A Shallow Madness

On May 5th 1977, after a gig by The Clash at the legendary Eric’s Club, Julian Cope (later Teardrop Explodes), Ian McCulloch (later Echo & the Bunnymen) and Pete Wylie (later Wah!) met and decided to form a band, Arthur Hostile & The Crucial Three, immediately shortened in The Crucial Three. The group rehearsed only once, wrote only a single – according to McCulloch, very bad – song (possibly titled Salomine Shuffle or Bloody Sure You're On Dope), and disbanded.
After the Crucial Three, Julian Cope and Pete Wylie formed The Nova Mob, recruiting punk friend Griff and future Banshees's drummer Budgie. A short-lived act (just the time for a disastrous performance at Eric's) that folded when Budgie left to join Big in Japan. Julian Cope briefly formed an experimental group called The Hungry Types, and then formed Uh? with Ian McCulloch and McCulloch's school friend Dave Pickett. McCulloch left after the band's first and only gig. Cope and McCulloch formed their last band together, A Shallow Madness in early 1978, along with Paul Simpson on keyboards, Dave Pickett on drums, and occasionally Mick Finkler on guitar. Of the activity of the band only a couple of original rehearsal recordings survived:

Books (with McCulloch on vocals, then to appear in a different version as a Bunnymen’s and Teardrop’s number)
Straight Rain (without McCulloch)


At this point A Shallow Madness featured the original Teardrop Explodes line-up of Cope (bass), Paul Simpson (keyboards), Mick Finkler (guitar), plus Ian McCulloch. The latter's non-attendance at rehearsals led to Cope taking over vocals and thus The Teardrop Explodes was born. Simpson will leave the Teardrops in 1979 to form his own band The Wild Swans in 1980.