Kilimanjaro

Product Information

There's also a live version of 'Sleeping Gas' from the Club Zoo residence that is absolutely deranged, Cope spouting what Balfe refers to as "streams of unconsciousness" for nearly ten minutes.

Reward (song) - Wikipedia Reward (song) - Wikipedia

Many great artists produced their worst work in the middle of this decade, and no amount of dayglo socks and leg warmers can possibly make up for Lou Reed's Mistrial or Bowie's Never Let Me Down and the accompanying Glass Spider tour. Cope later praised him for his strong creative impact on both the band and its perspective, but also suggested that with the band's growing success Gill had found himself "afraid to compete. Finkler's sacking earned the band a fair amount of ire from the closely linked and competitive Liverpool scene (and from Ian McCulloch in particular) as well as establishing Cope's reputation as something of a tyrant. The path from there to here began towards the end of Kilimanjaro's recording, when the previously abstinent Cope was handed a joint by guitarist Alan Gill, prompting the singer to embark on one of rock history's more colourful drug binges.The tour proved to be a chaotic affair: neither Agius nor Hammer fitted into the group socially and Cope was retreating further into an LSD-fuelled isolation, retaining only Dwyer as trusted companion. The tour finally came adrift on the East Coast in a mess of bad business arrangements and infighting. Perfectly hummable choruses, great arrangements and production and Cope's smiling vibe all add up with fantastic results.

The Teardrop Explodes discography - Wikipedia The Teardrop Explodes discography - Wikipedia

But there wouldn't have been any stories of drugged lunacy had the Teardrop Explodes not been good at what they did in the first place.

By March 1982, the Teardrops' internal situation was as fraught as ever following assorted disagreements and individual meltdowns. In the course of a 2008 interview he commented: "Supposedly intelligent people say to me: 'Don't you think you'd be more successful if you re-formed The Teardrop Explodes?

The Teardrop Explodes – Kilimanjaro (1980, Vinyl) - Discogs The Teardrop Explodes – Kilimanjaro (1980, Vinyl) - Discogs

At the end of 1981 (and with Ronnie François now added on bass guitar) the band took up a lengthy residence at the Pyramid Club in Liverpool, where they set up "Club Zoo", playing twice a day as a five-piece. Gill was replaced by former Shake guitarist Troy Tate but by now Cope and Balfe's abrasive relationship had worsened to the point that Balfe was ousted as group keyboard player, although he continued to be involved with management. In came Alfie Agius and Jeff Hammer, but before the release of their second album Wilder, they were replaced by Ronnie François (ex- The Sinceros) and Balfe (again).

It seems a fair enough query given Kilimanjaro's success: it spawned a top 10 hit in Reward, spent 35 weeks on the charts and displayed such commercial promise that both U2 and Duran Duran apparently considered the Teardrop Explodes their only real competition. Another act on the label was Echo and the Bunnymen, who maintained a love/hate relationship and continuing rivalry with the Teardrops throughout their existence. This reissue of the album was also remixed – most noticeably on "Went Crazy" and a longer version of "When I Dream".