Staffordshire rocker Julian Cope talks ahead of Birmingham show

He has enjoyed a 30-year career and was described by Bloomsbury as a 'visionary rock musician and musicologist, hip archaeologist and one-time front man of the Teardrop Explodes'.

He has released more than 20 solo albums, countless collaborations and six acclaimed books.

These include his autobiography Head-On and Krautrocksampler.

And Cope, who was born in South Wales but raised in Tamworth, Staffordshire, will line up at Birmingham's Glee Club on Sunday.

Cope began his career in The Crucial Three, with future Echo & The Bunnymen singer Ian McCulloch, before forming The Teardrop Explodes.

In the late 80s he made a return to the charts with the single World Shut Your Mouth, and attendant album Saint Julian, which followed Fried.

The acclaimed albums Peggy Suicide, Jehovahkill and Autogeddon maintained a rich vein of creativity.

He then turned his attentions to making a detailed first-hand study of the occult, mythology and Britain's prehistory. After eight years of research, those results were published in his best-selling tome The Modern Antiquarian, a full colour 484-page hardback.

Cope followed up that extraordinary achievement with a larger sequel entitled The Megalithic European that covered mainland Europe and its islands. He has performed live with Sunn O))), also appearing as lead vocalist on their acclaimed album White One, and has recorded three albums with his proto-metal power trio Brain Donor. He has also lectured three times at the British Museum.

Since then, Cope has been working on a follow-up novel and will be releasing an EP of drinking songs to accompany this tour. Not a bad mix of achievements for the Staffordshire-raised rocker.

By Andy Richardson