As currently available on dubious looking DVD Collections...
Basically, Peter Cook is the manager of a run down bingo hall, so books bands to fill up his place with young people who he casts a dismissive attitude towards. Chris Hill comes out occasionally and acts like the cool geography teacher that can talk the kids language, and Les Ross is the burger flipping guy in the know.
It seems that Peter Cook got the job by 1) being the king of swearing thanks to his Derek and Clive records, 2) Impressing Mickie Most with his knowledge of obscure bands that even M.Most hadn;t heared of (yep, you guessed, all totally invented by Peter)
It happened on primetime ITV, Saturday night! And when it was great it was perfect Blockheads! Lurkers! The Rezillos! Kate Bush!. And when it wasn't it was baffling. Bonnie Tyler? The Andy Ross band? Eddie Kidd (sings a song about leather biker girls looking scared to death)..
It didnt last. By the end, they were using songs that were left over from earlier shows. But boy, it was great knowing there was another one next week, for a while. eight shows in all.
The DVDs are not great quality for something obviously taped off VH1's recent reruns, bits missing etc (I'm sure a fair few intros were pruned, and a long Suzi Quatro joke about Len Tuckey's Fried Chicken cut completely)
(I played the rezillos and Kate bush clips to Alice and Amber, they want to see the whole lot now. The future is fine)
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 22 August 2005 10:15 (twenty years ago)
Peter Cook was actually reprising his role of running his own nightclub - The Establishment was his own 'satirical' nightclub which he opened in 1962...
These shows really need an 'official' DVD..
― Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Monday, 22 August 2005 10:18 (twenty years ago)
You can get a lot of these shows, as well as old TOTP performances, Old Grey Whistle Test etc on Bit Torrent. Which is presumably what the shysters selling these DVDs did, then converted them to DVD and sell them on Ebay.
http://punktorrents.com
― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Monday, 22 August 2005 11:31 (twenty years ago)