Grab the popcorn, it’s time to look into another petty dispute between music’s biggest stars. We’re not talking about the unidirectional floor-wiping Kendrick Lamar provided to Drake earlier this year, nor the outright vitriolic hatred shared between Mike Patton and Anthony Kiedis. No, believe it or not, this feud is filled with far more childish strops than both of those and yet you’d probably expect the two parties to have been good friends.

The scene is set: we’re in New York City in 1974, and David Bowie is attending a show at Club 82 to check out a band that has been attracting plenty of attention. The cross-dressing-cum-glam venue was playing host to a band called Television, who, by all accounts, stuck out like a sore thumb among the drag performers and glitziness that surrounded them with their awkward, punkish aesthetic.

In spite of playing in unlikely surroundings, the group left Bowie and his entourage stunned, and he was clamouring to be introduced to the members. Upon meeting the then bassist Richard Hell and vocalist Tom Verlaine, Bowie dished out effusive praise towards the band for their proto-punk style and raucous guitars. He wouldn’t keep his praise between himself and the band either and decided to announce to the press that “Television is the most original band I’ve seen in New York. They’ve got it.”

If that wasn’t already the most glowing advertisement the band could have possibly asked for, it would pique the interest of the Velvet Underground’s John Cale, who soon realised the New York group’s brilliance and would inform his former bandmate, Lou Reed, about them. It was there that this game of telephone, unfortunately, ended, as Reed’s initial approval of the group soon turned into vehement animosity.

Given how critical Reed was of his ‘imitators’, it was a surprise to know that he was initially warm to Television, considering that they were reviving a similar style to what the Velvet Underground had pioneered in the previous decade. However, Reed became a fan of the band, and attended a number of their shows in New York for a period of time. That was until he and Verlaine clashed over a small misdemeanour of Reed’s.

At one of their shows at Max’s Kansas City, Verlaine spotted Reed in the crowd with a portable cassette recorder, taping the full performance. Irked no end by Reed’s act of selfishness, Verlaine chose not to diffuse the situation amicably and instead decided to confiscate the recording from the singer.

Instead of admitting he was at fault for having attempted to record the performance, Reed chose to stoke the fire even more, and when he caught another Television performance at the local gay bar, Mother’s, he chose to take his revenge. When Television launched into a rendition of ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’, Reed made a dramatic exit from the venue in a way that everyone would notice, essentially telling the band exactly what he thought of them.

And there you have it: an incredibly petulant exchange of blows from two rock heavyweights that ended in tears – although only for a short period. Verlaine and Reed would later make up and become friends, but this story of their brief spat certainly paints a picture of a troubled beginning to their relationship.

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