| World Shut Your Mouth | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | March 1984 | |||
| Studio | The Point Studio, Victoria, London | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 40:41 | |||
| Label | Mercury | |||
| Producer | Steve Lovell | |||
| Julian Cope chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [2] |
| Q | [3] |
World Shut Your Mouth is the debut solo album by Julian Cope.
World Shut Your Mouth was written during Cope's 1983 retreat to the village of Drayton Bassett (close to his childhood home of Tamworth), following the breakup of Cope's former band The Teardrop Explodes. [4] Two of the tracks, "Metranil Vavin" and "Pussyface", had in fact been originally intended for The Teardrop Explodes (and different versions of each appear on the belated 1990 release of the band's scrapped third album, Everybody Wants to Shag... The Teardrop Explodes).
Although World Shut Your Mouth generally retained the uptempo pop drive of The Teardrop Explodes, it was also an introspective and surreal work. Cope had spent a period in seclusion in which he recovered from the strain of the final year of the Teardrops and from his LSD excesses of the times. During this period, he had also amassed a huge collection of vintage toys. [4] His eccentric behaviour both during and post-Teardrops had led to him being labelled by the music media as an "acid casualty" in the vein of Syd Barrett and Roky Erikson, an image which would take him several years to shake off. Cope's contemporary vulnerability and childhood preoccupations informed the songs on the album, most notably on songs like "Head Hang Low" and "Sunshine Playroom". Most of the album's tracks featured former Teardrops drummer Gary Dwyer, and other contributors included lead guitarist/producer Steve Lovell (ex-Blitz Brothers), late-period Teardrops bass guitarist Ronnie François and the Dream Academy oboist Kate St. John. It was recorded at The Point Studio in Victoria, London, and engineered by Alex Burak.
World Shut Your Mouth was released on Mercury Records in March 1984, but was seen by critics as somewhat pastoral and out-of-step with the times. It gained poor reviews and sold indifferently. The album's first single "Sunshine Playroom" featured a macabre and disturbing video directed by David Bailey. [4] Both this and the up-tempo follow-up single, "Greatness and Perfection of Love" also flopped.
The album's title was later reused by Cope for another song, which became a hit single in 1986 (and was also taken for the title of a Dom Joly TV show).
All tracks are written by Julian Cope
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Bandy's First Jump" | 2:50 |
| 2. | "Metranil Vavin" | 3:00 |
| 3. | "Strasbourg" | 2:25 |
| 4. | "An Elegant Chaos" | 4:03 |
| 5. | "Quizmaster" | 2:56 |
| 6. | "Kolly Kibber's Birthday" | 5:14 |
| 7. | "Sunshine Playroom" | 2:55 |
| 8. | "Head Hang Low" | 5:04 |
| 9. | "Pussyface" | 4:11 |
| 10. | "Greatness and Perfection" | 3:16 |
| 11. | "Lunatic and Fire-Pistol" | 4:30 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 12. | "Wreck My Car" (Single B-side) | 2:31 |
| 13. | "High Class Butcher" (Single B-side) | 3:56 |
| 14. | "Eat the Poor" (Single B-side) | 4:25 |
The first disc of the expanded edition contains the eleven tracks from the original album.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Wreck My Car" | 2:31 |
| 2. | "High Class Butcher" | 3:56 |
| 3. | "Eat the Poor" | 4:25 |
| 4. | "Greatness and Perfection" (Remixed version) | 3:26 |
| 5. | "24a Velocity Crescent" (Single B-side) | 3:48 |
| 6. | "Pussyface" (Single B-side) | 5:58 |
| 7. | "Head Hang Low" (John Peel session 05/02/1983) | 4:10 |
| 8. | "Lunatic and Fire-Pistol" (John Peel session 05/02/1983) | 4:25 |
| 9. | "High Class Butcher" (John Peel session 05/02/1983) | 4:06 |
| 10. | "Greatness and Perfection" (John Peel session 05/02/1983) | 3:23 |
| 11. | "Reynard the Fox" (David Jensen session 05/01/1984) | 3:27 |
| 12. | "O King of Chaos" (David Jensen session 05/01/1984) | 2:19 |
| 13. | "Laughing Boy" (David Jensen session 05/01/1984) | 5:28 |
| Chart (1984) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Albums Chart [5] | 40 |
The road crew are the support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians. This catch-all term covers many people: tour managers, production managers, stage managers, front of house and monitor engineers, lighting directors, lighting designers, lighting techs, guitar techs, bass techs, drum techs, keyboard techs, pyrotechnicians, security/bodyguards, truck drivers, merchandise crew, and caterers, among others.
Julian David Cope is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band The Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side projects such as Queen Elizabeth, Brain Donor and Black Sheep.
The Crucial Three were a short-lived band that existed for approximately six weeks in early 1977. They are nevertheless notable on account of the individual success of all three founding members: Julian Cope formed The Teardrop Explodes and has enjoyed a long and successful solo career as an author, photographer and singer, Ian McCulloch formed the very successful Echo & the Bunnymen, while guitarist Pete Wylie formed Wah! Heat and enjoyed major chart success with "The Story of the Blues". In those early days, McCulloch sang, Cope played bass, and Wylie played guitar. A drummer, Stephen Spence, also joined at some point in their brief life.
The Teardrop Explodes were an English post-punk/neo-psychedelic band formed in Liverpool in 1978. Best known for their Top Ten UK single "Reward", the group originated as a key band in the emerging Liverpool post-punk scene of the late 1970s. The group also launched the career of group frontman Julian Cope as well as that of keyboard player and co-manager David Balfe. Other members included early Smiths producer Troy Tate.
Alan David Gill is an English vocalist, guitarist and songwriter, who formed part of the synthpop band Dalek I Love You and the post-punk/neo-psychedelic band the Teardrop Explodes.
Kilimanjaro is the debut album by the neo-psychedelic Liverpool band The Teardrop Explodes, released on 10 October 1980. It contains versions of the band's early singles – "Sleeping Gas", "Bouncing Babies", "Treason" and "When I Dream"; reissues of the album also include their biggest hit, "Reward". The album also includes the song "Books" – originally a song by Julian Cope's previous band, The Crucial Three, it was also recorded by Echo & the Bunnymen. In 2000, Q magazine placed Kilimanjaro at number 95 in its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever".
Peggy Suicide is the seventh album by Julian Cope. It is generally seen as the beginning of Cope's trademark sound and approach, and as a turning-point for Cope as a maturing artist.
Zoo Records was a British independent record label formed by Bill Drummond and David Balfe in 1978. Zoo was launched to release the work of the perennially struggling Liverpool band Big in Japan. The label also released two singles by Lori and the Chameleons, a Balfe and Drummond band which they formed after Big in Japan folded. Zoo Records went on to release early work from The Teardrop Explodes and Echo & the Bunnymen. The label also released the first single, "Iggy Pop's Jacket", by the Liverpool band Those Naughty Lumps.
Wilder is the second album by neo-psychedelic Liverpool band the Teardrop Explodes, and the final completed album released by the group.
Fried is the second solo album by Julian Cope.
Saint Julian is the third solo album by Julian Cope. It has a very strong pop sound, compared to other Cope releases, and spawned several of his best known tracks.
"Title and Registration" is a song by indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie, the third single from their fourth studio album, Transatlanticism.
Ron François is a British musician, who first came to notice as the lead singer and bass player of the English R&B band The Strutters, which was involved in the London pub rock scene of the mid-1970s.
Everybody Wants to Shag... The Teardrop Explodes was the third and final studio album by neo-psychedelic Liverpool band The Teardrop Explodes. When the band reconvened to record their third album, they were reduced to the trio of Cope, Dwyer and a reinstated Balfe.
Donald Skinner is a guitarist, songwriter and producer primarily known for his work with Julian Cope. Skinner is commonly known by the name Donald Ross Skinner with the addition of the middle name of Ross attributed to him by Cope after Glenn Ross Campbell, the pedal steel player from The Misunderstood. He is currently a guitarist for Love Amongst Ruin and DC Fontana.
"Sunshine Playroom" is a song by the English singer-songwriter Julian Cope. It is his debut single released in support of his first solo album World Shut Your Mouth.
"The Greatness and Perfection of Love" is a song by the English singer-songwriter Julian Cope. It is the second single released in support of his first album World Shut Your Mouth. The album version of the song is simply titled "Greatness and Perfection".
"Sunspots" is a song by the English singer-songwriter Julian Cope. It is the only single released in support of his second album Fried.
"World Shut Your Mouth" is a song by English singer-songwriter Julian Cope, released as the first single from his third album, Saint Julian (1987), on 15 September 1986. The title of the song is the same as the title of Cope's first solo album, World Shut Your Mouth, but the track does not appear on that album.
Love Peace & Fuck is the 2001 debut album by Julian Cope’s side project Brain Donor, released by Impresario records on CD and double LP. It was produced and directed by Cope with the help of long term collaborator Thighpaulsandra. The album was recorded by the power trio of Cope, lead guitarist Doggen Foster and drummer Kevin Bales, both formerly of Spiritualized. Cope plays bass, a role he had not assumed in a band context since The Teardrop Explodes in the early 1980s.
