In praise of "TV Stars" by the skids!

The last Skids album was without Stuart, wasn't it?

Marc, surely you could clue us in with that talking bit!

Even I can't remember it verbatim, and I once "sang" it with Raw Deal. That was nigh on thirty years ago, mind.

I can't quite make it all out.

"This is, this is the political part. We do not speak (?) politics to you today! OK, cheers. Albert Tatlock, but we're fucking tired of it..."

(Had also forgotten "Sweet Suburbia", which extends my Skids collection a little further back. Everything after "Charles", in that case.)

Brilliant! thanks!

Hey that Skids gig was in my first week of Uni! I was there!

I hadn't listened to them for years until a few weeks ago when I saw the newest best of for £3 in Fopp. I picked it up since I don't have the albums any more, and it's surprisingly great! I'd forgotten about the likes of Circus Games, Charade etc completely. I have never knowingly heard 'Charles' before.

Also, if they were 'gettin sick of it' while recording it for the b-side, imagine how sick of it they were by the time they played Reading Uni and beyond!

"Charles" was released on some Scottish indie label (No Bad?) before they signed to Virgin and as such may well be the only one of their records that's actually worth a few quid. The other tracks on it were "Reasons" and their other rather silly song "Test Tube Babies" - which John Peel also played quite a few times iirc.

Nope. Tried selling it on e-bay, opening bid £3. Not a sausage.

OK, here's an tale I told a while back, but this seems a good place to replay!

Great moments explained : How the sex pistols got to play Johnny B goode that time...

How they got Johnny Rotten to sing that version of Johnny B goode.

I played "Iona" last night; it sounded like a post-punk "Sailing"/"Mull of Kintyre". Can't say I warmed to it, but then I do have unresolved Bagpipe Issues.

Don't drag us into your private hell!

"Fields," the single prior to "Iona," had EVERY radio DJ scratching their heads in a WTF sense.

Wasn't it the "Iona" promo where they were going to have a big bask in the hebrides, and John Peel really wanted to go, but felt honour bound not to as he hated the single so much?

Actually, I remember now:

He got an invite to a press launch in the outer hebrides, and was all prepared to go (or was at least very tempted), only to find it was Virgin Marketing's idea of a joke, and it wasn't true.

Yeah, how to get your record played!

Oh, do you lot remember "Sweet Surburbia" which had a "weird gimmic", but no-one knew what it was?

Apparently, the edge of the record was razor sharp, and was supposed to wear out the sleeve from the inside.

TATLOCKGoodnight!

So how many names on this single are even remembered thesedays?

Ena Sharples!

David Hunter!

Meg Mortimer! Stanley Ogden! ALBERT TATLOCK! ALBERT TATLOCK!

Johnn? PEEL!

Sandy Richardson!

Annie Walker!

I was thinking of this a few months back when there was a splodgenessabounds/"punk pathetique" thread, wondering if it owed anything to this song. But if it was a meathead anthem then I guess they were very separate scenes.

(itt a not-quite-young person tries to make sense of different times)

Now, here's a thing...

Note that I had the "Charles" single for sale on e-bay a few years ago, not one bid.

I look on popsike, there's people having won auctions for £100, £29 and £19 ...

Now, I look on e-bay proper, one sold recently for £3.50 which is what I'd expect.

So, what of the three I mentioned above? Are they all fakey bidders? Somebody trying to get popsike to list them as 'pricey things' by fake-bidding their own?

This track is a classic, of course!

And now, "Scared to dance" has come out as a three-CD deluxe edition.

Cd1 the album plus singles etc.

Cd2 early demos

CD3 HAS THE LIVE GIG THAT THAT TV STARS WAS TAKEN FROM!

Ahem. Hray.

Will check out but the big box set that came out last year satisfied my Skids needs.

It was still the rule back then that if a live track was issued on a single, they had to say "Goodnight" at the end. Like it was the last track.

― Mark G, Wednesday, May 23, 2007 1:08 PM (ten years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Funny thing is, he doesn't say "Goodnight" (or, to be more precise, "ALBERTTATLOCKGoodnight" - its a sly edit/overdub taken from his actual farewell two songs later.