Earlier this week was Julian Cope’s 64th birthday, a sort of unbelievable number for such an ageless figure. I mean, sure, in more recent years, Julian has seemingly gone well out of his way to hide his fabled physiognomy behind a beard worth of Odin, but his mind and his muse seem as hyper-youthful as ever.
I last invoked him here and here, but he’s always been a big favorite of mine, even given his more indulgent forays into music that seems light years away from the stuff that first drew me to him (check out his sprawling discography, if you don’t believe me). While I’m personally partial to his Peggy Suicide phase from the early `90s, which found him balancing his growingly adventurous penchant for far-out experimentation with his preternatural gift for absolutely perfect pop, I was indeed a big fan of his early solo records like Fried and Saint Julian, which were indeed a bit more comparatively polished.
The excellent blog Dangerous Minds already did a magisterial post about this video — an MTV-recording of Julian’s show at the Ritz on East 11th Street in 1987 -- I figured it was worth re-surfacing with my own spin on it. Here’s the great man running through a set of his then strongest material, not to mention flailing about on his signature bendy mic stand. It’s great stuff, especially his cover of "Non-Alignment Pact" by Pere Ubu.
I only got to see Julian Cope perform twice — once at the Marquee on way West 21st street (gone) on the tour for Peggy Suicide and then again, a few years later, at the tiny Westbesh Theatre in the West Village (since bricked up, I believe) as a one-man show when he was promoting his album 20 Mothers. He’s still maniacally active, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for another Stateside live appearance.
Even if you’re not versed in the man’s stately oeuvre, it’s a nice taste of what a show at the Ritz was like. Enjoy….
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