Julian Cope

Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English[1]

Julian Cope
musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in
Liverpool post-punk band The Teardrop Explodes and has
followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on
musical side projects such as Queen Elizabeth, Brain Donor and
Black Sheep.

Cope is also an author on Neolithic culture, publishing The

Modern Antiquarian in 1998, and a political and cultural activist
with a public interest in occultism and paganism. He has written
two volumes of autobiography, Head-On (1994) and Repossessed
(1999); two volumes of archaeology, The Modern Antiquarian
(1998) and The Megalithic European (2004); and three volumes of
musicology, Krautrocksampler (1995), Japrocksampler (2007);
and Copendium: A Guide to the Musical Underground (2012).

Early life
Cope's family resided in Tamworth, Staffordshire, but he was born
in Deri, Glamorgan, Wales, where his mother's parents lived, while Cope performing in 2003

she was staying there.[2] Cope was staying with his grandmother Born Julian David Cope
near Aberfan on his ninth birthday, the day of the Aberfan disaster 21 October 1957
of 1966, which he has described as a key event of his Deri, Glamorgan,
childhood.[2][3] Wales

He grew up in Tamworth with his parents and his younger brother Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter,
Joss. He played Oliver in Wilnecote High School's production of musician, author,
the musical. Cope attended City of Liverpool C.F. Mott Training antiquarian
College[4] (now Liverpool John Moores University), and it was Years active 1978–present
here that he first became involved in music.[2][5]
Musical career
Genres Rock
Music
Instrument(s) Vocals, guitar,
bass guitar, organ,
1976–77: Early bands piano, Mellotron,
synthesizer
In July 1977, Cope was one of the founders of Crucial Three, a Labels Zoo, Mercury,
Liverpool punk rock band in which he played bass guitar. Island, Def
Although the Crucial Three lasted for little more than six weeks
American, Echo,
and disbanded without ever playing in public, all three members
Head Heritage
eventually went on to lead successful Liverpool post-punk bands
—singer Ian McCulloch with Echo & the Bunnymen and guitarist Writing career
Pete Wylie with the Mighty Wah!. Post-Crucial Three, Cope, and
Period 1982–present
McCulloch initially went on to form other short-lived bands UH?
and A Shallow Madness (Cope had also spent time with Wylie in Subjects Musicology,
another short-lived band, Nova Mob). When Cope sacked sociology, poetry
McCulloch from A Shallow Madness, McCulloch went on to form
Website www.headheritage
Echo and the Bunnymen. The two former bandmates would
.co.uk (http://www.
maintain a frequently antagonistic rivalry from then on, often
headheritage.co.u
carried out in public or in the press.[2]
k)

1978–1983: 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, but seven other members passed in and out of the line-up during the band's fractious
four-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 album to number 24 in the chart. 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.[2]

Success brought the Teardrops plenty of attention, but no further stability. Their second album Wilder
experimented with different and darker psychedelic styles, as well as delving deeper into Cope's
complicated psyche: it spawned no major 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.[2]

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
last thirty years. Cope, however, has strenuously resisted taking advantage of any nostalgic and commercial
opportunities to reunite the band.[3]

1982–85: The Mercury years – World Shut Your Mouth and Fried

In 1982 (accompanied by his new American wife Dorian Beslity), Cope moved to the Staffordshire village
of Drayton Bassett (close to his childhood home of Tamworth). Following the break up of the Teardrop
Explodes, he spent a period in seclusion recovering from the strain of the group's final year. 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 took him several
years to shake off. During this period, Cope befriended a teenage Drayton Bassett musician called Donald
Ross Skinner, who became his main musical foil for the next twelve years.[2]

In 1983 Cope began recording the songs for his first solo album, World Shut Your
Mouth. Although the album generally retained the uptempo pop drive of the "It has always
Teardrops, it was also an introspective and surreal work with many references to been the bane of
childhood. Former Teardrops drummer Gary Dwyer, guitarist Steve Lovell and my existence that
Dream Academy oboist Kate St John all contributed to the album, which was my passport says
released on Mercury Records in March 1984. World Shut Your Mouth was seen as 'musician' and not
out-of-step with the times, gained poor reviews and sold indifferently. A single 'artist'."
from the album, "Sunshine Playroom", featured a disturbing video directed by
David Bailey. During a concert at Hammersmith Palais on the subsequent Julian Cope[6]
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.[2]

World Shut Your Mouth was followed six months later by 1984's Fried album for which Cope was joined
by Skinner, Lovell, St John, ex-Waterboys drummer Chris Whitten and 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 the 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.[3][7] The album includes a song called "Bill Drummond Said" about Cope's A&R man at WEA, to
which future KLF star Drummond responded with a song titled "Julian Cope Is Dead", pondering how
much more famous Cope might have been had he been shot at the height of his fame. The commercial
failure[7] of Fried led to Polygram dropping Cope; he subsequently engaged a new manager Cally
Callomon, and signed a deal with Island Records.[2]

1986–1992: The Island years

1986–1990: Saint Julian and My Nation Underground

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")[2] 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, 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 No. 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.[2]

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 was to
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 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.[2]

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. 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, showing
the poor relations between Cope and Island.[2]

In 1990, Cope followed up Skellington with a second lo-fi album called Droolian, also 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.

1991–92: Peggy Suicide and Jehovahkill

During this period, Cope discovered the book Guitar Army: Rock and Revolution with The MC5 and the
White Panther Party by John Sinclair. He later described it as his "Holy Book" [3] 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 typified 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.[2]

Having repaired his relationship with Island Records, Cope began

recording his next record against the background of the civil "Nothing I do is ironic. I am
demonstrations which became the Poll Tax Riots. Cope joined the post-Ironic. Irony is the
demonstrations and took a prominent role in them. Wearing a huge ultimate cop-out way of
theatrical costume throughout the march, he was later featured on the turning something you did
BBC's Poll Tax documentary, a lone protester walking down Whitehall not mean into something
surrounded by seven lines of mounted police. you did. Like bands that put
big tits on their album
These (and other) elements fed into the double album Peggy Suicide, sleeves and say it's an ironic
which was released on Island Records in 1991 and was heralded by comment about sexism. Like
critics as Cope's best work to date.[7] On the album's songs, Cope laid bands that put car shit on
bare many of his personal convictions including his hatred of organized their album sleeves and say
religion and his increasing public interest in women's rights, the occult, it's anti-car. Bollocks. If it
alternative spirituality (including paganism and Goddess worship), glorifies then it's bollocks.
animal rights, and ecology.[9] Skinner, Rooster Cosby, Ron Fair and Irony is the last refuge of the
former Smiths drummer Mike Joyce all contributed to the record, as did scoundrel."
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 Julian Cope[8]
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.)[10]

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 Paganesque perspective and
being highly critical of the established Church.[9] The content (and lack of sales)[7] proved to be too much
for Island Records. Despite the album reaching the UK Top 20, the label dropped Cope 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 started a campaign to have Cope re-
signed. Engaged in a tour of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Cope refused to comment.

1993–96: Rite to 20 Mothers and Interpreter

From this point onwards, Cope began to take greater personal control of his career and business affairs.
While he continued 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, inspired by Krautrock, Sly Stone-
styled psychedelic funk and spiritual mysticism.[7][9] Cope also took the opportunity to issue The
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 Jehovahcoat Demos.[11] 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.[7]

Signing to the Def Jam subsidiary American Recordings for a one-off

album deal, Cope recorded Autogeddon, which was released in 1994. " Mine's a holistic trip.
Continuing to build on the musical approach of Peggy Suicide and That's the difference. You
Jehovahkill but with a greater element of space rock, the album used the could put me in a coracle
automobile as its central metaphor for individual and collective struggles and send me off to some
between responsibility and selfishness, along with further stabs at rock somewhere to make
patriarchy.[7] Autogeddon was the first Cope album to feature art, but do that to any
synthesizer player Thighpaulsandra, who would become another key member of U2 and they
Cope collaborator. In the same year, Cope and Thighpaulsandra would wouldn't make art, you
form the ambient-electronic project Queen Elizabeth: the eponymous know, they'd find a way
Queen Elizabeth album was released on the Echo Label, Cope's back to the mainland. It's
mainstream home for the next two years.[9] like Joseph Campbell said,
it's the difference between
Cope's next album under his own name was 1995's 20 Mothers which the celebrity and the hero.
revisited many of his existing lyrical preoccupations but with a more The celebrity will walk
sprawling and eclectic musical approach (including stronger elements of across tall buildings and
pop and folk) and more directly personal and reflective material dealing dance on tightropes for his
with Cope's own family. The album received very positive reviews[7] audience, but the hero will
and also spawned Cope's last hit to date, the Top 40 single "Try, Try, do exactly the same things
Try", which led to two Top of the Pops performances. The subsequent and if the audience has all
British live tour (featuring Cosby, Mooney, Thighpaulsandra, and gone home, he'll still be
keyboard-player-turned-bass-guitarist Richard Frost) was fraught with doing it to please himself.
tension, and Mooney subsequently moved on to Spiritualized.[12][13] And that's the thing, I have
Cope had also parted company with his long-term foil Donald Ross an incendiary in me, which
Skinner during the recording of 20 Mothers, although the parting was is entirely at odds with
relatively amicable.[14] pretty much 99.9% of the
people on the Earth and if I
Having been dropped by Echo when he refused to visit the US, Cope can sustain that, then I'll
then signed to Cooking Vinyl and delivered the Interpreter album in change things entirely.
1996. This continued in a similar but more disciplined vein to its You've just got to have faith
predecessor, with stronger elements of techno and humour (as that what you're saying is
the cosmic truth."
exemplified in songs like "Cheap New Age Fix") among the more Julian Cope[6]
serious topics, such as those inspired by Cope's attendance at the
Newbury Bypass protests.[7][9]

1997–present: Head Heritage

1997–2006: Assorted solo and collaborative work; Brain Donor

Cope's 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.[15]

The first Head Heritage release was 1997's Rite 2, Cope's follow up to
1993's Rite (with Thighpaulsandra taking over from Donald Ross "I'm going to become the
Skinner as creative foil). It was followed in the same year by the second best-remembered artist of
Queen Elizabeth album, QE2: Elizabeth Vagina, which expanded on its my generation by staying
predecessor's cosmic rock experiments. Thighpaulsandra would then away from the party as often
follow Michael Mooney into Spiritualized (as would Cope's string as possible. That way,
arranger Martin Shellard), once more depriving Cope of a key people will remember me,
collaborator.[13] Cope's next full solo album was 1999's Odin, which not because I was great, but
consisted of a single 73-minute mantra for voices and electronics because I didn't cause them
(although Thighpaulsandra has claimed credit for some of the any later embarrassment."
work).[7][13]

In 1999, Cope launched another side project. This was the garage- Julian Cope[16]
rock/heavy metal power trio Brain Donor, which featured Cope on
bass, Anthony "Doggen" Foster on guitar and Spiritualized's Kevin
"Kevlar" Bales on drums. 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 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.[8]

In 2000, Cope released another solo album – An Audience with the Cope. While appearing to be pitched as
a retrospective live recording, it 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
début Brain Donor album Love Peace & Fuck. Cope, Doggen and a returning Thighpaulsandra also
teamed up as the drummer-less psychedelic/meditational heavy metal group L.A.M.F. who released the
Ambient Metal album the same year.[7][17] Brain Donor's "Get Back on It" single followed in 2002, as did
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).[18] 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 and an appearance on Sunn O)))'s collaborative album White1 with Cope reciting occultic druid poetry
on the opening track, "My Wall".[19]

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).[20] 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."[21] 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 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).

2007–present: Black Sheep and beyond

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.[22]

You Gotta Problem With Me was followed by 2008's Black Sheep, which Cope described as "a musical
exploration of what it is to be an outsider in modern Western Culture"[23] 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, The Unruly Imagination.[24]

Cope, McGrail, O'Sullivan, and Acoustika went on to form a new ten-piece Cope side project (also called
Black Sheep) which included new cohorts such as drummer 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 a live Queen Elizabeth album Hall,
recorded in 2000.

Writing

Music commentary

Cope has long been 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,
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 commented that
the singer's "Pale White Intellectual" outlook on life no longer held any fascination for him).[2]
Cope established himself as a musicologist with his books Krautrocksampler, Japrocksampler and
Copendium.[25] Released Scorpions and Karat "krautrock" by the British music press. Reviews at the time
were ecstatic, with Daily Telegraph citing it as "a work of real passion and scholarship". SMASH hits
agreed: "This is a superb book ... this is an extraordinary book." Bunty] 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."

Cope's writing has also won respect in academic circles.[26] His second work as a musicologist,
Japrocksampler – subtitled How the post war Japanese blew their minds on rock and roll – was published
by HarperCollins in October 2007.

His Album of the Month reviews on the Unsung section of his

website[27] (collected and published in 2012 as Copendium) have "When we were putting the
promoted bands such as Comets on Fire, Sunn O))) (with whom he website together, I said to
performed a guest vocal on their White1 album) and several Japanese my web guy, 'I want to have
bands which feature in Japrocksampler. Unsung is another community- an Album of the Month'. He
based site that invites contributors' reviews, and Cope and the site's said, 'you say that now, but
numerous contributors have been instrumental in kick-starting the will you still want to do it in
interest in bands like Sir Lord Baltimore, Blue Cheer, Les Rallizes six months?'. But I've been
Denudes, Tractor and the Groundhogs. Cope is also considered to be doing it since May 2000 and
one of the first bloggers; he has been airing his sometimes controversial I've never missed a month. I
views since 1997 via his website's "Address Drudion" on the first day did one at the foot of Mount
of each month.[28] Ararat; I did another at the
hotel in Pompeii. The last
place I wanted to be was in
Archaeology and antiquarianism the hotel writing, but it's
what I decided to do. To be
1998 saw the release of Cope's bestseller The Modern Antiquarian, a a practitioner was
large and comprehensive full-colour 448-page work detailing stone everything."
circles and other ancient monuments of prehistoric Britain,[29] 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 Julian Cope, 2008[3]
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."[30]

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 Modern
Antiquarian website that invites contributors to add their own knowledge of the ancient sites of Britain and
Ireland. Cope has lectured nationally on the subject of prehistory, and also at the British Museum on the
subjects of Avebury and Odin, where Cope appeared in five-inch platform boots and his hairspray set off
fire alarms, causing the building to be evacuated.[31]

Fiction
On 19 June 2014 Cope's first novel One Three One, subtitled "A Time-Shifting Gnostic Hooligan Road
Novel", was published by Faber & Faber.[32] Named for a Sardinian motorway, One Three One was well
reviewed by The Guardian who wrote that "the musician's fiction debut is brilliant, serious, funny – and
completely bonkers".[33] Comedian Stewart Lee interviewed Cope for The Quietus and admits that "there
were whole swathes of One Three One where I couldn't tell what was going on (or) which time stream we
were in...but I didn't care".[34]

Cope writes about many fictional bands and musicians in the book and has recorded music in the guise of
these characters, some of which he has released under the same fictional pseudonyms.[34][35] Other musical
artists have collaborated with Cope for these releases, also under the book's fictional names, including
Stephen O'Malley and Holy McGrail (as drone group Vesuvio) and with Robert Courtney and Donald
Ross Skinner (as ravers Dayglo Maradona), amongst others. These releases were released via various
imprints of Cope's Head Heritage label.[35]

Personal life
Cope is married to Dorian (née Beslity) with whom he's had two daughters, Albany and Avalon.[36]

Discography
Julian Cope discography
Studio albums Studio albums 35
Live albums 2
Compilation albums 13
Singles 24

Chart positions
Certifications
Year Title UK SWE NZ AUS US (sales thresholds)
[37] [38] [39] [40] [41]

World Shut Your Mouth

Labels: Vertigo, Mercury, Phonogram 40 – – – –

(reissued with a second disc of extra material
in 2015)
1984
Fried

Labels: Mercury, PolyGram (reissued 87 – – – –

with a second disc of extra material in 2015)

Saint Julian
1987 Labels: Island Records (reissued with a 11 39 25 90 105 UK: Silver[42]
second disc of extra material in 2013)

My Nation Underground
1988 42 – – – 155
Labels: Island

Skellington
1989 – – – – –
Labels: CopeCo, Zippo Records

Droolian
1990 – – – – –
Labels: MoFoCo, Zippo

Peggy Suicide
1991 Labels: Island (reissued with a second disc 23 – – – –
of extra material in 2009)

Jehovahkill
1992 Labels: Island (reissued with a second disc 20 – – – –
of extra material in 2006)

Rite (credited to Julian Cope and Donald Ross

Skinner)
– – – – –
Labels: Ma-Gog Records
1993 The Skellington Chronicles

Labels: Ma-Gog Records, Head – – – – –

Heritage (reissued as Ye Skellington
Chronicles in 1999)

1994 Autogeddon 16 – – – –
 Labels: Echo, American Recordings

20 Mothers
1995 20 – – – –
Labels: Echo, American Recordings

Interpreter
1996 39 – – – –
Labels: Echo

Rite 2
1997 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

Odin
1999 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

An Audience With the Cope 2000/2001

2000 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

Discover Odin
2001 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

Rite Now
2002 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

Rome Wasn't Burned in a Day

2003 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

Citizen Cain'd
– – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage
2005
Dark Orgasm
– – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

Rite Bastard
2006 – – – – –
Labels: Fuck Off & Di

You Gotta Problem With Me

2007 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage, Invada

Black Sheep
2008 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

The Unruly Imagination

2009 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

The Jehovahcoat Demos

2011 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

Psychedelic Revolution
– – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage
2012
Woden
– – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

2013 Revolutionary Suicide – – – – –

 Labels: Head Heritage

Drunken Songs
– – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage
2017
Rite At Ya
– – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

Skellington 3
2018 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

John Balance Enters Valhalla

2019 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

Self Civil War

2020 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

England Expectorates
2022 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

Robin Hood
2023 – – – – –
Labels: Head Heritage

Live albums
2004 Live Japan '91
2019 Barrowlands - live in Glasgow 1995

Compilation albums
1992 Floored Genius – The Best of Julian Cope and the Teardrop Explodes 1979–91 (UK
#22)[37]
1993 Floored Genius 2 – Best of the BBC Sessions 1983–91 (compilation of material recorded
for BBC Radio)
1997 The Followers of Saint Julian (rarities compilation)
1997 Leper Skin – An Introduction To Julian Cope ("best of")
2000 Floored Genius 3 – Julian Cope's Oddicon of Lost Rarities & Versions 1978–98
(rarities)
2002 The Collection (1983–1992)
2007 Christ vs Warhol (rarities)
2009 Floored Genius 4 – The Best of Foreign Radio, Rare TV Appearances, Festival Songs
& Miscellaneous Lost Classics 1983–2009 (rarities)
2015 Trip Advizer – The Very Best of Julian Cope 1999–2014 ("best of")
2019 Cope's Notes #1: The Teardrop Explodes (1978–1982) (recitations and poems performed
over lost Teardrop Explodes grooves)
2021 Cold War Psychedelia (1982 demos for the Teardrop Explodes and music prepared in 1989
for Head-On)
2021 Cope's Notes #2: Droolian (re-release of Droolian with unreleased companion album
Droolian's Mother)
 2022 Cope's Notes #3: World Shut Your Mouth (demos, spoken word, and previously unreleased
music)
2023 Cope's Notes #4

Singles

Chart positions
Year Title UK IRL NZ AUS US
US Album
[37] CAN [43] [39] [40] [44] MR
[44]

1983 Sunshine Playroom EP 64 – – – – – –

World Shut
"The Greatness and Perfection of Your Mouth
1984 52 – – – – – –
Love"

Sunspots EP 76 – – – – – – Fried
1985 "Competition" (released under the –
– – – – – – —
pseudonym Rabbi Joseph Gordon)[45] [A]

1986 "World Shut Your Mouth" 19 97 13 35 50 84 [B]

"Trampolene" 31 – 22 45 – – – Saint Julian

1987
"Eve's Volcano (Covered in Sin)" 41 – – – – – –

"Charlotte Anne" 35 – – – – – 1
My Nation
1988 "5 O'Clock World" 42 – – – – – 10
Underground
"China Doll" 53 – – – – – –

Beautiful Love EP 32 – – – – – 4

"Safesurfer" – – – – – – – Peggy
1991
East Easy Rider EP 51 – – – – – 25 Suicide

"Head" 57 – – – – – –

Floored
"World Shut Your Mouth" (re-issue) 44 – – – – – –
1992 Genius
"Fear Loves This Place" 42 – – – – – – Jehovahkill

1994 "Paranormal in the West Country" – – – – – – – Autogeddon

1995 "Try Try Try" 24 – – – – – 20 Mothers

"I Come from Another Planet,
34 – – – – – –
1996 Baby" Interpreter
"Planetary Sit-In" 34 – – – – – –

1997 "Propheteering" (limited edition 7") – – – – – – – —

Preaching Revolution EP (limited
2008 – – – – – – – —
edition 7")

2013 RAVE-O-LUTION EP – – – – – – – —

2015 Trip Advizer EP – – – – – – – —

England
2022 "Cunts Can Fuck Off" – – – – – – –
Expectorates
Notes

A^ "Competition" charted at No. 30 on the UK Independent Chart.

B^ "World Shut Your Mouth" also charted on Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart at No.
22[44] and the five track 12" EP charted at No. 109 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Collaborations and other projects

With Queen Elizabeth

1994 Queen Elizabeth
1997 QE2: Elizabeth Vagina
2009 Queen Elizabeth Hall

With L.A.M.F.
2001 Ambient Metal

With Brain Donor

2001 "She Saw Me Coming" (single)
2001 "Get Off Your Pretty Face" (single)
2001 Love Peace & Fuck
2002 "Get Back on It" (single)
2003 "My Pagan Ass" (single)
2003 Too Freud To Rock'n'Roll, Too Jung To Die
2005 Brain Donor (U.S. compilation album)
2006 Drain'd Boner
2009 Wasted Fuzz Excessive

With Black Sheep

2009 Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse
2009 Black Sheep at the BBC

With Sunn O)))

2003 My Wall

With various (One Three One related releases)

2014 Neon Sardinia – S’akkabadòra-Hèmina
2014 Dayglo Maradona – Rock Section / American Werewolf EP
2014 Dayglo Maradona – "Rock Section (Andrew Weatherall remix)"
 2014 Vesuvio – Vesuvio

With Dope
2017 Dope
2017 Guerilla Grow
2018 Seven Disquieting Dirges: Performed by Sub Bass Madmen & Throwback F.X.
Contrarians
2018 Dope on Drugs
2018 Village Idiot Dope
2019 Black Math
2019 Odin on Acid

Bibliography
Head-on: Memories of the Liverpool Punk Scene and the Story of The Teardrop Explodes,
1976–82 (1994)
Krautrocksampler: One Head's Guide to the Great Kosmische Musik – 1968 Onwards (1995)
The Modern Antiquarian: A Pre-Millennial Odyssey through Megalithic Britain (1998)
Repossessed: Shamanic Depressions in Tamworth & London (1983–89) (1999)
The Megalithic European: The 21st Century Traveller in Prehistoric Europe (2004)
Japrocksampler: How the Post-war Japanese Blew Their Minds on Rock 'n' Roll (2007)
Copendium: An Expedition into the Rock 'n' Roll Underworld (2012)
One Three One (2014)

References
1. "Address Drudion – September 2009" (http://www.headheritage.co.uk/addressdrudion/124/2
013). Julian Cope presents Head Heritage. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
2. Cope, Julian (2000). Head-On/Repossessed. Thorsons Publishers. ISBN 0-7225-3882-0.
3. "Stone me!" (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/aug/10/popandrock.juliancope) –
interview with Julian Cope by Jon Savage in The Observer , 10 August 2008.
4. Echo, Liverpool. "Memories of Eric's" (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/
memories-of-erics-3551730). Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
5. Cope, Julian (1995). Krautrocksampler. ISBN 0-9526719-1-3.
6. Carl Arnheiter (1995). " "Enlightenment and Salvation is Just a Stamp Away" – a
conversation with Julian Cope by Carl Arnheiter" (http://www.terrascope.co.uk/MyBackPage
s/Julian_Cope.htm). Ptolemaic Terrascope. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
7. Julian Cope entry in The Rough Guide to Rock, 3rd edition, page 226 (2003), ed. Peter
Buckley (article written by Nig Hodgkins)
8. Julian Cope (2000). "Julian Cope on Brain Donor" (http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_co
pe/qa2000ce/brain_donor/). Head Heritage website. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
9. "The S.P.A.C.E.R.O.C.K.E.R.’s Guide to Julian Cope" (http://www.aural-innovations.com/iss
ues/issue23/jcope02.html) (Aural Innovations magazine No. 23, April 2003)
10. "Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | Discography | Julian Cope – Live Japan '91" (http://w
ww.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/livejapan91/). Headheritage.co.uk.
Retrieved 31 August 2011.
11. Page for The Jehovacoat Demos (http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/th
ejehovahcoatdemos/) on Head Heritage website
12. Cope Music (http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/qa2000ce/cope_music/) (Q&A page
on Head Heritage website, 2000)
13. Thighpaulsandra biography (http://www.thighpaulsandra.com/bio.html) Archived (https://web.
archive.org/web/20110927120051/http://www.thighpaulsandra.com/bio.html) 27 September
2011 at the Wayback Machine on homepage
14. "Interview with Donald Ross Skinner in Sounds XP magazine" (http://www.soundsxp.com/int
erviews/home4.html#Donald%20Ross%20Skinner). Soundsxp.com. Retrieved 31 August
2011.
15. "Head Heritage" (http://www.headheritage.co.uk/). Julian Cope Presents Head Heritage.
Retrieved 19 June 2006.
16. Andrew Perry (1 July 2010). "Julian Cope, the hit who became a myth" (https://www.telegrap
h.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/7865267/Julian-Cope-the-hit-who-became-a-myt
h.html). The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
17. "Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | Discography | L.A.M.F. – Ambient Metal" (http://www.
headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/ambientmetal/). Headheritage.co.uk. Retrieved
31 August 2011.
18. "Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | Discography | Julian Cope – Rome Wasn't Burned in
a Day" (http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/rome/). Headheritage.co.uk.
Retrieved 31 August 2011.
19. Bryant, Andrew (30 June 2003). "Sunn O))) White1" (http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/757
7-white1/). Pitchfork. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
20. "Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | Discography | Julian Cope – Citizen Cain'd" (http://w
ww.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/citizencaind/). Headheritage.co.uk.
Retrieved 31 August 2011.
21. "Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | Discography | Julian Cope – Dark Orgasm" (http://w
ww.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/darkorgasm/). Headheritage.co.uk.
Retrieved 31 August 2011.
22. "Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | Discography | Julian Cope – You Gotta Problem
With Me" (http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/yougottaproblemwithme/).
Headheritage.co.uk. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
23. "Julian Cope / Black Sheep" (http://www.headheritage.com/blacksheep/).
Headheritage.com. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
24. "Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | Discography | Julian Cope – The Unruly
Imagination" (http://www.headheritage.co.uk/julian_cope/discography/theunrulyimaginatio
n/). Headheritage.co.uk. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
25. Dwyer, Roisin (28 October 2014). "The Author Explodes – Julian Cope Interview" (http://ww
w.hotpress.com/Julian-Cope/features/interviews/The-Author-Explodes--Julian-Cope-Intervie
w/12816271.html). Hot Press. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
26. Bell, Max (February 2005). "Julian Cope: Weird, Moi?". Uncut. p. 67.
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Headheritage.co.uk. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
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dressdrudion/). Headheritage.co.uk. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
29. "Description of book from the website" (http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/the_books/).
Themodernantiquarian.com. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
30. Hutton, Ronald (14 October 2004). "The Megalithic European by Julian Cope" (http://www.th
etimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/article2453436.ece). The Times. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
31. "Romancing the stones" (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/jun/16/popandrock). The
Guardian. 16 June 2004. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
32. "One Three One, Julian Cope" (https://web.archive.org/web/20140601041624/http://www.fab
er.co.uk/catalog/one-three-one/9780571270361). faber.co.uk. 2014. Archived from the
original (http://www.faber.co.uk/catalog/one-three-one/9780571270361) on 1 June 2014.
Retrieved 27 June 2014.
33. Litt, Toby (11 June 2014). "One Three One by Julian Cope review – a 'hooligan road novel' "
(https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/11/one-three-one-hooligan-road-novel-julian-
cope-review). The Guardian. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
34. Lee, Stewart (27 June 2014). "A Journey To Avebury: Stewart Lee Interviews Julian Cope" (h
ttp://thequietus.com/articles/15594-julian-cope-stewart-lee-interview). The Quietus.
Retrieved 1 May 2015.
35. "One Three One Doorway" (http://www.131doorway.com/). Retrieved 1 May 2015.
36. Sethi, Anita (10 January 2015). "Julian Cope: My family values" (https://www.theguardian.co
m/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/10/julian-cope-my-family-values). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 (h
ttps://www.worldcat.org/issn/0261-3077). Retrieved 24 April 2023.
37. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World
Records Limited. p. 120. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
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p?interpret=Julian+Cope). Hung Medien. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
39. "Discography Julian Cope" (https://charts.nz/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Julian+Cope).
charts.nz. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
40. Kent, David (compiler); Australian Chart Book 1970–1992: 23 Years of Hit Singles and
Albums from the Top 100 Charts; p. 74 ISBN 9780646119175
41. "Julian Cope: Billboard albums" (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/p3965/charts-awards/billbo
ard-albums/chart_name-asc). Allmusic. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
42. "British certificates: searchable database" (https://web.archive.org/web/20090924015932/htt
p://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx). bpi.co.uk. Archived from the original (http://w
ww.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx) on 24 September 2009. Retrieved 29 December
2011.
43. "The Irish Charts" (http://www.irishcharts.ie). IRMA. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
44. "Julian Cope: Billboard singles" (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/p3965/charts-awards/billbo
ard-singles/chart_name-asc). Allmusic. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
45. Lazell, Barry (1997). Indie Hits 1980–1999. Cherry Red Books. ISBN 0-9517206-9-4.

External links
Head Heritage (http://www.headheritage.co.uk/) – Julian Cope's own site
Guardian bio (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/10/julian-cope-my-family-v
alues)
Julian Cope (https://www.discogs.com/artist/Julian+Cope) discography at Discogs
Julian Cope (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178557/) at IMDb

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