In 1977, Edward Ball formed Television Personalities with fellow Chelsea schoolmate Dan Treacy. They were a ham-fisted pastiche of a punk band, whose ironic swipes at the scene made them anti-heroes, the archetypal cult band.
Ball soon split from Treacy and followed his vision with The Teenage Filmstars and ultimately The Times, a guise which continued well into the 90’s.
Their debut album, Pop Goes Art, was released in 1982 in tandem with the Television Personalities‘ Mummy, You’re Not Watching Me.
While the album is more Herman’s Hermits than The Who, it contained a number of indie-pop masterpieces like Biff! Bang! Pow!, Miss London and I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape.
Biff! Bang! Pow! was also the B-side of The Times’ debut single, Red With Purple Flashes – both titles were tributes to 1960’s legends The Creation, whose pop-art antics and freakbeat 45’s captured Ball’s imagination.
This tallied neatly with the ideas behind Whaam! Records, formed by Treacy and manager Clive Solomon with a label/design in the style of Roy Lichtenstein.
Ed Ball
Paul Damien
John East
Ray Kent
