They were cutting edge in their early days, hard as that is to believe nowadays. They were almost Prog Rock, in fact their early stuff is Prog.
A friend of mine gave me a lend of his Queen tape and that was it for me. I was hooked after that. It is such a pity the Old Grey Whistle Test was finished before I was born because I have seen a lot of footage of it and it really was a big deal for bands to appear on it.
I absolutely loathed ToTP so OGWT was the higlight of the week for me, I saw all the iconic performances on there, Alice, The Skids, New York Dolls et al. I used to record the ones I wanted on a tape recorder.
You had that **** and I got to see this. [video=youtube;mftC-Mdj2BU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mftC-Mdj2BU[/video]
Proof if ever it was ever needed that the charts are made up of 95% ****e no matter what the decade. I've watched a couple of the old ToTPs on BBC4. Dreadful stuff. And those ****ing dancers! Ruby Flipper? What the **** was that all about?
Everyone says that about the period they grew up in. Look at ER. He had to grow up listening to Alma Cogan and Engelbert Humperdinck on the Light Service. Poor ****.