JULIAN Cope is back! Actually he was in Liverpool in the autumn to launch his novel at the Unity Theatre and he’s frequently up and around the North West at the moment researching his latest writing project, but as revealed on Liverpool Confidential last November, the drood dude will be be parading his musical repertoire, including songs from his new retrospective album “Trip Advizoer”, at Liverpool’s Epstein Theatre on February 5.
But ahead of that, Liverpool pop's king of ley lines and stone circles travelled here from his home in the South West to record a long conversation with Roger Hill which will be broadcast at the weekend on Radio Merseyside.
“We agreed that there were a lot of big things we should be discussing,” said Roger, “so I raised the issues and left Julian to let rip on them in his own inimitable way.”
So in the conversation the following is revealed...
Julian on his recent novel...
“It’s the first book I’ve been able to write stoned.”
Julian on Japrock…
“I don’t like Japanese culture – as far as I’m concerned the Japanese, in the Far East, are the same oppressors as we were for years and the Americans have become.”
Julian on the non-acoustic...
“When people first saw Ike and Tina Turner they were turned on by Tina but they were also turned on by this guitar-wielder who was using a guitar that didn’t even have a sound-hole. It was such a celebration of Edisonian rock n’roll, but it was just a slab, a polished slab, with a General Motors-Cadillac-Buick kind of finish to it.”
Julian on Liverpool and Punk...
“If I’d started in rock n’roll five years earlier I wouldn’t have been able to do these things – I was facilitated because of punk, because when the two sevens clashed I just happened to be in Liverpool – I could go with it, the doors were open….for the punks….
They didn’t know I wasn’t a “posh southerner” – I was a Midlands social-climbing wannabe from parents who were extremely working-class…
The first time I went to Eric’s, I couldn’t find it.”
Julian on the rock n’roller as hero...
“Rock n’Roll is a heroic art-form but only if it’s allowed to fail - you’ve got to be able to fall on your sweet butt……
"You’ve got to absolutely believe in your own truth – you’ve got to be almost prophet-like in your cheekiness. You’ve certainly got to be saint-like in your cheekiness….”
Julian on his origins...
“My world-view is always informed by the V-shaped valley in Wales where I was born….”
Julian on drugs...
“I went down so deep that – I mean I always used to say during Fried that I’d reached my amphibian self – that’s why I appeared naked under the turtleshell, - for this I reached William Blake’s vegetable temple.”
*For more of the man, on Roger Eagle, Ian McCulloch, the Wee Free Church and “the music of the spheres”, tune in to “The Popular Music Show” at midnight on BBC Radio Merseyside on Sunday 1st February. The interview, with music from the novel (!), will be aired at 12.30 a.m. Or listen on-line for the next few weeks through the BBC i-player
Roger and Julian
