WIKIPEDIA:

“ 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" (which is still a staple of 1980s alternative pop compilations), 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 (later a record producer, A&R man and the founder of Food Records). Other members included later Smiths producer Troy Tate.
Along with other contemporary Liverpudlian groups, The Teardrop Explodes played a role in returning psychedelic elements to mainstream British rock and pop, initially favouring a lightly psychedelic West Coast beat-group sound (sometimes described as "bubblegum trance" ) and later exploring more experimental areas. In addition to their musical reputation, the band (and Cope in particular) had a reputation for eccentric pronouncements and behaviour, sometimes verging on the self-destructive. These featured strongly in contemporary press accounts and were later expanded on in Cope’s 1993 memoir Head On.

Career

Origins
Having arrived in Merseyside in 1976 (as a student attending City of Liverpool College of Higher Education), Julian Cope became involved in Liverpool’s emerging post-punk [......] ”

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