Dave Balfe remembers the Teardrops, Blur and a very big house in the country

Dave Balfe remembers the Teardrops, Blur and a very big house in the country

From Word In Your Ear by Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

June 12, 2026 · 52 min · Episode 923

About this episode

Dave Balfe discusses his influential role in the music scene of late '70s Liverpool and his experiences with various bands and the evolution of music promotion.

Dave Balfe was a key player in late ‘70s Liverpool, joined Big In Japan and the Teardrop Explodes, co-founded Zoo Records and, later, Food who signed and launched Blur. It’s fascinating to hear how he’s adapted to promoting music now with his new band Late Transmissions. We talk to him here about the landmarks moments that mapped out his life, among them …   … growing up in the Wirral and its patchouli-scented record shops   … seeing Wings and Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust tour in Liverpool   … how it felt to be immortalised in Blur’s Country House   … what he learnt making AI pop videos   … when your teenage band “goes punk”   … breaking and entering Rumbelows in pursuit of a synthesiser   … the curious link between Blur and JD Salinger in the days “they were all Kurt Weill and discordant”   … the Runaways at Erics – “I wasn’t entirely there for the music”     … Big In Japan with Bill Drummond, Budgie, Ian Brodie and Jayne Casey   .. is AI like the arrival of synthesisers: “this is not proper music?”   … “the old gag, innovation is not pastiching bands that have already been pastiched”   … and Mark’s interview with…

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