More Bands In Places They Shouldn’t Be

Following my two previous posts in this series, the first here and the second here, today I offer you some more television appearances from bands whose pluggers and record labels booked them onto tv programmes that may in retrospect have been a little ill advised. The mid 80s was a golden period for this sort of thing with bands miming on lunchtime television, early evening chat shows and children’s tv in order to shift more singles.  

In October 1985 Prefab Sprout appeared on Hold Tight, filmed and broadcast by one of Scotland’s regional independent broadcasters. The actual appearance was at Alton Towers, the Staffordshire theme park. Prefab Sprout are playing their classic 80s single When Love Breaks Down. It doesn’t look especially warm. The crowd are seated in a temporary seating, swaying on demand and largely out of time. Paddy McAloon attempts to hide his embarrassment behind a pair of aviators. The band spend much of their time concentrating on remaining steady on the swaying, springy platforms. 

On 5th January 1980 The Clash, who famously refused to do Top Of The Pops because they wouldn’t mime, were appeared on TISWAS, ITV’s Saturday morning kids tv show.  The four members are interviewed by Sally James and offer a copy of London Calling as a prize for a lucky viewer. Sally keeps talking, presumably in an attempt to make sure no one swears. Topper is clearly stoned. At two minutes thirty nine seconds Paul leans over to spit on the floor in front of a group of small children. It’s all over fairly quickly, probably to everyone’s relief. 

In 1990 Ice T appeared on BBC2’s art programme The Late Show. Nothing that incongruous in some ways- it was an arts programme after all- but somehow Ice T, at that point the leading exponent of gangsta rap, guns, chains and women in tiny bikinis, appearing on a fairly staid and stiff arts programme more used to hosting panel discussions of the writings of Salman Rushdie, is all kinds of dissonance. In this section, closing the programme, Ice T does Lethal Weapon. His rapping, done live, is flawless and the sense of LA menace is palpable in front of a completely, sterile empty BBC studio. 

The show was already a music lover’s dream, if not for the right reasons. In November 1989 The Stone Roses were riding the crest of a very large wave and pitched up on The Late Show midweek, an accident waiting to happen. The programme went out live, Tracey MacLeod introducing the fourpiece playing Made Of Stone live, the band looking impossibly cool and sounding on it as well. As they hit the first chorus John Squire’s guitar hits the BBC’s noise limiters and the sound cuts out suddenly. Drummer Reni begins giggling. Ian begins to ask questions. Tracey returns to the camera and apologises, moving on to the next item (about photographer Martin Parr). ‘They ask you to come and then they mess you about’, Ian complains behind her. ‘We’re wasting our time lads’, he goes on, and then louder, ‘Amateurs, amateurs’. It is brilliant TV, and let’s be honest, much better and more memorable than if they’d just played Made Of Stone. 

To A Popular Tune

I was watching another of Guy Garvey’s From The Vaults series the other day while doing the ironing. From The Vaults is on Sky Arts on the Freeview channels, a series compiling clips and performances from the wealth of material the UK’s independent TV channels- Granada, Tyne Tees etc- amassed in the 70s and 80s, some unseen since broadcast. It is amazing to see what bands were willing to do to plug their latest single- Prefab Sprout miming at Alton Towers, trying to balance while standing and playing When Love Breaks Down on hydraulic platforms sticks in the mind. 

As well as doing episodes based on specific years the producers have started to put together some themed episodes, an electronic music one and a Britpop one. As I was ironing I didn’t feel the need to be paying 100% attention or to be too challenged so I stuck the Britpop one on. Several things struck me. How long ago the mid 90s look on TV now for one- it was three decades ago so that’s to be expected but it looks like it too. The fact it’s all filmed on tape not digitally makes it look dated and everyone, roughly the same age as me, looks so young and fresh faced. There are some very mid 90s clothes too. Second, there were some bands who struck lucky during that period, signed big deals with major labels, got some press behind them, had huge amounts of money thrown at them but sounded very much like the kind of band you hear in pubs. Thirdly, out of all the acts shown Suede took the crown by some distance with a performance of their debut single The Drowners

The Drowners

The Drowners is a blast, thumping drums with a dirty, loose, gritty, string bending Bernard Butler guitar riff and Brett singing about illicit sex and being taken over.

I kind of missed out on Suede at the time. I read the music press every week so was well aware of them but my head and tastes were not in that area at all in 1992, I just wasn’t tuning into grimy, glam inspired indie at that point. I did like and buy Animal Nitrate in 1993 and then loved Trash in 1996 but my Suede collection is pretty small, a few singles and a Best Of CD.