Editing The Teardrop Explodes (section)

===''Wilder'' and Club Zoo===
Expectations were high for the band's second album, ''[[Wilder (album)|Wilder]]'', which was recorded in London during November 1981 with a nucleus of Cope, Dwyer, Tate and Balfe. Unlike the first album, which was more of a band effort, ''Wilder'' was more the work of Cope (who took sole songwriting credit on every track on the album) and was a bleaker, more sombre work than its predecessor cataloguing the breakup of Cope's first marriage and the mental chaos surrounding Cope and the band.<ref name="storyofthedrude" /> The album was also a break from the solid beat-group sound of ''Kilimanjaro'', showcasing a variety of different approaches. It reached No. 29 on the UK chart and was certified Silver by the [[British Phonographic Industry|BPI]], as ''Kilimanjaro'' had been. The next single, "Colours Fly Away" stalled at No. 57 in the UK chart, signaling the end of the Teardrops as a popular singles band.
{{Quote box
| quote = "The band was never built to last... It was like building a house on scaffolding, on top of a tank moving at three miles an hour. The higher you build it, the further removed you are from the reality that it’s actually moving and going to fall." | source = Julian Cope<ref name=copemyth>["Julian Cope, the hit who became a myth"] – feature on Julian Cope by Andrew Perry in The Daily Telegraph, 1 July 2010</ref> | width =25% | align =right}}
At the end of 1981 (and with [[Ron Francois|Ronnie François]] now added on bass guitar) the band took up a lengthy residence at the Pyramid Club in Liverpool, where they set up "Club Zoo", playing twice a day as a five-piece. The band then undertook an extensive tour of Europe, the US and Australia, hiring trumpeter Ted Emmett (ex-[[64 Spoons]]) for the live band.
By March 1982, the Teardrops' internal situation was as fraught as ever following assorted disagreements and individual meltdowns. The increasingly alienated Cope retreated to his hometown of [[Tamworth, Staffordshire|Tamworth]]. At this point the band decided to strip down to a three-piece, losing Tate, Francois and Emmett.<ref name="storyofthedrude" /><ref name="headon" />

A third single from ''Wilder'' – the uncharacteristically sombre "Tiny Children" – was released in June 1982 and narrowly missed the top 40 (No.&nbsp;41 UK) despite being championed by high-profile BBC Radio One DJ, [[Mike Read]]. By now, Balfe had also developed an interest in writing songs and lobbied to join Cope as band songwriter, with Cope retained predominantly as singer and frontman.<ref name="storyofthedrude" /><ref name="headon" />