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Biography
Use dmy dates|date=August 2011Infobox musical artist|name = Julian Cope|background = solo_singer|image = Julian Cope.jpg|caption = Cope performing in Japan|landscape = yes|birth_name = Julian David Cope|origin = Mid Glamorgan , Wales|birth_date = Birth date and age|1957|10|21|df=y|genre = Post-punk , Alternative rock |occupation = Singer/songwriter Author Antiquarian |years_active = 1978–present|instrument = Singing|vocals , guitar , bass guitar , organ (music)|organ , piano , Mellotron , synthesizer |First_album = Kilimanjaro (The Teardrop Explodes album)|Kilimanjaro |Notable songs = "World Shut Your Mouth", " Reward (song)|Reward "|label = Zoo Records|Zoo Mercury Records|Mercury Island Records|Island Def American The Echo Label|Echo Head Heritage|associated_acts = Crucial Three The Teardrop Explodes Queen Elizabeth (band)|Queen Elizabeth Brain Donor Black Sheep (anarcho-folk band)|Black Sheep Sunn O))) Donald Ross Skinner Thighpaulsandra |notable_instruments = Fender Jazz Bass |website = http://www.headheritage.co.uk/ Head Heritage Julian Cope (born Julian David Cope on 21 October 1957) is a British Rock music|rock musician , author, antiquary , musicologist , poet and cultural commentator. Originally coming to prominence in 1978 as the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band The Teardrop Explodes , he has followed a solo career since 1983 and worked on musical side projects such as Queen Elizabeth (band)|Queen Elizabeth , Brain Donor and Black Sheep (anarcho-folk band)|Black Sheep .
Cope is also a recognised authority on Neolithic culture, an outspoken political and cultural activist with a noted and public interest in occultism and paganism. As an author and commentator, he has written two successive volumes of autobiography called Head-On (1994) and Repossessed (1999), two volumes of archaeology called The Modern Antiquarian (1998) and The Megalithic European (2004) and two volumes of musicology called Krautrocksampler (1995) and Japrocksampler (2007).
Biography
Early life
Born in Deri, Mid Glamorgan , Julian Cope spent his early life in Wales . Part of his childhood was spent in the Welsh town of Bargoed , adjacent to Aberfan , and he has cited the Aberfan disaster of 1966 as a key event of his childhood.cite book | author=Cope, Julian | title=Head-On/Repossessed | publisher=Thorsons Publishers | year=2000 | isbn=0-7225-3882-0"Stone me!" – interview with Julian Cope by Jon Savage in The Observer , Sunday 10 August 2008 Cope’s family later moved to Tamworth , Staffordshire , where he spent his adolescence. He attended Liverpool John Moores University|City of Liverpool College of Higher Education , and it was here that he first became involved in music.cite book | author=Cope, Julian | title=Krautrocksampler | year=1995 | isbn=0-9526719-1-3
Cope as musician (1976-present)
Early bands (1976-1977)
Main|Crucial Three In July 1977, Cope was one of the founders of Crucial Three , a Liverpool punk rock band in which he played bass guitar. Although the Crucial Three lasted for little more than six weeks (and disbanded without ever playing in public), all three members would eventually go on to lead successful Liverpool post-punk bands - singer Ian McCulloch (singer)|Ian McCulloch with Echo & the Bunnymen and guitarist Pete Wylie with The Mighty Wah . Post-Crucial Three, Cope and McCulloch initially went on to form other short-lived bands UH? and A Shallow Madness (Cope had also spent time with Wylie in another short-lived band, Nova Mob). When Cope sacked McCulloch from A Shallow Madness, McCulloch would go on to form Echo and the Bunnymen. The two former bandmates would maintain a frequently antagonistic rivalry from then on, often carried out in public or in the press.
The Teardrop Explodes (1978-1983)
Main|The Teardrop Explodes In 1978, Cope formed The Teardrop Explodes with drummer Gary Dwyer, organist Paul Simpson and guitarist Mick Finkler, with himself as singer, bass player and principal songwriter. Drawing on a post-punk version of West Coast pop music (which gained the nickname of “bubblegum trance”), the band became part of a wave of neo-psychedelic Liverpool bands. Cope and Dwyer (and later their manager-turned-keyboard player David Balfe , who served both as Cope’s creative foil and his personal antagonist) were the only band constants, although seven other members passed in and out of the lineup during the band’s fractious five-year existence. Several well-received early singles (including "Sleeping Gas" and "Treason") culminated in the band’s biggest hit, "Reward" which hit number 6 in the UK singles chart and took the Kilimanjaro (The Teardrop Explodes album)|Kilimanjaro album to number 24 in the album charts. Cope’s photogenic charm and wild, garrulous interview style helped keep the band in the media eye, and made him a short-lived teen idol during the band’s peak.
Success brought the Teardrops plenty of attention, but no further stability. Their second album Wilder (album)|Wilder experimented with different and darker psychedelic styles, as well as delving deeper into Cope’s complicated psyche: it spawned no hits and sold relatively poorly at the time (despite being critically praised in retrospect). Excessive drug use plus continued infighting undermined the band, and a final lineup of Cope, Dwyer and Balfe split apart in 1982 after failed attempts to record a third album and a final disastrous tour.
Despite the relatively short life of the band, The Teardrop Explodes has continued to sustain interest and praise since its demise and the band’s back catalogue of recordings has been reissued several times over the next thirty years. Cope, however, has strenuously resisted taking advantage of any nostalgic and commercial opportunies to reunite the band.
The Mercury years - World Shut Your Mouth and Fried (1982-1985)
In 1982 (accompanied by his new American wife Dorian Beslity) Cope had moved to the Warwickshire village of Drayton Bassett (close to his childhood home of Tamworth ). Following the dissolution of The Teardrop Explodes , he spent a period in seclusion recovering from the strain of the group’s final year and amassing a collection of vintage toys. Cope’s well-documented Teardrops-era LSD excesses, eccentric behaviour and subsequent retreat had led to him being labelled an "acid casualty" in the vein of Syd Barrett and Roky Erikson , an image which would take him several years to shake off. During this period, Cope befriended a teenaged Drayton Bassett musician called Donald Ross Skinner , who would become his main musical foil for the next twelve years.
Quote box| quote = "It has always been the bane of my existence that my passport says 'musician' and not 'artist'." | source = Julian Copecite web|url= http://www.terrascope.co.uk/MyBackPages/Julian_Cope.htm | title= "Enlightenment and Salvation is Just a Stamp Away" - a conversation with Julian Cope by Carl Arnheiter | publisher= Ptolemaic Terrascope | author=Carl Arnheiter | year=1995 | accessdate =14 July 2011 | width =20% | align =rightLater in 1983 Cope began recording the songs which would make up his first solo album, World Shut Your Mouth (album)|World Shut Your Mouth . Although the album generally retained the uptempo pop drive of the Teardrops, it was also an introspective and surreal work with many references to childhood. Former Teardrops drummer Gary Dwyer , guitarist Steve Lovell and Dream Academy oboist Kate St. John (although not Skinner) all contributed to the album, which was released on Mercury Records in March 1984. World Shut Your Mouth (album)|World Shut Your Mouth was seen as out-of-step with the times gained poor reviews and sold indifferently. A single "Sunshine Playroom", featured a disturbing video directed by David Bailey (featuring Leah Harounoff in her debut role). During a concert at Hammersmith Palais on the subsequent promotional tour, Cope slashed across his bare stomach with a broken microphone stand in an act of frustrated self-mutilation. Although the wounds were superficial, it shocked the audience and resulted in another memorable addition to his reputation for bizarre behaviour.
World Shut Your Mouth (album)|World Shut Your Mouth was followed just six months later by 1985’s Fried (album)|Fried album for which Cope was joined by Skinner, Lovell, St John, ex- The Waterboys|Waterboys drummer Chris Whitten and Pete Wylie|Wah! guitarist Steve "Brother Johnno" Johnson. The album was much more raw in approach than its predecessor, and although in many respects it prefigured the looser and more mystical style which Cope would follow and be praised for in the next decade, it sold poorly at the time (as did accompanying single "Sunspots"). Notoriously, the sleeve featured a naked Cope crouched on top of the Alvecote Mound slag heap clad only in a large turtle shell.Julian Cope entry in The Rough Guide to Rock , 3rd edition, page 226 (2003), ed. Peter Buckley (article written by Nig Hodgkins) The commercial failure of Fried (album)|Fried led to Polygram dropping Cope. He would subsequently hook up with a new manager – artist and musician-cum-prankster Cally Callomon – and sign a deal with Island Records .
The Island years part 1: Saint Julian and My Nation Underground (1986-1990)
With Cally’s encouragement, Cope made the effort to clean up and compete. He formed a new backing group (informally known as the "Two-Car Garage Band") featuring Skinner, Whitten, former Teardrops associate James Eller on bass guitar, and himself on vocals, rhythm guitar and assorted keyboards (Cope performed the latter under the alias of "Double DeHarrison" until the band hired Richard Frost as full time keyboard player). This band lineup recorded Cope’s third solo album Saint Julian (album)|Saint Julian , mostly composed of crisp and memorable rock songs. It was trailed by the single "World Shut Your Mouth", which became Cope’s biggest solo hit, reaching #19 in the UK in 1986 and becoming his only Top 20 solo hit. The parent album was well received and generated two more singles (“Trampolene” and “Eve’s Volcano”) but the fresh momentum did not last. Cope fell out with Callomon, and the Two-Car Garage band disintegrated as Eller joined The The and Whitten left for Paul McCartney 's band.
Back in London, and with only the faithful Skinner remaining, Cope enlisted his A& R man Ron Fair as producer and recorded a follow-up album called My Nation Underground . This featured a varied lineup of musicians including Fair, Skinner, Danny Thompson , eccentric percussionist Rooster Cosby (who’d remain a close Cope associate) and assorted sessions musicians (some of whom, such as James Eller, had contributed to the previous album). My Nation Underground produced only one Top 40 single, " Charlotte Anne ", which also met with modest American success by reaching the top of the Modern Rock Tracks . Subsequent singles " 5 O'Clock World " (a cover of a 1965 The Vogues|Vogues song) and the orchestral pop ballad "China Doll" both charted considerably lower, disappointing Island Records and further discouraging Cope, who had not enjoyed making the record and did not believe that it represented him properly as an artist.
To comfort himself, Cope spent a single illicit weekend at the end of the My Nation Underground sessions to create a second, lo-fi and unauthorised album called Skellington . Recorded in the same studio used for My Nation Underground on Island’s money (and predominantly featuring the same core team of Cope, Skinner, Cosby and Fair) it was seen by Cope as a far more genuine artistic statement recorded at a fraction of the money and time. However, neither Island Records nor Cope’s current management team had any desire to release Skellington and Cope refused to record any other material while he feuded with them to try to get his new work released. Eventually, Skellington was released on the tiny Zippo label later in 1989, symptomising the poor relations between Cope and Island.
In 1990, Cope followed up Skellington with a second lo-fi album called Droolian , similarly recorded over three days. It was released only in Texas (on another small label, Mofoco) and the profits were used to aid of one of Cope’s heroes, the former 13th Floor Elevators frontman Roky Erickson , who at that time was in jail without legal representation.
The Island years part 2: Peggy Suicide & Jehovahkill (1991-1992)
During this period, Cope discovered the book "Guitar Army: Rock and Revolution with The MC5 and the White Panther Party " by John Sinclair (poet)|John Sinclair . He would later describe it as his “Holy Book” and enthusiastically embraced its one-take approach to making and recording music (as well as its message of rock- and-roll being a weapon of cultural revolution). This method would typify Cope’s musical approach from then on, as he forever left behind the more measured and constructed approach of Saint Julian and The Teardrop Explodes in favour of more spontaneous expression.
Quote box| quote = "Nothing I do is ironic. I am post-Ironic. Irony is the ultimate cop-out way of turning something you did not mean into something you did. Like bands that put big tits on their album sleeves and say it's an ironic comment about sexism. Like bands that put car shit on their album sleeves and say it's anti-car. Bollocks. If it glorifies then it's bollocks. Irony is the last refuge of the scoundrel."| source = Julian Cope | width =30% | align =rightHaving repaired his relationship with Island Records, Cope began recording his next record against the background of the civil demonstrations which became the Poll Tax Riots . Cope himself joined the demonstrations and took a prominent role in proceedings. Wearing a huge theatrical costume throughout the march, he was later featured on the BBC 's Poll Tax documentary, a lone protester walking down Whitehall surrounded by seven lines of mounted police.
These (and other) elements fed into the pivotal double album Peggy Suicide , which was released on Island Records in 1991 and was heralded by critics as Cope’s best work to date. On the album’s songs, Cope laid bare many of his personal convictions including his hatred of organized religion and his increasing public interest in women's rights, the occult , alternative spirituality (including paganism and Goddess worship), animal rights , and ecology . http://www.aural-innovations.com/issues/issue23/jcope02.html "The S.P.A.C.E.R.O.C.K.E.R.’s Guide to Julian Cope" (Aural Innovations magazine #23, April 2003) Skinner, Rooster Cosby, Ron Fair and former The Smiths|Smiths drummer Mike Joyce (musician)|Mike Joyce all contributed to the record, as did a new sidekick in the shape of future Spiritualized lead guitarist Michael Watts (better known as Mike Mooney or "Moon-eye"). Although the album produced another well-received single ("Beautiful Love") the political content of Peggy Suicide caused more friction with Island, who had signed Cope as a marketable hit-making alternative rocker but increasingly found themselves dealing with a latter-day counter-culturalist and revolutionary. Cope toured the album, including several dates in Japan which were recorded (although the results were not released until 2004, on the live album '' Live Japan '91 ''.)cite web|url= http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/livejapan91/ |title=Julian Cope presents Head Heritage & #124; Discography & #124; Julian Cope - Live Japan '91 |publisher=Headheritage.co.uk |date= |accessdate=31 August 2011
In 1992, Cope released another double album - Jehovahkill - on Island Records. Musically, the album reflected his interest in Krautrock (though in a more electro-acoustic based form) and his teenage fascination for Detroit hard rock. (A deluxe edition, with a disc of extra material, was released fourteen years later in 2006). Lyrically, the album was fiercely anti-Christian, with such songs as "Poet is Priest", "Julian H. Cope", and the single "Fear Loves This Place" espousing Cope’s Paganism|pagan esque perspective and being highly critical of the established Church. The content (and lack of sales) proved to be too much for Island Records, who dropped Cope from the label in the same week that his three shows sold out at London's 1,800 capacity Town & Country Club . The music press mounted an outcry at Island's decision, with the New Musical Express (NME) featuring him on their front cover under the headline 'Endangered Species' while Select (magazine)|Select magazine started a campaign to have Cope re-signed. Engaged in a tour of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Cope refused to comment.
On and off the road - Rite , Autogeddon , ‘’Queen Elizabeth’’, ‘’20 Mothers’’ & Interpreter (1993-1996)
From this point onwards, Cope began to take greater personal control of his career and business affairs. While he would continue to sign contracts with established record labels, he would begin to release more esoteric projects independently. The first of these projects (issued on Cope’s own K.A.K. label) was a collaboration with Donald Ross Skinner: an album of instrumental jams called Rite (album)|Rite , inspired by Krautrock, Sly Stone-styled psychedelic funk and spiritual mysticism. Cope also took the opportunity to issue Skellington|Ye Skellington Chronicles (an expanded version of Skellington along with a follow-up album in the same vein called ''Skellington 2: He's Back ... and this time it's personal ) and would record a number of tracks released eighteen years later as 2011’s The Jehovacoat Demos . http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/thejehovahcoatdemos/ Page for The Jehovacoat Demos on Head Heritage website During this period, Cope began his work as a writer, completing the first volume of his autobiography and beginning to research works on Krautrock and Neolithic architecture.
Quote box| quote = " Mine's a holistic trip. That's the difference. You could put me in a coracle and send me off to some rock somewhere to make art, but do that to any member of U2 and they wouldn't make art, you know, they'd find a way back to the mainland. It's like Joseph Campbell said, it's the difference between the celebrity and the hero. The celebrity will walk across tall buildings and dance on tightropes for his audience, but the hero will do exactly the same things and if the audience has all gone home, he'll still be doing it to please himself. And that's the thing, I have an incendiary in me, which is entirely at odds with pretty much 99.9% of the people on the Earth and if I can sustain that, then I'll change things entirely. You've just got to have faith that what you're saying is the cosmic truth."| source = Julian Cope | width =30% | align =rightSigning to the Def Jam subsidiary Def American|American Recordings for a one-off album deal, Cope recorded Autogeddon , which was released in 1994. Continuing to build on the musical approach of Peggy Suicide and Jehovahkill but with a greater element of space rock, the album used the automobile as its central metaphor for individual and collective struggles between responsibility and selfishness, along with further stabs at patriarchy. Autogeddon was the first Cope album to feature synthesizer player Thighpaulsandra , who would become another key Cope collaborator. In the same year, Cope and Thighpaulsandra would form the ambient-electronic project Queen Elizabeth (band)|Queen Elizabeth : their eponymous Queen Elizabeth debut album was released on the Echo Label, Cope’s mainstream home for the next two years.
Cope’s next album under his own name was 1995’s 20 Mothers which revisited many of his existing lyrical preoccupations but with a more sprawling and eclectic musical approach (including stronger elements of pop and folk) and more directly personal and reflective material dealing with Cope’s own family. The album received very positive reviews and also spawned Cope’s last hit to date, the Top 40 single "Try, Try, Try", which led to two Top of the Pops performances. The subsequent British live tour (featuring Cosby, Mooney, Thighpaulsandra, and keyboard-player-turned-bass-guitarist Richard Frost) was fraught with tension, and Mooney would subsequently move on to Spiritualized . http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/qa2000ce/cope_music/ Cope Music (Q& A page on Head Heritage website, 2000) http://www.thighpaulsandra.com/bio.html Thighpaulsandra biography on homepage Cope had also parted company with his longterm foil Donald Ross Skinner during the recording of 20 Mothers , although the parting was relatively amicable.cite web|url= http://www.soundsxp.com/interviews/home4.html#Donald%20Ross%20Skinner |title=Interview with Donald Ross Skinner in Sounds XP magazine |publisher=Soundsxp.com |date= |accessdate=31 August 2011
Having been dropped by Echo when he refused to visit the USA, Cope then signed to Cooking Vinyl and delivered the Interpreter (album)|Interpreter album in 1996. This continued in a similar but more disciplined vein to its predecessor, with stronger elements of techno and of humour (as exemplified in songs like “Cheap New Age Fix”) amongst the more serious topics, such as those inspired by Cope’s attendance at the Newbury Bypass protests. It was also the first album to feature another ongoing Cope guitar foil, Tony " Doggen " Foster.
Head Heritage, first decade: assorted solo and collaborative work including Brain Donor (1997-2006)
Cope's own ongoing battle with music industry operatives (whom he referred to as "greedheads") saw him finally turn his back on the mainstream music industry from this point onwards. From 1997, Cope opted for full career independence, launching his Head Heritage organisation as combined record label, website and discussion forum.cite web | title=Head Heritage | work=Julian Cope Presents Head Heritage | url= http://www.headheritage.co.uk/ | accessdate=19 June 2006 Freed from external disputes and career guidance, he began to fully indulge himself and his core fanbase with a variety of projects.
Quote box| quote = "I’m going to become the best-remembered artist of my generation by staying away from the party as often as possible. That way, people will remember me, not because I was great, but because I didn’t cause them any later embarrassment."| source = Julian Copecite web|url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/7865267/Julian-Cope-the-hit-who-became-a-myth.html| title= Julian Cope, the hit who became a myth | publisher= The Daily Telegraph | author=Andrew Perry | date=1 July 2010 | accessdate =14 July 2011 | width =30% | align =rightThe first Head Heritage release was 1997’s Rite 2 (album)|Rite 2 , Cope’s follow up to 1993’s Rite (album)|Rite (with Thighpaulsandra taking over from Donald Ross Skinner as creative foil). It was followed in the same year by the second Queen Elizabeth album, QE2: Elizabeth Vagina , which expanded on its predecessor’s cosmic rock experiments. Thighpaulsandra would then follow Michael Mooney into Spiritualized (as would Cope’s string arranger Martin Shellard), once more depriving Cope of a key collaborator. Cope’s next full solo album was 1999’s Odin , which consisted of a single 73-minute mantra for voices and electronics (although Thighpaulsandra has claimed credit for some of the work).
In 1999, Cope launched another side project. This was the garage-rock/ Heavy metal music|heavy metal power trio Brain Donor , which featured Cope on bass, Doggen on guitar and Spiritualized drummer Kevin "Kevlar" Bales. The band was as much theatrical as musical, featuring full face makeup, platform boots and ostentatious double-neck guitars. Cope stated that the band’s aim was to fuse the swaggering arena rock of KISS (band)|KISS and Van Halen with elements of Japanese heavy metal, Detroit garage rock and Blue Cheer . He also described Brain Donor as "pure white lightning played by forward-thinking motherfuckers" while also asserting that he loathed the "microcephalous ass (of) real heavy metal", seeing Brain Donor as part of his ongoing shamanic efforts.cite web|url= http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/qa2000ce/brain_donor/| title= Julian Cope on Brain Donor | publisher= Head Heritage website | author=Julian Cope | year=2000 | accessdate =24 June 2011
In 2000, Cope released another solo album - An Audience With the Cope 2000/2001|An Audience With The Cope . While appearing to be pitched as a retrospective live recording, it actually consisted of a series of newly written psychedelic studio jams.
Since 1998, Cope had developed a parallel reputation as a serious antiquarian . This resulted in his 2001 album Discover Odin being a limited-edition tie-in with a talk he had given at the British Museum, featuring a mixture of spoken-word tracks exploring Nordic mythology and various musical tracks including a Cope setting of the epic Norse poem " Hávamál ". In the same year Head Heritage released the first two Brain Donor singles ("She Saw Me Coming" and "Get Off Your Pretty Face", followed by the debut Brain Donor album Love Peace & Fuck . Cope, Doggen and a returning Thighpaulsandra would also team up as the drummer-less psychedelic/meditational heavy metal group L.A.M.F. who released the Ambient Metal album the same year.cite web|url= http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/ambientmetal/ |title=Julian Cope presents Head Heritage & #124; Discography & #124; L.A.M.F. - Ambient Metal |publisher=Headheritage.co.uk |date= |accessdate=31 August 2011 Brain Donor’s "Get Back On It" single followed in 2002, as would the third album in Cope’s Rite series, Rite Now .
In 2003 Cope performed at the Glastonbury Festival as well as launching his own three-day '' Rome Wasn't Burned In A Day event. A tie-in album, also called Rome Wasn't Burned In A Day '', was released to mark the event and included an "eight-minute long Armenian epic" called "Shrine of the Black Youth (Tukh Manukh)". The album was recorded by a trio of Cope, synth player Christopher Patrick “Holy” McGrail and Donald Ross Skinner (returning to work with Cope after seven years away).cite web|url= http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/rome/ |title=Julian Cope presents Head Heritage & #124; Discography & #124; Julian Cope - Rome Wasn't Burned In A Day |publisher=Headheritage.co.uk |date= |accessdate=31 August 2011 The year also saw more Brain Donor activity via the "My Pagan Ass" single and the album ''Too Freud To Rock'n'Roll, Too Jung To Die .
Cope released two more albums in 2005. The first of these was the long-delayed '' Citizen Cain'd '', an album which Cope had promised for several years and now delivered as a short double album (71 minutes over two discs) sold at a single album price. (According to Cope, the two-disc format was due to some of the songs being "too psychologically exhausting" to fit together onto a single album).cite web|url= http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/citizencaind/ |title=Julian Cope presents Head Heritage & #124; Discography & #124; Julian Cope - Citizen Cain'd |publisher=Headheritage.co.uk |date= |accessdate=31 August 2011 The second album, Dark Orgasm was a forthright hard-rock exercise which Cope described as "a violent sequence of outcast broadsides leveled at the coming new 21st-century conservatism."cite web|url= http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/darkorgasm/ |title=Julian Cope presents Head Heritage & #124; Discography & #124; Julian Cope - Dark Orgasm |publisher=Headheritage.co.uk |date= |accessdate=31 August 2011 Meanwhile, Brain Donor (proving to be an enduring Cope project) was presented to America via a self-titled compilation album. Plans to tour the United States were dropped because the Immigration and Naturalization Service|INS refused to grant Cope a visa.
2006 saw the release of the third proper Brain Donor album (''Drain'd Boner ) and the fourth album in the Rite series ( Rite Bastard ).
Head Heritage, second decade: Black Sheep and beyond (2007-present)
Cope’s 2007 album, You Gotta Problem With Me , was something of a return to his early solo material: more post-punk styled, and featuring swathes of Mellotron and orchestral percussion. Conceptually, it continued his attacks on religion, bigotry, corporate greed and environmental destruction. As with '' Citizen Cain'd , Cope divided the fifty-six minutes of material across two CDs and also included lavish packaging including printed poems.cite web|url= http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/yougottaproblemwithme/ |title=Julian Cope presents Head Heritage & #124; Discography & #124; Julian Cope - You Gotta Problem With Me |publisher=Headheritage.co.uk |date= |accessdate=31 August 2011
You Gotta Problem With Me was followed by 2008’s Black Sheep (Julian Cope album)|Black Sheep , which Cope described as "a musical exploration of what it is to be an outsider in modern Western Culture"cite web|url= http://www.headheritage.com/blacksheep/ |title=Julian Cope / Black Sheep |publisher=Headheritage.com |date= |accessdate=31 August 2011 and which featured his most outrightly anarchic pronouncements to date. Dominated by Mellotron, hand drums and acoustic guitars, the album also featured Doggen and McGrail plus new recruits Michael O’Sullivan and Ady "Acoustika" Fletcher. In November 2008, Cope released the "Preaching Revolution EP", mingling acoustic protest songs with rockabilly pieces: along with material from the unreleased "Diggers, Ranters, Levellers EP", these songs would be reissued on Cope’s limited-edition Cope solo album, Julian Cope Presents The Unruly Imagination .cite web|url= http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/theunrulyimagination/ |title=Julian Cope presents Head Heritage & #124; Discography & #124; Julian Cope - The Unruly Imagination |publisher=Headheritage.co.uk |date= |accessdate=31 August 2011
Cope, McGrail, O’Sullivan and Acoustika would go on to form a new ten-piece Cope side project (also called Black Sheep ) which included new cohorts such as drummer Antony Hodgkinson|Antony "Antronhy" Hodgkinson , "Fat Paul" Horlick and former Universal Panzies leader Christophe F. To date, Black Sheep has generated two further albums, both released in 2009 - Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse and Black Sheep at the BBC . 2009 also saw the release of a fourth Brain Donor album ( Wasted Fuzz Excessive ) and the third Queen Elizabeth recording ( Queen Elizabeth Hall ).
Cope has continued to perform live in the UK and Europe: despite travelling to Armenia in 2003 for research, he has not toured professionally beyond Europe for several years. He was chosen by Belle & Sebastian to perform at their second Bowlie Weekender festival presented by All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival)|All Tomorrow's Parties in the UK in December 2010.
Cope as author (1992 –present)
Autobiography
In the course of one of his many record company stand-offs, Cope began to write his first autobiographical book, Head-On which covered the years 1976 to 1982, focusing on his time before and during the life of The Teardrop Explodes and ending with the break-up of the band. This was followed a few years later by Repossessed , covering the years 1983 to 1989 and the recording of Cope's first series of solo albums, as well as the writing of Head-On (The books were republished in one volume in 2000, titled Head-On/Repossessed ).
Music commentary
Cope has long been noted as an avid champion of obscure and underground music. While still a member of The Teardrop Explodes, he was instrumental in the critical rehabilitation of the reclusive singer Scott Walker (singer)|Scott Walker , compiling Fire Escape in the Sky: The Godlike Genius of Scott Walker for release by Bill Drummond 's Zoo Records. This sparked renewed interest in the work of Walker (although years later Cope would comment that the singer’s "Pale White Intellectual" outlook on life no longer held any fascination for him).
Krautrocksampler , released in 1996 and now out of print, covers the German krautrock musical movement. Reviews at the time were ecstatic, Rolling Stone citing it as "a work of real passion and scholarship". NME agreed: "This is a superb book ... this is an extraordinary book." Mojo (magazine)|Mojo went further, writing: "Brilliantly researched, Krautrocksampler abounds with revelations, and Cope's enthusiasm verges on the lethal ... a sort of lysergic Lester Bangs ." In the Sunday Times , the reviewer wrote: "German 1970s minimalism is invading the British rock scene ... an Englishman is to blame ... Krautrocksampler is a lively history of a fascinating period, half encyclopedia, half psychedelic detective story." Before the publication of this book the genre itself had all but disappeared off the musical map; both the phrase and the genre are now firmly ingrained and have subsequently been heralded in the likes of Mojo and The Wire (magazine)|The Wire . The book was also the subject of fierce controversy due to Cope's outspoken remarks that Can (band)|Can's Bel-Air was a "shambles" (though Can's drummer Jaki Liebezeit concurred with Cope's opinion). In the years to come, Krautrocksampler was also published in German, French and Italian language editions.
In October 2007, Japrocksampler was released, subtitled How the post war Japanese blew their minds on rock and roll . This much larger hard back book (304 pp) was written in a similar style to Krautrocksampler , but was a far more detailed study and took in the years 1951-78. It has been translated into Italian and Japanese.
His Album of the Month reviews on the Unsung section of his website cite web|url= http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/ |title=Julian Cope presents Head Heritage & #124; Unsung |publisher=Headheritage.co.uk |date= |accessdate=31 August 2011 have promoted bands such as Comets on Fire , Sunn O))) (with whom he performed a guest vocal on their White1 album) and several Japanese bands which feature in Japrocksampler . Unsung is another community-based site that invites contributors' reviews, and Cope and the site's numerous contributors have been instrumental in kick-starting the interest in bands like Sir Lord Baltimore , Blue Cheer , Les Rallizes Denudes , Tractor (band)|Tractor and the Groundhogs . Cope is also considered to be one of the first bloggers; he has been airing his sometimes controversial views since 1997 via his website's "Address Drudion" on the first day of each month.cite web|url= http://www.headheritage.co.uk/addressdrudion/ |title=Julian Cope Presents Head Heritage & #124; Address Drudion |publisher=Headheritage.co.uk |date= |accessdate=31 August 2011
Archaeology and antiquarianism
1998 saw the release of Cope's long-awaited and widely acclaimed bestseller The Modern Antiquarian , a large and comprehensive full-colour 448-page work detailing stone circles and other ancient monuments of prehistoric Great Britain|Britain ,cite web|url= http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/the_books/ |title=Description of book from the website |publisher=Themodernantiquarian.com |date= |accessdate=31 August 2011 which sold out of its first edition of 20,000 in its first month of publication and was accompanied by a BBC Two documentary. The Times called the book: "A ripping good read ... it is deeply impressive ... ancient history: the new rock 'n' roll." The Independent said: "A unique blend of information, observation, personal experience and opinion which is as unlike the normal run of archaeology books as you can imagine." The historian Ronald Hutton went further, calling the book: "the best popular guide to Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments for half a century."Cite quote| date= May 2012 The Modern Antiquarian was followed in 2004 with an even larger 484-page study of similar monuments across Europe entitled The Megalithic European , the most extensive study of European megalithic sites to date. In addition to his books on prehistoric monuments, Cope hosts a community-based http://themodernantiquarian.com/home/ Modern Antiquarian website that invites contributors to add their own knowledge of the ancient sites of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Cope has lectured nationally on the subject of prehistory , and also at the British Museum on the subjects of Avebury and Odin .
Personal life
Julian Cope lives near Avebury, Wiltshire with his wife, Dorian, and their two daughters, Albany (born 10 August 1991) and Avalon (born 29 April 1994).
Discography
See|The Teardrop Explodes#DiscographyInfobox artist discography|Artist = Julian Cope |Logo = |Image = |Caption = |Studio = 27 |Studio link = Studio albums |EP = |EPs link = |Live = 1 |Live link = Live albums |Compilation = 8 |Comp link = Compilation albums |Video = |Video link = |Singles = 24 |Singles link = Singles |Halos link = |Music videos = |MV link = |Soundtrack = |Soundtrack link = |2Option = |2Option name = |References = Yes |Ref link = References
Studio albums
Year
Title
Chart positions
Certifications ( List of music recording sales certifications
British Phonographic Industry|UK : Silvercite web | title = British certificates: searchable database | url = http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx | publisher = bpi.co.uk |accessdate=29 December 2011
A #ref A| ^ "Competition" charted at #30 on the UK Indie Chart|UK Independent Chart .
B #ref B| ^ "World Shut Your Mouth" also charted on Billboard (magazine)|Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart at #22 and the five track 12" EP charted at #109 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
C #ref C| ^ " Charlotte Anne " peaked on the Billboard (magazine)|Billboard Alternative Songs|Modern Rock Tracks chart at #1.
http://www.headheritage.co.uk/ Head Heritage - Julian Cope's own site
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/ The Modern Antiquarian - An online community and resource on ancient sites in the UK & Ireland, inspired by Cope's book of the same name
Persondata | NAME =Cope, Julian | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH =21 October 1957 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Cope, Julian Category:1957 births Category:English bass guitarists Category:English male singers Category:English songwriters Category:Musicians from Liverpool Category:People from Tamworth Category:Alumni of Liverpool John Moores University Category:Living people Category:Crucial Three members Category:The Teardrop Explodes members Category:English vegetarians Category:Scouse culture of the early 1980s
