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Three Wishes \/ David Hockneys Garden \/ In A Perfumed Garden \/ Flowers For Abigail \/ King And Country \/ Boy In The Paisley Shirt \/ Games For Boys<\/a><\/p>\n Painter Man \/ Psychedelic Holiday \/ 14th Floor \/ Sooty\u2019s Disco Party \/ Makin Time \/ When Emily Cries \/ Glittering Prize \/ Anxiety Block \/ Mysterious Ways<\/a><\/p>\n This post is dedicated to Aaron Williamson who helped organise the TVP\u2019s and Viv Albertine performance last night at the Stags Head in Hoxton, a gig\u00a0which\u00a0saw\u00a0half a dozen Pet Puppies brave the cold winds\u00a0and attend. A nice touch\u00a0during the\u00a0night was Dan Treacy\u00a0having\u00a0\u00a0a recollection of being interviewed by Tony D in 1977 for Ripped And Torn\u00a0fanzine, an interview that took place\u00a0right up on the 14th Floor of\u00a0Dan Treacy\u2019s\u00a0council block.<\/p>\n A busy night indeed, as this small traditional pub was packed with an apprieciative audience for the whole\u00a0night\u00a0witnessing not only the two headliners, but also Typical Girls, Hari\u00a0Kari\u00a0and the Feral Four.\u00a0<\/p>\n The stage lighting and twirly props were powered by various crowd members riding a bike fixed on the covered\u00a0pool table!<\/p>\n Aaron was also hawking his fanzine on the night, which flicking through looks a very interesting read. Still a little hung over today so I\u00a0have not read any of it properly!\u00a0<\/p>\n The details for his website at the foot of this post if anyone would like to\u00a0browse that. If anyone is interested in\u00a0seeing if any copies of this A5 sized fanzine\u00a0are still available then contact eelzine@yahoo.co.uk<\/a> . The fanzines\u00a0are limited to 500 numbered copies, so will run out fairly soon I guess.<\/p>\n Please note: My copy of\u00a0this LP \u00a0\u2018They Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles\u2019 is the reissue released on Dreamworld Records \u00a0in 1986, not the original 1982 release on Whaam\u00a0Records which has\u00a0different sleeve artwork. There are several other Television Personalities downloads available on this site if you care to find them using the Search function. Ensure you enter the band name in full though!<\/p>\n Below text and Melody Maker review of this record when it was originally released courtesy of\u00a0 the absolutely wonderful televisonpersonalities.co.uk site.<\/p>\n Chelsea, London, in the mid-70s. Schoolmates Dan Treacy, Ed Ball, Joe Foster, John Bennett and his brother Gerrard rehearsed together in their spare time, playing covers by the likes of The Who and Pink Floyd.<\/p>\n Inspired by the punk movement, Dan, Ed and the Bennetts went into a recording studio in August 1977 and emerged with \u201914th Floor\u2019 and \u2018Oxford Street\u2019. Lack of money meant that only a handful of white label singles were initially pressed. Dan originally thought of calling the band Teen 78; whilst writing out a label to send a copy to the DJ John Peel, for a joke he listed the members of the band as famous television stars of the day, and the name TV Personalities was born. Peel played the single a number of times, and eventually Dan scraped together enough money to press 867 copies.<\/p>\n Dan returned to the studio with Ed Ball in the Summer of 1978 to record a follow-up single, the \u2018Where\u2019s Bill Grundy Now?\u2019 EP. This was an instant hit with John Peel, who played the track \u2018Part Time Punks\u2019 many times. The success of the EP led to a deal with Rough Trade, who reissued the single and a follow-up, \u2018Smashing Time\u2019 (recorded again by Dan and Ed). Throughout these early years, Ed Ball had his own projects, O Level and then the Teenage Filmstars. Although Dan and Ed helped out with each other\u2019s groups, they were always separate bands.<\/p>\n In the middle of 1980, the TVPs made their live debut following the recruitment of Joe Foster on bass and Mark Sheppard (known as Empire) on drums. This line-up was short-lived, reportedly due to differences in opinion between Foster and Sheppard, resulting in Joe\u2019s departure. Prior to this, Dan and Mark helped out with Joe\u2019s solo project, the Missing Scientists, which also included Mute Records boss Daniel Miller. The group\u2019s \u2018Big City Bright Lights\u2019 7\u2033 was released by Rough Trade in September 1980.<\/p>\n In October 1980, Dan and Ed Ball returned to the recording studio with Empire to create the TVP\u2019s debut album. Issued in January 1981 by Rough Trade, \u2018And Don\u2019t The Kids Just Love It\u2019 was a considerable improvement over the early ramshackle recordings. The influence of Sixties pop culture was apparent from the LP\u2019s sleeve, which featured supermodel Twiggy and Patrick McNee from the Avengers. The songs included Kinks-like social commentary (\u2018Geoffrey Ingram\u2019), domestic drama (\u2018This Angry Silence\u2019, \u2018A Family Affair\u2019) and one of their most famous (but not typical) songs, the rather whimsical \u2018I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives\u2019. Simultaneously, Rough Trade issued the latter as a single, albeit a different version.<\/p>\n In early 1981, Dan and Ed launched their own record label, Whaam! (named after the Roy Litchenstein painting). The first release was the debut single by Ed Ball\u2019s new outfit The Times, followed by the Gifted Children\u2019s \u2018Painting By Numbers\u2019. This was recorded during winter sessions by Dan and Empire, with Bernie Cooper on bass. It seems as if Dan toyed with the idea of breaking up the TVPs (not for the first, or last time) and continuing under this name. However, this single, and a track on the Whaam! compilation LP \u2018All For Art\u2019 were the only Gifted Children releases. Bernie Cooper apparently then disappeared, leaving Ed Ball to fill in on bass, notably during a joint Times \/ TVP UK tour in the Spring of 1981. The TVPs second LP was released in January 1982. \u2018Mummy Your Not Watching Me\u2019 combined tracks recorded during the \u2018Gifted Children\u2019 sessions with later material recorded with Ed Ball. Both Dan and Ed were leading figures in the contemporary psychedelia revival, and the influence is evident, particularly on the lo-fi pop psyche of \u2018A Day in Heaven\u2019 and \u2018David Hockney\u2019s Diaries\u2019. Elsewhere, songs with Pop Art references, such as \u2018Painting By Numbers\u2019 and \u2018Litchenstein Painting\u2019 sat alongside the enduringly popular \u2018If I Could Write Poetry\u2019 and \u2018Magnificent Dreams\u2019.<\/p>\n A third album followed shortly afterwards; \u2018They Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles\u2019 compiled unreleased tracks, material recorded during the \u2018Gifted Children\u2019 sessions, alternate takes and another airing of \u201914th Floor\u2019. Despite this, the album was a surprisingly cohesive and entertaining collection of songs.<\/p>\n In early 1982, Ed Ball left the ranks to concentrate on his own band The Times. Mark Flunder was recruited to play bass and the trio of Treacy, Flunder and Sheppard gigged until the Spring of 1983, when Mark Sheppard departed. The TVPs expanded with the return of Joe Foster and the addition of Dave Musker (keyboards). This drummerless line-up recorded the TVPs next LP, \u2018The Painted Word\u2019, a dark masterpiece considered by many to be their best. The overall tone of the album was heavy, with some angry political songs such as \u2018A Sense of Belonging\u2019, \u2018You\u2019ll Have to Scream Louder\u2019 and \u2018Back to Vietnam\u2019. In contrast to these were the melancholic beauty of \u2018Stop and Smell the Roses\u2019, which invited comparison with the Velvet Underground, and the touching \u2018Someone to Share my Life With\u2019.<\/p>\n With the album recorded, the band reunited with Rough Trade in 1983 for the acerbic protest single \u2018A Sense of Belonging\u2019. Controversy over the sleeve, which depicted a battered child, probably influenced the label\u2019s decision not to release \u2018The Painted Word\u2019. A legal dispute with a pressing plant prohibited Dan from putting out the record on his own Whaam! label. Delayed by 18 months, the album was finally granted a limited release on Illuminated in mid-1984, a label that promptly folded. Further line-up changes occurred. Drummer Jeff Bloom joined the band and Mark Flunder was replaced by ex-Swell Maps bassist Jowe Head. After a tour of Europe in early 1984, the five-man TVP line-up came to an end with the departure of Joe Foster and Dave Musker.<\/p>\n Television Personalities then enjoyed their longest period with a settled line-up, comprising Dan Treacy, Jowe Head and Jeff Bloom. Although short of money and lacking a recording contract, the band concentrated on live work, especially in Europe where they enjoyed greater popularity than in the UK. Dan set up the Dreamworld label as the successor to Whaam!, initially to reissue the early TVP albums. He soon began releasing recordings by other bands, including the Mighty Lemon Drops and Hangman\u2019s Beautiful Daughter. This label also issued a new TVP single, the psychedelic protest song \u2018How I Learned To Love The Bomb\u2019 in 1986. Aside from that, TVP output was limited to occasional tracks on compilation albums. During this period, Dan also promoted gigs at the Room at the Top club.<\/p>\n THEY COULD HAVE BEEN BIGGER THAN THE BEATLES<\/p>\n On his first LP, \u201c. . . And Don\u2019t The Kids Just Love It\u201d, Dan Treacy sang one of the most moving songs I\u2019ve ever heard. But the media and public alike chose to overlook the sweet, almost suicidal sadness of \u201cDiary Of A Young Man\u201d for the obvious and attractively twee \u201cI Know Where Syd Barrett Lives\u201d and the kitsch John Steed, Emma Peel cover.<\/p>\n On his second LP, tentatively titled \u201cMummy, You\u2019re Not Watching Me\u201d, Dan Tracey went mad in a way that I find as harrowing and exhilarating as any pop music I\u2019ve ever experienced.<\/p>\n On his third LP, \u201cThey Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles\u201d, Dan Treacy\u2019s finally thrown in the towel . . . or, to be absolutely precise, he\u2019s packed the paisley back in mothballs. Confused, frustrated, maybe even defeated by the inability of the press to resist a snide broadside at anything remotely psychedelic, Dan has folded his TV Personalities and so \u201cBeatles\u201d is his final farewell to the genre he chose as his medium of communication.<\/p>\n And let\u2019s get (this) straight: Dan Treacy\u2019s psychedelics have always served as a canvas on which he splattered his neuroses and not as any naively idealistic attempt at revival.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s get (this) straight too: \u201cBeatles\u201d is over 50 minutes of outtakes which span his whole career, straddling both previous albums and staggering wide-eyed, witty and weighed down with worry, towards some indefinite future. It\u2019s nowhere near perfect \u2013 it doesn\u2019t purport to be \u2013 but its scope is incredible, its ambition outstanding and its heart damn near broken.<\/p>\n \u201cBoy In The Paisley Shirt\u201d is a Jilted John wink at the Groovy Cellarites \u2013 satire born of sympathy \u2013 \u201cThree Wishes\u201d (\u201cIf I had three wishes I\u2019d wish for three more\u201d) is characteristic of Dan\u2019s ability to expose nerves while tickling your fancy, \u201cKing And Country\u201d takes on McGuinn\u2019s solo from \u201cEight Miles High\u201d and presents a strong case for the reinstatement of electric guitar as the expressive instrument and \u201cAnxiety Block\u201d sounds like Abba ill-coping with \u201cMother\u2019s Little Helper\u201d.<\/p>\n I should go on, but I can\u2019t so I\u2019d better just tell you that on his last album, \u201cThey Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles\u201d, Dan Treacy sings a naked song called \u201cMysterious Ways\u201d which floods me with adrenalin. Don\u2019t allow any preconceived bias to prevent you from listening. In other words: stop being stupid and get tuned in.<\/p>\n Steve Sutherland August 1982<\/p>\n Possibly still available from the publishers contactable at eelzine@yahoo.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/KYPP812.jpg\")
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