Saw it on the TV - a look at some of Peter's appearances on the gogglebox.

For someone as reluctant of the spotlight as Peter, he has nevertheless made numerous appearances on TV. As you can see from the illustrations accompanying this feature, to document them all would be worthy of a book...NO, I am not going to write it! However, I have focussed on a handful of the more interesting and, on occasions, amusing TV appearances that Peter has made over the years.

The earliest and by far the most historically significant is a documentary from 1977. The funny thing is, it isn't about Peter! No, it is actually a documentary about Edwin Shirley Trucking - a company whose name any rock gig attendee will doubtless be familiar with. What makes this of interest to fans of Peter's is that it was filmed during Peter's first solo tour and there are several wonderful sequences of live and backstage footage from that tour in it which are probably the only Pro shot footage available to fans from this tour. It would be exciting if any out takes from it still exist but somehow I doubt it.

Of equal historical significance is the German TV broadcast of Peter's performance from the Grugahalle Essen in 1978 as part of the wonderful Rockpalast series which featured most major artists. This one weighs in at almost eighty minutes in length and captures an excellent performance by Peter and his band during the 1978 tour and remains the earliest full official live recording available to fans.

From the sublime to the ever so slightly ridiculous for my next choice. The San Remo Festival is one of the world's premier Jazz festivals but what possessed them in 1983 to ask Peter to help promote it in the guise of ET is anyone's guess! Yes, you read that last sentence correctly, Peter was employed as a wandering alien complete with trademark facepaint exploring the festival as well as performing an extremely dodgy version of Shock The Monkey to a suitably bemused and unimpressed audience. There are two versions of this performance, the second features Peter swinging out on a guy rope over the audience and falling off! Worth it for the curiosity value alone.

The Making Of Us and Much Music (the latter being the title of a Canadian music series) are both from the US era and feature lengthy interviews with Peter on the subject of the new album and really serve to show that Peter never has been comfortable as an interview subject.

Taratata, a well established French TV series along with performances from the David Letterman and Jools Holland shows span the 90's and 00's with a mix of interviews and live performances bringing this short look at Peter's TV appearances to a close. As you can see, there is an enormous amount of TV material from Peter's career to keep any collector happy. Good hunting!