The Beautiful Music.Com

Around the middle of October last year I received an email from a guy called Wally on the back of the Roddy Frame review I had posted. He said that he ran a small independent label in Canada and had an artist on the label Armstrong, who if I liked Roddy Frame I may be interested in and if so he would send me a copy of the Armstrong cd to listen to.

A few weeks later I received a package from Canada that contained a plethora of releases from the label including two cds from Armstrong, Skytone,  Roy Moller and the recent release by Dot Dash that I know Swiss Adam and Ed over at 17 Seconds had reviewed.

The Armstrong cds were good but really not for me as in my opinion it was to close to Roddy Frame which kind of put me off. Don't get me wrong the songs were good and not a simple pastiche of Frame's material but when listening to the cd I had the overwhelming urge to take it off and listen to Surf or Frestonia.

Also included in Wally's package were three cds which really interested me. These cds are part of what can only be termed as a labour of love -

" to gather some of the greatest names in music to record for a label so small that it is practically non-existent and convince them to cover one of your favourite songs by one of your all time favourite bands . . . a 10 volume tribute to the Television Personalities to be released over the course of the next ten years and to feature some 200 covers of TVP songs both old and new."


I first became aware of the TV Personalities when I was about fourteen or fifteen. A couple of friends older brothers, the ones with the quiffs, that got their gear from Flip and talked about The Velvet Underground and Josef K were into the TV Personalities. But when I listened to the the music, I couldn't see what all the fuss was about, to me the music was under produced which I suppose was part of the charm for some and the singer's voice really got on my nerves, so I never got into them but loved the covers!

In my mid twenties I tried again to get into them, when somebody gave me a couple of singles and I bought a compilation cd but sadly I still didn't get it and to this day after buying a few other things I still don't. I do however, recognise Daniel Treacy as a good/great lyricist and have often wondered how something like If I Could Write Poetry or The Prettiest Girl In The World would sound performed by say David Gedge or Roddy Frame. For this reason I was intrigued by these cds and although, neither Gedge or Frame appear in the series so far and most of the bands are not household names I have listened to the cds a fair bit and have gained a different perspective on the music of the TVPs.

If you are a fan of The Television Personalities then you will be interested to hear how contemporaries of Treacy such as Nikki Sudden and Duglas T Stewart interpret the songs they have chosen. But if you have never heard of Treacy or the band and have the most fleeting interest in leftfield music you will find plenty in these cd to hold your attention and possible jump around the room like an edjit to.

Even if you have no interest in The Television Personalities tribute check out www.thebeautfulmusic.com as you will probably find something there that you will like, if you like the music posted on here.

Semion - The Prettiest Girl In The World