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Television

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Television: The Blow Up (ROIR)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 11 December 1982

BACK IN the mid-'70s then-rock journalist Patti Smith penned the following valentine to Tom Verlaine's Television: "Boycott rock and roll on TV – who wants ...

Prime Time: Television

Retrospective by Tom Hibbert, The History of Rock, 1983

THE RULES OF punk/new-wave music laid down in 1976-77 stated that bands should avoid displays of technical virtuosity, should profess a loathing for rock’s history ...

Audio interviews

Tom Verlaine (1987)

Interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages audio, March 1987

The former Television frontman on the making of his most recent album Flash Light; his lyrical concerns; his ignorance of current rock; on being a lead guitarist; revisiting Television's Marquee Moon and Adventure; the pleasures of making and listening to music; playing with other people, and his lack of contact with old pals Patti Smith and Richard Lloyd.

File format: mp3; file size: 73.2mb, interview length: 1h 16' 17" sound quality: ***

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The New York Club Scene

Report by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, May 1974

THE NEW York club scene had its heyday during the mid-sixties. On Long Island, the Action House ruled over the suburban scene featuring house bands ...

New York City Rock: Tacky!

Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 July 1974

— that's how the Americans describe those freaky New York bands like Wayne County and Teenage Lust. Chris Charlesworth, guided by photographer Bob Gruen, takes ...

Down In The Scuzz With The Heavy Cult Figures

Report by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 7 June 1975

C.B.G.B. is a toilet. An impossibly scuzzy little club buried somewhere in the sections of the Village that the cab-drivers don't like to drive through. ...

New York: The Sound Of '75

Report by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 8 November 1975

"BEAT ON the brat, beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat..." ...

Punk Rock: Its Day Will Come

Report by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 25 January 1976

IF YOU thought Jefferson Airplane was a weird name, let some of these drop off your tongue. Talking Heads. Tuff Darts. Ramones. Planets. Heartbreakers. Shirts. ...

Television

Profile and Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, February 1976

By Dave Schulps with A. Mindswallow *All puns unintentional ...

Television: Tom Verlaine

Interview by Alan Betrock, New York Rocker, February 1976

I WAS BORN in Morristown, New Jersey. Actually I was born in the hospital there but I spent the first few years in this lake ...

New York: Plug in to the Nerve-ends of the Naked City

Report by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 27 March 1976

In downtown Manhattan the rock 'n' roll war rages on as potential crown princes of Punkdom battle for recognition.. NICK KENT interprets the action ...

Television: Symbolist Coffee Break: A Dream Date With T.V.

Interview by Wesley Strick, Gig, September 1976

IF IT CAN boast nothing more, Television bears the distinction of being Manhattan's most written-up, unrecorded band. Given the availability of press hype, you don't ...

The Punk Rock Machine

Report and Interview by Lester Bangs, Screw, November 1976

IT'S A WARM New York night in the spring of 1976, and there are a lot of places that the press moguls who publish, edit, ...

Victor Bockris goes to the Airport with Robert Mapplethorpe

Interview by Victor Bockris, New York Rocker, December 1976

SATURDAY OCTOBER 16th 2P.M. Robert Mapplethorpe is going to California on a T.W.A. flight. I am arriving at his fifth floor Bond Street studio loft ...

Television: CBGBs, New York NY

Live Review by Stephen Demorest, New York Daily News, 29 December 1976

Television, but not TV ...

Television: Marquee Moon (Elektra/Asylum)

Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 5 February 1977

CUT THE crap, junior, he sez and put the hyperbole on ice. ...

Television: Marquee Moon (Elektra K52046)

Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 12 March 1977

Screen gems ...

Television: Marquee Moon (Elektra K52046) *****

Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 12 March 1977

Do Not Adjust Your Set ...

Peter Gabriel: The Palladium, New York

Live Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 26 March 1977

Gabriel knows what he likes ...

Tom Verlaine: How Pleasant (?) To Know Mr Verlaine

Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 26 March 1977

OPINION: Tom Verlaine is a great songwriter, the next seminal rock charismatic, a genius.OPINION: Tom Verlaine is an egomaniac, a back-stabber, a thankless paranoid. ...

NY Punk

Report by Kris Needs, ZigZag, April 1977

Well, we got through to the second issue despite opposition from the hippies. Anyway, here we are...and it's about time we went Over The Top ...

Television: More Than Just A Boob Tube

Interview by Stephen Demorest, Creem, May 1977

VENUS: The oldest song on Television's Marquee Moon album is about the arms of Venus de Milo. ...

Television: TV Times

Interview by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 7 May 1977

Television's Tom Verlaine talks to Caroline Coon in Houston ...

Television/Blondie: Apollo, Glasgow

Live Review by Tim Lott, Sounds, 28 May 1977

Television revelation ...

Television: A Bite At The Big Apple

Interview by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 28 May 1977

FIVE FLOORS above the deranged contours of Glasgow a dismembered light in the three am thickness. ...

Pimp-Rock?

Comment by Lisa Jane Persky, New York Rocker, June 1977

EVERYTHING happens to us all so quickly these days that even before something is completed, it is dated, labels must be attached for definition and ...

Television, Blondie: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 4 June 1977

AH, THE Watusi. ...

Television/Blondie: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 4 June 1977

Television: I preferred the other channel ...

The Possibilities of Punk

Comment by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 10 October 1977

UP UNTIL about six months ago, CBGB's was the only rock bar I ever felt comfortable in. All you needed was a long scarf and ...

New York Lights Up With Soggy Matches!

Overview by Robert Duncan, Creem, November 1977

A Consumer Guide To Rock's Last Drag by Robert Drizzle Duncan ...

Television: City Hall, Newcastle

Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 1978

I mean, it can’t be that difficult to come up with 800 words on any gig. A beginning, a middle and an end with a ...

Television: Adventure

Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 8 April 1978

NEW YORK, New York. New albums falling down like rain. La Belle Smith's rock 'n' roll army third wave invasion. Uncle Lou's first street (ha, ...

Television, The Only Ones: City Hall, Newcastle

Live Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 15 April 1978

Chilling Verlaine ...

Television: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 17 April 1978

TELEVISION, THE New York rock group that scored notable triumphs a year ago with records and concerts which mixed ferocity and charm in unusually well-balanced ...

Television, The Only Ones: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 22 April 1978

LAST YEAR, Television arrived in Britain under a shower of gilded prose and hyperbole claiming that they were the hottest thing since the invention of ...

Tom Verlaine: In Search of Adventure

Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, May 1978

IT HAS BEEN over a year since Television's debut album, Marquee Moon, and for the band's American fans most of that time has been a ...

Television: Adventure (Elektra 6E-133)

Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 1978

Television Sends a Pale New Signal ...

Television: Adventure (Elektra)

Review by Dave Schulps, Crawdaddy!, June 1978

TELEVISION USE the energy and the imagery of the Big Apple, cross-pollinating them with a musical vision akin to what was coming out of the ...

Television: Breaking Out of the Inner Circle

Interview by Toby Goldstein, High Fidelity, June 1978

DESPITE HEALTHY critical acclaim for its 1977 debut LP Marquee Moon, Television has yet to become a household word. Leader Tom Verlaine seems to further ...

Knock, Knock, Knocking: Television's Adventure

Review by Deborah Frost, The Boston Phoenix, 6 June 1978

HE'S THE KID in the back of every high school classroom - the one you never thought could talk. The one you try to remember ...

Television: Roxy, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 24 June 1978

MOST PUNK bands, wary of media labels, seem to spend half their energy denying that they're punk bands, but Television, which closes tonight at the ...

T.V. Tube Heart: An interview with Tom Verlaine

Interview by John Tobler, ZigZag, July 1978

I get the impression that the first album was the album that the record company wanted you to make and the new album is more ...

Television (1974-1978)

Obituary by Alan Betrock, New York Rocker, September 1978

SO TELEVISION has broken up and most people want to know why. ...

Changing Channels: Television Breakup

Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, November 1978

I FOUND OUT, in attempting to sift through the ashes of Television's demise, that it was almost as unpleasant and impossible a situation as investigating ...

Life After TV: An Interview with Richard Lloyd

Interview by John Tobler, ZigZag, November 1978

TELEVISION were one of my ultra-favourite groups of the past couple of years. The music they made has always seemed to me to combine the ...

Tom Verlaine: Happiness Is A Guitar Called Fender...

Interview by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 13 October 1979

...And how to make original rock & roll with it in the late '70s is your problem. It's also TOM VERLAINE'S ...

Tom Verlaine: looking for life

Interview by Jim Farber, Rolling Stone, 20 March 1980

Ex-Television star's fall and rise ...

The Bowery Beat: CBGBs and All That

Retrospective by Tom Hibbert, The History of Rock, 1982

FROM 1970 ONWARDS, the US rock mainstream grew increasingly staid, predictable and unimaginative. On the surface, the American scene appeared to offer nothing but sleepy ...

Tom Verlaine: The Venue, London

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 19 June 1982

WE YOUNG Rimbauds came for diamond spears and the licks of an icepick and went away with a few mangy cardboard boxes. I hope that ...

Richard Lloyd: The Well-Tempered Guitarist

Interview by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 16 November 1985

When RICHARD LLOYD turned off the Television, he switched to drug and alcohol abuse. A nervous breakdown followed... RICHARD GRABEL hears how the new Field ...

Punk in New York: Blitzkreig Bop

Retrospective and Interview by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 15 February 1986

"And one fine morning she turns on a New York-station / And doesn't believe what she hears at all / She started dancing to that ...

Television: Socket To Me

Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, 1992

Fourteen years after they split, New York's noo-wave punksters Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd have repaired Television. Nick Coleman is electrified by their new album. ...

Television: Return of the Valve Heads

Interview by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 19 September 1992

HUNCHED AROUND a huge table which dominates the fancily decorated room that their new record company, Capitol, has allocated to them for interviews, the four ...

Television: One Big Happy Family…

Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, October 1992

...with child abuse, divorce and incest. Television can't agree why they split up and now they can't work out if they've re-formed. "We're still the ...

Television

Retrospective and Interview by Ira Robbins, MOJO, February 2001

TELEVISION ENDED PRETTY much as they'd begun, with a show at a small Manhattan club. It was July 29, 1978, on a night Television myth ...

Gimme Friction: Television at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 21 April 2001

ONE MOMENT, more than any other during this one-off London show on Easter Sunday, summed up the nature of the curious rock beast that is ...

Television: Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, June 2001

IT WAS the Sixties that divided London and New York punk: just traces to be kicked over, fathers to be killed, went the official line ...

Television: Lightning Strikes

Retrospective by Rob Hughes, Uncut, November 2001

Lightning strikes with Marquee Moon, Television opened the door to post-punk ...

Television: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 June 2002

IT WAS SOMETHING of a coup to recruit Television for David Bowie's Meltdown festival. The glacial new-wavers made rock history with their 1977 debut album, ...

Television

Interview by Fred Mills, Detroit Metro Times, 22 October 2003

"'JAM PUNKS'?!? Uh-oh..." Is the guttural noise coming over the phone line a mock groan or the sound of genuine exasperation? I honestly can't tell, ...

Television: Marquee Moon (Expanded); Adventure (Expanded) (Rhino)

Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, November 2003

BEFORE THE Sex Pistols there was New York's Lower East Side: trash aesthetes with short hair, kinky vixens in B-movie stilettos. Kids with minor drug ...

Television: Marquee Moon/Adventure

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 2003

FEW BANDS can claim to be lithe, literate and musically gifted, but for a brief moment Television blended all three to perfection. ...

Richard Lloyd: TV Personalities

Interview by Fred Mills, Harp, December 2003

RICHARD LLOYD entertains no illusions regarding the estimable legacy he, fellow guitarist Tom Verlaine, drummer Billy Ficca and bassist Fred Smith forged in Television, both ...

Television: Parque De Serralves, Porto

Live Review by Mike Barnes, MOJO, August 2004

The group's first ever Portuguese show, in the grounds of Museu de Serralves, Porto's Museum of Modern Art. ...

Heaven or Las Vegas: CBGBs closes down

Report by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 8 July 2005

Laura Barton on what the closure of the world's most famous punk-rock club, CBGB's, says about the state of New York's live music scene. ...

The Mapplethorpe Effect: Patti, Polaroids and Punk

Retrospective by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, 15 January 2010

IT WOULD NOT BE outrageous to propose that the two greatest albums of the punk tsunami featured cover images by arguably the most important post-war ...

see also Richard Hell

see also Richard Lloyd

see also Tom Verlaine

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