Television Personalities – in session for John Peel – August 20, 1980 – BBC Radio 1 –
Television Personalities in session tonight; their first (and only) session for John Peel and recorded at BBC Radio 1 on August 20, 1980. An homage to 60s Mod-revival, some Psychedelia with Indie and New-Wave, they managed to cover a lot of bases within the framework of one group. Starting in 1978, initially as a Punk outfit, before branching out into other areas. Television Personalities had a good long run their first time around – from 1978 – 1998. And then with a five year hiatus, owing to a prison sentence and incarceration for shoplifting by founder and singer-songwriter Dan Treacy, as part of a bigger picture including drug addition and falling apart as the result. The band resumed in 2004, when Treacy was released and the band continued on until 2011 when it was time to call it quits for real. Treacy was later diagnosed with a brain tumor and an operation in 2011 to remove it and had been hospitalized for a length of time and as of 2016 was still recovering, although it was also reported he was planning on resuming his work and pickup up Television Personalities where it left off.
Their debut album “. . .And Don’t The Kids Just Love It” was released in 1981 to generally favorable reviews. This session comes prior to their debut and the only vinyl they had released up to this time was their debut single “Where’s Bill Grundy Now”, which came out in 1978.
A band with certainly a degree up obstacles to overcome, but also a band who were highly regarded by audiences as well as the press. If you aren’t familiar with them, check out this 1980 session and go exploring through their 11 studio albums. If you are familiar, you may have missed this Peel session – in which case, enjoy and play loud.
