Crucial Three, Julian Cope and Pete Wylie formed The Nova Mob, a conceptual band named after a gang mentioned in William Burroughs' novel Nova Express. Recruiting punk friend Pete Griffiths and future Siouxsie and the Banshees drummer Budgie, the Nova Mob were goaded into headlining at Liverpool's top punk club, Eric's. The show was a disaster according to observers and Budgie left to join Big in Japan, at which point the band split up. Julian Cope briefly formed an experimental group called The Hungry Types, and then formed Uh? with Ian McCulloch and McCulloch's school friend Dave Pickett. McCulloch left after the band's first and only gig. Cope and McCulloch formed their last band A Shallow Madness in early 1978, along with organist Paul Simpson and Dave Pickett, now on drums. A rehearsal recording of "Books" as performed by A Shallow Madness appears on the 2004 The Teardrop Explodes rarities collection Zoology. A Shallow Madness featured the original Teardrop Explodes line-up of Julian Cope, Paul Simpson, Dave Pickett and Mick Finkler, plus Ian McCulloch. The latter's non-attendance at rehearsals led to Cope taking over vocals and thus The Teardrop Explodes was born. The Teardrop Explodes's 1981 album, Wilder, features the song "The Culture Bunker", which references Cope's former band with the lines "...waiting for The Crucial Three...wondering what went wrong." The well publicized animosity between Cope and McCulloch finally reached a boiling point when Cope fired McCulloch's friend Mick Finkler from The Teardrop Explodes. Further animosity was stoked when "Passionate Friend" by Teardrop Explodes was released, a reference to Julian Cope's former girlfriend, Ian McCulloch's sister. Drummer Steve Spence pursued a career in advertising, and now works as a Creative Director in London. References in popular culture Pavement dedicated a song to the Crucial Three in their live performance from Brixton Academy, London on 14 December 1992, featured on Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe. The dedication is at the end of track 14 - "Home", on the album, but it sounds as though the dedication is in reference to the next song, "Perfume-V". The Ed Ball project The Times mentioned the Crucial Three's name in the lyrics of A Girl Called Mersey, a tribute to the Liverpool's scene, co-written with his guitarist Richard Green. The memory of the Crucial Three was revived in 2004 by BBC Radio 2 DJ Mark Radcliffe whose show featured a nightly quiz of the