Saturday, January 15, 2011

TELEVISION IN PORTLAND, PIL IN TOKYO


After putzing around the house this Friday evening, around 10 pm I grabbed the truck keys and drove it behind the house to listen to my music. I was a little leery about doing this considering there was still 5 or 6 inches of snow covering the grass and there's some slope to the ground surface. Parked it, lit a cigar, popped in a CD and cranked up the stereo.

After listening to the music I attempted to take my normal route up to the street, but the snow caused the wheels to spin on the slope leading up to a gap in the scrub oak. I made the mistake of backing straight down in the darkness, getting stuck on a steep section of slope along the drainage, tires spinning. Next morning I took out the chains and easily yanked it out with our other vehicle.


First up was Television, a live performance in Portland, OR on July 2, 1978. This was shortly after they released their second album, Adventure, containing the singles, "Foxhole" and "Glory". The album reached the #7 spot on the U.K. albums chart but did not chart in the U.S.

Wikipedia describes them as:

Television is an American rock band, formed in New York City in 1973. Although Television have never had more than a cult audience in the USA, they have achieved significant commercial success in Europe. Today, they are widely regarded as one of the founders of "punk" and New Wave.

Television was part of the early 1970s New York underground rock scene, along with bands like the Patti Smith Group, The Ramones, Blondie, Richard Hell and The Voidoids, Talking Heads. In contrast to the Ramones' rock 'n' roll minimalism, Television's music was more complex and more technically proficient, defined by guitarists Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd.


Malcolm McClaren, former manager of the Sex Pistols, took a liking to Television on his trips to NYC, inspiring him in part to form a band of his own in a similar vein.

The band members independent and strongly held artistic visions, along with Richard Lloyd's drug abuse, led to the band's break-up in 1978.






Download it here:



The main act was Public Image Limited performing live at the Nagoya City Hall in Tokyo on December 1, 1985. Excellent recording with the band performing well. Johnny is not so chatty or foul mouthed with his well behaved Japanese audience, the band just doing one number after the other with little break in between. I certainly enjoyed it.

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