Richard Lloyd (guitarist) - Television

Television

Ork and Lloyd went to Reno Sweeney's one night during the summer of 1973, where Richard saw Tom Miller play three songs. Lloyd leaned over to Ork during the second song and told him that this fellow had something, but was missing something, and what he was missing, Lloyd had. He advised Ork that if Terry could convince Tom, the combination of Lloyd and Miller would have the makings of the band Terry Ork was looking for. This was the beginning of the formation of the band Television. Miller would eventually change his last name to Verlaine and Richard Meyers became Richard Hell and promised to learn the bass as they went along. With the addition of Billy Ficca on drums, the quartet was complete. Television rehearsed seven days a week for five or six hours a day during the fall and winter of 1973, and made their first public performance on March 2, 1974, at the Town House Theatre on W. 44th St.

Television were looking for a club where they could develop an audience and play more often as the house band, when Verlaine spotted a guy putting up the awning on a bar on the Bowery which stood under a flophouse for homeless alcoholics. Verlaine and Lloyd went back up and discussed the possibility of playing in this new club, which was to be called CBGBs. After Television's manager Ork promised CBGBs a large take at the bar, Television was given a gig at the end of March, 1974. CBGBs was run by a man named Hilly Kristal, who was planning to have country, bluegrass and blues (CBGB) at the club, but when more original rock bands like Blondie, the Ramones and the Talking Heads started to show up after finding out that there was a place to play, Ork became the official booking agent for the club. CBGBs started to get noticed after bands like Television and Talking Heads started to fill the place up, and when a young poetess named Patti Smith began playing double bills with Television, the club started becoming famous. CBGBs closed its doors in New York in 2007, but not until having earned the distinction of being the most famous rock-and-roll club in rock-and-roll history.

After recording some demos for various record companies, Richard Hell left the band and was replaced by Blondie's bass player at the time, Fred Smith. Fred Smith's solid bass playing allowed for a more transcendent and profound music from the two guitarists and drummer, resulting in their being signed to Elektra Records in 1977.

Television recorded two albums for Elektra, Marquee Moon and Adventure. As a debut release in 1977, Marquee Moon remains on lists of greatest guitar albums in rock-and-roll history, and has never been out of print.

After recording Adventure in 1978, and finding success elusive in the United States, Television disbanded after a successful series of dates at New York's Bottom Line. The various members went their separate ways, although all of them continued in the music industry.