Sonic Transmission: Television, Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell

At the end of March 1974 Television played for the first time at CBGB, a seedy club on New York's Bowery - and punk rock was born. Before long they would be followed on to the stage there by Patti Smith, the Ramones and Blondie, while Malcom McLaren would see them play and return hotfoot to London with the blueprint for the Sex Pistols. Television's leaders, Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine, had been brought together as teenagers by love of literature and rock and roll - and contempt for almost everything else. After running away from school, they escaped to New York, where they first became renegade poets and then, with Television, re-ignited the rock scene by combining the revolutionary art of the Velvet Underground with the street swagger of the New York Dolls. Television could not contain its twin figureheads for long and Hell left in early 1975. His departure allowed Verlaine to develop the unique combination of meshed guitar lines, urban poetry and primal rock and roll that would lead to 'Marquee Moon', arguably the most striking debut in rock history and an ever-present since then in lists of the best albums ever made. After splitting up in 1978, Television got back together briefly in 1992 and then again in 2001 and are today creating new music that cements their reputation as the most influential band of their generation.NOTE: THIS EDITION HAS A CHAPTER NOT INCLUDED IN THE PRINTED EDITION. THIS EDITION IS NOT ILLUSTRATED Read more