"Part Time Punks" is a song recorded in 1978 by the English mod revival and post-punk group Television Personalities. It was written by the band's leader and vocalist Dan Treacy[1] and features Treacy and fellow teenager and school friends Ed Ball (guitar) and Mark Sheppard (drums). The lyrics satirise the late-comer, fashion-oriented, so-called "plastic" punks who appeared after the English punk rock movement went mainstream, especially after Bill Grundy's infamous 1976 live TV interview with the Sex Pistols, during which the band swore and after which the TV host was fired from the ITV network.[2]
"Part Time Punks" was initially released as part of the 1978 four-song EP "Where's Bill Grundy Now?". Treacy financed the EP's recording through a loan from his parents. He had intended to release the song as a single, but due to a miscalculation of costs, only able to press two test copies. After the track was picked up by the BBC DJ John Peel, Treacy was offered a number of record deals before signing with Rough Trade who released the song as a single in 1980.
The song brought TVPs to prominence within the then-emerging independent music scene. The record sleeve contained both do-it-yourself instructions and a breakdown of the single's recording and distribution costs.[3] "Part Time Punks" sold an estimated 27,000 copies in its first year. However, Treacy later came to regard the song as a millstone and a somewhat novelty against which his later songs were compared.
Background
The band's vocalist and songwriter Dan Treacy formed the Television Personalities after hearing the Sex Pistols[4] and Jonathan Richman. Unconventional by nature, he has admitted that he was not very interested in music at the time and that the band rarely rehearsed.[5]
The band struggled to decide on a name; early suggestions included the names of well-known but old-fashioned television hosts such as Nicholas Parsons, Russell Harty, Bruce Forsyth and Hughie Green. They eventually decided on the more generic "Television Personalities".[4]
Recording and distribution
Treacy borrowed money from his parents to record a follow-up single to their debut, "Where's Bill Grundy Now?".[6] The band decided to release a four track EP consisting of the songs "Part Time Punks", "Happy Families" and "Posing at the Roundhouse".[7][8] Treacy wanted to release Part Time Punks as a single, but having misjudged the recording and mastering costs, was only able to press two copies.[8][9] He sent one pf the copies to the influential BBC radio DJJohn Peel, who played it repeatedly[9] and offered the band a Peel Session. The session was recorded at the BBC Radio on hearing that the song had been left out, but noting the band's youth, remarked: "Oh, it's such a shame that children have to grow up".[10]
As a result of this exposure, Treacy was contacted by several independent record labels offering to distribute the track. He and Ball formed the Whaam! record label and released several other self-financed singles. However, the project had to be renamed "Dreamworld" after they received a cease and desist letter from legal representatives of George Michael of the pop group Wham!, who paid an undisclosed sum to get the duo to stop using the name.[11] Treacy eventually signed with Geoff Travis' Rough Trade Records, who released the single in 1980. It was instantly popular, with the first 14,000 copies selling in 6 months and a further 13,000 pressed six months later. The song brought the band to attention abroad and led to tours and record sales in America, Germany and Holland.[9]
The song is recorded in Television Personalities' characteristic low-fi and deliberately shambolic style. Treacy's lyrics incorporate vernacular language and are sung with a pronounced London accent and a storytelling intonation. Adding to the amateurish tone, both Treacy and Ball appear to struggle with keeping their vocal harmonies in tune.[12]
The lyrics take a critical and satirical look at the evolution of punk rock from its underground beginnings in the mid-1970s into the more commercialised and mainstream late–1970s style.[13] According to the music critic Rob Young, the song reflects the "transference of the earnest imperatives behind punk rock into a pastiche" and satires "the cartoon-mohican punk rockers that had taken over the King's Road as helpless fashion victims ignorant of the founding spirit of punk rock."[6] Writing for LA Weekly in 2006, the critic Lina Lecaro described the song as criticising poseurs and late adopters "who rock the look only on the weekend".[14] Treacy re-explored the theme in the -far darker- title track of the 1995 album "I Was a Mod Before You Was a Mod".[11]
Part Time Punks mentions several contemporary bands, music industry people and record labels, including Siouxsie and the Banshees, John Peel and Rough Trade Records. However, Treacy has said that the song wasn't intended to criticise them directly. More so, in the words of critic Ian Birch, the song highlights "the kind of unthinking acceptance that people can adopt towards figureheads."[15] Asked in a 1980 interview with Sounds magazine if he was once a part-time punk, Treacy said: "Oh Christ yeah, I'm the worst of the lot. If there was a review in Sounds saying this is a good album I'd go and but it...The other night I was looking over the road, not with me telescope, and there was actually someone pogoing in their bedroom. That's when I realised everybody takes it too seriously."[16]
Release and aftermath
Treacy said in a 2010 interview that Part Time Punks and their following debut album "...And Don't the Kids Just Love It" were the band's most commercially successful releases. He said that at the time "I was absolutely minted, big record, big album. The money came too young. "Part Time Punks" done getting on 100,000, not that I see anything for it these days. I may do eventually.""[17]
Reception and influence
The writer Kelefa Sanneh said of Part Time Punks, "Dan Treacy led what sounded like a bedroom sing-along, poking fun at young people practising their punk moves at home. The verses were rather judgmental, but by the time he got to the chorus, Treacy sounded more like a small boy watching a delightful parade."[18]Part Time Punks has become a cult hit[17] and has been widely influential. According to the writer Simon Reynolds is song acts as a self-referentialmeta critique addressing the nature of the punk movement itself.[19]
Elements of its style were adopted by UK indie bands such as Belle and Sebastian and Arctic Monkeys. It appeared on the 1995 TVP early singles and B-sides compilation "Yes Darling, But Is It Art",[20] while the 1999 'Best of' album "Part Time Punks: The Very Best Of Television Personalities" was titled after the song.[21]
Berton, Benjamin (2022). Dreamworld: The fabulous life of Daniel Treacy and his band Television Personalities. Mainz: Black Dog Publishing. ISBN978-3-9557-5621-5.
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