Pitchfork: Television Personalities Frontman Out of Prison, Plans New Full-Length

Television Personalities Frontman Out of Prison, Plans New Full-Length
Sometimes, you just gotta get all Papillon up in this bitch

News flash: There are prison boats in the UK. I was not aware of this fact, but I must admit that it is a pretty brilliant idea. After all, why keep convicted criminals on the mainland when you can just float them on a ship somewhere out in the middle of the ocean? Personally, I'd like to know more about these floating houses of hellish boredom, and perhaps you would, too. Luckily, I know just the man to answer any such questions that we may have.

His name: Dan Treacy. His game: former singer/songwriter for Television Personalities, a band whose 1981 debut album, And Don't the Kids Just Love It, has been cited as highly influential by literally buttloads of artists and garnered the #64 spot on Pitchfork's list of the top 100 albums of the 1980s. Treacy's last official recording, a collection of demos entitled Don't Cry Baby It's Only a Movie, was released in 1998, by which time Treacy had officially disappeared from the face of the earth. He was rumored to be battling severe depression and an addiction to heroin, but no one was really sure what had happened to him.

Then, in early May of this year, a letter from Dan Treacy to Andy Freiberger, head of Munich-based Little Teddy Records, surfaced on a Television Personalities Yahoo! discussion group. In the letter, Treacy informed Freiberger that he had been serving a prison boat sentence for a while, but had been free of health and drug problems for the preceding six months. He then went on to explain that he was scheduled to be released on June 28th, and that despite the lack of a guitar and amp, he had written his "best and most meaningful music in the last couple of years." And now he's planning to record it.

Honestly, you couldn't make something this amazing up: Main force behind highly influential but popularly unrecognized band battles depression, insanity and drug addiction, disappears, serves time aboard UK prison boat, emerges a fitter and happier human being, and records new record with his old buddies. I feel a VH1 movie-special comin' on!

According to members of the Yahoo! group, Treacy was released from prison on June 28th as expected, and is in high spirits. His adoring fans have held a few benefit concerts for him and seem to be hemorrhaging money in his general direction, even going so far as to send said money to Toe Rag Studios (commonly known these days as the birthplace of The White Stripes' Elephant), at which Treacy laid down his last recordings. Treacy is currently unavailable for contact due to his extremely recent change in location (boat to non-boat) and lifestyle (confined to non-confined), but we'll be sure to keep you posted as the details unfurl.