Television with Richard Hell on the Underground Tonight Show, club gig, NYC 1974

Excerpt of recently unearthed footage of Television with Richard Hell performing “Hard On Love“ from the only existent live club footage available to date of the original Television. The video was filmed sometime during 1974 and appeared on the NYC public access television show The Underground Tonight Show. As reported in Melody Maker from September of that year, John Lennon was watching the program: “On TV next came a group called TELEVISION, and Lennon sat fairly transfixed. Television are so bad they're good. They can barely play their instruments and they are very short of money; they're young and dressed in rags. But they have a spirit that's irresistible, and John immediately identified them as a parallel with The Beatles in their Hamburg days. “Yeah, I can relate to them, they're exactly as we were. Skint and loving every minute. They sound terrible but they're OK!' He liked their name too.“