Diary of a young man
by Alan McGee, from Communication Blur #1 - 1983

1976
Sixties Pop Fan 17 year old Daniel Treacy feels something stirring in London. Daniel lives in his Mum and Dad's council house 7 floors up off the King's road. All the young kids his own age are looking and acting differently. Maybe they know something he doesn't.

1977
Daniel hears about this "Punk" thing and quite likes the idea behind it, could they be as good as the "Strawberry Alarm Clock"? He wants to go to the Roundhouse on Sunday afternoon Punk Gigs but he's to frightened to in case it's violent. He takes a chance anyway and goes. The music's crap! Daniel thinks he can do better and buys his first guitar. Forms his own group with his pal "Eddie" called "Teen 78". Daniel learns to write Pop Songs drawing on his fave 60's groups and the vital music of the period: Jam, Clash and Buzzcocks.

1978
Daniel releases his first single "14th Floor". This single is Dan at his most amateurish and is complete and utter classic Pop! Dave McCulloch hails it as Runner Up Single of the Week in Sounds. The rest of the press fail to understand humour or the tragedy of the song. Oh what a wacky guy Dan is! In November Daniel reaches for the sky and grabs a star. "Part time Punks" is written and released, the group are now re-named Television Personalities. The press latch on to it and Daniel and Edward get their 15 mins of Fame. The record sells 24.000. Television Personalities all pack in their jobs and do music full time.

1979
Rough trade's Geoff Travis, one of the few A & R men with any insight, realizes the pop genius of "Television Personalities" and signs them to Rough Trade. "Part Time Punks" is re-released on Rough Trade. Daniel Treacy at this time is now writing the best Pop Songs in England along with Paul Weller. John Peel offers Dan a session. Peel plays it again and again.

1980
"Smashing Time" is the first real T.V.P single on Rough Trade. The pop press ignore it out of hand. This is possibly the most underated T.V.P single. A month later Daniel releases "I know where Syd Barret lives" it sells 18.000 copies "Syd Barret" charts in Holland. In the United Kingdom T.V.P's are still largely ignored and are considered by the press and the public as "Wacky Funsters" who have taken too much acid. Television Personalities release theit 1st LP "And don't the kids just love it" towards the end of the year. In my personal opinion this LP contains one of the best Love Songs ever in "Silly Girl". The Album is an absolute Pop Classic. Even by Daniel's standards it will be hard to match. The LP sells 12.000 copies "Television Personalities" continue to grow in popularity in Europe. Daniel and Edward consider moving to Amsterdam but decide to stay in London. "And don't the kids" is probably the definitive Television Personalities Pop Artifact!

1981
Daniel releases his Psychedelic LP "Mummy you're not watching me" on his own label "Whaam". Johnny Waller of Sounds is the only person in the press to give T.V.P's space, he describes the LP as "Swell Maps doing their favourite Paul Weller and Ray Davies songs". T.V.P's play the Venue in London that June. As a personal opinion this T.V.P performance was one of these utterly inspirational things you see 2 or 3 times in your life. The last one for me before this was "The Clash" in 1977 at the Glasgow Apollo. Supporting the Nightingales, Dan turned the stage into a 60's cafe set with about 40 people on stage with them. As T.V.P's performed, their friends were feeding the audience from stage with bananas and drugs, offering them coffee, showing home movies, painting pictures, reading poetry and at the end of the set Daniel saws his rickenbacker in half.

1982
Dan activates Whaam onto a bigger level and signs "Dr & The Medics" and the very wonderful Pastels. Edward now has left and started his own group The Times, who release "Pop Goes Art" LP on Whaam. Dan then kicks Eddie off Whaam. No one knows why. Daniel starts his own club in the summer called "The Spontanious Underground" which he runs from Spats in Oxford Street. The management of the club put a stop to "The Spontanious Underground" after 8 weeks because they find it hard to come to terms with the Club Goers sitting in Cardboard Boxes eating yoghurt and blowing bubbles at each other. Daniels tours Holland, Germany and France in a package tour with Nico and Theatre of Hate. TVP's play the Milky Way in Amsterdam on their own, 1200 people turn up to see them. Dan nearly loses his bottle. Fresh back from their trek in Europe the Dutch "Face" plays the "Dive" in the Strand. They are magnificient. TVP's release "Three Wishes" and the words make a friend of mine in Scotland cry. Daniel is still touching nerves. I start a club called "Communication Club" for my favourite groups known and unknown. Television Personalities play twice. Again TVP's are an experience, different on each occasion, the way it should be. Daniel releases "They could have been bigger than the Beatles". People laugh at the title, what a wacky bunch! I don't think Daniel's joking. He more than realises the potential of his songs. Steve Sutherland, one of the few music journalists with any enthusiasm, raves about the LP

1983
The world wakes up to Daniel Treacy's Pop Genius and gives him the recognition he deserves

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