Ep541: TV Smith - 50 Years of The Adverts

TV Smith joins Nate to discuss the 50th anniversary of The Adverts, an Australian tour backed by The Hard-Ons, and a career full of great songs and terrible label luck. Topics Include: TV Smith is touring Australia in April with The Hard-Ons. The tour celebrates the 50th anniversary of The Adverts. The Hard-Ons are already learning the surprisingly complex Adverts songs. TV finds it odd but joyful to still be performing. He got back into vinyl to quality-check his own releases. Bowie, Roxy Music, and reggae were key early influences for TV. The Sex Pistols made TV believe he could actually do this. The Roxy Club punk scene started with just 30 people. Brian James of The Damned personally recommended The Adverts to Stiff. They recorded One Chord Wonders in a single afternoon at Pathway. Stiff misspelled the title and controversially centred Gaye Advert on the cover. Gary Gilmore's Eyes was TV's satirical response to exploitative media coverage. The BBC was deeply reluctant to air Gary Gilmore's Eyes on TV. Anchor Records collapsed mid-momentum, leaving The Adverts suddenly without a label. Crossing the Red Sea was recorded at Abbey Road with John Leckie. Gary Gilmore's Eyes was left off the album deliberately — vinyl runtime constraints. RCA signed them against their own A&R team's wishes — chaos followed. Cast of Thousands suffered a botched mix, a terrible cover, label indifference. Channel 5 was finally properly remastered after the producer found a safety tape. TV is bringing vinyl to the merch table — especially the Handwriting LP. High resolution version of this podcast is available at: Apple: Spotify: Amazon Music: Support the show at Patreon.com/VinylGuide

You can listen to Ep541: TV Smith - 50 Years of The Adverts online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Ep541: TV Smith - 50 Years of The Adverts is an episode from The Vinyl Guide by Nate Goyer.

This episode is 42:15 long.

This episode was published on Mar 30, 2026.

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