Dave Balfe - Interview Excerpts - Zoo, Teardrop Explodes, Bunnymen

[@thetriumphofthethrill2457]

Fascinating musical history. The music scene in Liverpool during the '80s is certainly among the best and most influential.

[@wk4max263]

Your a legend mate and dont ever forget it!!!

[@julianp4787]

can't believe it just cut off and ended :( I would love to see the full interview. I was bass player in Electrafixion for 2 years and find all this history a real treat. I would love to hear how Paul Simpson is too! I met him at Ian's house in 1996 and found him to be a lovely chap. Thanks so much for posting this interview :)

[@thewoodentops.]

Paul Simpson is in great shape and yep lovely chap.

[@thewoodentops.]

@@50milliondownthedraintonym16 hey! dunno, hopefully well and good..

[@larrydanadavid2435]

Not sure if you toured with Electrafixion but I saw the band in Los Angeles at The Troubadour and they were outstanding. My only regret was not buying a tour t-shirt with whip on it. Cheers!

[@julianp4787]

@@larrydanadavid2435 Hi Larry, thanks for the comment :) I remember that show very well! My brother was on drums too! It was quite an honour to play that club, and with that band. I was in Electrafixion for two years and had a great time! Particularly touring the USA Hope you're well

[@theoriginalbluey]

And Paul Simpson released a new 7" single on Feral Child this week!

[@wallytbm]

Loving all these interviews Grant, thank you!

[@stephenbalfe5736]

Loved the Bunnymen 👍

[@yakacm]

I'm in a FB group that has Michael Finkler as a member, I asked him how he reacted when he realised that Blur's Country House was about Dave Balfe, I think Michael gave some kind of nondescript answer, and I thought oh that's weird. It was only later that I realised his reticence was because Dave Balfe was a member of the group too, lol.

[@jazztheglass6139]

Dave Balfe was the keyboard player in Dalek I Love You, before joining Julian Cope. Alan Gill's band. Both Alan and Dave played in Teardrop Explodes around 1982. Wonder what Alan makes of Dave's remarkable success ?

[@marrakeshexpressuk]

The assertion that When I Dream sounded like a sure fire top forty hit single even back then sums this guy up perfectly.

[@gongfarmer201]

Really enjoyed that, cheers.

[@angelariley908]

Very interesting.

[@daveoconnell5736]

Love Balfey, where can we hear the whole thing please?

[@harmonicresonanceproject]

When I Dream has travelled far better imo. Classic track, very interesting interview.

[@jonlilley9288]

Whatever people think of Balfe, he was one of the most significant characters in the Liverpool scene and also the post punk movement. There seems to be some envy that he made some money out of his efforts but so what?

[@martincatawba2598]

Another creative Eric's graduate

[@robhaunui3343]

Time for a Paul Simpson interview,in my opinion the best songwriter to come out of the Liverpool post punk scene. It would be interesting to hear about The Wild Swans,especially seeing as they are meant to be recording their first album since 2011s "Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years" album. Maybe an interview with the best and funniest gob in Liverpool,Pete Wylie

[@Johnconno]

No thanks.

[@teodelfuego]

Wylie was brilliant. His 1991 LP was brilliant but hardly anyone heard it

[@Kkidzz]

Grant, curious if you got to talk to Paul Simpson? Fingers crossed. ps Recently found out Andy McClusky was briefly in Dalek I.........all of them were Kraft' Heads! Ha!! I love and still play Compass/Kumpas.

[@GrantMcPhee]

Had a very long chat with Paul. He's next on the list for the full interview but lockdown currently in the way

[@stephentempest2854]

Balfy .....it was a gas ... from day one ... Yeah ..bill and you made it happen ..but .... You know as well as I do .. Right time right place And deafo everyone else ..xx

[@twoforever1]

What a nice senior citizen.

[@colonialstraits1069]

He’s still cooler than you.

[@lewisner]

We're all on a one way dance to the grave.

[@davis7099]

According to Cope, Balfe was off his trolley for the entirety of the Teardrop explodes period. He's clearly , if the splendid trappings around him are to be believed, done plenty of reviewing of his options since. Balfe is a businessman finally who got in on the coat tails of creativity in his 20s.

[@garywood5882]

He's the owner of Food Records I think

[@garywood5882]

He cleared up all of Teardrops outstanding debts in the 90s too.

[@waynesilverman3048]

@@garywood5882 that's nice of em

[@teodelfuego]

Having read Cope’s excellent two-volume autobiography at least twice, I think it was Cope who was clearly off his trolly. He was fairly relentless in his animosity to Balfe. Cope is a brilliant genius but he does his best work when there is someone to reign him in a bit

[@waynesilverman3048]

He got rid of the bass player did cope so I think he didn't LIKE some people ,he said in a guardian interview I think it was the g ,he said the rec biz was full of dicks

[@robinbradbury6493]

Balfey...He's the best!

[@yakacm]

I think it's hilarious when you look at the comments on videos like this. Everyone firing in with their views, like they know the person intimately, when in reality their views are gleamed from interviews like this. Just because ppl have been successful in a band or an actor or famous in anyway, it doesn't elevate them to a higher plain, they are people just like you and me, and as such, will recount things to their benefit, misremembered or just down right lie. I'm not saying that's what DB is doing here, I'm just saying in general, take what people say with a grain of salt, that goes for anyone, cynicism is a healthy trait, in moderation obviously.

[@robstellung]

tell me more about The Revolutionary Spirit? A documentary i assume ....

[@waynesilverman3048]

They all took loads of acid Juliansaid they lived on it ha

[@jonegan6807]

Interesting interview, but here's a true story about Dave and the seriously not very good band that I was in at the time. It's late 1978 and we (Dead Trout) had recorded 3 tracks in the same 4 track studio where Teardrops had recorded their EP. It wasn't a great demo and reflected that this was a band that seriously lacked a shared identity and sense of direction. About half of us wanted to be the most experimental, unmusical and unlistenable ensemble imaginable. This was an anti-band, a Dadaist tribute act with no serious ambition or intention to make records. The other half kind of bought into the idea, but had a sneaking desire to make actual music and write recognisable tunes. The Open Eye session and our live performances were a conflict zone between these radically different and contradictory inclinations. A couple of days after the recording, we called in to pick up a cassette of the session from Noddy Knowler, who ran the studio, and we bumped into Dave. He'd come into the session whilst we'd been recording and had been sat listening to the offering as we'd been left the studio in some kind of strange reverie Now. he asked us could we call round to see him in the Zoo Office later in the week. Patrick and myself went to see him and he told us how much he loved the demo and how he'd seen us play at Eric's a few times and would like to sign us to Zoo. He kept alluding to the "melodrama" of our music, which, to be honest wasn't a quality that we immediately recognised. But there was a problem. Bill wanted to sign the Bunnymen, so we were in some kind of competition and we needed to shape up. And there was another problem, Dave had observed that when we played live, it was apparent that only half the band members (there were normally about 10 people on stage) actually appeared to be able to play their instruments. The others would have to go. If we wanted a record deal, we'd have to jettison the non-musicians, and demonstrate that we were serious and committed. This was a bit worrying as Patrick and myself suspected that we were in the surplus to requirement category. We reported back to a couple of other band members, who were also perhaps in the similar jeopardy. Julian (not Cope) who was our viola player (after our fashion) and the self-appointed custodian of the Dead Trout aesthetic pondered for a few moments, before offering the only possible conclusion. "Easy," he said, "let's sack the musicians." The rest, as they say, is history.

[@tonymack66]

Have you got the rest of the interview, Grant?