Part Time Punks

"Part Time Punks" is a song recorded in 1978 by the English post-punk group Television Personalities. It was written in 1978 by band leader and vocalist Dan Treacy,^[1] The recording features Treacy, fellow teenager and school friend Ed Ball and drummer Mark Sheppard. The lyrics are a wry satire of the late-comer, fashion-oriented, so-called "plastic" punks who emerged after the English punk rock movement had emerged from the underground and 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"
Single by Television Personalities
Released	1980
Genre	Post Punk Indie rock
Length	2:37
Label	Rough Trade
Songwriter(s)	Dan Treacy
Television Personalities singles chronology
"14th Floor" (1978) "Part Time Punks" (1980) "I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives" (1981)

"Part Time Punks" was first released as part of the 1978 four-song EP "Where's Bill Grundy Now?".^[A][3] Treacy self-financed the EP, in part with a loan from his parents. He had intended to release the song as a single immediately after, but due to a miscalculation of costs was unable to afford to press any 7-inch singles. After the track was picked up by the BBC DJ John Peel, Treacy was offered a number of record deals before eventually signing with Rough Trade, who released it 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.^[4] "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 somewhat of a novelty that his later songs were compared against.

Background

Treacy formed the Television Personalities after hearing the Sex Pistols^[5] and Jonathan Richman. Unconventional by nature, he has said that at the time he was not that much interested in music and that the band rarely rehearsed.^[6]

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. Eventually they decided on the more generic "Television Personalities".^[5]

Recording and distribution

Treacy borrowed money from his parents for the recording of a follow-up single to their debut "Where's Bill Grundy Now?".^[7] The band eventually decided on releaing a four track EP and returned to the studio to record the songs "Part Time Punks", "Happy Families" and "Pissing as the Roundhouse".^[8]

Treacy wanted to release Part Time Punks as a single, but having misjudged the recording and mastering costs, was only able to afford to press two copies,^[8][9] one of which he sent to the influential BBC radio DJ John Peel, who played it repeatedly.^[9] On the strength of the song, Peel offered the band a Peel Session, which they recorded at the BBC Radio 1 Studio on 20 August 1980, but wanting to display their newer songs, omitted "Part Time Punks". Peel was disappointed when he heard that the song had been left out, but noting the band's youth, remarked in good humour: "Oh, it's such a shame that children have to grow up".^[10]

As a result of the exposure, Treacy was contacted by several independent record labels offering to distribute the track.^[B] During this period, he and Ball formed the Whaam! label, and released several other self-financed singles. This project was renamed "Dreamworld" after a cease and desist letter from legal representatives of George Michael of Wham!, who paid an undisclosed sum to get the duo to use a band 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]

Lyrics and style

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 ironic 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 journalist 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."^[7] The author and journalist Lina Lecaro described the song as about poseurs and late adopters "who pound the pit or rock the look only on the weekend".^[14] Treacy re-explored the theme in 1995's -far darker- "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. Up to about six months ago I was just like everybody else. 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]

Reception and influence

The music critic Kelefa Sanneh said of Part Time Punks, "Dan Treacy led what sounded like a bedroom sing-along, poking fun of 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."^[17]

The song has been widely influential, with elements of its style adopted by UK indie bands such as Belle and Sebastian and Arctic Monkeys. The song appears on the 1995 TVPs early singles and B-sides compilation "Yes Darling, But Is It Art",^[18] while the 1999 'Best of' album "Part Time Punks: The Very Best Of Television Personalities" was titled after the song.^[19]

Notes

1. The other songs are "Where's Bill Grundy Now?", "Happy Families", and "Posing At The Roundhouse". See Young (2006), p. 51
2. Treacy stated that the majority offered to "lend me" the money to do so. See Slow Dazzle, 1984