Saturday, November 14th, 1970

Melody Maker carries the fourth installment of “The Pete Townshend Page. “ This one is called “TV miming: who is being fooled? “ In it Pete complains about the too-tight TV restrictions of the British Musician's Union and he also discusses Top Of The Pops and memories of Ready, Steady, GO!

Transcription:
TV MIMING - WHO IS BEING FOOLED?
NOVEMBER, what a fantastic month. The smell of burning leaves and bangers going off all over the place. It's my favourite time of the year, and it's with some suspicion of my own nostalgic leanings that I say that all the nicest things seem to happen in November. To me that is, to my heart and brain, I hope it treats you the same.
There was an article in MM a couple of weeks ago carrying Tony Blackburn's grievances about the underground groups who manage to drag their weary drug abused bodies on to the sterile stage of " Top of the Pops." It was interesting and upsetting.
In the past I have wondered whether our own behaviour on TOTP might have given the impression that we felt the show was "beneath" us. The format of TOTP is old fashioned, it was conceived many years ago, I think before the Who were even in existence, but it's the only show of its kind to last as long as it has.
I remember the Who's first appearance on the show, we replaced someone in the "tip for the top spot" who couldn't make it.
In those days it was sent out live from Manchester, the studio was a converted church. We were all in love with Samantha, and her unqualified dumbness was tantalising beyond belief as she put on records that didn't really play and nodded a head that didn't think. That was Samantha the myth, she's probahly less of a myth today. The disc jockeys then were sacred too. Jimmy Savile, Pete Murray, Alan Freeman, what a show!
The latter two would come up on the same plane with us often, talking about the exhilaration of their recent health farm visits. We used to laugh, until we too started to need a bit of weight lifting. It was exciting, you only got in the show, apart from the plug spot, if your record was in the charts, so it was instant status, and the doors of the studio were always surrounded hy lots of pretty young fans who were always waiting for some other hand, it seemed.
In those days we had to mime to our record, thus, it was a cinch. No worries about throats or atmosphere, or getting in tune, just about what colour pants to wear, or what silly outfit to put on to attract the camera's attention.
Keith would get about 80 per cent of the camera time simply because the director was convinced it was a drummer led group. Every time the camera swung to me I would swing my arm like a maniac, and as soon as I did it would go off, the camera I mean.
 
I think we are a little less worried abut the status of chart success these days, we have had far too much success on the road and with our albums rec ently to worry any more but deep inside we an still a pop group.
BALANCE
Ready Steady Go is a programme people have forgotten to weep for. That was Rock television at its best. Most of the time was spent fighting to get American artists on the show, it's the only one in the world that I've ever seen that managed a balance hetween either side of the ocean.
Before I burst into tears again, I remember that its definitely long gone and TOTP is all that's left. I would he a liar if I said that I preferred the strict format of TOTP to the insanity and abandon of RSG but then sometimes one has to lie to protect one's future.
WHEN we appear on TOTP today, we are subject to some of the new Musicians' Union rules. They are designed to protect musicians and I think to prevent the public being misled into the impression that the performers on television are creating the music that the session men behind them are really working on.
I can appreciate this. But when it comes to plug a track like Summertime Blues from our Live at Leeds album you start to become aware of the shortsightedness of some of the MU hierarchy.
To have appeared on TOTP to plug our live track, we would have had to re-record it. Do it again. From the bottom up. At Leeds? Not necessarily, but we don't want to fool the public.
We didn't appear. And it looks like it could happen again and again like that. The TOTP team feels cramped by the restrictions, and artists like ourselves that spend weeks in recording studios at fantastic expense, don't feel like going through it all again to get a plug on television.
But at the moment, with the Union, and may I say, the older musicians, getting tougher, we have to.
It's a matter of time really. A normal orchestra working in the old fashioned way can rehearse and record a three-minute number in about an hour. When under pressure, in half an hour.
ENHANCE
If they are really good, and can perform pre-written arrangements with spontaneity they could knock off maybe ten songs in an hour, many are expected to do this. But a group of four men, have to rely heavily on the efforts of sound engineers, to enhance and expand their sound, and their own talent and time to perform ALL the instrumental parts and choruses that would normally be done in one go.
It can take days, and can cost hundreds of pounds, but the results are more personalised, No outside musicians are employed, no musicians in or out of the Union (other than the group themselves) benefit, the man in the street thinks recording is a mystery anyway so what is the point of insisting that we go through it?
When Thunderclap Newman had "Something In The Air" in the chart the orchestra was added each time they appeared on TOTP on the night. The rest of the instruments were played by the boys at a special session paid for by Track. The vocals were put on on the day.
Now this makes sense, when we made the record we used thirty musicians or so to produce the orchestra track that enhances the group's sound, when the group go on television, new music has to be produced otherwise musicians will be out of pocket. But on their new release, Wild Country, was it really necessary for them to have to mimic their own spontaneous sound that took hours of work to achieve in a studio, all over again? No outside musicians were employed to make the original recording, the group played all the parts themselves. Who is losing money? Who is being fooled? The public aren't hearing the record that they go out and buy the next day I know that much.
Thank heavens the actual records are ALWAYS SIXTY TIMES BETTER THAN THEY SOUND ON THE BOX!
That doesn't say much for the efforts of the sound men on the show I know, but then they are usually working against time with equipment built for music other than pop. They are experts but working against all the weight of the combined recording industry.
In ten minutes they are expected to produce, with their formal equipment, what took three weeks and all the technical expertise, experiment, creativity, and hard work of the finest engineers working in the best studios in the world to produce.
I think you get the picture. I believe that my union, the Musicians' Union, is misrepresenting me, making rules that make me have to rerecord my own music each time I appear on television with no advantages to ANYBODY AT ALL. Not even studios gain by this re-recording, we have our own. It's absurd.
As for Tony Blackboard, well apart from the fact that he's one of the few jocks on Radio One that plays good records I have a bone to pick. Both Jimmy Savile and Tony Blackburn think of themselves as "professionals." As stars if you like. It is to Savile's credit that when the orrible 'oo are on TOTP, he can cope easily with the occasional side-on remark from Keith Moon withoul having histrionics.
Keith has, in the past, barged his way into camera without having histrionics.
As an opposite example, I saw Steve Marriott calling Tony Blackburn "Eammon" during an interview, and I must admit I laughed. Not at the gag, but at the way Blackburn handled it. It hurt, and you could see it hurt.
In fact if Blackburn had been a professional he would have hit hack I feel. But he is a bit like Eammon, too respectful of the miracle of the 19-inch screen. Too worried about the delicate minds of the millions of viewers at home, many of whom make Steve Marriott look like a chorus girl. (No offence Steve). Sometimes it's as bad to embarrass your audience as it is to upset them in any other way. That little scene embarrassed me, and with a little theatrical grace, or a bit of Savile's wit he could have handled it. Steve could have been a bit more cool in the first place too, I suppose.
CHARTS
TOTP is not really a vehicle for the new music, but if a few adjustments were made by BOTH sides, it could be. Obviously it must remain geared to the charts, that's what has made it so consistently popular, but underground acts should not be ashamed being pleased at the prospect of being on pop television. The Who aren't, maybe it's the.excitement we feel whenever we get back in the studio that makes us over-do the informal idiot dancing behind the bars.
In the same way, guys like Blackburn who front the show should give a little. The announcer who called Pinball Wizard a record that "shouldn't be allowed" on the air, should expect a rebuttal ON THE AIR. Not in the studio canteen or in the safety of a sterile TOTP interview. Thus, and we have since talked it out together and gotten rid of grudges, Keith Moon threw drum sticks at Tony Blackburn as he introduced us on the show. I don't want him to feel intimidated by groups like us, but I don't want him to be under the impression that when he knocks our work, which he has a perfect right to do, we will not knock back.
Stop treating underground groups as "dirty" hippies, and we'll stop treating you like a refugee from Mrs. Dale's Diary, Tony. Open up your mind a bit to our music and the music of other Rock bands and
underground bands and serious musicians will start treating YOU with respect. Not on an "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine," basis, but for real. Respect, mutually achieved through understanding that all kinds of music has its audience, and that often, the most broad minded people you can find when it comes to music, are OUTSIDE the music business. Queuing for tickets.
There was a television programme on the other night, that put Top Of The Pops to shame in the embarrassment stakes. It was called, "Two girls in Hampshire." It was about an ordinary, "nice girl," and an ordinary "hippie" girl. The object of the film seemed to be to get both parties to slag off the other behind their backs and then effect a confrontation. The ensuing conversation between a group of square dancers and young pot smokers was terrifying in its awkwardness. The main topic seemed to be marriage and dope.
Obviously all the squares were virgins by choice, and all the hippies were virgins, not by choice. The hippies were against marriage saying that if the marriage turned sour the two individuals were tied together without love, and the squares said that marriage is sacred union and that separation is unthinkable because of the kids. One hippie boy announced that "we all sleep together" and two girls raised their eyebrows with "Oh! DO we now?" expressions.
BORING
The same guy said that he'd get rid of the police force because it's evil. I'm not being unfair, that's what he said. I don't think he really cared whether they go or stay but he said it all the same. Funnily enough, I expected the square girl to come out on top, but she was so boring she didn't stand a chance.
The hippie wasn't too nice either, she spent a lot of time telling us how she told her parents lies to keep them happy. As if they didn't know?
On the whole though they were all young and somehow very conventional. In the programme the hippies ended with the prime punch line, saying:
"We have the advantage, because we know what it's like to live like you, we WERE you, but we've found a better way. You don't know what it's like to live like us."
I've got news for the lot of you, I've lived like all of you, the square and the hippie, and I've found a better way than both.
In between mate. In between.