Television formed in the early days of the New York punk scene with Tom Verlaine, Richard Lloyd, Richard Hell, and Billy Ficca. Fred Smith, who played a short time with Blondie, later replaced Richard Hell. They transcended the typical three chord punk style with their unique guitar work and song writing and became more known as an art rock band. Marquee Moon, their debut album is considered a ground breaking work. Television was the first original rock band to take the CBGB stage. Their manager, Terry Ork convinced Hilly Kristal to give them a gig on a Sunday night, since it was the club’s slowest night. Today the band members concentrate on solo projects.
Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Richard Lloyd in Punk Magazine Special Tribute to CBGB, Fall 2007
… We said at that first meeting with Hilly, “Could we play here?”
He said, “Oh, I don’t know, what kind of music do you play?”
We said, “We play rock ‘n roll! It’s really original!”
He said, “I don’t want any rock n’ roll in here.”
We said, “It’s not like anything you’d think of. It’s not heavy metal, it’s not really loud, it’s completely original.”
Hilly said, “Well, I don’t know.”
“If you listen to it, you’d hear country, you’d hear blues – elements of it, but it’s orginal! It’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before.”
Hilly said, “I don’t know.”
Terry Ork, Television’s manager, and Richard Lloyd approached Hilly the following week to try again. Terry said, “Please let my band play here. I’ll guarantee a full house.”
Hilly vacillated and Terry added, “Look, what’s your worst night, business-wise?”
Hilly said, “Sunday.”
Terry said, “Give us a Sunday and I promise you your bar tab will exceed your best night because of everyone I am going to invite. If your bar tab doesn’t match your best night, I will by drinks for everyone in the house.”
Hilly couldn’t argue with that, so he gave us a Sunday …
CBGB recommended Television links:
[...] a group called the Neon Boys — Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell and Billy Ficca before they started Television (the first rock band to play at CBGB, in 1974). Hell was the guy who brought the safety pins and [...]
Pingback by SEX sells (so do fashion, art, music and controversy): Malcolm McLaren (1946-2010) « Franorama World — April 10, 2010 @ 2:36 am
Well Richard Hell was quite the innovator of the group, where as Tom was focused more solely on the music. Neon Boys is definitely worth its credit, and of course The Heartbreakers certainly needs to be mentioned, bringing the minds of both Television and the then disbanded New York Dolls, with its members Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan who joined with Hell to form the band.
Comment by SerpsDog — April 21, 2010 @ 7:59 pm