The True Story - Part 2
by Dan Treacy, from Television Personalities Fan Club ‘zine #2 - Summer 1985

Having recovered from my first unexpected ‘Psychedelic Experience’ I was greatly looking forward to our first proper public performance. It was to be upstairs at the Clarendon Hotel in Hammersmith, London. We were invited as special guests of This Heat and Essential Logic. As we were first band on we decided to make the most of our chance and so we organized an elaborate film and lights show. We had two huge screens erected at either side of the hall and we projected a collage of oil wheels and ‘Arty’ slides along with films of the Royal Family and The Supremes amongst others. We would often rummage through the dustbins in Dean St in London where all the film studios are. They always throw a lot of discarded film away. Some of it too shocking to talk about here! Anyway, the gig was a great success for us. The audience were just a little bit ‘Bizzare!’ I had not seen a genuine hippie since I was a child in the sixties. Well, here in the hall were 400 of them, all sitting cross legged on the floor! We came on dressed in the most outrageous ‘Mod Pop Art’ clothes! All R.A.F. flying jackets and cravats and they thought we were weird!? Everyone told us we were ‘SUPER’…. and of course we were!

It was a great relief to get a band together properly. I had been having second thoughts about recording again. After our debut single ‘14th Floor’ I had gone back into the studio alone (Billy Bragg eat your heart out!) and recorded four tracks. They were titled as follows 1) Seditionaries.. which was the original name of Malcolm McClaren’s shop.. 2) Chelsea to Battersea.. 3) Sometimes I’m sorry I’m a boy.. and the original version of Where’s Bill Grundy now? The recordings were a little strained as I was not very happy at the time. The dark clouds soon passed though and with good pal Eddie Ball debuting on drums I returned to the studio and recorded PART TIME PUNKS EP.. See Part One

Strangely enough the success of the ‘Punks’ ep did not really inspire me creatively and after a long break it was not until the end of ’79 that I thought of recording again. I had done very little for 18 months so I pushed myself into recording again in January 1980. However it was to be a big mistake. I went into a 24 track studio with very little idea of what I was going to do. I intended going in on my own again but at the last minute I asked Eddie to play drums again. The disaster was that the studio had not booked a drum kit so we had to play along with a drum machine first and attempt to overdub the Drums later. This nearly gave poor Ed a nervous breakdown! After two days of a seven day session I just wanted to crawl into the nearest cupboard. At the time I hated the recordings although time is a great healer. The songs we recorded were…. Smashing Time, King and Country, Anxiety Block, Favourite Films, Games for Boys, Jackanory Stories, Once upon a time and Three Cheers for Simon. Only the last two have remained unreleased. Rough Trade surprisingly (or sympathetically) enthused over the songs and they asked to release SMASHING TIME/KING AND COUNTRY as a single and I said o.k. I expected everyone would have forgotten us after Punks but it got nice reviews and a fair amount of radio play. I think it got to about number 17 in the indie chart. Joe Foster had persuaded me by now to get a band together with him and Mark Sheppard and we did about 15 gigs up to August 1980 when unexpected things happened. We did our one and only John Peel Session. Apparently The Skids cancelled at the last minute and someone suggested us and then we were invited to Germany to play a residency at The Excess club in Berlin. Naturally we thought THIS IS IT! ROCK ‘N’ ROLL, SEX ORGIES, DRUGS.. The Manager of the club was a real weirdo guy named Mabel. He looked like Nosferatu the vampire! but we became good pals. Apart from Part time punks the audience knew little about us. They were a cross section of punks and decadent Berliners. By the last night we had become real celebrities and most of Berlin’s in-crowd came to see us. We had to play two sets (Just like the Beatles!) and we must have played for four hours each night.. It was great fun but there was an increasing tension between Joe and Mark which ended with Mark making his own way home. Me and Joe had an unexpected stay in Berlin because of a rail strike. The strike dragged on for ages and it suddenly dawned on us that it would not be possible to get back to London for our first ever date at London’s Rock Garden. Perhaps this was our most notorious stunt. We telephoned Mark who was back in London and got him to ask Eddie Ball and his pal John East to take our place! The promoter never knew and neither did many of the audience. Funny thing was that they apparently got two encores! On returning I was greatly looking forward to recording. I had to ask Joe to stand though as there were too many arguments. Myself and Mark went Mount Pleasant studio in October 1980 and recorded the first Lp. We recorded it in 3 days. Again Rough Trade were impressed and they released it in January ’81, the single I KNOW WHERE SYD BARRETT LIVES/ARTHUR THE GARDENER was released with it. Both crashed into the indie Charts again and all seemed well. However I was a little disappointed with R.T. They seemed to think we were their ‘pet band’. We always seemed to be taken less seriously than their other bands. When promoters phoned asking to book us they would get them to book someone they considered more ‘Crucial’ like Pere Ubu and we would be left out. Eventually we persuaded them to book us a Dutch tour where ‘Syd Barrett’ was a hit but it was a total disaster. They booked it very badly, no hotels, too many days off etc. We had to come home early as we were very disheartened. Eddie Ball had joined as bass player and musically it was excellent. We had played a great tour of Northern England before Holland but the Dutch fiasco led to more arguments as Rough Trade demanded 700 pounds compensation for the gigs we cancelled. I had to pay it out of my royalties so TVPs walked out of Rough Trade without saying goodbye...

Earlier in 1980 Eddie had released the single ‘Cloud Over Liverpool’ having dropped the name ‘O’ LEVEL in favour of the TEENAGE FILMSTARS. This was on his own CLOCKWORK label. Both me and Joe guested on the record. Their second single was ‘ODD ONE OUT’ and Eddie got a deal with PYE who released it on a subsidiary called BLUEPRINT. Their third single was the infamous ‘I HELPED PATRICK McGOOHAN ESCAPE’ on FAB LISTENING. On return from the Dutch tour Eddie got a live T. FILMSTARS together and they and the TVPs with Eddie still on bass actually did a couple of dates together at the end of 1981.

At the start of 1982 we started a new label, Whaam! Ed had left the TVPs now and changed his bands name to THE TIMES. I did not want anyone to replace Eddie and I decided to start anew with a new name… THE GIFTED CHILDREN (a name Joe had previously thought of). The first two releases were THE TIMES ‘RED WITH PURPLE FLASHES’ and GIFTED CHILDREN’S ‘PAINTING BY NUMBERS’. The new bassist for the ‘CHILDREN’ was a chap called Bernie Cooper who was a friend of Mark. Again I received a surprise phone call with an offer of more German dates for the TVPs.

Actually there were only two dates but the fact that one of them was supporting the legendary NICO of the Velvet Underground was the only excuse I needed to ‘reform’ the TVPs. As nobody knew we had ‘split up’ it made no difference. Eddie was too busy to do the dates so the ever faithful Joe stepped in. We had no chance to rehearse and we had not played together for months but we were brilliant!… we were nervous as hell!… there were 4,000 people in the Berlin Free University and it was being recorded for TV. Also on the bill were two bands from Berlin and Theatre Of Hate. They were very envious of us. They were roughing it around Europe in an old van and they could not understand it when we arrived immaculately dressed having flown over, all expenses paid, first class on British Airways! The crowd were a little hostile to the German groups but they seemed to genuinely enjoy us. We actually improvised a great deal of the set we played. It was very disconcerting when later in the evening the crowd actually threw bottles at both T.O.H. and Nico. Later on we were told that we got 10 minutes on TV although we were not scheduled to be included! The second gig was not so memorable. It was in a very intimidating Punk club in Hamburg. The best part was when we missed the return flight! Our tickets were invalid but we turned on our boyish charm and were allowed to travel back on the businessman’s flight via Frankfurt! But what happened to Bernie the new bass player?… you tell me!… he just vanished without trace.

Before leaving for Germany myself, Mark and Bernie had recorded some more tracks for a proposed GIFTED CHILDREN LP. On return though I decided the TVPs had to storm back with some great records so the plan was for a TVPs LP. Eddie had some time free and he joined me and Mark and we recorded some more songs and I put these together with the previously recorded tracks and this was ‘MUMMY YOUR NOT WATCHING ME’ LP. Joe meantime had decided that he wanted to spend more time with his paintings and other projects. We persuaded Rough Trade to let Joe do a solo single and with help from myself, Mark and Daniel Miller of Silicon Teens and Boss of Mute Records fame he recorded a cover of ‘BIG CITY’ (originally by Dandy Livingstone) and an improvised b-side called Discotheque x. It was released under the name MISSING SCIENTISTS. Rough Trade did not offer a mega deal on hearing it but released it anyway. Not long afterwards Rough Trade acquired a deal in Japan and a catalogue of Rough Trade singles were issued including Missing Scientists and possibly the rarest TVPs single. This was ‘I KNOW WHERE SYD BARRETT LIVES/MAGNIFICENT DREAMS’. It was issued in a wonderful Gatefold sleeve with lyrics in Japanese! It was the third best selling R.T. single selling about 5,000 in Japan.

Although Eddie guested on the ‘MUMMY’ lp he did not have the time to play live dates as he was busy recording the fist TIMES LP `POP GOES ART’. After scrapping a lot of the recordings and sacking the bass player I was very surprised that he asked me to join The Times. I said yes after some thought. I figured I could still record TVPs stuff but only as a studio band. I helped finish the ‘PGA’ lp and it was released with the ‘MUMMY’ lp and THE MARINE GIRLS 1st LP ‘BEACH PARTY’ on WHAAM! I recall Ed spray painting the first 1,000 sleeves in his Bedroom! The smell was MIND BLOWING BABY! By this time the ‘PSYCHEDELIC’ revival had spawned a number of groups so at last we thought we had some new playmates! It was fun going to the notorious GROOVY CELLAR club on a Friday. It really was like being transported back in time! However it got very boring when suddenly everybody was in a band… musicians can be tiresomely dull! Naturally some bright entrepreneur had to try and cash in… and they did. A production company signed up all the bands to record a compilation LP with the idea of licensing it to a big label for BIG MONEY! The Times were the last group to be asked. All the other bands… well one in particular HIGH TIDE complained that The Times did not fit ‘THE IMAGE’! That was incredibly funny seeing what Me and Ed had been doing for the last few years! The LP took ages to record and of course interest had by then died down. Eventually the Production Company had to virtually pay WARNER BROTHERS to release it. Warner Brothers wanted to release ‘I HELPED PATRICK McGOOHAN ESCAPE’ as the single. Again HIGH TIDE turned Warners against The Times and got their way. One of their tracks ‘Dancing in my mind’ was released and of course it died a death being such an awful dirge. Despite Mike Read playing McGOOHAN constantly Warners were too chicken to release it. Island Records had complained that the intro ripped off ‘KEEP ON RUNNING’ by SPENCER DAVIS… which it does of course! So Warners shelved it. The LP did not set the LP charts ablaze and of course most of the bands fell off the bandwagon and sat by the side of the road waiting for the next one! Me and Ed laughed it off down the pub!

After an age Eddie gave up trying to get Warners to let him release ‘McGoohan’ himself independently. They warned him not to re-record it but he did and he planned to put it out himself. By now he had decided that he did not really want to run WHAAM! With me. I had a lot of plans for other groups but Ed quite reasonably wanted to concentrate on The Times.

After playing about 8 TIMES gigs we went our separate ways again with Ed setting up the ARTPOP label. I still have fond memories of those gigs. Especially the ROCK GARDEN when we dressed up in full JAM REGALIA… it was very funny! Another memorable one was THE CLINIC at Gossips club which was run then as it is now by the DOCTOR (of THE MEDICS). That gig was a complete HAPPENING!

I released the next TVPs single ‘THREE WISHES’ soon after. It was an unreleased track from the sessions with Mark and Bernie. The b-side was the title track of the first lp ‘And Don’t The Kids Just Love It!’ which did not appear on the lp strangely… and the different and original version of GEOFFREY INGRAM complete with primitive CLAPTRAP EFFECTS.

Rough Trade preferred the version without hence it being omitted. At the same time I was working through all the unreleased recordings featuring different line ups. It was not stuff considered not good enough to release. It is simply a fact that we always record more songs than can be included on an lp. Eventually these recordings made up the 3rd lp… ‘THEY COULD HAVE BEEN BIGGER THAN THE BEATLES’. I like that lp very much. Somebody once told me it reminded them of their scrapbooks which they made as a child and still kept and looked at fondly from time to time. I think that’s a nice description.

Having worked on WHAAM! For a while releasing singles by THE PASTELS, DR. AND MEDICS and DIRECT HITS I decided to get writing again. At the Autumn of ’82 Mark Flunder (A wide boy spiv and crazed TVPs fan) was invited to join as bassist. We made our comeback at The Dive club in London which was run by the Le MAT group. At the end of the year we pulled off our spoof ‘last ever gig shock!’ Nobody spotted that it coincided with THE JAM doing their last gig on the same night! Many tears were shed at The Moonlight club and we went home feeling very guilty so I kept out of town for a while!

Near Xmas ’82 we were invited to headline a huge Italian indoor Festival. Apparently it was a party for Italy’s version of the FACE magazine which was celebrating something or other. I had got a little bored playing as a 3-piece so I asked an old friend Dave Musker to join on keyboards, Joe this time inviting himself back into the group! I did not mind as he had just purchased a very nice 12-string guitar. The trip was awful. Dave and new drummer Jeff Bloom went ahead of me, Mark and Joe but we got stranded in Venice and arrived to meet a very pale and worried Dave and Jeff! Everybody in the audience was completely drugged up and we eventually played at about 3am. The promoter then told us that our return tickets were not valid for another week so we beat him up in frustration! Eventually he disappeared and miraculously appeared with new tickets despite the ticket agency being shut at the weekend. We later learned he had forged them! To be honest the new TVPs sound was losing its appeal for me. I was writing simple songs which were often brutalized by having too many different ideas from other band members. I delayed recording for as long as I could. I was probably hoping that Joe and Dave would leave. Eventually though we started recording for a new lp… I tried to be subtle and let the others know that I was only asking them to help on the lp but at times I felt very removed from the situation. The recordings were made in June ’83. After Drummer Mark Sheppard left to join ROBYN HITCHCOCK the TVPs disappeared from the live scene for a while. Me, Mark Flunder, Joe and Dave practiced without a drummer. Looking back I wanted Dave to play keyboards and I wanted Joe’s enthusiasm but I must admit that I let Joe take over responsibility for the group. I don’t know what was on my mind at the time. TVPs had become very popular in Europe but I was beginning to feel that it was becoming a chore to have to write. I wanted to try something different so I took a decision to record WITHOUT a drummer. People thought I was crazy but I was sick of the same old guitar-bass-drums bit. The lp that emerged was THE PAINTED WORD. The tracks that do feature drums were actually demos recorded the previous year with M. Sheppard drumming. ‘A SENSE OF BELONGING’ was one of the demos. Geoff Travis at Rough Trade heard it and fell off his seat and promised me all the things that he’s since given to MORRISSEY if I let Rough Trade release it. After our previous relationship I could only admire his nerve! It sounded like R.T. had finally recognized us as serious artistes! Next day though I took the sleeve to show him and he looked at it in horror. The sleeve depicts a battered child. It makes the point that violence is an everyday occurrence, That violence comes in many varied and horrific ways. It was used solely to make the point that Government leaders who toy with Nuclear warfare (The basis of the lyrics of the song) are by no means the only offenders when it comes to extremes of Human Humiliation. Violence is close to home. The Bomb is something to worry about but that does not mean we should close our eyes to other shocking things… I.E. Child Battering. Some idiots took the sleeve to be some sort of shock cheapo tactic to cause ‘HEAVY UPWARD SALES TREND MAAN!’ Consequently it got released but was neatly swept under the carpet. Despite getting excellent reviews from intelligent journalists who had always known we were an intelligent Group. Rough Trade decided that they did not want to release THE PAINTED WORD. I had no intention of offering it to them anyway! I was quite happy at the thought of releasing it on WHAAM! I was very tired of certain journalists heaping praise on Rough Trade for releasing music by bands like us, like the SWELL MAPS and others. Rough Trade never paid a penny towards recording it was always paid by ourselves but they took the credit.

Disaster struck though when the Pressing Plant who manufacture WHAAM! Took us to court for money we owed. They stopped WHAAM! From being able to release anymore product until we paid back what we owed. There was little I could do except try to think of a way of raising some money. In the meantime Joe could see I was getting depressed so he introduced Jeff and suggested we get back to playing live. I said o.k. We played our first dates as a five piece at the LIVING ROOM club. Jeff could not make it back from holiday in time so TONY CONWAY from MOOD SIX played! He admitted afterwards that he had never played drums before – or since I imagine!… in actual fact PHIL WARD the dishy hunk! and lead singer of MOOD 6 also played Drums for us on one occasion! Seven months after recording the LP we returned from ITALY to find our publisher had received an offer from ILLUMINATED RECORDS to release the LP. Reluctantly I agreed. I had by now lost interest in the record anyway. I still am proud of the LP but once something is done I’m looking for something new to get on with. Illuminated had no real idea of our popularity abroad. They thought we were just exaggerating and consequently did little to promote it. It sold very well though. While waiting for its release we played 12 dates in Europe and were astonished to find our gigs packed but with handsome young hipsters in Paisley and way out Psychedelic Clothes! It was as if they had just discovered the Sixties. On return though the inevitable differences between me and Joe arose with the outcome that he quit and took Dave with him. What will Dan do now?

To be continued…

All the material is (c) the author and / or the publisher.