Re: (TV) NME Review

["Joe Thornton" <joe.thornton@gmx.net>]

Of course I agree with Keith that "Burchill always was a self-important,
talentless loud mouth." And I can't understand why The Guardian still
employs her.

BUT there is some basis for NME's claim for that criticism "effectively
ending the band's career." NME was the most important UK paper for anyone
interested in new-wave music at that time, and I would say that many other
papers took their cues from NME. Probably the second most important paper at
the time was Melody Maker, which, on April 15th, 1978, published a lengthy
interview with Tom Verlaine, by Allan Jones. I've copied some relevant
extracts at the bottom of this message. See what you think.

I didn't read the critiques Tom referred to but I think we can guess what
went on. It's clear that Tom was pretty upset by critics' reaction to
Adventure. Richard, Fred and Billy couldn't fail to be affected as well. And
what about the record companies, and the music biz in general?

The fact that Tom won over most of the UK critics with his solo albums, and
actually went to live in England in 1984, says a lot about the man.

--JoeT

----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Allison" <keith@marquee.demon.co.uk>

> In message <000001c38932$8aaf9a00$30822b52@laptop>, Howard Webb
> <howard@howardwebb.com> writes
> >So, a columnist for NME was responsible for Television's original
> >breakup! What a load of bollocks.
> >I think NME has over-estimated its importance.
>
> Absolutely - very ugly website too. And Burchill always was a self-
> important, talentless loud mouth. Am I the only one here old enough to
> remember the NME in its glory days during the 70s when great writers
> like Nick Kent, Charles Shaar Murray, Max Bell, Ian McDonald and the
> like wrote great pieces about great - and not so great - music(isans)?
> Like all the British music papers they got a bit lost when punk arrived
> but I remember they recovered and took it seriously more quickly than
> the rest - and there was that great Nick Kent review of Marquee Moon in
> '77 (transcribed at http://www.marquee.demon.co.uk/nme77.htm for anyone
> who hasn't read it).
>. . .

MELODY MAKER,  April 15, 1978
Television Commentary
Tom Verlaine talks to Allan Jones


. . . "I think there's a lot of f--- up people writing about music. Like,
these people are supposed to be music critics, and they're just stupid. It's
ridiculous what some of them have written.

"These reviews I've read, they weren't like music reviews. They seemed like
some other kind of review I've never encountered before. They're
unbelievably funny, you know. So predictable. So obvious.

"There're very few critics who ever get it right. They just don't seem to go
on musical grounds. That's what upsets me. They're not critics. They're not
writers. They're plain stupid."

Verlaine . . . looks well, despite his ghostly pallor, if not bursting with
robust health. He is most commonly described as boyish -- mention is usually
made of his cropped blond hair -- but there is a patrician maturity, even if
he is amusingly prone to infectious giggles when confronted with specific
analysis of his work.

He is always reluctant to advance any exaggerated claims.

"I don't understand those songs, either," he will say evasively. "These
things just come to me, you know . . . and I know they're right for me. They
do something to me that makes me want to sing them. I can't really talk
about the content of those songs. It's not like talking about what you have
in your living room, or something like that. It might seem to be like that
but it's not that simple, you know."

It is almost a year since Television first breezed into England on the back
of ecstatic reviews of their debut album, "Marquee Moon". Their first
British concerts confirmed all the enthusiastic notices that had been
regularly flying out of New York for months, if not years (they seemed to be
forever organising a British excursion).

This month, Television's arrival for a second crack at Albion has been
received with considerably less critical elation. "Adventure", their second
album released last week, has not been unanimously praised. The frantic
applause which greeted "Marquee Moon" has cooled.

This paper was alone, in fact, in its acclaim (I was that soldier).
Elsewhere, the comics took it to the cleaners, and some jokers took it into
the backroom for a solid mauling. Verlaine's been antagonised by the
insensitivity of some of the reviews -- you'll have guessed from the
introductory outburst -- though he attempts a facade of equanimity. I'm on
his side, so we'll let him have the floor for a few paragraphs.

"It seems," he attempts to rationalise, "like every first album that gets a
good review, especially in England, is bound to be followed by a second
album that gets slammed. Whatever its merits, you know. It's almost like a
whim the critics have.

"I'm not indifferent to criticism. Like anybody else I like to read good
reviews of the band. But I'm not afraid of someone tearing the music apart
if there're grounds for it, and if the writer is thoughtful in his
criticism.

"But most of the stuff I've read is just nonsense, you know. Sensationalist
nonsense. It's ridiculous. Like, these reviews hardly mentioned the actual
music. There was hardly any reference to what's going on in the grooves, so
to speak.

"I'll tell you what really upsets me. In America there's a view of England
as a place that has some class, a sense of quality. And when you see that
sort of criticism coming from England, I think it's bad for the English
people to have writers like that, because you don't see that sort of
criticism even in America, where they have some _real_ stupid reviews.

"I find it offensive that critics should ignore the music and attack the
personality of the musician, especially when they don't even know the people
involved. Like, I don't think I've even met these people. They don't know
what they're talking about. They don't know a thing about me. One of them
says I'm still, like, with Patti Smith or something. It's ridiculous, what
are they talking about?"

I mention that several of the reviews of "Adventure" correspond to the
criticism of Television's concerts last year: namely, that their music
lacked emotion, that it was cold and detached. I quote from one review that
described them -- entirely without justification, in my own opinion -- as
"the prodigal sons of doom, gloom, destruction and general slash your wrist
downness" (sic).

Verlaine bursts out in derisive laughter. "I just don't know where people
get these ideas from. These people just don't listen. I don't think there's
any doom on the records. I don't hear any doom on them. To me doom is
like -- what? -- no life or something. I just don't hear what they're
talking about.

"I think they hear something that's direct and they take it to be stark, and
they hear something that isn't overworked and they take it to be minimal.
It's just a lot of blahblahblah to me.

"I mean, to me there's a lot of humour on those records. Especially the new
one. Like 'Foxhole' is a joke in a way. It's definitely not a serious song.
'Careful' isn't a particularly serious statement. 'Glory' isn't a depressing
song. 'Ain't That Nothin' is hard to take with anything more than a laugh in
a certain sense."

He refuses, with equal vehemence, to accept that Television lack emotional
impact in performance. "To anybody who's not a performer it might look like
that," he concedes. "But if you're a performer you'd recognise the paradox.
It could be that the more feeling you have, the less you show it.

"I don't know what we look like, but if you look at, like, Muddy Waters or
any of those classic blues performers, you could say that they look pretty
cold, too. They stand there and do it. Because a guy doesn't want to make .
. . an OBJECT of himself, that doesn't mean he has no emotion.

"I don't move around the stage a lot. So what? Some people are inspired like
that. But an awful lot of them aren't. They're just following common showbiz
techniques . . . 'C'mon, now -- clap your hands, let's BOOGIE . . . let's
jump across the stage and wear a colourful scarf . . .'

"I find that colder and more calculated than anything. I've seen a few
videos of us that I think are just funny. I don't see the coldness at all."

Oh, yes, Tom. There were also a few bitching asides about the red vinyl upon
which "Adventure" was pressed.

"Oh s--," he complains. "Christ, I got nothing to do with red vinyl. I come
over here and some guy hands it to me in a taxi on the way in from the
airport. So, they've pressed it on red plastic. I don't care. I happen to,
you know, like red plastic.

"But to criticise the band for anything like that is stupid. Just totally
stupid. What did people criticise it for -- that it's a sales gimmick or
something? It's stupid. I happen to think it looks better than black
plastic. I think it's great, regardless of the reason it was done. I like
it. I like red. Big deal. I wouldn't have given a f-- if they'd pressed it
on clear vinyl.

"I've got an Albert Ayler record  that came out in the States that was done
on white vinyl with a silkscreen on one side and music on the other. I think
it's great. Did anyone accuse Albert Ayler of cheap promotional gimmicks?
What a fuss about red vinyl. Will somebody please remind these people that
there's music on the record?"


[That is just a small part of the interview.]
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