julian cope | coventry | 1991

if you've read this little blog of mine from the beginning you'll know that julian cope was (almost) single handedly responsible for getting me out of the heavy metal habit and into listening to indie pop.




in 1991 "peggy suicide" came out.



cope had spent a year or two wandering in the wilderness, releasing strange roky erikson style campfire albums like the sublime "skellington" and the rather frazzled "droolian", but "peggy suicide" saw him back in full control and creating huge pop songs.
"peggy" was quite rightly called a future classic by almost everyone who talked about it.

i'd never seen cope live but i'd wanted to and, i think, i needed to.

he was to be playing 2 nights at the tic-toc in coventry - a nice, middle sized venue (500 people maybe?) in a dodgy part of the city.
i had a friend at coventry university and so i bought he and i and a couple of other friends tickets for both nights.
it cost me a small fortune but i felt these people needed to see him as much as i did.

there was no support act - cope's band came on and did an hour's worth of songs from the "peggy" album, then cope played 45 minutes alone with an acoustic guitar before the band joined him again for another hour's worth of golden oldies and greatest hits.

so, this is what happened.

we went into the venue, we bought a drink, we took up a good position in the hall - close to the stage, but not too near the front - and we waited.
i could hardly speak.
i just stood there watching the stage and waiting.

the band came on and started up.
the julian cope walked on stage in his black leotard and pumps.

the entire audience jumped and cheered.
i didn't.
i burst into tears.
honestly.
i cried.
i was truly overwhelmed.
my friends, with a slight smirk i guess, put their arms around me and calmed me down.

(what a wimp!)

from beginning to end the show was sublime.
whatever problems you (and nowadays i) might have with the wigged-out-stone-circle-worshipping-wizard-dressing cope when that man is on form there is NO ONE better at holding an audience and , to put it simply, PERFORMING.

at the end of the show i noticed the bass player in the corner of the venue so i went over and had a word.
"come and find me tomorrow night", he said, "i'll introduce you."
what?
WHAT??
"just find me."

i barely watched the next night.
i just wanted it to be the end.

i found the bass player and true to his word he led me back stage.
one other guy had been allowed back there too.
he walked up to julian cope and in a big bold brash voice said, "hi jules!"
"you do not call me jules", came the reply and with that he was dismissed.

so i approached cope and politely said, "hullo mr. cope, it's a pleasure to meet you."
he smiled, shook my hand, signed the record i took with me and then scared the bejesus out of me by looking very intently into my eyes and asking, "so...have you read about kram the worm god?"

gulp.

"um. no. no i haven't."

"well i think that perhaps you should."

i quietly said goodbye and made a swift exit.
all those questions i had for him were gone.
i just wanted to be somewhere else.

oh, but i love him.