XTC - The Vidiots' Revenge (videos, TV appearances and more)

[TJ]

A couple of years back, XTC were intending to release a DVD compilation called 'For Vidiots Only', for which I was asked to draw up a list of potential extras, but had to scrap their plans due to licensing problems. And, amazingly, despite their loyal and rabid fanbase nobody has started circulating any video material on an 'unofficial' basis. As there are more than a few XTC fanatics with extensive VHS collections hovering around here, let's kick around a few ideas for what could concievably go on to a fan-made DVD.

Some starters...

The 'Look Look' VHS collection and any other promo videos
Appearances on Whistle Test and In Concert
XTC Play At Home
XTC At The Manor
Breakfast Time feature on the release of Nonsuch
Loads of Radio 1 stuff (Andy presenting Saturday Live, 'Agony Andy', The Dukes being interviewed, appearances on Roundtable etc)

[The Mumbler]

There was the Pebble Mill appearance for Love On A Farmboy's Wages in 1983.  Several Saturday Superstore cameos too, as Mike Read (despite his other sins) was a huge XTC fan.

[trotsky assortment]

I seem to recall they appeared on 'The Late Show' in the early 90s.

[TJ]

There was the Pebble Mill appearance for Love On A Farmboy's Wages in 1983.  Several Saturday Superstore cameos too, as Mike Read (despite his other sins) was a huge XTC fan.

I believe that the former is wiped, and the latter may well have gone too, so we may well be reliant on people's home recordings there!

[TJ]

I seem to recall they appeared on 'The Late Show' in the early 90s.

Yes, doing Books Are Burning. I think the audio track of that is on the Coat Of Many Cupboards box set.

[trotsky assortment]

Ah, yeah.  That's why I remembered that.  I've never seen the TV footage, but I have the 'Coat Of Many Cupboards' box.   In the sleeve notes, Andy Partridge says he was so nervous, he knocked over some water and it hampered the rest of the performance.

[The Mumbler]

ITN's archive have three performances:

SO IT GOES
Granada TV
Show 17
Sunday 27/11/1977

XTC Neon Shuffle [live at Middleton Civic Hall]
XTC All Along The Watchtower [credits roll]

LATE NIGHT FROM TWO
Granada TV
Show 1
Tuesday 02/02/1982

Features XTC performing Senses Working Overtime

GET IT TOGETHER
Granada TV
Show 67
Tuesday 04/11/1980

XTC perform Towers of London.


**********

So it Goes would be an obvious candidate for DVD, wouldn't it?  Although presumably there'd be rights hell.  Wonder if it's worth asking Network, or is the drastic edit of Marc typical of what might happen?

[The Mumbler]

There was the Pebble Mill appearance for Love On A Farmboy's Wages in 1983.  Several Saturday Superstore cameos too, as Mike Read (despite his other sins) was a huge XTC fan.

I believe that the former is wiped, and the latter may well have gone too, so we may well be reliant on people's home recordings there!

Well, they were both live programmes, so I wouldn't be surprised if they've gone.

[trotsky assortment]

Ooh - there's also that footage of them performing 'Respectable Street' in concert from Miles Copeland's 'Urgh! A Music War'.

Now, there's a film long overdue a reissue.  It pops up on satellite occasionally, but its always the shorter edit, which omits Gary Numan and Splodgenessabounds in their entirity and, I believe, shortens a couple of other things.

[kaprisky]

I taped Urgh! A Music War off of Sky Cinema about 3 or 4 years ago (sadly taped over now) and it also features Andy joining in with The Police for 'So Lonely' at the end. I didn't realise that there was a longer edit of the film, I just assumed that there were more tracks on the LP release(s). Still, Klaus Nomi, eh?

How about the stuff on xtc4u.org, including the Rockpalast concert?

[TJ]

There's a photo of Andy performing with The Police in Chris Twomey's XTC book Chalkhills And Children.

XTC4u.org is great, but the relative lack of content just underlines my surprise that this video/radio stuff isn't widely available anywhere.

[23 Daves]

A friend of mine from years back argued that around the point "The Big Express" was released Andy Partridge did an interview on Breakfast Television, though sadly I can't remember which show.  It seems rather unlikely that a mainstream morning programme would have been interested in having him on at that point in his career, but then again... if that information is correct, it would be quite interesting to see it.

The "Sight and Sound" concert would have to go on the DVD, wouldn't it?

And their appearance on David Letterman performing "King For A Day", which I have a file of somewhere.

[SurferGhost]

I've got a 'Rockpalast' German TV hour-long gig edit on VHS from 1982 lying around somewhere. That'd be one of their last live shows, wouldn't it?

EDIT: Ah, kaprisky's mentioned it already.

[Sadness]

Where do we / I start?

A lot of the great stuff that's out there was done by XTC for the fans, so only survives through the people who filmed them.

Recording of the Strings for Apple Venus in Abbey Road - Green Man Video - Convention interview 1989 in Andy's attic - Convention piece made in 1991 featuring preview tracks for "Nonsuch" played live in Andy's shed - Dave Gregory's wonderful recreation of classic XTC tracks on piano plus interview 1992 - Andy's pilot for the BBC childrens programme "Matchmakers" in 1987, this ultimate DVD extra has to be seen to be believed - Andy interview on "Super Channel" with Simon Potter for the promotion of "Dear God" '87 - Their "Pre-Recorded" live appearance on the Canadian Music Awards miming "Dear God" with Colin's son miming the childs intro - Andy's 1992 BBC interview promoting "Nonsuch" with an English actor who's name escapes me but he looks like Tom Conti!!

I could go on and on and on but I'm legally bound not to say anymore!! Suffice to say that 5 DVD's wouldn't be enough let alone the current travesty of none at all.....very sad indeed.

P.S.....I do have all the stuff above but it's going nowhere untill something officially comes out. The lads deserve the utmost respect when it comes to bootleging, basically DON'T!!

[TJ]

P.S.....I do have all the stuff above but it's going nowhere untill something officially comes out. The lads deserve the utmost respect when it comes to bootleging, basically DON'T!!

This isn't a case of 'bootlegging', though; I think you've got hold of the wrong end of the stick completely. What's wrong with fan-compiled collections of stuff that anyone could own anyway (whether bought or recorded off-air), that gets distrubuted free of charge? The Housemartins were reportedly quite chuffed with the non-LP b-sides compilation that a fan put together a while back, as there'd be no chance of an official release for any of that material. And how about the frankly amazing Bonzos DVDs that were put together through this site? OK, so it becomes a more difficult situation if some wanker starts flogging it all on eBay, but the people who put it together in the first place can't be blamed for that. eBay con-artists would find something to sell anyway.

Stuff like Matchmakers and the home video stuff you mention is off-limits, I'd agree, but what about stuff that's already 'out there' and circulating through entirely legitimate (well, morally legitimate at least) means? I was as crushed as anyone when the planned DVD fell through, not least because in a small way I'd been involved with it and knew all about the licensing pigheadedness that put paid to it, but I know there are younger fans out there clamouring to see Play At Home, Look Look (which goes for silly money on eBay, and the communist in me always rages at high second hand prices) and The Laughing Prisoner.

[Little Tommy Titter]

[Edit to hide shame

[23 Daves]

Another thing - I managed to find some clips of XTC talking about Swindon and the making of "The Big Express" on Soulseek recently. These must have come either from a Virgin promotional video or a fan club-only video the band put out - does anyone have any idea which it is?  

I mean, this would be a definite for the DVD in my opinion, obviously.

[TJ]

Another thing - I managed to find some clips of XTC talking about Swindon and the making of "The Big Express" on Soulseek recently. These must have come either from a Virgin promotional video or a fan club-only video the band put out - does anyone have any idea which it is?

That sounds very much like the linking segments of XTC Play At Home, a Channel 4 show from 1984.

[SurferGhost]

That sounds like it might be more like clips from "Play At Home" (from what I remember of it), Daves. Unless you've seen that and know it isn't of course. The walking around Swindow bit sounds particularly like it though - at one point they played an acoustic "Train Running Low On Soul Coal" sat around a table in an empty pub/working men's club I think.

EDIT: Snap

[Little Tommy Titter]

I remember a clip of them playing "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" on some "The Prisoner" parody tv thingummy.

Anyone remember that ? I *think* it had Rowland Rivron in it, but I may be mistaken.

[fbb bastard]

I remember a clip of them playing "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" on some "The Prisoner" parody tv thingummy.

Anyone remember that ? I *think* it had Rowland Rivron in it, but I may be mistaken.

i believe that was a special episode of "the tube" where jools h does the full prisoner schtick. cant remember RR being in (but not really that much of a shock being jools holland shadow for a long time) but i recall magnum being on it too playing "vigilantes"

[keir]

that was the laughing prisoner

it also had stephen fry as number 2, and siouxsie and the banshees doing the passenger

[Sadness]

They also filmed one of their finest video moments at Port Merrion miming to "The Meeting Place".

It was shown only ONCE EVER on British TV and that was on the Tube, 2 weeks before The Prisioner special was aired.

[Paperlung]

First - TJ.  Thanks for getting my hopes up with a thread title that, to my eyes anyway, seemed to read "XTC RELEASE DVD FOR YOU TO BUY NOW".  You  vicious bastard.  You taunter of orphans.

Second - are there any rock boffins out there with ideas on how to clean up the audio on xtc4u.org's otherwise superb Rockpalast VCD?  I extracted the mpegs from the .bin file with VCDGear and tried to declick with Audacity but no joy so far.  Answers on a postcard please.  (And sorry if that was an inappropriate question)

[Sadness]

Hey PAPERLUNG.....?

Am I being far too geeky XTC-ish here but is your CaB nama a "Black Sea" amalgm of  "Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins)" & "No language in our lungs"?

I'll get me skinny tie..........

[Duffy]

"A t The Manor" and Rockpalast (the 15 song version) have been up on DimeaDozen for a while now. "Play At Home" has been promised, too. There was also a comendium of TV appearances but that got banned.  As regards that Tube Special, I seem to remember PT uploading it a while back.

[Paperlung]

Hey PAPERLUNG.....?

Am I being far too geeky XTC-ish here but is your CaB nama a "Black Sea" amalgm of  "Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins)" & "No language in our lungs"?

Umm...shall we say yes?  For some reason I picture you with an eager puppy-dog face, tongue hanging out and waiting for someone to throw the stick and I haven't the heart to... Yes.  Yes, Sadness, you cracked my code!  Good boy!  Who's a good boy!  There's a good boy! etc

[Sadness]

I do have a puppy dog-face but I can't lick my own balls.

[Paperlung]

I do have a puppy dog-face but I can't lick my own balls.

Sorry, mate, there's only so far I'm willing to indulge you...

[Sadness]

I do have a puppy dog-face but I can't lick my own balls.

Sorry, mate, there's only so far I'm willing to indulge you...

Thank you kind Sir for indulging me for all of one post, you're so kind and I'm......well......almost speechless with honour.

Anyway back to XTC.

The extras on the DVD could have been even more spectacular than we realise as Andy has some truly wonderful "Helium Kidz" footage plus LOTS of other beauties including footage of Dave's band "Dean Gabber and the Gabberdenes"!!

Had a lovely cuppa and watched them with him last year actually - WONDERFUL!!