Echo and the Bunnymen and Billy Bragg cover the Velvets’ ‘Run Run Run’ on the BBC, 1986
In the 1980s the BBC used to do this thing every now and then where they would take a day and dedicate like 15 consecutive…
Television
Alice Cooper gets pied in the face on ‘The Soupy Sales Show’
When the legendary comedian Soupy Sales died in 2009, Alice Cooper issued a brief statement through his publicist: Being from Detroit, I came home every…
The Adam Ant episode of ‘Tales from the Crypt’
The cover of Crime SuspenStories #27, 1955; first publication of ‘Maniac at Large’ John Frankenheimer, the director of The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May…
John, Yoko and Jerry Lewis play reggae on the MDA Telethon
John, Yoko, and the Nutty Beatle This was once the time of year Harry Shearer called Telethon Season. Back-to-school sales coincided with the annual broadcast…
Dennis Hopper is private detective H. P. Lovecraft in the occult noir TV movie ‘Witch Hunt’
Night Tide it isn’t, but I like this cheapo TV movie with Dennis Hopper as hardboiled private dick H. Phillip Lovecraft. In Witch Hunt, the…
Captain Beefheart rips your head clean off in this ’74 TV concert with the ‘Tragic Band’
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, June 1974 (via WalesOnline) Don Van Vliet was capable of vocal ferocity. He commanded extremes of volume and timbre…
A merry Iggy Pop talks drugs, blood, and Bowie in obscure 1980s TV profile
The other day I came across an entertaining Iggy TV segment from the ‘80s that I had never seen before. The clip had recently been…
The Gun Club, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer on ‘Art Fein’s Poker Party’
Art Fein, Bull Moose Jackson and Paul Body, 1985 (via Another Fein Mess) You know what they say: “Ain’t no YouTube rabbit hole like an…
Exercise with Iggy Pop and Nash the Slash on cable TV, 1982
All these years listening to Iggy Pop’s 2 Record Set—the brilliant New Values LP plus bits of Soldier and Party—I just assumed Iggy was singing…
Comedy God Rik Mayall talks ‘The Young Ones’ with co-writer Ben Elton from 1985
Has God seemed distant recently? Does He no longer return your calls? Did He forget your birthday? Does He no longer go down on you?…