Cope Springs Eternal

WHATEVER ABOUT him being completely barking, it has to be said that Julian Cope knows his way round a word processor. Not only that, but given the superhuman amount of drugs he s ingested since puberty, the Archdrude is blessed with a miraculous memory.
Hot on the heels of his best-selling guide to megalithic Britain, The Modern Antiquarian, Cope has produced a unique back-to-back volume which couples his previous autobiography, Head-On: Memories Of The Liverpool Punk Scene And The Story Of The Teardrop Explodes, with the brand new Repossessed: Shamanic Depressions In Tamworth And London.
A recurring theme throughout the 13-year odyssey is his love-hate relationship with a bunch of Dublin no-hopers called U2: Our New York show was a stupid and mistaken double-bill with U2 at the Palladium in Lower Manhattan. In Liverpool, we thought that U2 were a bad joke, a record company s idea of a northern group. They talked of passion as though it was their exclusive right. Ho-hum. Down the eastern seaboard, U2 had sent the Teardrop messages. The final one was a tape of Sparks old 45 This Town Ain t Big Enough For Both Of Us . I really dug that. Maybe Bone-head and Co. weren t Bad Company after all.
Double-bill, huh? We went on first, did really well and left. I d seen U2 in the soundcheck. Led Zep, man. Uncool. But they were dead sweet and a bit younger than us, so we gave them some leeway. They weren t gonna do shit anyway. To quote Gary Dwyer, U2 were really called the Hope Brothers: Cause they ve got two hopes of making it: Bob Hope and no hope.
With a supporting cast that includes Pete Wylie, Holly Johnson, Bill Drummond, Mark E. Smith, Joy Division and, ahem, Bucks Fizz, the yarns are never less than ripping: The only way to stay on the roof of a car, at real speed, is to keep your head down and assume a crucifix position. We had a rule that the car s front windows had to be open. That way, I could stretch right across the roof and lock my fingers around the edges of the doors.
Indeed, the question which screams from every single one of the book s 408 pages, is how the fuck is Julian Cope still alive?
The Grim Reaper s loss is our gain, though, with the only disappointment the lack of sniping at former amour Courtney Love. Next time hopefully, n
Julian Cope s Head-On/Repossessed is published by Thorsons priced #12.99stg
Stuart Clark