The Teardrop Explodes were my favourite band around Summer 1979. I actually saw them at Middlesbrough Rock Garden on the evening of my last day at Sixth Form.

Amongst the bag of recently retrieved tapes was a recording of their 1st Peel Session from 1979, dutifully recorded on my Dad's music centre. I've cleaned it up a bit and stuck it on my Multiply site. They were a great band then, Cope played the bass so his Iggy pretentions were reigned in, and they had a brilliantly funky, spiky guitarist called Michael Finkler. If you only know these songs from the 1st (over-produced) album, you're in for a treat- stripped down, edgy and funky, with some great clumpy atonality in the intros...I was reminded why, for a few weeks, they were my faves.

If you don't want to sign up to hear them - here's one track "Ha Ha, I'm Drowning"

(what a terribly 1979 title that is!)

There are some great photos of the band a couple of months after this session at Philippe Carly's New Wave Photos site. Copey looked so straight then...