I’ve been cocking an ear to this BBC radio documentary about Eric’s Club and the Liverpool Music scene in the late 70’s and Early 80’s. It’s one of those oft-overlooked scenes, responsible for introducing the world to the likes of Teardrop Explodes, Echo & The Bunnymen, OMD, Pete Wylie and his various Wah! incarnations, Holly Johnson, Ian Broudie, Pete Burns, Bill Drummond amongst others. Apparently, there was a recent TV documentary about Eric’s Club on BBC Four (I think) which I unfortunately missed – though there was a Rock Family Tree episode about it in the late nineties. Also, Julian Cope’s ‘Head On’ book goes into great detail about that period which seemed to mainly consist of a load of gobby fuckers, pretty much all of whom hate Julian Cope. His book is a wonderful read, by the way, which along with the sequel ‘Repossessed’ are a fascinating insight into something – probably just the mad world of Julian Cope’s head rather than any musical insight-type shit. And if you ever geta chance to read Bill Drummond of The KLF’s book, 45, it’s another damn good read and he also tells some amusing stories about those times.
The Teardrops and The Bunnymen are my favourites of all those Liverpudlian groups (though OMD’s ‘Dazzle Ships’ is a terriffic record). Click here to listen to the BBC radio documentary and I’ve included three videos below – one of The Teardrop Explodes doing ‘Ha, Ha I’m Drowning’, a Tube-version of ‘The Bunnymen doing The Killing Moon’ featuring Ian McCullough with an extremely dodgy haircut and one of OMD reminiscing about Eric’s.
GraveyardshiftShane 