I want my music television...

Music television. No, not MTV. I'm talking about television programmes featuring actual music. With musicians on them. You know, to chat and perform like. I can remember a time when there used to be a few of them on and I probably watched most of them. This was some years ago, but it makes me realise that the choice for programmes about music especially on terrestrial television now is pretty sparse. Were they actually any good though or was it all just a load of old rubbish? And what is missing from our telly boxes in 2015?

I want my, I want my...

Before we look at all of that though, here is an article from the Guardian on why any shows on music that we have had on TV previously are apparently so bad. It raises quite a few questions and will leave you with some stuff to ponder I think. Have a read here.

Well then. Let's start by going backwards. What did we have to watch in the past? Well for me it was things like 'The Tube', 'Top of the Pops', 'The White Room' and any of the chat shows that had a music slot on them such as 'TFI Friday' for example. There was also 'Later with Jools Holland' which still graces BBC2 now. I'll skip that one for now though as I have somewhat of a bee in my bonnet about 'Later' at the moment. 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' was another good one, but that was slightly before my time.

There were also programmes on the satellite channels with this mainly being things on MTV. I mean, that's what the channel was designed for and why Sting was droning on about it with Dire Straits (link to blog title right there, woo!). It was the platform for music videos and bands took this on board and started to realise that by making a kick ass video it would sell the song more. MTV started in 1981 and as you will probably know the first video ever played was 'Video Killed The Radio Star' by The Buggles. Factoid alert - The Buggles featured none other than "The man who invented the eighties" himself, Trevor Horn. I bet you knew that didn't you? Yep. MTV also had various programmes in their schedule and my favourite from the 90s was 'Most Wanted' which was hosted by Ray Cokes. It had chat, live performances and plenty of messing around which seemed to appeal to my sense of humour. It was a shame when it finished in 95.

Anyway. Thursday night was Top of the Pops night when you got to see what was in the charts that week. I don't recall being overly interested in it when I was younger, but when Rick Astley appeared in the charts (my hero!) I became keen to know if he was performing that week. It was the thing to watch and I guess I would've seen it pretty regularly from the late eighties well into the mid nineties. The show was pulled in 2006, but Christmas specials still seem to appear each year. The spin off show TOTP2 is still running and shows archived footage, although they have to be a bit careful about what they show now due to who some of the presenters of the original show used to be. Moving swiftly onwards...

'The White Room' was a Channel 4 programme which ran for a couple of years in the mid nineties. It was hosted by Mark Radcliffe and focused on performances rather than chat with the artists. Bands like Oasis and Suede played on it, but it obviously didn't have the legs or maybe the viewing figures to keep going as it's stint was rather brief. Here's the wonderful Supergrass performing live on the show.

As I mentioned there were some weekly entertainment shows which featured a live musical artist on them. We still have a few of those now I guess. 'TFI Friday' was probably the one I watched the most as Chris Evans was a good host and the music was mostly britpop era bands which I enjoyed listening to. It ran from 1996 to 2000 (on a Friday night obviously) and was a good way to end the week, hence the name! I actually have a negative of The Bluetones which was taken during one of their performances on the show. Cool huh? Have a look below. I've heard just this week that Chris Evans has hinted that the show will be back in June 2015.  Watch this space on that one!

So I guess we have to talk about 'Later with Jools Holland'. I have nothing against Jools personally, in fact he is a fabulous musician and as Squeeze are one of my favourite bands I can't fault him. BUT, I don't watch the show very often now, if at all. I did, however watch it a lot years ago as he had some awesome artists on it. As regular readers will know my all time hero is Neil Finn and Crowded House are my number one band. Well, they have played on the shows a considerable amount of times over the years which pleased me greatly. In the nineties a lot of artists I liked got to play and I still have VHS tapes (seriously) of episodes featuring some great acts. I don't actually have a VHS player anymore and I can't watch them, but never mind about all that. So what is wrong with 'Later' now? I guess it's just become too pedestrian for want of a better word. It seems to feature a lot of MOR artists and doesn't seem to have the same excitement of new and groundbreaking music. I don't watch the yearly Hootenanny shows either as it's the same artists each time and it doesn't interest me that much to be honest. I saw an episode of 'Later' last year as Neil was on it to play some songs from his new album and when Jools had a little chat with him and showed him a video clip of a Split Enz song, Neil told him that the exact same clip was used the last time he was on the show. Slightly embarrassing for the so called researcher I would've thought. I remember seeing a comment recently from someone on Twitter about the programme saying "I always record 'Later' so I can fast forward through all the shite that's on it". I have to say, I do exactly the same thing and it makes it a lot easier to watch.

At the moment I think the BBC4 channel has the best music programmes on it. I have thoroughly enjoyed shows on singer songwriters, rock, goth and other such areas of music and it's the channel I always check to make sure I'm not missing something fab. I was quite dismayed to hear that there was a possibility that it would be taken off air last year and I really hope this doesn't happen. Bearing in mind that there is a distinct lack of music shows on telly now it would be a real shame to take away the only channel that actually has something good on it! The recent 'Top of the Pops' shows from the eighties have been great fun to watch.

I suppose I have to make mention of the reality music shows that grace our screens throughout the year. Just as one ends, another one seems to start. I don't watch any of them though as I sometimes feel that we should have surely found all the talent we have by now. Some of these shows have been going for years and I have to admit I can't name very many of the 'stars' they have produced. I know and like Will Young and I'm pretty sure One Direction came out of one of these shows, but I don't think they actually won it though did they? I do like the premise of 'The Voice' more than any of the others as this is solely based on what they judges can hear rather than what the person looks like. My issue with this show however, is the judging panel. I don't really feel that any of them (with perhaps the exception of Tom Jones) can claim to be experts on talent. I mean, Rita Ora? Come on. Na. Sorry, not my cup of tea.

I guess the question therefore is what kind of music show would you like to see? For me, it would have to be one that includes some serious chat with the artists. I listen to a lot of podcasts and radio interviews with musicians I like and to me their opinion and thoughts are of great interest. I'd really like to see this on a TV show and have it as more of a chat show format where a singer comes on, performs a few songs and talks about various music issues and ideas to the host. It would be a great way of actually hearing from the 'other side' of music. As an example, I was listening to a radio interview recently where the singer talked about Spotify from the musicians point of view. I'd never really considered it before and I found it extremely interesting. This is the kind of thing I would like to see on a show. I have nothing against radio at all, I just like to see the folks that are talking that's all. Never mind about Jools jumping in on piano to overshadow your song, let's hear the real views and thoughts of musicians on what the industry is like for them and what their plans are.

There already is 'Needle Time' on Vintage TV which is hosted by music journalist Neil McCormick. This is an interview show with video clips and artists that have graced the show include Jackson Browne, David Gray and Mike Scott to name a few. Vintage TV is available on satellite and Freeview and this channel actually has quite a lot of good stuff on it anyway. I haven't actually seen much of this particular show, but it certainly ticks some of the boxes that I am looking for so depending on the guest, I might well give it a go.

I'm sure I have missed a lot out of this post as to be honest, it's one that has taken me a while to write. There are so many considerations to take into account that it has been hard to cover it all. I don't think I have really, so this may well become one of those posts that gets revisited at some point. Bit like Highway 61 I guess...

I really would like to see a serious show about music grace our screens. One that asks the artists for their thoughts on music as I think there is so much of interest out there that we are missing a trick. And if anyone is looking for a host, perhaps someone new who likes music and writes about it a bit, I am available for a small fee ;0)

So to wrap up here's a great radio interview with Olly Knights from Turin Brakes where he chats about an upcoming gig and touches on the music industry and how it has changed. Spoiler alert - Olly's speaking voice sounds remarkably like David Beckham so please don't get confused and think he's now a musician! It's very obvious that Mr B has stolen Mr Knights' famous speaking voice... (I was asked to write that).

Listen here.

Now this is what I'm rambling about. Imagine something like this, but on the telly. How great would that be huh? Indeed.