Review of The Tube Anthology: The Best Of Series 1

Introduction

The Tube came along in 1982 as a new kind of music show for the new Channel 4. Hosted predominantly by ex-Squeeze member Jools Holland and journalist Paula Yates, The Tube ran for 5 years and featured a raft of both emerging and established talent from all over the place.

Mixed in with the music was a bit of `comedy`, `poetry` and `interviews` provided by various presenters who were all a bit crap. Jools Holland was generally fine, Paula Yates was a touch too smug and Muriel Gray was just plain bad. The less said about right-on Mark Miwurdz and that Geordie idiot who kept saying "I`m `ard, me" the better. God, it was bad. Thankfully the music was ace.

There was some controversy during the run of The Tube. Most notable was the show`s temporary suspension after Jools Holland said some naughty words during a trailer, but that wasn`t the one I remember best of all. I can remember headlines in The Sun about Dead Or Alive being refused permission to play on The Tube as the producers reckoned they couldn`t play live at a time when they were riding high at number one in the UK chart with You Spin Me Round (Like A Record). Now given that the record was produced by Pete Waterman and their previous hit That`s The Way (I like It) was dire, that`s quite possibly true. What is clearly also true watching this collection though is that The Tube did allow mimed performances, so that story was obviously either about snubbing the band or just causing controversy for publicity.

Musically there are 55 performances on here, including the infamous Frankie Goes To Hollywood performance that led to Trevor Horn picking them up. They weren`t great, in my humble opinion, but it does prove the lie during the court case that the band couldn`t play. Plenty of highlights from across many genres and though my favourites inevitably are bands with synthesisers (and there are many), I also very much enjoyed the likes of Grandmaster Flash, Big Country, Dexy`s Midnight Runners and U2. The best bit about the whole set is the mix of music and the choice of some not obvious tracks by well-known bands and the inclusion of not so well-known bands like Southern Death Cult, Wah, Freur and Go-Go`s as well as some completely off the wall stuff like George Clinton and Iggy Pop.

Video

It`s 4:3 according to the box but fills my screen quite nicely without any obvious cropping. Plenty of 80`s special effects, but not overly crowded as to spoil it, and some rather annoying streaks across the camera lenses on occasion. The latter is more to do with the lighting and technology rather than the quality of the picture though as I couldn`t really see any discernable damage.

Audio

A nice 5.1 mix but it sounds as if it drops out occasionally in the middle of a couple of performances, only really noticed it on two though. Also nice to hear the iconic theme tune by Jeff Beck and Jan Hammer again, Miami Vice was just a short progression away and not a million miles removed electronically from The Tube`s theme.

Features

Inner Tube Stories - various members of the production team relate stories about some of the guests/bands. They`re all quite short and quite interesting.

Tube Studio Tour - a quick look around the studio as it stands abandoned today

Stills Gallery - guess what this is?

Conclusion

I missed The Tube initially as I lived in Germany whilst the programme was in its prime. The British Forces Broadcasting Service (or BFBS to those of us in the know…) had a limited budget and so we got Top Of The Pops, but none of this. I don`t know, maybe if I`d watched it at the time, I`d have found some of the non-musical items funny, but looking at it now just makes me squirm. It wasn`t funny and looked unprofessional rather than `edgy`. At least the music was great though.

This collection, Volume 1 according to the artwork, has a fantastic track listing with very few bands that I didn`t enjoy or simply could put up with. What did strike me as odd though was the inclusion of two tracks by both The Jam and Paul Young. I know that generally bands played more than one song, which you can clearly see from the editing, but it kind of reminded me of when I used to make up mix tapes in the 80`s myself. You`d set a rule and pick your favourite track by each band you wanted to include but then you`d think "oh, I`ll just put this one on as well, oh and this one…" It`s a very minor quibble though.

This 2 disc DVD was originally released in 2005 and then suddenly withdrawn, which was a bit of a downer for me as I was really looking forward to this. You could get them second hand but you were looking at £30 plus, which was a bit steep. Then I managed to find one going cheap on Amazon Marketplace for just under £20 and snapped it up. Saw it in Morrisons a week later for £13. Bugger. Still, worth every penny. Apparently the only thing different about this release compared to the original is the exclusion of an interview with Bono. I can see why he objected as he`s made to look like an idiot by the buffoon interviewing him. I`m no fan of Bono, but he was young and naïve then and I honestly hope he waited by the back door with Edge and gave him a good kicking.

It`s not all live despite the hype and controversy I mentioned in the introduction re. Dead Or Alive as it`s clear a large number of bands are miming. Maybe they all are, but I don`t think so. I hate it when bands are miming and then just mess about on stage and Thompson Twins are the worst example of this. For me this performance, just as they must have been starting to get big is just excruciating to watch. The song, Love On Your Side, is good but not their best but drummer Joe Leeway just swipes at his keyboard now and again, clearly not playing and then both he and Tom Bailey just seem to mess about on the stage. It winds me up when it shouldn`t but I feel short-changed when someone doesn`t put in the effort. I didn`t mind when Marillion performed Kayleigh on Top Of The Pops with vocalist Fish doing a Bob Dylan impression with loads of cue cards, but then he had laryngitis or something and it was quite humourous. This was embarrassing. Ah well…

The latter rant aside, this is a fantastic set with well over 4 hours of just fantastic music. It might even stretch to plus five hours but I`m not going through it again to time all the crap non-music bits. Hopefully it`s the first of a series, and this is recommended without hesitation. Would be nice if someone did the same for the Oxford Road Show next.

Marks deducted for the obvious non-musical bits or it would probably have got a straight 10…