For this week’s installment of “120 Minutes” Rewind, we look back at the time The The mastermind Matt Johnson hosted the show in 1986 while promoting that year’s Infected — and earned an on-screen disclaimer because of his stridently political remarks between music videos.
As you can see in the clips below, Johnson used his late-night cable platform to decry the “Reagan/Thatcher romance,” and, in particular, the U.S. bombing of Libya and the U.K.’s role in that attack. (As he put it, “the use of Britain as a mere aircraft carrier to hit Libya with.”)
During the episode, the following message scrolled across the bottom of the screen: “The content of this segment does not necessarily reflect the position of MTV Networks.”
Johnson, who returns with the first new The The single in a decade later this month, also was less than charitable to the bands whose videos he was introducing, admitting he’d never heard Easterhouse before, calling The Stranglers “perpetually middle-aged” and saying, “I must admit, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark aren’t a band that I like or dislike, they’re just kind of there.”
Check out four clips from the Johnson-hosted episode below via uploader MrPhilrand.
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- ‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: The world premiere of an iconic Sinead O’Connor video — 1990
- ‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: The Poster Children sit down with Dave Kendall during CMJ — 1991
- ‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Watch most of a Kevin Seal-hosted episode from Sept. 27, 1987
- ‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Hardcore legends Bad Brains go under the ‘120 X-Ray’ — 1990
- ‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Dinosaur Jr goes looking for a new bass player via fax — 1991
Wow, I’d completely forgotten about that episode! That was right about the time I started watching it, too.
Now THAT is a reissue I’d love to see – The The’s Infected movie! I’ve only ever seen it a few times and my copy (which I’d taped off USA’s Night Flight) is long gone at this point.
Several songs on Infected and Mindbomb were quite prophetic…still great thoughful songs today.