In the beginning was The Word. Except, of course, it was The Tube that came first, in 1982, a stroppy, silly-trousered teenager of a pop show in a children’s tea-time slot. (As I recall, you flipped over straight after Crackerjack on a Friday, though that might be my memory playing Sky Plus.) The Tube, to a suburban fifteen-year-old like me, was fascinatingly outrageous: saucy, hectic and all-over-the-shop, with real live bands playing real live music and presenters that were DIY rather than DLT. Jools Holland was deadpan and disrespectful; Paula Yates flirted so hard you thought the TV might explode (which it did, in the titles). They both kept messing things up. I thought they, and The Tube, were brilliant. I couldn’t quite believe that any of it was allowed.

Paula Yates flirted so hard you thought the TV might explode

The Tube’s anarchic air was part of the DNA of the new Channel 4. Of course, no primetime telly show is ever commissioned without a grown-up saying yes, but in its early years Channel 4 seemed to be sneaking an entire new generation in the back door whilst the adults tapped their watches at the front. And, for teenage viewers brought up on the sedate thrills of Morecambe and Wise, that was truly exciting. Drunkenness, swearing, innuendo, actual filth; Channel 4 brought them all to a nation’s spotty youth. We were very grateful, even if sometimes we had to sit through a two-hour art movie to find the naughty bits we were promised.

Still, The Tube. The first pop show that felt alive. Because it went out live, and from Newcastle. Away from London’s easy cab-ride home, bands would act as though they were on tour. They got drunk, they got bored, they talked to/rowed with/took the mickey out of each other. Several interviews took place in their dressing rooms, including a notoriously stiff chat between Muriel Gray and Paul Weller around the time The Jam split up. When I watch that clip now, I cringe in sympathy with Gray: it reminds me of umpteen interviews I’ve conducted myself with tricky musicians. When I saw it then, I was agog. Up until The Tube, I’d never realised that pop stars and presenters were real people, with personalities that might clash.