6. Teardrop ExplodesKillimanjaro
This was when I started finding out about music that was not classical harp music or contemporary classical harp. I started studying harp when I was a kid. I started taking it much more seriously at 16 because I went to music school. My brother’s girlfriend at the time had this compilation and it had ‘Treason’ on it. I really liked it and then she’s said, ‘Oh, I’ve got this really good biography he’s written,’ so I read that and that’s all about the Liverpool punk scene.
I just didn’t know anything about it, even though I’d gone to see the Kurious Oranj show, that collaboration with The Fall and Michael Clark. Suddenly something clicked into place, all these bands like Teardrop Explodes or The Fall. I was in Manchester as well and I had no awareness of it until reading that book. I listened to Teardrop Explodes loads and there’s a lot to like on this record. I really like it when he says "you got to get ready for meeee”, on one of the songs. It’s a good, pacey pop record I think without wishing to sound like Tony Blackburn.
I like Julian Cope’s solo work. I don’t know it all but ‘Sunspots’ is a really great song. Now he writes books about megaliths. Like big stone circles and whatnot. He just went off into doing a completely different thing. I really like that, just as a human. That you can be in a pop band and then just do something else.
