Television - Prove It 04/08/77

[John Fleming]

I know this show exists in a private collection but does anyone have it and is prepared to put the above performance on YouTube?

To my mind this is perhaps the most criminal of all the TOTP junkings because so much of 1977 survives but yet the only performance by one of the most influential US New Wave bands was considered fit for junking.

[atomic23]

Does this really exist in private hands?
Is this from the same show that features another Adverts performance of 'Gary Gilmore's Eyes'?
The other criminal TOTP junking of this era has to be Devo's one and only TOTP appearance.

[John Fleming]

The episode exists in this collection: www.privatevideolibrary.co.uk/

It is for sale, for serious money, the fact that the BBC haven't bought it shows how little interest they have in missing TOTP; at the very least this collection could be used to relaunch TOTP2 with good ratings so they just aren't interested.

I doubt the other performance of 'Gary Gilmore's Eyes' is from this show as the single wasn't released until the following week. The Kaleidoscope book just lists a single performance but I reckon if there was a second performance then it would have been the missing 08/09/77. I remember seeing it performed on TOTP but don't know how many times, I was only 9 at the time.

I agree that junking Devo is as bad as junking Television, I didn't mention it because I didn't know about it. Are you sure the episode is missing though, as everything after 08/09/77 is supposed to exist, and Devo didn't release a single in the UK until early '78.

Apologies for the thread title by the way, I've since realised how it would have got people's hopes up. I should have put the word "wanted" in the title.

[atomic23]

Sorry taking this off-topic a little, but does someone know the Devo story? Here's a still from the TOTP site.

[Neil Barker]

I'd love to see Television's one and only TOTP appearance too. Hard to believe they appeared in the studio! Wonder if Tom sang live?

The Adverts only performed "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" on TOTP the once, on the 25/8/77 edition which of course still exists. The song was not featured on the 8/9/77 edition at all.

The Devo TOTP mystery has baffled me ever since I first saw the above photo a few years back. There is nothing listed on the database, so my guess is that they pre-recorded their performance ("Satisfaction"?) for inclusion in the following week's show but then the record went down the chart so it was cancelled. You never know, the clip may still be out there somewhere though!?

[Stephen Doran]

Once owned the Television LPS Marquee Moon /Adventure [Red Vinyl]

[William Martin]

neil said:

I'd love to see Television's one and only TOTP appearance too. Hard to believe they appeared in the studio! Wonder if Tom sang live?

The Adverts only performed "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" on TOTP the once, on the 25/8/77 edition which of course still exists. The song was not featured on the 8/9/77 edition at all.

The Devo TOTP mystery has baffled me ever since I first saw the above photo a few years back. There is nothing listed on the database, so my guess is that they pre-recorded their performance ("Satisfaction"?) for inclusion in the following week's show but then the record went down the chart so it was cancelled. You never know, the clip may still be out there somewhere though!?

do we know of any other artists who recorded a performance that was subsequently not shown?

[robb]

Def Leppard. and another performance by that fake Elvis circa Jan 2005 when Elvis failed to get to No.1

[Joe Haynes]

william said:

neil said:

I'd love to see Television's one and only TOTP appearance too. Hard to believe they appeared in the studio! Wonder if Tom sang live?

The Adverts only performed "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" on TOTP the once, on the 25/8/77 edition which of course still exists. The song was not featured on the 8/9/77 edition at all.

The Devo TOTP mystery has baffled me ever since I first saw the above photo a few years back. There is nothing listed on the database, so my guess is that they pre-recorded their performance ("Satisfaction"?) for inclusion in the following week's show but then the record went down the chart so it was cancelled. You never know, the clip may still be out there somewhere though!?

do we know of any other artists who recorded a performance that was subsequently not shown?

i know a massive Devo Collector who has many rare tapes. i will ask him about the ToTP query

[John Fleming]

william said:

do we know of any other artists who recorded a performance that was subsequently not shown?

The Gang of Four were booked to perform "At Home He's A Tourist" on TOTP in 1979, broke off recording sessions for their debut album to do the show, and were told to change the lyric "and the rubbers you hide in your top left pocket". They duly changed the offending word to "packets" but the Beeb were still not happy. They said this left the meaning of the lyric intact and asked the band to change it to "rubbish" which they refused to do. I don't know if the performance was recorded or not, but it was definitely not broadcast, there was an article about it in the following week's NME.

Incidentally "At Home He's A Tourist" went down the charts the following week, and the Gang of Four never again had a top 50 hit. Coincidence or conspiracy, you decide.