Editing The Teardrop Explodes (section)

===Early singles and ''Kilimanjaro''===
{{Quote box
| quote = "I think we're very poppy. To me pop is something you hum. What I'm trying to do is strike a balance between triteness and greatness. People nowadays seem too embarrassed to show emotion, which is what I want." | source = Julian Cope on The Teardrop Explodes<ref name="mm10-80" /> | width =30% | align =right}}
The Teardrop Explodes released their first single, "Sleeping Gas", in February 1979.<ref name="storyofthedrude" /> Simpson's stage presence was now such that he rivalled Cope as the band's onstage focus, and by mutual agreement the two decided that the group wasn't big enough for both of them. Simpson left the band in the spring: he went on to form [[The Wild Swans (band)|The Wild Swans]] and then link up with [[Ian Broudie]] to form [[Care (band)|Care]]. His initial replacement was [[Ged Quinn]], who played on the Teardrops' subsequent British tour. However, co-manager David Balfe had also been lobbying for full Teardrops membership: by July 1979, he had succeeded in ousting Quinn and taking his place as keyboard player.<ref name="storyofthedrude" /><ref name="headon" /> (Quinn then rejoined Simpson in The Wild Swans.)

The band's next single, "Bouncing Babies", inspired a tribute song of its own: "I Can't Get Bouncing Babies by the Teardrop Explodes" by [[The Freshies]], an ode to the difficulty of obtaining a copy of the song. In February 1980<ref name="storyofthedrude" /> the band released their third and final single on Zoo Records, "[[Treason (It's Just a Story)|Treason]]", which was recorded in London with producers [[Clive Langer]] and [[Alan Winstanley]]. The B-side was a version of the Cope/McCulloch song "Read It in Books", which Echo & the Bunnnymen had already released as the b-side to their debut single, "The Pictures on My Wall". Both bands recorded different versions of "Read It in Books" in the future, and Cope also re-recorded the track as a solo artist.

In the summer of 1980, The Teardrop Explodes began recording their debut album, ''[[Kilimanjaro (The Teardrop Explodes album)|Kilimanjaro]]'', at [[Rockfield Studios]] in Monmouthshire. The sessions were interrupted by touring requirements, and also by internal dissension. This peaked when Cope and Balfe opted to fire Mick Finkler as guitarist. Cope subsequently claimed  
that "Mick, to me, had got really complacent. There was no fire in what he wanted to do. Mick just wasn't bothered about pushing at all. I thought what's more important, the friendship or the band? And when it came down to it I realised the band was the most important."<ref name="mm10-80" /> Finkler's sacking earned the band a fair amount of ire from the closely linked and competitive Liverpool scene (and from Ian McCulloch in particular) as well as establishing Cope's reputation as something of a tyrant.<ref name="mm10-80" />

{{Quote box
| quote = "I must say I don't like Dave. He gets a pretty dubious character sometimes. He just plays a good role in the band that's all, but we often fight, and I mean physically. I usually win because he's a bit of a wimp... not that I'm a fighting person though. Dave is just one of the most extreme characters I've ever met. Sometimes he gets me so knotted up inside .. but then again that's good because it keeps me pushing; you know, right there…I usually do the interviews because I’m the only one with anything to say really. Like Alan just spends most of his time thinking, and Gary never says anything. I can usually speak for them better. Dave would just start pissing you off ... it sounds like a really horrible band, doesn't it?" | source = Julian Cope on the strains within The Teardrop Explodes, 1980<ref name="mm10-80" /> | width =25% | align =right}}Finkler was replaced by Balfe's [[Dalek I Love You]] colleague [[Alan Gill]], who was in the band for the second set of ''Kilimanjaro'' sessions and re-recorded approximately half of Finkler's guitar parts. Gill was also instrumental in introducing the previously drug-free Cope to both [[cannabis (drug)|cannabis]] and [[LSD]]. This ensured that a band which had previously had a strong interest only in the stylings and theory of [[psychedelic rock]], soon began living the psychedelic lifestyle and perspective in earnest.<ref name="storyofthedrude" /><ref name="headon" />

When released later that year, ''Kilimanjaro'' reached number 24 on the UK Albums Chart and the band toured to support it. One further single from the album, released almost a year later, in September 1981, was "Ha-Ha I'm Drowning" backed by "Poppies in the Field"; early pressings were packaged with a bonus reissue of the "Bouncing Babies" single.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Punk Diary: The Ultimate Trainspotter's Guide to Underground Rock, 1970–1982 |last= Gimarc |first=George |author-link=George Gimarc |year=2005 |publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |location=Winona, MN |isbn=9780879308483 |page=51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4WM6Cb1z-PwC&pg=PA51 }}</ref>