This song is apart of the 1981 debut album titled "And Don't The Kids Just Love It" released by the band "Television Personalities" who at the time consisted of Dan Treacy (the only constant member) as a singer/songwriter, Ed Ball as bassist and Mark Sheppard as drummer. On the ablum cover is a reference to the 60s British espionage series "The Avengers" as Patrick Macnee (star of The Avengers) appeared on it. As well as Twiggy (Dame Lesley Lawson) who was a massive British cultural icon for modeling and later on acting in the swinging sixties of London.

They were influenced by the pyschedelic rock sounds of the 60s and the punk movement in the 60s-70s, casting them into the genres of post punk, rock, indie rock and psychedelic pop, and just like the movements before them their songs typically had meaning behind them even if the meaning wasn't as big as "anarchy for the UK". For example in this album the first track is "This Angry Silence"which talks about an angry father, a brother who has an eating disorder which no one recognises, a sister who a barmaid and is seen as the most emotionally stable and an alcoholic mother. The song attemps to convey the hardship life of the narrator within a dysfunctional family who refuses to do anything about it. Hence the awkward "silence" in the song after Treacy says the title, this angry silence.

I have been obssessed with Television Personalities for a while now, because I like how "dingy" and almost "grungy" Dan Treacy's vocals are and how it compliments the general sound of the rest of their songs. In this song I especially like the use of cockney slang ("jackanory" refering to the 1965-96 Britsh children's televison show Jackanory which told children's stories) and how it is used to emphasise the point Treacy was attempting to convey about writing advice and life while poking fun at the programme. I find this adds something distinct to an already unique sound.

DEC?.?? 2025

This song was released in the third album of the band, in 1982, "Midnight Cleaners" which had cover art hand-drawn by Martin Newell himself. When this album was made the band consisted of Martin Newell on practically anything you can think of, Mick Brannan playing the saxophone and, for the track "Only a Shadow", "Celia" sang additional vocals. The band, Newell especially, disliked the music industry, therefore they recorded with minimal, sometimes homemade equipment which lead to the imperfect sound of their songs. I think it is fair enough to put this band into the genre of post-punk (or better known today of lo-fi) with contributions made to neo-psychedelia, jangle-pop and indie-pop.

I really like this song mainly because of how the guitar sounds and how it works in the song as a whole. In my opinion the song sounds almost timeless in a sense that it could have been recorded in any decade, however that could be because they recorded everything themselves. I also appreciate how the lyrics tell a common story but it is phrased in a very poetic and vague way ( but that isn't really that surprising considering Newell has a relatively successful poetry career ). To me, the lyrics mirror the sound to create an unmistakeable noise and I strongly suggest checking out more their stuff.

DEC?.?? 2025