nut or not, I'm pretty sure he and Mrs. Drude are vegetarians. Can you eat badly/unhealthily as a vegetarian (other than in the opinion of those who believe it's the same thing)?

Great White Wonder...

Ah yes, breakfast at 5:30 a.m., whilst the lovely Elizabeth sleeps and I feed our three cats, usually means orange juice, cranberry juice, some kind of whole grain toast with fruit spread and 2 cups of joe, regular-styled--none of that wuss skim milk or sweetener bullshit...

If I'm feeling raunchy on the weekend, I'll usually stoke myself up for the a.m. with either a bowl of (organic) breakfast cereal (here's a plug for ya--Health Valley brand "Banana Gone Nuts" or Familia's Muesli) OR blueberry bagels with cream cheese. Woo-ha!

And yes, you CAN eat badly/unhealthily as a vegetarian--BELIEVE ME, I KNOW!

Blessings...

...Until you realize it's just a story...

Sure, I don't bother chiming in the important stuff like gun control or mysterious Cope songs, but ask me what's for breakfast and I'm in! I go for the sugary kids cereals, Captain Crunch being my fav. That and coffee with cream every weekday. On the weekends, I step up to bagel w/ cream cheese, or (on lucky Saturdays) its cold, leftover pizza from the night before. I challenge any to think of a finer breakfast than that ...

As for Copey committing suicide, I don't think that's a possibility now. But one one has to look back a few years (OK, quite a few) to some lyrics for the potential foreshadowing of:

"and he took the knife out of the bag, and spilled his guts out over the stage."

That would seem a fairly clear message to me. My apologies if I didn't hit the lyrics dead on, as the CD isn't nearby. Like I said, I don't think he's in that place now, but anyone's who has done any serious dosage of LSD knows it'll take you down some dark alleys now and then.

P.S. Trav- thanks for the Phish MP3 tips. I'm having a ball listening to the New Year's Show right now. Anyone else think Cope should host a spectacular for the millenium?

"and he took the knife out of the bag, and spilled his guts out over the stage."

***

Mark,

That lyric DID happen. Cope was leanin' on the mikestand and he forced his weight on it and, and, and he ended-up at the hospital.

and as Renyard goes;

"...spill his guts out all over the stage..." yes indeed.

Your breakfasts are very impressive. Ever get to fit some French Toast in there too? It's my Saturday standard. No butter or syrup. Just granulated sugar on top. yum Is that pizza peperoni?

Breakfast for me is Special K if I remember if not it's a sandwich around 11am and thats it while about 6-7pm. Now when I was alot younger last nights curry put in a nuke machine was quite a regular event. So come on whats the worst thing you eat for breakfast. My friend warms fruit up in the micro untill its really soft and then covers it in cream cheese.

I would prefer to eat bagels but in Worksop they might as well be from outer space as I can't get them anywhere!!!

RUSS

And tiny children have away of falling down...........

Mmmmm, breakfast for me at the weekends is a social event in itself. Usually leaving a club or bar half cut on Thurs, Fri or Sat, getting to the local International Casino at 03:00 and ordering a 'Full Monty' huge cooked breakfast with a basket of toast, real butter and a huge pot of tea. Normally this takes place surrounded (but not with) by the girls from two of the local Table Dancing bars who round their evening's work off at the same venue. Unhealthy? - definitely!, Quality end to the evening? - silly question!, Indigestion next day? - the one downside to the whole afair!

My mate Stefan buys two kebabs on the way home from clubbing, has one before bed, and the other microwaved in the morning. Sometimes doesn't bother with the microwave.

Did anyone else here like Cope's track "Levitation". 'The ocean rolls below me, penned in black and blue............'

John.

Slowly my american girlfriend has converted me to the simple joys of maple syrup so tomorrow it's ham, eggs (her choice which style), a side of french toast (thanks for the inspiration Brian) with maple syrup, orange and lots of strong coffee. Course can't forget the papers for a proper weekend breakfast, the guardian for me, the wall street journal for her (if it's in stock at the Bahnhof, which general depends on how late we rise). The only downside, she won't let me play JC in the morning.

John, Levitation has become my favourite track, (which is really what prompted me to respond though i thought i'd add my tuppence worth to the great breakie debate). I've never heard the elevators original but can it really be any better? I got "followers" about a year ago but rarely listened to it, I'd put the album as a whole in the "endearing but basically kak" cope category. But while i was sanding and polishing the floors in my apartment (long, slow, noisy, pain in the ass job) i became totally obsessed with this track and played it on repeat for hours at a time, it really is an example of Julian at his rawk and roll, ass kicking best. Umpteenth unnatural blues is the other gem on the album adn the interveiw is fun, but Levitation what a track.

...I've never seen a more dignified man in my life....

St.

St.

You got one of my other fav's: 'Umpteenth Un-natural Blues'. Out of all the Cope stuff I've collected since about '79, I probably play these tracks most regularly. I'm in the office just now and can't quite remember the name of the EP. Must be the drink affecting my brain. A young man (oh OK 33) ruined...

Just got some photo's back today. One of them is Julian with my girlfriend, Julian wearing leopard skin and various furry attire. A girl at work commented that: "Oh, who's that? He looks like a porn star!" Wonder what he'd say?

- - You and Carol Lombard......

John.

..chuckling as I read over the menus..tryig to shake the picture of Julian accompanied by bad wacka-wacka guitar music..

hmm..brayfast?

well since my surgery in December..my breakfast usually starts with about 12-15 pills and a cool glass of milk(cue,Spritualized's 'Medication" here)..Mmmmmmm..usually follow this with a muffin or breakfast pastry of some sort..a bowl of yogurt or cereal and a piece of fresh fruit..been on a pear kick lately,replacing my long melon binge...lost my taste for eggs,but a pice of ham on occassion isn't bad(well maybe it is,but I eat it anyway)

Have beeen known to eat cold chinese if its around and the occasional pizza,but the latter not as often..lately,its been Food I'll Eat It with not set time of day for any proper meal plan or anything

...off now to grab a handful of pretzels~l~

Not familiar with Electrical Stormgirl or London Underground..any more info?

..oh no,I'm not sure about those things that I cared about...

Speaking of Spiritualized, I've never heard them, but I've heard nothing but good things about them. If Thighpaulsandra is involved how bad could it be? What does everyone think about Spiritualized? Electrical Storm Girl and London Underground are really good songs on Skellington 2. Electrical Storm Girl is sort of like Buddy Holly on Acid. London Underground is much harder to describe but is also a good track.

Take these hands but do dishes

OJ. Tea. Banana. Oatmeal. Nutrigrain Bar. Rice cakes. Overall I guess I'm always trying to think of new mushy textured hassle-free type foods to stuff in my mouth in the morning.

I always have to read something when I eat alone. This morning I read that those dinosaurs with the long skinny necks could actually only lift their heads three to four feet off the ground. Until now it was commonly believed that they grazed off tree tops.

I wonder what would be misenterpreted about humans if all a future speices found left over from us were bones?

Another item I found interesting has to do with Mother Earth. The Earth's molten core will one day cool down. The planet will become "dead" like Mars. No more plate techtonics and apparently no more friendly atmosphere as well.

"...if I was in the same position, you know I wouldn't think twice..."

We went to Avebury a while ago but the Drude was not there. Don't blame him, mind, it was Good Friday. Thanks to the rain at lunchtime it got a little quieter. Speaking of veggie/health food, had the very best meal for a long long time at Stones cafe in the village, even though everything was swimming in the rain. Pricey mind, and National Trust I think.

So, what's happening with the Drude just now? Seems the HeadHeritage site hasn't been updated for a while and I'm beginning to pine.

Todd - I fear we will leave much more that bones. Perhaps future species will beleive we live symbiotically alongside four-wheeled metal-skellingtoned (sic) critters?

Anyone go any plans for the eclipse?

I've made a website for my mate James Lewis who is a photographer.

There's photo's of Standing Stones and musicians, performers etc.

Here's the URL: http://www.jessyjames.demon.co.uk

Just reading through the posts and catching up. I noted someone talking about the Cope and his mike-stand incidents. He apparently slashed himself up twice with a broken mikestand. The first time was at the Hammersmith Palais in 1984 (his first solo tour). If I recall the story goes that Cope watched the support band, the Woodentops, perform and their lead singer did an impersonation of Cope during their set. Cope was so freaked out that there was no way he could follow that, that he broke his mike stand duing Reynard and started to slash his stomach again and again, drawing blood and crying out the line from Carry On Ceasar (?) "Infamy, infamy, they've all got it Infamy", in a belief that he needed to give the audience everything. It actually had the opposite effect as most of the audience were completely grossed out and he got completely slagged off in the press for it. He also still has the scars across his stomach from this event!

The second time I believe was in Tokyo in 1989 (Please correct me if I am wrong) when Cope re-enacted the Hammersmith act, reslashing his stomach and drawing blood again. Hmmm....

Andrew

I stopped by a local downtown independent record store over lunch and they had a CD in the Cope bin by Anal. I believe it was called Zero Beats Per Minute. It was produced by Thighpaulsandra and directed by Julian Cope. It's an import and costs 29 bucks. Does anyone have it? Is it worth picking up?

Izzy, I was thinking hypothetically regarding the human bones. I agree with you, we will leave behind plenty of artifacts, especially in the automotive area.

Todd,

If you are an obsesive collector of everything Cope, then you should buy the Anal cd for sure. It is a strange cd, I'm not sure how you would describe it, I think we discused it here a while back so you may want to go through the archives and see what was said. It is lots of industrial type banging and crashing, somewhat like a sound effects cd in my mind.

Having said that it is now sold out at Head Heritage, so it is starting to get quite rare now, so it might be worth picking up, although the price may be a bit high for a somewhat unknown cd.

Andrew

Okay this may seem kind of ridiculous, but does any one know what DC comic it was that The Teardrops were named after. I used to be a truly huge comic book head before I discovered music. I would even be interested in finding it if anyone knows where I can.

i think it was daredevil, i knows hes not dc though

hes marvel

db

Yeah, I was a comic book head too in earlier days - almost strictly Marvel. For the sake of completion, it was Daredevil 77, a truly dismal edition featuring DD, Spider-Man and Namor, The Sub-Mariner.

I recently discovered that the US comics of that period (60's &70's) are now referred to as Silver Age. It means they're officially comic history now, which is a weird feeling when they were such a motivational force in the young Vybic-to-be.

Incidentally, if you take the time to trawl around some of the comic book sale sites on the Net, you'll find DD 77 without too much trouble. I found 3 for sale, but they were all in bloody dollars. US comic books for sale in US dollars! Unbelievable!!

Certain weekends will find me down the cafe at the end of our road, early Saturday or Sunday, gorging on a full cooked breakfast. With a huge mug of tea of course.

I'm making soup from your bones...

Andrew, thanks for the info on Anal. I'll have to swing by the store and pick it up. As an indie store the price of their CDs tend to be high and the Anal is considered an import so the price is even higher. At least they have a poster of Julian on their wall.

Hey do any of you Heads out there know how tall JC is ? My girlfriend and I have a bet going so if anyone knows, please post !

Augie - at least 7ft ( In those boots he wears at the moment )

Augie,

I reckon he's about 6'2" or 6'3". I've stood beside him a couple of times (when he's in sensible footwear) and he's just a couple of inches shorter than me.

John.

Does anybody know what music Julian is listening to these days ?

or is he just reading books?

.........we can't expect to explore without explosion.........

6'1" (I think). I remember reading it somewhere ages ago, probably in one of those crappy teen magazines back in the Teardrops days. Its amazing how much useless crap I have floating around in my head.

Andrew

Suddenly after thinking there was only Head Heritage and Soul Desert, I find all this...

Is there a mailing list too?

BTW, I thought the Teardrop's name came from a Fantastic Four comic.

simonf

Hi

i'm thinking about putting press releases and interviews from the press on my website so I want to know what you think YES or NO!!!

Russ

And I've been busy over the last few weeks so i'll have all the images linked by the end of the week

I've also been looking for my copy of Daredevil but it must have been stolen when we had our breakin. Joel's now 6 months old and he's starting to listen to music (well taking notice) so i'm playing all the good stuff and turning the radio off when bands like boyzone and steps come on!

have STEPS made it over to the US yet there the pits boy/girl teen bands total shite!!

I've gotten back into the Skellington Chronicles in a big way of late, and I thought I'd share that. Both 1 &2 are so loose, but nevertheless have some great songs and they also contain all manner of delights. The short guitar break in the middle of No How, No Why, No Way, No Where, No When is gorgeous.

I'll take QE3 and/or the Teardrops sessions as stopgaps when they come out, but some new Cope would be a dream. 2000 C.E. feels a long way off.

Welcome, Simonf.

It was definitely Daredevil. And yes - isn't Rail On good. I was as pleased as you are when I first found it.

Do it, Donn-eye...

Russ -

I say Yes to the press releases and interviews. Have there been many new interviews with the book and spoken word tour? I, for one, would like to see them.

Steps? I guess we're lucky not to have been struck by that craze yet. Still suffering through the Backstreet Boys, thank you very much. Keep the kids listening to the good stuff, I say. I had my son begging to hear more Julian and XTC by the time he was four. He'd actually have tantrums if we didn't put on certain CDs. Never too much of a good thing, although repeated listens to your favorite tunes can sometimes diminish the pleasure.

Mark

Talking of XTC what do you think of the new LP and has anyone been listening to the aussie band You Am I who on the odd track sond like XTC

Russ

thanks to you who answered the height question, I think 6'2" or 6'3" sounds rite, tho i liked wickerman's answer best..

I couldn't agree more with Vybik Jon that Don-eye's solo in No How, No Why, etc. is brilliant. Ive spent way too mnay hours trying to play it on my guitar.

Does anyone else suffer from this problem I have? The problem occurs when I find myself in a folkie bar listening to the umpteenth ball-breaking acoustic set of over-wrought emotional songs set to Neil Young's patented strum patterns, I fantasize that Julian Cope and Don-eye saunter on stage, perhaps Julian in his "St. Julian"-period leathers, with his cherry red modified electric 9 string Gibson, and they just rip the shit outta of stuff like Space Hopper, Trampolene, Read It In Books, or Out of My Mind on Dope and Speed. Do I need help, really?

Would anyone agree with me that the versions of Safesufer and I Got My TV and My Pills in their original incarnations, on Droolian and Skellington Chronicles respectively, are superior to the "proper" LP versions?

Trivia questions for the hard-core Cope fans only:

1. name the four members of the incredibly short-lived group called "The Mystery Girls." Hint: one was Julian Cope, natch.
2. Julian and Duke McCool (a.k.a. Ian McCulloch) were in three bands together; name them.
3. Passionate Friend was written for or about whom?

Answers will be posted soon...

....Battlin' not with Battling once again..."

No help needed at all, Theo, and your fantasy is glorious. Mind you, I'd just love to see him playing live again.

I've Got My TV And My Pills - original.

Safesurfer - undecided. Maybe because the Peggy Suicide version is so familiar.

Answers:

1. Can't remember off the top of my head. (Shame).
2. UH?/The Crucial Three/Nova Mob. (Not necessarily in that order).
3. Mac's sister. (Though her name escapes me).

Trav - finished collating the survey results yet?

Landfill has got me weeping - skip lunch, take out the trash yeah...

Well Russ, since you asked . . .

I've been an XTC fan for a long time. After waiting 6 years to hear a new disc, I was a bit disappointed by Apple Venus Vol. I, at first. Part of that was duie to the chalkhills list that I belong to. I obtained a tape of Andy Partridge's demos for the record almost a year before, and played them to no end. The CD stayed very true to the demos, so in many parts it wasn't like hearing a new record at all.

But, as I continue to play the f*ck out of it, I love it more each listen. It is very subtle and beautiful, and I'm usually one for the rough edges myself. But I like it a lot. From the arabic strains of Green Man, the bitter lyrics about his divorce in My Dictonary, and the lushness of Harvest Festival...I like it all. Except maybe Colin Moulding's tracks, which sound trite and like filler compared to Andy's work.

Volume II is said to be all the rockin' material that they left off the first disc. I can't wait to hear that. Of course, in keeping with the theme here, I think I'd rather hear some new music from dear Julian!

What do the rest of you think of XTC? What else is everyone out there listening to? Who are your other favorites?

Mark

My musical tastes outside of the Drude have led many to ask what it is I like about him. I'm a sucker for women singers, have a particular weakness for singer/songwriters (men or women), can't seem to shrug off an indie past (whatever indie means these days), still dip into an even older HM past on occasion and don't find myself offended every time by chart-pop and dance music.

All of which goes some way to explaining the Drude's attraction - it is the music, but it isn't just the music. The sum is so much greater than the parts. He's Julian Cope and I love him.

Driving on the far side of slow...

[If any of you guys can help Kevin guy out with some direct contact info, that would be great! -- Trav]

Greetings,

Do you have a contact address for either Julian, or his representatives?

I run a small independent record label, which specialises in archive recordings and reissues, and I would be keen to get in contact with Julian so that we could propose working on some of his archives.

Any help that you can give would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Kevin Crace,

Almafame,
125 Shoreditch High street,
London,
E1 6JE.
  

Very well put,Vybic

There's music you like

and then there's Julian

like visiting a friend

Mark - which New Year's Show? So far, my favorite gigs are 10-31-95, 11-2-98, 12-6-96, 2-15-99 [trey], and of course 8-16-96. The Pharmer's Almanac was a great investment. I wish Cope had something like that!

I haven't finished tabulating the survey yet. We only have like 5 results! Send 'em in, folks! Link's at the top of the page.

Just got done w/ finals. Back to real life - web pages, computer games, and travel! Summer's here!!!

Trav

[Got this one totally out of the blue! -- Trav]

I am a Cope also, I was looking for distant relatives

I have been a devoted Cope fan for quite some time now and like the rest of you early imagine seeing him play live. The difference (as far as I know) is that I live in a small rurual town in the middle of Virginia called Farmville. There's no way in hell Cope will ever play any where near here it drives me nuts.

Answers to hard-cope trivia:

1. Mystery Girls: Pete Burns (later of Dead or Alive fame); Phil Hurst (Nightmares in Wax and Hollycaust); Pete Wylie (Wah!); Cope.
2. Cope-McCulloch bands: The Crucial Three (May-June 77); A Shallow Madness (July-Sept 78) [acoustic version known as Uh!]; and The Teardrop Explodes (Mac quoted in mid-80's Rolling Stone Bunnymen article that Cope sacked him for never showing up on time for rehearsals .)
3. Mac's sister, named Julie I think).

Sources: Pete Frame's Liverpool family tree, Head-on, RS

Good work Vybik!

Has anyone heard Bill Drummond's 1984 LP, The Man, which contains the droll "Julian Cope is Dead"? Hopefully its not sacrilige to say it on these pages, but it's a brilliant album, particularly King of Joy. Sorry, Julian.

Theo- I had meant to tackle the latest trivia, but I was outa beer.

• Does anyone have a idea as to the value of a book that I purchased back in '88 or so called "Liverpool Explodes" It has great info and pictures of the Droppies/Cope/Bunnymen/Wylie and others.
• And what's the current value of the Rabbi Joseph Gordon single on Bam Caruso?

-thanks

I'm, I'm not afraid any more...

Trav-

The Phish New Year's show I downloaded was from 12-31-98, where they opened with Prince's 1999 (predictable, but a hoot!) I just saw Trey solo last week. I preferreed the acoustic set to the electric set, but both were a lot of fun. He did some interesting covers. I especially like the Guyute acoustic, I Can See Clearly Now and the Vodoo Chile closer. The man can rock, but I like the full complement of the band for the electric side. Mike, Paige and Fishman really add a lot, whereas his backup band for the solo tour was just that, backup.

So, when do we start hearing Cope via the magic of MP3?

Mark

Oh yes, many XTC fans out there, thankfully.

I saw those boys on April 18, 1981 at New York's (now-demolished) Palladium (the same plaace I saw The Teardrop Explodes a mmonth later) along with Jools Holland and His Millionaires (brilliant!) and the first tour of Joan Jett and The Blackhearts (please kill me...). They opened with "Reel By Real" and throughout the show, many of the songs had cartoon/animated backdrops that fit the lyrics--bombs dropping on the word "C-U-B-A" during "Living Through Another Cuba" and so on. I would have never thought Andy Partridge would have such a phobia about performing live--XTC were a f**kin powerhouse. I first saw them on an old t.v. show called "Twiggy's Jukebox" and they showed the videos of "Making Plans For Nigel" and "Life Begins At The Hop"--subsequently, I was hooked (this was January 1979). I literally cried when I heard "English Settlement" for the first time--still, one of the most PERFECT albums EVER--I refer to the original 1982 Virgin double lp.

And I still worship at the altar of The Dukes Of Stratosphear...

Okay, we've covered Teardrop, Petrols, XTC, some Damned--who's next? We could make fun of Weller--he ACHES to be mocked, you know...

By the way, Trav--my contributions to the next CD will be "Treason" (since I did "Books"), "Greatness And Perfection" (actually, it's done--I want to re-mix it) and "Bandy's First Jump".

Bye bye, kiddiwinks--for now!

Love,

Rob

And is anybody out there occasionally unfaithful to Julian Cope with The The, a.k.a. Matt Johnson, like I am?

Vava.

(Ciao Rob!)

And what's the current value of the Rabbi Joseph Gordon single on Bam Caruso?

I just bought a copy for $6 about 3 months ago, but otherwise, I usually see it for sale around $35. I guess I got a bargain ....

Rabbi Joseph Gordon single can sometimes reach upwards of $75.00 (I kid you NOT)--a friend of mine actually was nutty enough to buy one...

What about me? What about raving?

I am the milkman of human kindness...

Au revoir, kiddiwinks!

(XXX--Vava!)

XTC: great to see the mini-review below, though seventeen years late ;-). I worshipped them from 1986 or so up to 'Oranges &Lemons', which I claim is a really crappy album.

From what I've heard from 'Apple Venus' (My Dictionary), it seems that Andy Partridge has found a clue again.

Re: Colin Moulding's songs on AV "filler" - I can't believe that.

On all albums I've heard, his songs are among the best.

Re: Bill Drummond's "The Man": I have the album, and it's not bad.

However, I am biased, since The Triffids played on that album.

(Any Triffids fans here except for me?)

/Jörgen

The Triffids a very under rated band here in the UK i've just sold quite a bit of stuff on ebay including Bury me deep in love 3" promo cds. I've finished linking the cope photos on my site i'm going to start putting adverts/reviews and interviews on over the next week or so

Russ

I'm not going to bother watching the eclipse,It happens quite often. I'm waiting for "The Biggy"

Rumours are that Headheritage might be updated, but then again it might not.

Rumours of head heritages updating have been greatly exagerated.

John Loughney,

Hi John, I hope you are well. Oh my god, did you ever get a bargain on the Rabbi 7". Now it seems to go for anywhere around $50US mark at least. I managed to get a copy years ago when I still lived in England, I think I paid £12 for it, but it is very rare now. The single is a must have for all hard core fans, but in my mind it isn't a great record, it is just it's obscurity that makes it a valuable find. A steal at $6 though!

Matt Johnson, The The: The thought of The The brings back so many wonderful memeories of art school for me, when it seemed like Infected was on everyone's tape player. Classic. There was actually a series of videos for Infected that ran as a kind of movie, called Infected, which were pretty awesome, did anyone else see it? I think I have it on tape somewhere. Does anyone know what Matt Johnson is up to now?

Wrigglin' around like a lizard in a tin...

Andrew

Talking of the rabbi single, the GEMM website has a listing for it, (GEMM is a kind of music brokerage where lots of different sellers list their stuff. It is an excellent resource for those hard to find items, like Droolian, Skellington etc.), simply go there and do a search:

http://www.gemm.com

Andrew

I bought my copy the single from Martin who used to run the Pure Joy fanzine (where is he now?) for around £15.00 I think. I gave it to my then girlfriend (another Copehead) as a gift, and though we still get on okay I doubt I'll get it back.

Just as an item of trivia, the guy who ran Bam Caruso was interviewed a few years back and was asked about the single. It transpired that he still had 15 copies under his bed (!) and proceeded to sell them by post at £15.00 each on a first come, first served basis. My order arrived too late.

Just like Pooh Bear...

Mentioning The The reminded me of the Cope connection....The common thread is James Eller. He is best known as the bassest from St. Julian and Nation Underground and then he joined The The. But he first played on 'Wilder'. Check the small print. When I met him on the St. Julian Tour he hadn't any idea which tracks he played on Wilder. Years later Cope chanced upon James as he worked in a sandwich shop and re-hired him. I have a Nick Lowe single with a group photo which includes Eller. I'll have to find it somewhere in my collection for the year if anyone's interested. I think I bought it cause the 2nd 45 in the gatefold sleeve had them doing a live version of the great "what's so funny 'bought peace love &understanding?" Costello does it best of course.

later awl..

Brian

Thank-You everyone for your input on the Rabbi single. Here's an extra question on the subject: The b-side "belief in him" is co-written. Would this be D.R. Skinner?

Interesting new item I found in the Sunday paper:

Kenya Study Safaris is offering a December tour to note the millennium either in Masai Mara game reserve OR atop Mount Kilamanjaro. It's Dec 2 to Jan 4 ...blah blah blah ...only $6,000. 'Woohoo!' I'll be waiting for the video....

Brian

hop, skip, jump. wait for the bump!

Martin was last seen in Africa just after finishing Uni but that was a few years ago. I'm still trying to find him so I can buy some odds and ends from him. The The Soul Mining what an album not as good as Infected but still a gem. The video for Infected was shown on CH4 late one friday night under THE TUBE banner

I wouldn't have thought the co-writer was Donn-eye, as I think the single was a bit before his time. I'd be pleased to be corrected though.

"Damn it!" said Wayland...

Chris W - From Farmville, eh? Do you know Willie and Mickey?

Theo - Yes, I think I still have a copy of Drummond's The Man along with Troy Tate's LP (the one with the "Bart Simpson"-esque drawings on it). I still play the Troy Tate occasionally when I am at home where there's a record player, but I haven't listened to The Man in ages! It's a bit folky-sounding from what I recall, right?

Mark - Cope MP3! Well, right now I am trying to look into the legality of it. One of the Phish MP3 sites was actually shut down, upon request of the Greatful Dead lawyer, who I assume was also representing Phish. So far, I haven't heard of anyone actually getting sued; reprimand is usually in the form of a "Cease and Desist" letter. I can handle one of those, but I'd still prefer to get a better idea of the risks and penalties. Who knows, maybe Cope will encourage MP3s of his live material, but somehow I doubt it.

Even Phish has limits - they don't [or used to not] allow people to video tape concerts. My guess is that the anti-video restriction is at the request of the record labels, who might want to some day put together their own concert footage and/or documentary of the band.

Everyone else - Phish is great, and they have been getting better and better. My live tapes are from 1991/92, and enjoyable as they are, they completely suck compared to the MP3s from 1998. Phish has steadily improved as they have grown. The studio albums don't do the band justice. Their appeal is in their live performance.

Rob - Super, can't wait to hear your contributions! Speaking of the Jam, I love their greatest hits album, but I haven't gotten any actual albums yet; they all tend to be expensive. Do you have any recommendations? I think I saw All Mod Cons and In the City on the same CD once [I hope I got those titles correct].

Vava - Yeah, I like The The, but Hanky Panky kinda spoiled my impression; he needed to follow it up with a good solid studio LP of originals. But alas. What has Matt been doing since? I've been waiting and waiting for a new album but he seems to have disappeared. He contributed an instrumental track [a work-in-progress] to a compilation a couple years back [post Dusk I think]. I did a The The survey a while back; the results are pretty interesting! The The Survey (1997)

Trav

Trav, me lad...

First and foremost, get Sound Affects (1980)--it's Weller's REVOLVER (big surprise--"Start!" is on there; so is "That's Entertainment"); then get "All Mod Cons" and then you can work your way around them--or if you want to splash $80.00 in one shot, get the box set "Direction/Reaction/Creation"--it's 5 CD's and has EVERYTHING--A &B sides included for the singles and rarities/unreleased tracks. Also (and NOBODY get mad at me for this)--The Style Council boxset "The Complete Adventures Of The Style Council" is also FAB! You get all of Weller's career in two boxes (also about $80.00).

And yes, me being the marginal old geezer who didn't have a life except to see shows back in the early '80's, of course I saw The Jam at The Ritz and at The Palladium and I saw The Style Council at The Savoy (March 1984). And yeah, I've seen the old bastard (Weller, that is) solo as well.

Taking all questions and comments about them good ol' days...

Love to all--

le Modfather

Oh and I forgot...

which Troy Tate album do you mean, because I actually bought "Liberty", his second album from 1985, which came out on Sire (Deutschland)? Not too bad, either.

Does anyone know what the story is with QE3? I thought it was going to be available for the talking tour a couple of months ago. Was it? If not, why not?

Andrew

P.S. Russ, I too prefer Soul Mining. Infected was a classic, but Soul Mining somehow has a stronger durability in my mind. Must dig through the old vinyl and refresh my ears to both.

Wow!

so much stuff going on here..where to start??

• Trav-I agree with the Modfather,Sound Affects is a great place to start(no pun intended) Jam-wise..its available on a double CD with All Mod Cons;which I'd highly recommend seeking out..Setting Sons and yes,The Gift are very good as well..the early stuff is ok,but a little too derivative for my tastes..you may like it..all depends
• XTc?got into them from the early videos also,such goofy fun..followed them up until The Big Express and then drifted away a bit..Just listened to Black Sea and English Settlement(sadly not the doulbe album)the other day..just great to hear them again..heck,this page has been directing most of my musical choices lately~l~..agree with Andrew on The The..Soul Mining is my prefered album..just have a special spot for Uncertain Smile and This is The Day...
• Vava-my bit of guilty listening..The Cure...I know I'll probably get it for liking mopey Bob,but up Disintergration,I think they're a great band~shrug~...anyone out there listen to Elliot Smith either?Nick Drake?

Been reading a great book,now that I can read again(eye probs)..actually two books;finally getting to read Head On!..but the other is "Unknown Legends of Rock 'n' Roll : Psychedelic Unknowns, Mad Geniuses, Punk Pioneers, Lo-Fi Mavericks &More"(phew!) by Richie Unterberger..the book is worth it for the mad geniuses section alone..

pieces on Syd,Roky,Scott Walker,Nick Drake,Arthur lee(Love) and more..a very entertaining read...Julian merits a few mentions as both a willful eccentric(not mad,y'see)and for his Krautrock Sampler book,which the author regards very highly...you can always check out Amazon.com for more info...oh and it did come with a sampler CD as well,guess it still does....

what else..hmmmmmmmmmmm?

guess that's it for now..Be well all

Love on Ya,

Steven

my bottle's in the fireplace,and my dog lies hypnotized..

um.....

that was from me,btw

OH COME ON NOW PEOPLE!

The Cure is NOT guilty listening. Doesn't anyone remember how brilliant "A Forest", "Primary" or "Charlotte Sometimes" ARE? Guilty listening is...um, wait for it...SPANDAU BALLET! Woo-hoo!

Okay, now for the serious s**t...

1. SOUND AFFECTS, dammit! I have spoken and you shall know I am the FACE, baby--is that clear?
2. As far as those Swindon wonders go, ENGLISH SETTLEMENT is Partridge's REVOLVER.
3. As far as the Tamworth wonder goes, KILIMANJARO is Cope's REVOLVER.
4. As far as the lads from Liverpool go, REVOLVER is their REVOLVER
5. Vava--XXX. You rule!

I'm only concerned with looking concerned...

Shalom,

le Modfather

The Cure's 1984 The Top was an excellent lp I thought.

Nike Drake is a recently aquired taste for me, his voice is hard to get used to but his guitar playing was excellent. Riverman stands out as particularly good.

I never knew about the Troy Tate Lps, what did they sound like?

Has anyone heard the old Pete DeFreitas' band Balcony Dogs or did they never record anything?

Okay, Steve, I saw you sneak that Arthur Lee quote in there.

...If I don't start cryin' it's because that I have got no eyes...

Has anyone out there heard "Exile on Coldharbour Lane" by Alabama 3? Far and away the best album of the last couple of years, I reckon. If you get a chance to see them live, don't miss it.

Dear all,

it was a joy reading your messages in my grey day (and tonight I'll read the survey, thank you Trav!).

Still on The The:

• connections: besides James Eller (have a look at him inside the sleeve of 'Dusk', his HAIR"STYLE"), there's also Warne Livesey ('Infected').
• news: I really don't know much, but I know there's this interesting site called True Happiness This Way Lies (http://www.ingsoc.com/thethe/ sorry, I forgot my HTML, so I can't make it a link). Among his albums (I have Soul Mining, Infected, Mind Bomb and Dusk) I think I prefer 'Soul Mining' and 'Dusk', but then they are all special to me: the thing that makes the difference for me between simply liking somebody's music and feeling it really has a place in my heart and mind is when I find I can share the obsessions I always had and absorb new ones from that somebody! So... I don't know Hanky Panky like I don't know many other things about Matt Johnson and you see, I'm almost afraid of getting better informed, because I have this tendency to dive deep into things and people, and I think I'll never manage to change my incredibly old car if I continue to blow all my money on these wonderful individuals.

Still on the topic of musical tastes, maybe the best description of "where I'm coming from" could be the line-up of two tapes I've taped for a friend recently: those are all songs I simply LOVE for many different reasons. Just to share something... sorry if it's boring. Anyway, here they are:

GLOOMY-DREAMY TAPE

• A) UNCERTAIN SMILE/Matt Johnson (original single vers.) - WHAT/Soft Cell - JACK THE RIPPER/Morrissey - CREEP/Radiohead (from Pablohoney) - THOSE FIRST IMPRESSIONS/The Associates - TORCH/Soft Cell (Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing ext. vers.)
• B) I FEEL LOVE/Marc Almond + Bronski Beat (Love to Love You Baby-Johnny Remember Me mix)- THIS IS THE DAY/Matt Johnson (orig. single vers.) - MY LOVE LIFE/Morrissey - GREATNESS &PERFECTION (album vers.) - LUNG SHADOWS/Matt Johnson - THE PLAGUE/Marc Almond

PARTY-FACE TAPE

• A) DON'T LEAVE ME THIS WAY/Communards - GET INTO THE GROOVE/Madonna (orig. single) - A TASTE OF LOVE/Den Harrow (ext. vers.: HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF HIM? He's Italian, but he pretended to be English and we used to laugh at him, but this song IS the Early Eighties in Italy) - SEND ME AN ANGEL/Real Life (orig. single) - THE MEANING OF LOVE/Depeche Mode (album vers.) - BOYS DON'T CRY/ The Cure(orig. single) - THIS TOWN/Hey!Elastica (orig. single) - DISENCHANTED/Communards
• B) DON'T YOU WANT ME/Human League (original single) - HIT THAT PERFECT BEAT/Bronski Beat (ext. vers.) - I WANT TO WAKE UP/ Pet Shop Boys - WHAT IS LOVE?/Howard Jones (ext. vers.) - SOMETIMES/Erasure (orig. single) - I WANT A LOVER/Pet Shop Boys - YOU ARE MY WORLD/Communards

Er... Does it say something about my age?

Of course, there's much more I could flood you with, but I just can't, because of that marginal aspect of life called work...

Only: The Cure is definitely NOT guilty listening: I really can't pick favourites among their songs, I used to love them so much (Let's Go to Bed? Killing An Arab? No, I can't choose). However I meant "unfaithful" just for a joke, maybe just from the fact that a friend I hadn't seen for ages and who knew I had some sort of crush on Julian Cope in the Eigthies she came to visit me, saw my pile of cds, then looked at me slightly horrified and just said: "I never thought you would MARRY him!"

Yes, I've finished.

Ciao, Vava

(this all is also for you, Rob, of course, to help you at work).

Geez..folks I'll be more careful with my wording next time...I love The Cure..ok?~l~

Steven

..shot down fromm heaven above....

Ah, what a way to start a grey and dreary Wednesday (I'm right there with you, Vava--in thought, spirit and heart)--rainy, foggy, muggy--it's great to be a New Yorker...

Let's get down to brass tacks--yes, this is a Cope chat room, but being the kind of followers of Saint Julian as we are (does that constitute a tax break for us Americans who can scream "new religious order"--wait--n.R.o.? That would be me...), it is our duty as open-minded folk to listen to all sorts of vast and miraculous music (like some of the delightful Vava's choices) so that we don't get stagnant whilst the Tamworth Wizard comes up with his next epic. That said...

My ideal "Moods For Moderns" tape (and I've made a few of these already): When I Dream--Teardrop Explodes/Armalite Rifle--Gang Of Four/Down In The Park--Gary Numan/Mexican Radio--Wall Of Voodoo/Swords Of A Thousand Men--Tenpole Tudor/Me Or You--Killing Joke/Uncertain Smile--The The/Bad Life--P.I.L./Flaming Desire--Bill Nelson/To Cut A Long Story Short--Spandau Ballet/Absolute Beginners--The Jam/Speak Like A Child--The Style Council/Whistle Down The Wind--Nick Heyward/Rich--Lloyd Cole and The Commotions/Lucky Number--Lene Lovich/It Says Here--Billy Bragg and so on--I have (so far) four volumes of these mixed tapes...

Keeps you keepin' on when you're at work...

Love to all--

Rob

Not only do I know Billy and Mickey, but I have joined their group as bassist. The version of "Highway To The Sun" that Mickey sent you featured my bass talents (or lack thereof). Billy is the one who introduced me to Cope as a young lad and I've been Hooked ever since. Yes that's right Farmville, VA has the world's highest concentration of Cope fanatics. I'm surprised too.

Opps just went back and read Steven's second to last message. Got to Love the Elliot Smith. Have you ever checked out Heatmiser his first band. They have one really good album (can't remember the name the one with "Plain Clothes Man"), and one which I hear isn't so good.

All these mentions of The The, and not one included the BRILLIANT Johnny Marr. Ahem...one if the most overlooked guitarists of the past ten years? "Kingdom of Rain" is a fave of mine for his guitar playing and for Sinead's haunting vocal. I'm also digging the mentions of Nick Drake, Elliot Smith, and The Cure..."Pornography" to this day gets regular play. And a mention of the Associates!!! I thought I was the only one...does anyone else still like these guys?

All these mentions of The The, and not one included the BRILLIANT Johnny Marr. Ahem...one if the most overlooked guitarists of the past ten years? "Kingdom of Rain" is a fave of mine for his guitar playing and for Sinead's haunting vocal. I'm also digging the mentions of Nick Drake, Elliot Smith, and The Cure..."Pornography" to this day gets regular play. And a mention of the Associates!!! I thought I was the only one...does anyone else still like these guys?

Some serious practical info: I just found a site that is probably the coolest and best way to find rare material from any band, http://www.gemm.com ...it is sort of a connector site for dealers and record stores worldwide, seems to be a cross between ebay and amazon, if you can imagine that. They have just about everything listed that Julian Cope has ever done as "available". I just ordered the Rabbi James Gordon 7" for $25, and Droolian on cd for the same price. Hope y'all find it useful.

hi, i'm trying to get an exact quote from the inside of the Rite 2 insert (my copy is in temporary storage) it's the one that has to do with the risks in freedom versus bondage..can anyone out there please post the exact quote and who said it for me ? thanks alot..

Jordan:

Happy to oblige.

"There are always risks in freedom. The only risk in bondage is that of breaking free." --A Guide to the Advanced Soul.

Now tell me how Rite Squared compares in your estimation with the original Rite.

If you like that quote then read "Disturbing the Peace" by Vaclav Havel. Every country should be so lucky to have such a civil and brilliant person at the helm.

I loved it when Julian said at a recent lecture: "And the last thing we all need is another New Age Fix." (Admitted non-sequitur)

Not to switch gears entirely from the topic of really old music but I can recommend "Chrominance Decoder" by April March (1999). Different, definitely, but quite good in a Francophone way.

"The Plague" by Marc Almond I saw pass through this way recently. Hmmmmmm, Marc Almond put together a brilliant Scott Walker anthology called "Boy Child" the first track of which was "The Plague," an incredibly haunting song by the Master. I urge all to run out and seek it out from your discriminating record shops. I would love some info on Julian's compilation of Scott Walker tunes called "Fire Escape in the Sky."

Just got on CD Pere Ubu's The Modern Dance. Julian definitely did a better version of "Non-Alignment Pact" in my humble opinion.

After reading all the word on The The, I may have to check them out. I always avoided them because their band name was a little lame. (Or so it seemed in my younger days.)

....Chrominance Decoder sends a signal to light up your name....

..My head is in the oven, won't you help me please?

thanks for the response, theo. i was just listening to the original rite on my walkman when i checked your post. that's just the way things happen. a psychic watercourse by which events can then flow indeed. i like the first rite alot, especially amethysteria, to me rite is the one recording where julian's band is on equal completely footing with him, reflected in the fact that he's not even pictured on the sleeve and there's no vocals at all. But rite 2 i like even better, it's got great flow and it feels much more like his record than the first because of his voice is present and then there's the adddres druidion and of course that cover (i love the packaging on this cd the most among all his, i think he's always had excellent graphics, photos, layout, on his sleeves). yourself ? about fire escape in the sky, it's got a very plain greyish sleeve with the title in a very cool green small font, no photos, no info really-- very mysteriously packaged, as if he wanted you to just check out what's inside w/o knowing much going in. ps- thanks for the book recs; my other two favorites quotes from the sleeves are the israel regardie one from 20 Ms and the Mandela one from Interpreter.

Does anyone know if it's worth getting the remastered Fried cd.

Is mic mac moc a different version to the one on sunspots ep ?

ungup annangingoutoodri!

Julian did a better version of 'Non-Alignment Pact', I'm sorry but, did he bollocks. David Thomas vocals are just like scarier maan.

Does anyone know who actually recorded the old punka classic "I Can't Get 'Bouncing Babies' By The Teardrop Explodes', and how much it goes for these days?

I recieved a copy of Leper Skin yesterday (thank you Todd!). It is a pretty good collection of songs from the Island years, a few surprises on there, but nothing new as such. Good to see Crazy Farm Animal on there. But it all leaves me with a few questions...

1. Why did they decide to seperate Leper and Skin as the title? Wasn't it all one word, Leperskin, when it was a track on Peggy?
2. Am I missing something, because in the photo credits it refers to page 24 and another page that clearly does not exist. What's the story? Is this another incidence like the credit for The Butchers Tale on Wilder in that originally a bigger booklet was planned but never happened?

Just wonderin'...

Andrew

P.S. Finally got off my ass last night and did some more work on an updated look for Trampolene, so I should get that done very soon and posted. The content isn't going to change too much, but it will have a new look as the old one is getting a bit tierd now. I'll keep you posted.

P.P.S. I love Cope's version of Non Alignment Pact, but I think I have to go with the original version if forced to choose, Thomas' vocals are amazing. I did manage to see Pere Ubu live in Birmingham (UK) in 1990, July 4th actually. Incredible gig, blew me away. The support band was The Miracle Legion were also the best support act I have ever seen, truly amazing, I went straight out and bought as many of their records as I could.

"The Butchers Tale on Wilder"

what is this ?, never heard of it.

i got the vogues 5 o' clock world on mp3 recently and it funny to listen to, as its practically a different song

~db

Ladies and gentlemen, how do? (This is a shameless plug/reference to MY album, The Damned's "Machine Gun Etiquette"--ask Trav...)

1. "I Can't Get Bouncing Babies By The Teardrop Explodes" was done by The Freshies!
2. "Butcher's Tale (1914)" was credited on the inner sleeve of "Wilder" (UK release). It apparently is in the vaults.
3. BEST version of "Non Alignment Pact" is by THAT PETROL EMOTION--on the 12" of "Can't Stop". There is an unbelievable version that is unreleased (and will always be) by THE PUNCH LINE (guess who was in that band?).
4. As far as the re-issue of "Fried" and "W.S.Y.M."--what the hell were the people at Mercury thinking? Those liner notes suck and the artwork looks like shit. They would have been better off borrowing the American films to do the covers over, because the quality of the UK versions are relly blurry and cheap looking. No difference in the version of "Mik Mak Mok".

Just go out and buy the first four Scott Walker albums. Don't question it. Just do it.

Have I mentioned (quite unashamedly) that I am madly in love with Geri Halliwell?

TELL ME YOUR PLANS

(hey man...)

le Modfather

Andrew- Miracle Legion are fookin great. They are from Connecticut, where I went to high school, and I've seen them many times live. They were indeed an incredible live band, and were so cruelly overlooked, always being tagged as an "rem sound-alike", which in my opinion is such rush to judgement. If you haven't already bought lead singer Mark Mulcahy's solo record that came out last year, I highly recommend doing so, it is better than anything he's done previously, really...a true gem. Its mail order only, you can get it at http://www.mezzotint.com/ordering.html.

kevin

"The Butchers Tale" credit on Wilder is there because the Teardrops recorded a cover of it and it was originally listed to be a track on Wilder but at the last minute it was pulled off, but the credit was left on the inner sleeve. I think it was originally recorded by the Zombies?

Kevin, Good to hear that someone else knows The Miracle Legion, I have 2 of their albums, The Backyard and Me and Mr Ray, both awesome. When I saw them they came on stage and everyone (about 100 paople) was just sitting on the floor hanging out waiting for Pere Ubu, but by the end of their set everyone was up on their feet, dancing around etc. Incredible band and a great way to celebrate Independance Day, even if it was in England! I kept my eyes on the music press for ages after to see if they were coming back to the UK to tour but never saw them again, which is too bad. I think they did appear in London, but I was living in Scotland at the time and i