The Times (band)
British band
The Times are a British indie band, the brainchild of Ed Ball, co-founder member of the Television Personalities, Teenage Filmstars and 'O' Level.
Whaam! Records 1981–1982
After releasing a string of 7-inch singles variously as O'Level ("We Love Malcolm", 1978), The Television Personalities' ("Part Time Punks", 1978), Teenage Filmstars ("There's A Cloud Over Liverpool", 1979, "I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape", 1980), that culminated with the debut Television Personalities album "And Don't The Kids Just Love It" (1980) on Rough Trade Records, Edward Ball and Daniel Treacy opted for even more artistic control by setting up their own label, WHAAM! Records.
At the same time, recorded as a proposed Teenage Filmstars' debut LP, Ball's 1980 collection of songs was completed as "Go! With The Times", from which the first Times single "Red With Purple Flashes" (1981) was released on Whaam! This was followed by "Pop Goes Art!" (1982), released in individually hand-painted sleeves that executed the band's Pop Art visions.
ArTpOp! Records 1982–1986
On leaving the Television Personalities, and consequently Whaam!, Ball immediately launched the ARTPOP! label with the Times' second single "I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape!" (September 1982).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Times (band)” is british band. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Times, band and British, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7769395. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1981, 1982, 1978 and 1979.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Times (band)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.