Television Personalities’ Siamese twin brother band were basically a vehicle for Ed Ball’s songs, whereas TVP’s songs were Dan Treacy’s. Both were in each other’s bands. Confused? You will be… O-Level became Beatnik Filmstars and later The Times, and half the material here was originally released under the Filmstars’ name.
For every Treacy classic there seems to be a corresponding Ball song: Part Time Punks has Psuedo Punk as a sibling; How I Learned To Love The Bomb (TVP) and I Love To Clean My Polaris Missile (O-Level) are not so distant cousins, and so on, although OLevel eulogises Malcolm McLaren instead of Syd Barrett.
Inspired by Desperate Bicycles, the ramshackle critiques of punk gradually gave way to more polished mod-influenced homages, such as the quite brilliant Prisoner tribute I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape. Many Unhappy Returns is pure Nuggets, while Odd Man Out is brassy skapop that makes this collection a constantly surprising delight and perfect companion to Fire Records’ Yes Darling, But Is It Art? singles and rarities compilation.
