Alternative TV

Thanks Gaz! Your Null Fame is right insofar as if you like Action Time Vision, The Image Is Cracked is the album most likely to appeal to you. Some great 3 minute thrashes and if you get the CD with all the bonus tracks there are also some more classic punk anthems like How Much Longer and You Bastard as well as some more quirky things like Life and Love Lies Limp.

Like Duane I'm very fond of Vibing Up The Senile Man too - less straightforward punky and more Avant Garde. The CD also includes ATV's half of What You See Is What Are, the split live album they shared with Here & Now (when is someone going to make Here & Now's classic album Fantasy Shift available on CD?!?).

ATV's most recent one, Revolution is also very good and may again may appeal to you if you like Action Time Vision, as it shows something of a return to their punk roots.

Maybe your best bet 'though is to wait for the forthcoming comp. which I believe actually includes tracks from all the ATV / Good Missionaries etc. albums.

They're very definitely worth catching live too if you get the chance too - and go and have a chat with Mark if you do; he's extremely approachable, very down to earth and generally a bloody nice bloke.

Oh I rate that
and THE DOOR AND THE WINDOW!

Mr Turnbull, may I respectfully suggest that you must be largely without auditory faculties?

Who's doing the cd? Will it have the singles as well?

I love the title track - juxtaposing recorder and reverberated violin screeches was a brilliant idea.

"I love you people but I hate you when you act like stupid bastards" - he could've been talking about ILX!

As with others in this thread I only have "The Image Is Cracked". Did a career-spanning compilation show up that's worth it?

BECAUSE THAT'S WHEN THEY GRIND YOU DOWN!

boy does this band need a box set. if you can track down the 2nd LP, the Action Time Vision singles comp (which has the essential "Another Coke"), Perry's solo CD, and the Good Missionaries LP you're pretty good to go. Later period ATV album Peep Show is also great. Six years on and I haven't even heard the Revolution record Stewart mentioned above, must search.

BUT YOU DON'T KNOW NUFFING!
AND YOU DON'T EVEN CARE (do you) ????

Implicates the audience!

I quoted part of the lyric to "How Much Longer" in one of my Cambridge entrance exams.

Didn't get in, though. Bastards!

(that's the b-side!)

Life after Life/ Life after Dub is fab - even if Jools Holland is on it....

Yeah, you will have seen the session on the "Punk Rock Movie" right?

So I'm listening to My Life as a Child Star and it's pleasant enough. Not a surprise Feel Good All Over released it, though.

"How Much Longer"
"Life"
"Action Time Vision"

A trio of, erm, beauties that easily hold their own today

I forgot to follow up on this, after a bit of research I picked up ATV - The Anthology and it's fantastic, even the later period stuff. It's the best overview of their entire career, skipping nothing.

Not mentioned so far but great is Strange Kicks from 1981.

I finally found "Vibing Up The Senile Man" on CD for under $15, woohoo! Time to freak out the norms...

So, really, "Strange Kicks" is worth picking up too?

yes! should be cheap on vinyl.

Assisting the good Turrican here with a post:

--

So, I was having a bit of a vinyl listening session at a friends house yesterday, and he pulled out a copy of Vibing Up The Senile Man and said "oh my god, you have to listen to this!". Now, of course I'd heard of ATV and knew that they were Mark Perry's (of 'Sniffin Glue' punk fanzine fame) band, but nothing had quite prepared me for how avant-garde this release was. 'The Radio Story' is certainly one track I found impressive, with its snatches of radio noise and hypnotic bassline.

I guess it threw me off a bit, partly because of knowing Perry was responsible for one of the well-known '70s punk fanzines, but also because I've heard their first album generally being talked about as up there with the great punk albums. I'd be quite interested in hearing what other people think about ATV and their thoughts on this album and the rest of their back catalogue...

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Friday, August 3, 2012 3:43 PM

Ah, sorry about that! I'm usually so good at finding existing threads as well! :/

But man, this track!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBmvFWS-lqQ

Mark P's 10 favourite albums from Rock Critics' Choice: The Top 200 Albums, published 1978: first Clash, We're Only in It for the Money, first Ramones, Catch a Fire, Electric Warrior, Ege Bamyasi, first New York Dolls, Quadrophenia, Unlimited Edition, Dillinger's CB 200. He, Giovanni Dadomo, and Herve Muller were sort of the scary-looking punk guys in that book.

It's hard to explain how this band snuck up on me and captured my heart. The Chameleons used to cover "Splitting In Two" which is how I first learned of them. I picked up the expanded "The Image Has Cracked" and loved the punk-ness of it but it still struck me as second tier. But with repeated listens it became a favorite. I stayed away from "Vibing" for years based on various reviews but when I picked up the ATV Anthology I mentioned upthread the "Vibing" tracks blew me away! Just completely out there yet listenable if you approach the album on its own terms. I finally got a CD copy earlier this year and while it's not going to be a regular listen, it's so layered that I feel I'll get something different out of it each time. The Anthology is absolutely perfect andanyone into the first album should track it down.

First album in a dozen years, "Opposing Forces", is surprisingly good. Ranging from rock ("Opposing Forces") to punk ("French Girls") to avante-garde ("The Visitor"), Mark P's still got it!

Since last I posted I picked up "Strange Kicks", "Peep Show" and a digital copy of the never-on-CD "Dragon Love" and "Sol EP". All good-to-excellent.

Am no ATV expert and have not kept up with the various reissues but this box looks pretty handy:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Viva-Rock-Roll-Recordings-1977-1980/dp/B0148IFSX8/

The Image Has Cracked, Vibing Up The Senile Man, Fire From Heaven and Snappy Turns plus singles and Peel session tracks

Therer was a Wire interview with Perry a couple of issues back where he was talking about the last 3 lps mentioned from that box. Or at least definitely Vibing. Also his current work.

Cherry Red has the Viva set going for £13.98 too, which isn't bad. Presumably Amazon marketplace will have it even cheaper.

that looks great

Wow, that's great news for anyone still looking for that stuff!

Now go check out the new album, it gets better with each listen.

yep i listened to that and liked it

They put out a new 7" last year, the a-side is pretty damn good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw8_ycbO7R8

New album, "Primitive Emotions", coming this fall that collects all their recent vinyl-only material:

https://fourthdimensionrecords.bigcartel.com/product/alternative-tv-primitive-emotions-cd-winter-hill-recordings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIi5xWFJcgQ