Edward Ball shaped distinctive sounds emerging from England’s post-punk landscape through his foundational role in Television Personalities and his leadership of the mod pop band the Times during the 1980s. Over successive years the Times moved toward sophisti-pop textures, synthesizers, and dream pop once the 1990s arrived. Ball further explored dance music via the Love Corporation, adopted a shoegaze approach as Teenage Filmstars, and, working independently in the 1990s, captured the disillusionment following the ecstasy boom on his starkly intimate 1995 album If a Man Ever Loved a Woman. Within the Creation Records circle he proved central to the label’s accomplishments, and his recording activity ended in tandem with the imprint’s own dissolution.
A north London resident, Ball made his recorded debut in the post-punk 1970s alongside school friend Dan Treacy and future Creation executive Joe Foster. The three issued self-released singles and EPs under the Teenage Filmstars, the Missing Scientists, and the O-Level—the last responsible for the classic “Where’s Bill Grundy Now?”—before committing permanently to Television Personalities. Most Teenage Filmstars and O-Level tracks later surfaced on the 1992 compilation A Day in the Life of Gilbert and George credited to Television Personalities, with additional selections appearing on that group’s 1995 rarities collection Yes Darling, But Is It Art? Although Foster departed prior to the first album, Ball and Treacy continued as a duo for the initial three Television Personalities LPs—And Don’t the Kids Just Love It? (1980), Mummy You’re Not Watching Me (1981), and They Could Have Been Bigger Than the Beatles (1982)—all issued on the Whaam! label that the pair co-owned and later renamed Dreamworld after receiving payment from George Michael’s management. Still active with Television Personalities, Ball launched his own 1960s Brit-pop-inspired project the Times. The band’s earliest album, taped in 1980, remained unreleased until its 1985 German appearance as Go! With the Times, whereas the second, Pop Goes Art!, appeared on Whaam! in 1982. After leaving Television Personalities, Ball issued a succession of Times albums and EPs on his Artpop! label, underwritten by his share of the George Michael settlement: This Is London (1983), I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape (1983), Hello Europe (1984), Blue Period (1985), Boys About Town (1985), Up Against It (1986, songs for a proposed West End musical drawn from Joe Orton’s unproduced Beatles screenplay, written with Tony Conway of the Mood Six and unrelated to Todd Rundgren’s later adaptation), and Enjoy the Times! (1986). The Times disbanded near the close of 1986, after which Ball joined Foster on the Creation Records staff. He soon revived the Times name, this time as a vehicle for solo work less focused on Carnaby Street and more attuned to contemporary currents. The 1988 album Beat Torture delivered late-1980s British guitar jangle in the style of Creation act Biff Bang Pow!, half of whose members backed Ball, while 1989’s E for Edward cautiously engaged with the acid-house wave then sweeping the country. (In the early 1990s Ball also produced legitimate acid-house EPs as the Love Corporation.) Three further Times albums followed—Et Dieu Crea la Femme (1990), Pure (1991), and Alternative Commercial Crossover (1993)—before he retired that moniker entirely. Instead of immediately pursuing a solo career under his own name, Ball reactivated an earlier alias. Although Foster and Treacy took no part, he released two albums as Teenage Filmstars: 1993’s Rocket Charms stayed close to late-period Times material, yet 1995’s Buy Our Record, Support Our Sickness stands as a conceptual achievement in which every instrument and vocal except the drums was recorded backwards, yielding an unexpectedly accessible experiment in psychedelic pop. During this period Ball also contributed rhythm guitar to labelmates the Boo Radleys without participating in songwriting or production.
Ball’s first release under his given name was the 1995 compilation Welcome to the Wonderful World of Ed Ball. Selected by Creation chief Alan McGee, the two-disc set draws from every Ball project except Television Personalities. Despite its wide stylistic range illustrating his versatility, the collection offers a clear overview of his songwriting. In direct contrast, Ball’s debut proper solo album, 1995’s If a Man Ever Loved a Woman, ranks as his most focused musically and most candid lyrically, addressing his divorce in unusually personal terms. The 1996 follow-up Catholic Guilt proved equally potent, though somewhat brisker in tempo. Creation Records’ collapse in the late 1990s likewise concluded Ball’s recording career. His visibility increased in the 2020s with My Picture Gallery – The Artpop! Recordings, a thorough survey of the Times’ early output, succeeded by the three-disc anthology It’s Kinda Lonely Where I Am – Anthology 1977-2010 encompassing material from across his entire discography.
