Head-On: Memories of the Liverpool Punk-scene and the Story of the Teardrop Explodes 1976-1982 by Julian Cope

Author:Julian Cope
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Julian Cope
Published: 2023-04-17T00:00:00+00:00

42. MAKING OUR WAY TO KILIMANJARO

And so the party which had begun in New York continued to the other side of the ocean. We were a different group. We signed to Phonogram one week later and I was a different person.

Alan Gill was my guru. I loved the guy. He was about three years older than me and had an ultra-quiet confidence. He didn’t give a shit, he even had a moustache. And this at a time when moustaches were considered the uncoolest of the uncool.

Phonogram gave us money to re-record parts of the album, so we trotted back to Rockfield with a new attitude.

The first night we were there, Alan Gill said to me, “You know, Julie, you’re too tense.”

I’d never been called Julie before and, to this day, Alan is the only person I would accept it from. I agreed that I was too tense, but I wouldn’t smoke pot, mainly because of the tobacco.

“Listen, Julie. I’ll skin up a pure grass joint. You try it and maybe you’ll be less tense.”

For a while now, I’d been watching with interest as the other three members of the group had begun to fool around with drugs. I was not into them myself, but I began to appreciate what they did for others.

Bill Drummond told me not to take anything. He said I was bad enough straight. Think of what a pain in the ass I’d be. I told Alan Gill about Bill’s fears and he shrugged his shoulders. He told me that I was a tense asshole most of the time and said I needed to relax properly. Okay, that seemed fair enough.

He built this fine long spliff and passed it to me. I had never, not ever, smoked a cigarette. The idea had always made me sick. Why was I doing this? I hate drugs, they’re bullshit.

I sucked hard on the joint. I didn’t cough, as I thought I would. I sucked again, a massive toke, then passed it to Balfe. It tasted really good and when it came around again, I had a real heavy go on it.

I sunk lifelessly behind the couch and the rest of them started to laugh. My head cleared up. My aching, which had been there since my early teenage years, started to evaporate. Out of the top of my head I could feel all my little devils flying off. They were all muttering to each other about how I’d been saved.

Yes, I was saved. I felt clean. I was 22 and I felt free. Not hippy free, just cooler about myself. I realised that it was okay to be me. Uh-oh, revelations time.

“What d’you reckon then, Julie?”

“I reckon you should skin up another one, right now.”

Alan looked over at me, and told me that the joint I’d just smoked contained the tobacco I’d been avoiding all my life. It wasn’t pure grass at all.

“Fuck it, man. I don’t care. Just keep them coming.”

And so it began. It was the turning point. The first time I had ever liked myself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.