Today we take a look at Liverpool cult legends The Wild Swans, the brainchild of lead member Paul Simpson. Anyone who was not only able to compete with Julian Cope for stage presence power, but also for creative control of The Teardrop Explodes during his time as a member, was surely destined to form a legendary band of his own. And while The Wild Swans may never have been as famous or as commercially successful as their peers Echo & the Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes and Wah!

Heat, they were certainly every bit as musically innovative and as powerful. While his name may not be so familiar to many, Paul Simpson is an undisputed legend of Liverpool post-punk, and one of the most prolific and consistently brilliant songwriters the city has ever spawned. A veteran of the Liverpool punk scene, known to some as ‘Simmo’ in the early days, it was Paul Simpson who was indirectly responsible for giving The Teardrop Explodes their name, as the owner of the Daredevil comic from which they took their moniker. A founder member of the Teardrops as their original keyboardist, Paul was already heavily looked up to by the punks of Liverpool as someone who was safe to join a band with. His mother was a spiritual healer and had allegedly predicted that her son would be huge.

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So join a band with ‘Simmo’ and you couldn’t go wrong. This pretty much gave Julian Cope and his co-founders their initial confidence in the Teardrops; not to mention that Paul was allegedly the first member of the band to be asked for an autograph. His powerful stage presence and songwriting skills (Paul co-wrote the first two Teardrop Explodes singles) were a lead force in getting the Teardrops into the limelight, but as Julian took control of the band’s musical direction it soon became obvious there was only room for one genius in the band, and Paul left early on to start a band of his own.

And thus The Wild Swans were born, in late 1980. Simpson formed The Wild Swans with Jeremy ‘Jem’ Kelly (guitar) and Ged Quinn (keyboards), the latter whom had briefly replaced him in the Teardrops. Inventory Management System Project In C Language. Together, the three of them were to become the crucial core of The Wild Swans. In early rehearsals, Paul just let Jem and Ged get on with jamming the music while he looked on and sang nothing. It was only after several rehearsals that Paul finally stepped to the mic and proved he could sing. And the magic was pretty much there from the start, as the three members’ natural musical chemistry took no time in emerging.