About this season
Elbow frontman and broadcaster Guy Garvey lifts the lid on two decades of TV gold – with era-defining musical performances, long lost studio appearances and revealing interviews that have remained on the shelves for decades. The series is centred around shows which were made by ITV companies around the country – from Tony Wilson and Granada TV’s So It Goes to Tyne Tees’ ground-breaking Channel 4 series The Tube and LWT’s The London Weekend Show - chronicling not just changing musical tastes but evolution in the UK’s social and cultural history too. The series travels from Punk and New Wave to the birth of ‘Madchester’.
Episodes (5)
1. 1989
8.0Aired 13 May 2022
The Elbow frontman returns to introduces more music performances from the TV archives, beginning with a selection from 1989 including the Stone Roses. Inspiral Carpets, Happy Mondays, Sonic Youth, the La's, Ice-T, Inner City and Neneh Cherry. Guy also takes a look at rarely seen footage of college rock favourites They Might Be Giants and 10,000 Maniacs and Black Francis performing an acoustic version of a Pixies classic.
2. 1976
8.0Aired 20 May 2022
The Elbow frontman introduces music from the TV archives from 1976, featuring Sex Pistols, the Clash, Kiss, Heart, Tom Waits, the Walker Brothers, Albert Hammond and Rod Stewart. Guy also looks back at classic performances from the likes of Procol Harum, the Kinks, Be-Bop Deluxe and David Essex, as well as interviews with Patti Smith and Diana Ross.
3. 1986
8.0Aired 27 May 2022
The Elbow frontman introduces music from the TV archives from 1986, featuring appearances by the Waterboys, Suzanne Vega, Kurtis Blow, Iggy Pop, Billy Bragg, the Cramps, the Damned and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Plus, Chaka Khan, Cameo, Trouble Funk, Erasure, Furniture and Talk Talk.
4. 1981
8.0Aired 3 June 2022
Elbow frontman Guy Garvey lifts the lid on two decades of TV gold. Here, he takes you through 1981, reflecting on the year's defining musical performances.
5. Britpop
8.0Aired 10 June 2022
Elbow frontman Guy Garvey lifts the lid on two decades of TV gold. Here, he takes you through music genre and culture movement Britpop