Formation Treacy was inspired to form the Television Personalities after hearing the
Sex Pistols. He did not prepare set-lists for live performances, preferring to keep the band on their toes. The band struggled to find a name, and early suggestions included the names of mainstream and often ridiculed television hosts such as
Nicholas Parsons,
Russell Harty,
Bruce Forsyth and
Hughie Green, before they decided on the more generic "Television Personalities". written while Treacy was aged 17 and living in a
high-rise building on London's
King's Road. Ed Ball was amazed at the quality of Treacy's writing, and admitted that he "couldn't believe the lyrics. Suddenly, my best friend was coming out with these amazing songs." With the financial backing of his mother, Treacy
hand-pressed 500 copies of "'Where's Bill Grundy Now?", each with a
photocopied sleeve, which he sent to various record companies and radio DJs. The track was
picked up by
John Peel of the BBC who loved the EP and played it repeatedly. Despite this, Treacy had underestimated the costs of production and admitted that his "mum was hassling me to pay back the money."
Mute Records In mid-1980 the Television Personalities, having recruited Joe Foster on bass and Mark Sheppard (known as Empire) on drums, made their live debut. This line-up was short-lived reportedly due to differences between Foster and Sheppard, leading to Foster's departure. Prior to this, Treacy and Sheppard helped out with Foster's solo project, the Missing Scientists, which included
Mute Records head
Daniel Miller. The Television Personalities' first album ''
...And Don't The Kids Just Love It was released in 1981. It set the template for their subsequent career: neo-psychedelia married to an obsession with youth culture of the 1960s. Their second album Mummy Your Not Watching Me
[sic] demonstrated increased psychedelic influences. Their third album, entitled They Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles'' showed Treacy's sense of humour; the TVPs never achieved significant commercial success in the UK, although their albums sold respectably in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. The first three albums featured Treacy and schoolmate
Ed Ball; Ball left the band in 1982 to found
The Times, but rejoined in 2004. According to the critic Ira Robbins, their 1984 album
The Painted Word indicated that the TVPs had "drifted off into spare, droning
psychedelia and ultra-restrained rock that's hauntingly beautiful, like the most delicate moments of
The Velvet Underground." The band were hired that year to support
Pink Floyd guitarist
David Gilmour on the tour for his solo album
About Face, but were fired when they performed their song "I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives", during which Treacy read out
Barrett's real address on stage.
Later years and revival In 1983 the band comprised Treacy, Dave Musker on keyboards, Joe Foster on guitar and Mark Flunder on bass. Jeffrey Bloom joined on drums at a gig in Alan McGee's Living Room club, and shortly afterwards Stephen Bird —AKA Jowe Head— replaced Flunder on bass. This line-up went on the band's first tour of Europe before Foster and Musker left. This left the band as a guitar, bass and drums threesome; Treacy, Head, and Bloom would continue as the Television Personalities for the next 14 years. The band were regulars on the London gig scene and also did several tours of the UK, Europe, the U.S. and Japan. The Chocolate Art and Camping in France live albums were recorded during this time. Various line-up changes and circumstances prevented the recordings for
Privilege from being released until 1990. Their subsequent album
Closer to God was a combination of sixties style pop and darker material, and was similar in tone to
The Painted Word. Treacy later struggled with mental health issues and drug addiction, and from 1998 to June 2004 was incarcerated for theft. He spent time on the prison ship HMP
Weare in Portland Harbour,
Dorset, England. A gig at the Hanbury Ballroom, Brighton on 6 August 2005 ended in chaos after half an hour when Treacy had apparent difficulties with his guitars and mic stand. His bandmates left him on stage, and the gig was halted by the management. His 2006 comeback album
My Dark Places received widespread critical acclaim, including for the single "Velvet Underground". The
NME described the album as a "stunningly original record-harrowing and hilarious in equal amounts", while the BBC wrote that the album "captures the offbeat brilliance that made the TVPs indie legends in the 70s, characterised by Treacy’s endearingly slapdash attitude towards singing in tune and playing in time." He was reportedly seriously ill in October 2011 following surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain. He regained consciousness in December, but remained hospitalised. By 2016 he was still recovering from the surgery, but said he intended to return to music. In January 2018,
Fire Records released the long-lost
Beautiful Despair as the band's twelfth album. It had been recorded in 1990 on a
4-track, ==Legacy==