THE creator of iconic North-East TV rock show The Tube is giving a free talk in the region.

Malcolm Gerrie brought the show to screen in the 1980s and has also collaborated with worldwide artists such as Madonna, Queen and U2, and worked on major projects including Glastonbury, the Orange BAFTA film awards, The Q Awards, and The Voice.

His talk, Television Rocks: from Ryhope to the Rose Bowl is on Friday, November 21, at the Murray Library Lecture Theatre on Chester Road, Sunderland, as part of Sunderland University’s free Discover Series lectures. doors open at 6pm.

Mr Gerrie said: “The Tube was a hugely ambitious project. Tyne Tees had never done anything like that before; it was a big network show on for twenty weeks and completely live every Friday night.

“There was some resistance to it; a lot of the people in Tyne Tees thought the place would be filled with drunk, drug-riddled crazy people – and they were probably right! – but generally speaking Tyne Tees really embraced the show.”

After running the show for five years, the honorary graduate of the University of Sunderland, and former teacher from the city, worked on life changing projects such as Band Aid and Live 8, the former of which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

He added: “Though it wasn’t planned I have done a lot of charity work. Obviously Band Aid was very special, but for me, Red Hot and Blue was one of the real highlights of my career.

To book a place at the talk visit www.sunderland.ac.uk/discoverseries