One of the great eccentric new wave, indie heroes of the 1980s, Julian Cope
started out in the punk band Crucial Three with Ian McCulloch and Pete Wylie
before making his name as the flamboyant front man of The Teardrop Explodes.
Mixing psychedelia, surrealism and glam rock into smart alternative pop, Cope
was billed as the era's Syd Barrett or Roky Erikson and he had a taste for
excess and touch of strangeness to back it up. He spent a year living in
seclusion amassing a huge toy car collection before releasing his debut album
World Shut Your Mouth (1984) and appeared naked, smo...