2.09

Remember a bit back I'd rediscovered Julian Cope? I was going to explore his back catalogue? I think I'd already bought Fried and Droolian. They're pretty good albums. I was poised to snap up Peggy Suicide several times but when it came to the crunch.... I didn't. Need I say that this was intended to be a vinyl only exercise? So it saddens me that his best album Jehovahkill, in its full on incarnation with all the extra tracks, is only available on cd. When I start my vinyl reissues label this may well be the first wrong I address.

I reckon it'd be a quadruple album. I've got a couple of triple albums and the sleeves are fairly manageable, but the rule seems to be that four discs and upwards require a boxed set. I'd have the sleeve done like an ordnance survey map with a massive fold out poster of a megalithic map of Britain maybe. Like really massive, eight feet by six or so. And the sleeve would be a nice matt black with the symbol in gold and no writing on it whatsoever.

I saw him a few months ago. It was a good gig. He played twenty odd songs from all points in his pop career. Mainly just him on an acoustic guitar or at a keyboard. The between song banter was engaging (but his political humour was a little heavy handed I thought). He was pretty much as I'd expected him to be really, though I was surprised at how uptight he got about a technical problem, having a bit of a go at the sound people. Speaking as a member of it, as if a Julian Cope crowd gives a fuck about such matters. So, yes, very fleetingly, he seemed like an old man. Other than that though he was indeed a dude. A member of the audience* yelling for Reward at the end of every track perhaps caused one of his facial muscles to twitch on the fourth or fifth repetition. But he kept his cool.

Anyway, here's the track. In addition to the brevity that is the sine qua non of this series the other crucial pop ingredient at work here is simplicity.

Julian Cope Jellypop Perky Jean

* One of my friends, for a Sunday night he'd completely overdone it. I love him dearly but there's no telling him.