Television Personalities

Britains Television Personalities enjoyed one of the new wave eras longest, most erratic, and most far-reaching careers. Over the course of a musical evolution that led them from wide-eyed shambling pop to the outer reaches of psychedelia and back, they directly influenced virtually every major pop uprising of the period, with artists as diverse as feedback virtuosos the Jesus and Mary Chain, twee pop titans the Pastels, and lo-fi kingpins Pavement readily acknowledging the Television Personalities inspiration. The Television Personalities were the brainchild of singer/songwriter Dan Treacy, who grew so inspired by the nascent punk movement that he recorded a 1977 single, 14th Floor, with his friends in the group O Level. The BBCs John Peel became a vocal supporter of the group, which was soon dubbed the Television Personalities. A year later they issued the Wheres Bill Grundy Now? EP, featuring their lone hit, Part-Time Punks. Always a loose-knit group, the first relatively stable TVP lineup consisted of Treacy, organist/vocalist Ed Ball, and guitarist Joe Foster, who recorded the bands 1980 debut, And Dont the Kids Just Love It, a step into psychedelic pop typified by songs like I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives. Treacy and Ball soon founded their own label, Whaam! (later renamed Dreamworld after threats from George Michaels attorneys), to issue 1981s Mummy Your Not Watching Me, which made the Personalities one of the figureheads of a London psychedelia revival. Ball exited around the time of the release of 1982s They Could Have Been Bigger Than the Beatles, a collection of re-recordings along with renditions of the Creations Making Time and Painter Man. Released in 1984, the dark and moody The Painted Word was followed the next year by the live set Chocolat-Art, by which point the TVPs were in dire straits; broke and without a label, they could do little but infrequently perform live for several years, and were forced to watch the C-86/anorak pop groundswell — a movement they directly presaged — from the sidelines. Comprised of Treacy, ex-Swell Map Jowe Head, and drummer Jeffrey Bloom, the band finally won a contract with Fire Records in 1989, and resurfaced later that year with the EP Salvador Dalis Garden Party, followed in 1990 by the mod-flavored Privilege. After a handful of singles and EPs, the Television Personalities issued the 1992 double-LP Closer to God; despite critical approval, the album failed to find an audience, and Treacy reportedly fell prey to depression and drug problems. After several more years of occasional singles, they issued the harrowing I Was a Mod Before You Was a Mod, followed in 1996 by Top Gear. By the time that Dont Cry Baby...Its Only a Movie was released in November of 1998, Treacy had gone missing. Rumors of mental illness, drug abuse, homelessness, and even death were tossed about until finally in 2004 Treacy wrote a letter to Iain Baker, an old friend and DJ at Londons XFM. In it he disclosed that he was incarcerated on a prison boat in Dorset. Following his release in June of 2004, Treacy set about resurrecting the TVPs, playing some gigs and posting a hilarious web journal. Finally, in March of 2006 a new album, My Dark Places, was released on the influential Domino label.