ARCHIVE
TELEVISION PERSONALITIES
Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out: Radio Sessions 1980-1993
Railing against the ordinary:
Dan Treacy
FIRE
8/10
Dan Treacy and friends’ selected adventures on the airwaves tell a tale of rare genius and sad decline. By Jason Anderson
BEING ahead of one’s own time may seem to be an enviable position. Trouble is, its benefits only surface in the long run. In the short term, it can be a trying business. So while Dan Treacy eventually received the veneration he was due as one of British music’s most singular talents – with everyone from Kurt Cobain to MGMT swearing allegiance to his cause – this compilation suggests that being Television Personalities must have been tough going during many points in their hard-luck story.
Just consider the pressures that surround the first of the three radio sessions (four including the download EP from a 1993 visit to WFMU) collected on Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out. By the time the band were invited for its first and shockingly, only session for John Peel, “Part Time Punks” had already been lionised by the DJ and the music press as a withering satire of the era’s bandwagon-hopping gob-launchers. The four songs they recorded on September 10, 1980, signalled a greater artistic vision, one both post-punk and post-mod. Not only did “Look Back In Anger” and “Silly Girl” somehow synthesise Treacy’s diverse array of touchstones – with John Osborne, Ray Davies and Syd Barrett all high in the pantheon – they bristled with the energy of the Buzzcocks’ best 45s, too.