Julian Cope - Leicester University, UK 1/21/87

It came to my attention this week that Julian Cope's classic 1987 LP, Saint Julian just got the double disk reissue treatment (with the bonus disk largely repeating the contents of The Followers of Saint Julian, a 1997 import compilation of contemporary b-sides and remixes).  This bears no small significance to me, as Saint Julian, along with PiL's Happy? (also from '87) functioned as a double barreled gateway drug into this thing of ours called "alternative rock."  And yes, witnessing the video for "World Shut Your Mouth" put me over the moon.  Years of absorbing broadcasts of 120 Minutes and plenty of left-of-the-dial surfing followed...not to mention becoming a college radio DJ in my own right.  This eventually lead to the introduction of Wilfully Obscure.  In essence, you can lay the blame of just about everything I've offered to date right at the feet of Mr. Cope.  

This performance at the University of Leicester preceded the release of SJ by a couple of months, and contains the better half of it's songs, providing the crowd with an exceptional sneak preview.  There are pit stops to some of Copey's earlier solo endeavors, and yes, a handful of golden oldies from the Teardrop Explodes to boot.  We even get some in-the-raw concert versions of SJ b-sides, including a white-hot rendering of Pere Ubu's "Non-Alignment Pact."  The concert strikes me as a soundboard recording, if not a primo audience tape, though the opener "Trampoline" is very dodgy, and doesn't recover until about halfway in.  

01. Trampoline
02. Pulsar
03. Eve's Volcano
04. Strasbourg
05. Saint Julian
06. Sunspots
07. Elegant Chaos
08. Non Alignment Pact
09. Bouncing Babies
10. A Crack in the Crowds
11. Greatness & Perfection of Love
12. unknown
13. Bandy's First Jump
14. Shot Down
15. Spacehopper
16. World Shut Your Mouth
17. Reynard the Fox
18. Pussy Face

Hear