You Can’t Turn Off TV Smith The Signal’s Still Loud and Clear
TV Smith at the Rebellion Festival—Photo by John Greenwood
Non-stop tour machine and one-man army TV Smith, fresh from his own world tour as well as supporting The Damned on theirs, is taking a brief late-summer break after playing the first three days of the world-famous four-day Rebellion Festival and rounding up his tour in Switzerland this September. After maybe a month to catch his breath, he’ll be straight back at it, announcing a string of twenty solo dates around the provincial UK. So none of you “Horrible Herberts” have any valid reason not to go out, pay tribute, and see this legend as he passes through at least one venue local to you. He’s even playing the tiny little spit-on-the-map outpost where I spent my formative years in the late ’70s, earning the title of the first punk rocker in town—Barnoldswick, for Pete’s sake!
Oh, what a day it would’ve been if TV had brought The Adverts to that town back in my pimple-plagued teen years. The only way I could see a cutting-edge band like that back then was to sneak onto a Preston train bound for London and play dodge the ticket collector all the way down to the Smoke. All references to characters in that story, alive or dead, are purely coincidental, by the way.
TV Smith at the Rebellion Festival—Photo by John Greenwood
But alas, no time for fanciful stories of my spotty misspent youth. The time is now, and it’s a windfall day to see this national treasure and supreme wordsmith who, let’s face it, has been able to conjure with words alongside the best of the Lydons and the Strummers for decades. The really cool thing about TV Smith is that he’s still current, still in touch with his audience, still giving voice to those of us feeling the pressure of these days of global corporate takeover. Whereas Joe’s voice was taken from us by a higher power, and Lydon’s might as well have been, TV is still here, speaking for us all.
I thoroughly recommend that anyone unfamiliar make themselves acquainted with TV’s last album Handwriting, if they don’t already own a copy. It’s full of punchy, hard-hitting lyrics that perfectly capture the state of disappearing rights, freedoms, and small joys we once took for granted. There are no filler tracks on this album. The man is brave enough to say what many dare not, and we need more like him—people willing to stand up and be counted. I can only applaud him for his honesty, courage, and the inspiration he brings.
TV Smith at the Rebellion Festival—Photo by John Greenwood
It’s been on permanent six-disc rotation in my pickup since I bought it from the great man himself at Rebellion a few years ago. The lyrics of “Common Enemy” should ring a bell somewhere and give you pause. It’s a massive track. “The Best of the Worst” rattles what’s left of my cage every time I hear it. “As Good as It Gets” is the soundtrack to our era, at least from my point of view. From the title track “Handwriting” to “Convincing Lie,” “Scared to Show Your Face,” and “You Need Help,” this album is a masterpiece of wordsmithery and lyrical genius. I implore you to buy it and support the mastermind who created it in any way you can. We need more working-class heroes like TV Smith, willing to bare their souls to the world night after night—whether with a tour van and band, or just a train ticket to oblivion and an acoustic guitar over the shoulder. He deserves a full house and our respect wherever he plays: a true, authentic punk rock legend still with his finger on the pulse, telling it like it is.
TV Smith at the Rebellion Festival—Photo by John Greenwood
Don’t forget, good people, that a T-shirt, CD, or any bit of merch bought directly from our heroes at these events can be the difference that keeps them on the road. And what better souvenir can you have than one straight from the artist? I’ve built myself a veritable T-shirt mountain that way.
I caught TV recently in July, performing with a full live band playing Adverts songs in Berkeley, and what a night it was—blazing through an electrifying set of classics and blowing the doors off the historic UC Theatre, which has been around since 1917. (See my In Spite article titled From Berkeley to Blackpool.) I also caught him about a month later at Rebellion Festival 2025 in Blackpool. TV and his assembled band, The Bored Teenagers—a clever nod to one of The Adverts’ best-loved songs—stole the show as the best band of the opening night, at least in my opinion (and I admit to my own personal bias).
TV Smith at the Rebellion Festival—Photo by John Greenwood
Being of a certain age, my impending senility often presumes everyone from my era is still alive and that everyone knows The Adverts. For any of the new blood recently discovering the treasure trove that 1976–77 punk still offers, I implore you to seek out not only TV Smith’s solo work but also The Adverts’ Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts. It contains gems like “One Chord Wonders,” my personal favorite “No Time to Be 21,” “Bored Teenagers,” and of course “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes.” Their second and final album Cast of Thousands is no lightweight either, though it was criminally maligned when first released. It introduced the world to “My Place” and “Television’s Over,” and some later editions even include “Back from the Dead.”
TV Smith at the Rebellion Festival—Photo by John Greenwood
TV Smith & The Explorers was a tragically under-promoted project that, due to lack of label support, was allowed to die on the vine. It robbed us of a great band, but you can get a sense of what we lost by listening to “Tomahawk Cruise”—a track that should have been a massive hit.
TV Smith’s solo UK tour kicks off in Ramsgate on October 24, and he’ll be bringing it to venues across the country. Make sure you get out there, support this real legend, and cheer him on.
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