Number:2099437 THUMBNAIL Uploaded By:telegramsam Description: The Tube Logo for Series 1 and 2
Number:747038 Uploaded By:nboldock Description: Title screenshot
Number:2099440 Uploaded By:telegramsam Description: Series 1 Presenters - Gary James, Michelle Cremona, Muriel Gray, Jools Holland, Nick Laird-Clowes, Mike Everitt
Number:2099442 Uploaded By:telegramsam Description: Paula Yates & Kim Wilde - Series 1
Number:2099443 Uploaded By:telegramsam Description: Leslie Ash with Thor - Series 2 (1984)
Number:2099444 Uploaded By:telegramsam Description: Muriel Gray with Divine - Series 2 (1984)
Number:2099445 Uploaded By:telegramsam Description: Series 2 Ad break title - Jools Holland, Leslie Ash, Gary James
Number:2099446 Uploaded By:telegramsam Description: Gary James with The Weather Girls (1983)
Number:2099447 Uploaded By:telegramsam Description: French & Saunders as Jools superfans - Series 2 (1984)
Number:2099474 Uploaded By:telegramsam Description: Gary James & John Peel - Marc Bolan Special 1983
Number:2099475 Uploaded By:telegramsam Description: Ringo Starr - Tube Marc Bolan Special 1983
Number:2099479 Uploaded By:telegramsam Description: Tony Visconti - Tube Marc Bolan Special 1983
I young lady I knew used to appear in the audience pretty much every week, very weird seeing her Friday afternoon in class then on TV about 2 hours later.
Great programme for chaotic interviews, if there was going to be trouble it always seemed to happen then, a couple of memorable ones were when Meatloaf crashed an interview with someone who had dissed him, and another with Divine (maybe?) when the crowd behind all started chanting Get Yer T!Ts Out, oh and another with Fay Waybill, things got very hostile with the crowd.
Users of this site should note that the IMDB page for this programme is so factually inaccurate as to render it useless. The definitive story has not yet been written, and maybe never will be. In the meantime at least IMDB could get its basic facts right.
Oh yeah... Bad News! There was another occasion when Rik Mayall appeared on the show and caused trouble when he vomited for real! That definitely did NOT go down well with the press and Channel 4!
You can get a good sense of the show by looking on Youtube for the Bad News clip, remember it was broadcast live, the audience thinking Bad News was a real band...that just played a really bad number then this interview, I was in hysterics at the time..
I had to catch episodes of this when my Dad wanted to see a particular band... otherwise I had to wait till the folks were out of the room to flip over and catch bits and bobs.
But let's not be too hard on Jools... the guy has been almost single handedly holding up the musical universe for the Beeb since the music industry imploded in the face of new Technology and the TOTP shit-storm began. Many performances would not have been recorded in this period if it hadn't been for his show.
Personally, I only tune into Later... occasionally, as the artist selections can be a little too "safe" and predominantly established artists, but it's better than nothing (Or those god-awful, insipid "music channels" we now have).
Bout time BBC produced a show to replace TOTP that has that essential democratised, prime time ethos that reflects the public taste of the time (as only a chart based show can).
The show and the music it captured is more important to our culture than the odious crimes of individuals who may have appeared on it.
(lecture over.... normal service shall now resume :)
Yeah - it did involve the "groovy f***ers" phrase! A few months earlier there was an uproar when one show started with Paula and Jools outside on the roof of Tyne Tees and Paula grumbled "It's f***ing freezing!" I saw that and it amused me but I recall some scathing reports about it in the press and the NME also reported it. I think they were given warnings about that!
The Jools of the 80's was rather irreverent in tone... he certainly knew his stuff musically but his sardonic humour and ability to cope with, and sometimes get carried away by what was going on made him endearing to me. His proneness for occasional swearing was why the BBC had "Later" pre-recorded for a very long time, because they didn't trust him and feared he'd let slip some swear words. Unfortunately that approach and spending what feels like a lifetime with the BBC has dullened Jools considerably. Now, I haven't got the time of day for him and can't stand the bloke, but when he did "The Tube" I thought he was great and perfect for the show.
The problem with the Jools incident was that it was a trailer for the programme broadcast at teatime I believe ("be there or be a totally ungroovy f***er" wasn't it?). I find it amusing that at the time he was made into some kind of pariah, whereas now he seems to have ascended almost to the level of national treasure. Bless 'im.
Fabulous show - truly live and unpredictable. Weird to think there was a time when I really liked Jools Holland since in this he was in his element and I remember him being real amusing which worked great within the context of the show. Never really "got" Paula Yates at all and much preferred Muriel Gray though her encounter with Scott Walker was toecurling stuff as she died a million deaths realising that Scott was not the most talkative of guests.
The first series had a chap called Gary James as one of the presenters and he presided over a Marc Bolan special within one of the shows which was stunning to see at the time since it was the first time I was finally able to see some Marc footage on TV since his death which for me gave the show an extra sense of cool.
Unfortunately, it did decline towards the end not helped by Jools getting suspended because of one occasion where he used bad language, yet Paula also used it on occasion but she got away with it, so with Paula now promoted to main host... it suffered and became teethgratingly embarrassing - she was tolerable when Jools was there as a counterbalance. Then Channel 4 gave it the kiss of death by moving it from the Friday teatime slot to a spot on Sunday afternoon which made absolutely no sense at all.
Sadder still, there have been compilations on TV and DVD but watching them feels rather flat since seeing just edited musical highlights fails to capture the things I remember best about the show - of course the music was an important part but it was all the hustle and bustle that went on in-between that was just as, if not more fun and gave the show it's distinct character. A show of its time which I largely enjoyed, if one could see the shows as transmitted again, they'd serve as a good little time capsule of the 80's during the era it ran.