The Teardrop Explodes were one of my favourite bands in the late Seventies. I bought all their records and saw them several times.

Including the Wilder tour at Hammersmith Palais in 1982 when they encored with their first (or was it second?) single Sleeping Gas, during which Julian Cope clambered into the lighting rig high above the audience.

He was still there as we exited the building.

The next day I learned from his PR, Mick Houghton, that Cope, an avid LSD enthusiast, had been tripping and decided to “nest” there overnight, refusing to come down until the following morning, much to the consternation of the security staff who were trying to lock up for the night. 

The Teardrops’ first two singles, Sleeping Gas and Bouncing Babies, remain among my all-time favourite tunes, and Kilimanjaro remains a landmark debut album.

They broke into the Top Ten with their heir fourth single, Reward, and had another hit with a remixed and rereleased version of their third, Treason (It’s Just A Story).

They were all anchored by Gary Dwyer, the beating heart of the band with what Julian Cope called his “thrilling and unorthodox skank.

Nicknamed ‘Rocky’ by all who knew him, and several other aliases by Cope – Buff Manilla, Jimmy Luxembourg, Sam Uruguay – when he met Cope in 1978 he was not a drummer at all, just another Scouser on the punk scene based around Eric’s.

Initially unempressed when Cope suggested they form a band that called The Teardrop Explodes – inspired by a caption in the Marvel comic Daredevil – he reportedly responded: “That’s a weird one you’ve got there Jules.”

But he was inspired enough by Cope’s passion – an enthusiasm that fed into songs like Reward and Treason – to go away and learn drums, and was ever-present throughout the band’s brief career.

He played on those early singles and both albums, Kilimanjaro and its follow-up Wilder, and most of what would eventually become their third and final album.

The Teardrops dissolved halfway through recording that third album in 1982 – it would come out eight years later under the terrible title Everybody Wants To Shag The Teardrop Explodes.

After the 1982 break-up Dwyer carried on working with Cope on his solo debut, World Shut Your Mouth, including arguably his finest song – Elegant Chaos.

He then joined Terry Hall in The Colourfield in 1986 and played with Balcony Dogs in the late 1980s but subsequently left music altogether and took a variety of jobs, including as a fork-lift driver.

He died after what his old bandmate David Balfe described as “a rollercoaster medical battle”, having been diagnosed with leukaemia two years ago.