THE STORY OF ECT (EPISODE 10) – THE END! – LIVE HEAVY METAL ON CHANNEL 4
And
so we come to the last ever episode of ECT as shown on Channel 4 for 10 weeks
during the spring of 1985. Whatever it’s plusses and minusses it brought heavy
rock to a wide audience and gave exposure to many bands that would otherwise
have not that much in history to remember them by.
A
lack of big names and a flawed format killed the show. Had the live footage
mixed with rock videos with some of the big US hitters, then I think it could
have come back for a second series.
But
as it was, it is a fascinating peek into the (mainly British) rock scene of the
mid 80s.
I
hope you’ve enjoyed this series of 10 articles which I believe is the first
time (on the internet at least) that someone has put together a substantive
piece on ECT and included links to all the available footage.
So
before we say a final farewell, it’s on with the last episode….
Unfortunately,
it’s not that memorable, other than for the only band to appear twice in the
series, MAGNUM – but more on that later.
First
up were SHE. Had never heard of them then and never heard of them afterwards!
But here you go…
TRASH
weren’t much cop either. A Swedish band from before Scandinavian bands got good….
And
then MAGNUM. Probably the most memorable thing from ECT’s farewell was Magnum’s
attempt at a technical opening with Bob Catley strapped to the camera … but his
mic wasn’t working! Another great performance though and if I recall MAGNUM
replaced HANOI ROCKS who had decided to call it a day a week or so before the
show.
And
finally, German band WARLOCK closed the show. Aside from the obvious eye candy
of Doro Pesch they never did much more me!
So
ECT went out in the end with a bit of a whimper, but on the whole it was a
great 10 weeks – and it got me started on almost 30 years (to date) of rock gig
going – so it wasn’t all bad by any means. I happen to think I went to one of
the best weeks too – I’ll never, ever forget it.
The
rest of my previous articles – bringing you ECT complete!
