Formed originally by Tom Verlaine and school chum Richard Hell in 1971 as the Neon Boys and later joined by Richard Lloyd on guitar and Billy Ficca on drums, Television were arguably the first New York new wave band in terms of style and attitude.

Style and attitude was courtesy of Hell who provided a strong visual element of ripped clothes and siky hair based on a picture of the symbolist poet Rimbaud. Hell also provided the live wire rock'n'roll element jumping around and providing songs like Love Comes in Spurts and Fuck Rock'n'roll that so irked Verlaine. This contrasted with Verlaine's studied seriousness and musical intenseness with songs like Marquee Moon and Venus and something eventually had to give.

But before that there were seeds of legends to be sown. Needing a place to gig regularly, Verlaine and Lloyd chanced upon a little-used Bowery bar. They convinced the owner Hilly Kristal they could play country, Blue grass and Blues or CBGB's. Not long after, Blondie, the Ramones and Patti Smith played there, beginning the punk legend that was CBGB's.

Meanwhile Hell was finding song after song of his being dropped from the set. An abortive demo session with Island Records and Eno featured none of his songs. He quit in 1975 and went on to form the Heartbreakers and then the Voidoids, the latter where he got to record his songs and was finally the undisputed leader.