They Could Have Been Bigger Than the Beatles: Television Personalities

By the time they released 1998's Don't Cry Baby, It's Only a Movie, the last record they may ever record--Dan Treacy, the frontman and lone original member of the Television Personalities, was legally declared missing. A self-avowed schizophrenic and junkie, Treacy had for years been spiraling out of control--a fact that, in hindsight, is remarkably clear in the recordings of his final productive years. Treacy had spent years as a victim of an indifferent audience, bankrupt record companies, and regularly collapsing band line-ups--a far cry from the halcyon days as a teenager in Chelsea.

The Television Personalities began in 1977 after 17-year-old Treacy attended his first punk show, was knocked around a bit too much for his tastes, and decided he could do better. Combining the then obviously very vogue Punk sound with more traditional tastes (most notably 60's psychedelia, mod, and British poptones like the Kinks), Treacy and schoolmate Ed Ball began writing and recording with friends the material that would become the first Television Personalities single. Too broke to release the material properly, Treacy pressed "14th Floor" to a handful of white label 45s without even an official name for the band. mailing one to--who else--John Peel, Dan jokingly listed the band members as various British soap stars, and Television Personalities were officially born. Peel naturally played the record a few times, and Treacy was motivated to release the record himself.

The band's uniquely British vision of refinement amongst the rubbish made for a compelling variation on the politics of punk--as there's is a vision more often of a cheeky, clever exploration of social politics than of true rebellion. Their next single, the "Where's Bill Grundy Now?" EP (about the British talk show host made infamous in the annuls of punk by his Sex Pistols interview) was again self-released for the price of 500 pounds (the math of which is clearly documented on the record's sleeve)--and on the strength John Peel's affection for of one of the record's 3 other tracks--the snide, self-deprecating look at Punk-chic "Part Time Punks"--became an incredible hit. the record sold 24,000 copies before the band signed to Rough Trade later that year, and promptly went on to sell another 24,000 upon its re-release.

Treacy and Ball soon went on to record ...and Don't the Kids Just Love It?, what will probably always be remembered as the definitive Television Personalities record, in late 1981--by which time the band's original line-up had already begun to crumble. The record's cover was a clear mark of the band's intention: a stark white backdrop with a black and white photo of supermodel Twiggy and the Avengers' Patrick McNee signifying their clear, minimal vision of 1960s Britain--the only reasonable starting point for the TVPs lengthy career. The album began their clever and career spanning dilettante-ism, with numerous references to popular art culture throughout ("A Picture of Dorian Gray," "I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives," "la Grande Illusion," "Look Back In Anger," etc.). The record is amateurish in all of the best possible ways, and is a clear milemarker for so many bands that followed in its wake.

Following the disappointing turn out from the album's single--the precious twee-precursor "I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives"--Ed and Dan convinced Rough Trade to help them set up their own label, Whaam! Records. The label released the debut of Ed's new band, The Time, an early single by the Pastels, the previously discussed debut by the Marine Girls, as well as the TVPs second record, the markedly psychedelic Mummy Your Not Watching Me. the record continued their pop culture exploitations with songs like "David Hockney's Diaries," "Painting By Numbers" and "Litchenstein Painting"--but did little to raise their profile in Britain. The Could Have Been Bigger Than the Beatles followed, which was more of a weird compilation that a proper record, yet still somehow coming out with about as much coherence as any of their previous records.

By this time Ed Ball had left the band to focus on The Time, and Treacy was left as the lone original member of the band. The two were offered a sum of money for the name of their collective label by people representing a young man named George Michael, and Whaam! soon reconvening under a new label they called Dreamworld. TVPs released one more record on Rough Trade, the celebrated The Painted Word, and took a long recording hiatus. By this time, former Swell Map-er Jowe Head had joined forces with Treacy, and with a handful of other players, toured Europe for a number of years; all while the bands of the C-86 movement--TVPs direct descendants--began to gain speed in the UK. When five years later the band finally began to record, it was decided that the album would be released on Dreamworld. Rough Trade gave Treacy a big advance of money to distribute the record, and neglected to sign a contract. The band got an offer from another record company, Fire, to put out the record, and Treacy accepted. Keeping Rough Trade's money.

The next several years were rocky for the band, as they released singles and songs on no fewer than 20 different labels, amongst innumerable line-up shifts. The band's final two records, I Was a Mod Before You Was a Mod and the previously mentioned Don't Cry... were largely solo Treacy affairs, the joy and buoyance of the band long faded.

Six years after his disappearance, Treacy sent a letter to a friend informing him that he was on his way to jail (the crime is never specified), but that he was interested in the potential of recording some new material if anyone would put up the money. The news of his continued existence is certainly greeted with excitement--but under incredibly emo circumstance, of course. A man so smart and so committed to his work that he trudged through twenty years of thankless indifference, all to end up broke, strung-out, and virtually alone.

They Should have been bigger than the Beatles. alas, Dan Treacy and extended company will just have to settle with being the Greatest Band of All Time.