XTC

[thepuffpastryhangman]

OK, I apologise

I heard it in the car heading back to SE London after watching Dylan in Nottm last night (but that's another story) Andy Partridge, possibly the least funny least charismatic 'popstar' ever to appear on live radio and still be bigged up on here

Credit where it's due, after all.

[Neil]

Whatever happened to Phillipa_Maul?  XTC threads aren't the same without her.

Old Grey Whistle Test 78: XTC - Statue Of Liberty

[trotsky assortment]

Where's that from, Neil?  Is there any more?

[Neil]

No idea!  I downloaded these probably a couple of years ago, I presume they were all captured from some guys old OGWT videos.  More in the 'links to music vids' thread.  Just uploading a Siouxsie & The Banshees one now. EDIT:  Or maybe they were captured from those compilation shows that I vaguely recall a couple of years ago?

[PrecociousCunt]

Brilliant, thanks Neil, bloody fantastic tune that, the early stuff is unfairly dismissed (even by the main man himself) I reckon. Not always great but always interesting, and when they got it right it was electric. In fact if I had to get rid of any XTC albums from my collection, Nonsuch and O&L would get the boot ahead of WM and Go2, no question. I even quite like Barry Andrews' contributions on the latter, God help me. Must put in a word for The Big Express as well, perhaps their best and certainly the most  underrated by critics and fans alike.

[Darrell]

Does anyone know what's on the Apple Bite CD besides 'Spiral' and 'Say It'?

I am so insane that even though I already own the original albums *and* the Apple Box, I'll probably buy the Apple Set if the extra CD is good enough. I can always eBay my extra Box. I'm having them T-shirts though.

[PrecociousCunt]

It's just a selection of stuff from the two studio albums, originally intended to be a radio promo for the box set so I'm told.

Tracklisting thus: Spiral, Say It, Easter Theatre, Frivolous Tonight, Greenman, Stupidly Happy, In Another Life and The Wheel and the Maypole.

[Darrell]

Aha, cheers!

I still think they missed a trick by not releasing it as a double A-side single.

[trotsky assortment]

Yes - but then, since those two songs are the only ones previously unavailable, I think releasing them separately would eat into potential sales of the box.  It's only those songs I'm considering buying it for.

[trotsky assortment]

Watching that OGWT clip has just reminded me, there's a whole 'Rock Goes To College' featuring XTC from about the same time, probably gathering dust in the Beeb vaults isn't there?  Aside from the awful cover of 'All Along The Watchtower' (unearthed for one of BBC Three's Dylan themed programmes) I've never seen any of it.

...And now I have the chorus of 'Statue Of Liberty' stuck in my head.  'Whoooah--oooh....boo-boo!'.  I'm going to have to dig 'White Music' out later.

[ninestonecreature]

OK, I apologise I should have (written) wrote:
I heard it in the car heading back to SE London after watching Dylan in Nottm last night (but that's another story) Andy Partridge, possibly the least funny least charismatic 'popstar' ever to appear on live radio and still be bigged up on here


Credit where it's due, after all.

Nah, that's even more nonsensical than your original post.

[TJ]

*bump*


So does anyone have any interesting XTC or XTC-related audio rarities that they could post up here? Agony Andy, The Dukes on Saturday Live, Andy Partridge on Roundtable, non-LP b-sides, that sort of thing?

[Darrell]

There's a new single on iTunes, incidentally - 'Where Did The Ordinary People Go?' Originally written for Nonsuch and a bootleg favourite for years, they've finished it. Bloody nicely too.

I still don't understand why they couldn't have just put a CD EP out.

[trotsky assortment]

In keeping with my earlier threat in this thread, I dug out 'White Music' later after making that post.  I've played it more over the last couple of weeks that I had ever before, I think.  Awesome stuff.  Still can't grasp 'Go2' fully, though.

[The Mumbler]

Watching that OGWT clip has just reminded me, there's a whole 'Rock Goes To College' featuring XTC from about the same time, probably gathering dust in the Beeb vaults isn't there?  Aside from the awful cover of 'All Along The Watchtower' (unearthed for one of BBC Three's Dylan themed programmes) I've never seen any of it.

Transistor Blast (Cooking Vinyl, 1998) is what you want.  Four CDs, with just about everything from 12 years of Radio 1 sessions (1977-89), including Partridge's hilarious Peel impression from 1979, plus nine tracks from the Sight & Sound In Concert simulcast from March 1978, three tracks from the R1 In Concert of January 1979, and on the fourth disc, the remarkable Hammersmith Odeon show of 22 December 1980, all of which was captured again for R1's In Concert.

[trotsky assortment]

I should really have one, but have never considered it a priority.  The more I find myself playing 'White Music' though, the more I'm convinced 'Transistor Blast' will be bumped up my shopping list.

[The Mumbler]

Eek, it's a bit steep on Amazon, though.  Only on US import now at £35.99.  It was a £20 box at the time.  I'd say worth every penny, except it's a lot of pennies.

[trotsky assortment]

I'm sure I can dredge on up at a decent price from somewhere.  I'm still on decent terms with most of my local independent and second-hand retailers.

[The Mumbler]

I know Partridge can hardly stand to listen to early XTC now, but when Radcliffe played Radios in Motion on that R2 show the other week, I had that extraordinary thrilling feeling (increasingly rare, sad to say) you get when you hear an exhilarating record being played by someone else.  On the radio.  Just sounded fantastic.

[trotsky assortment]

Everytime I hear 'Radios In Motion' I get the urge to jump and and down.  It's just completely thrilling.  Uplifiting when you're in a bad mood...and if you're in a great mood already, it's staggering.

[Marginal & Troublesome]

If I may chip in on previous comments while I'm here though...Despite it being held in high regard by so many, I've always found 'Drums and Wires' difficult to get into.  Strangely though, I like many of the alternate versions (recorded for unreleased singles) on the 'Coat Of Many Cupboards' box set.  They're brighter sounding, somehow.

They should have released those singles.  I could never understand at the time why they never pushed through the hole in the dyke that they'd managed with Nigel. But they waited until "Wait 'til your boat goes down".  

One of my most depressing memories of the early 1980's (and believe me, I've got shedloads of depressing memories of the early 1980's - anytime from 1959 to now, actually) was the failiure of any single from Black Sea to be mega.  When you look at the utter shit from that time - and any other time - that did succeed.  

I'll get me long, dark coat...

[trotsky assortment]

One of my most depressing memories of the early 1980's (and believe me, I've got shedloads of depressing memories of the early 1980's - anytime from 1959 to now, actually) was the failiure of any single from Black Sea to be mega.  When you look at the utter shit from that time - and any other time - that did succeed.

I can go along with that.  While I've often found XTC to be inconsistent (and I think therein lies part of their over all charm), most of 'Black Sea' is fucking superb.

[The Mumbler]

Well, Sgt. Rock got to #17, which wasn't bad going...

[Marginal & Troublesome]

Well, Sgt. Rock got to #17, which wasn't bad going...

Damned by feint praise.  ISTR that Generals and Majors peaked at 31, Towers of London may have done a little better, or a bit worse.  And they took the word abortion out of Respectable Street - fine.  They left in Sony... no BBC prime time airplay there, then...

And Sgt. Rock is shit!  The great British public - hanging's too good for them.

I'm off to pop an acid Spangle...

[Marginal & Troublesome]

*bump*


So does anyone have any interesting XTC or XTC-related audio rarities that they could post up here? Agony Andy, The Dukes on Saturday Live, Andy Partridge on Roundtable, non-LP b-sides, that sort of thing?

I have a couple of interviews on tape somewhere - I'll see what can be done...

[The Mumbler]

Ahem.  Sgt. Rock was the first XTC single I ever bought.  Not their greatest single, admittedly - not even their greatest single from that LP.  But I still don't think it's shit - even if the band do (and seemingly, everyone else too).

[Marginal & Troublesome]

I bought it as well.  OK.  Not shit.  Crap?  But by that stage the moment had passed - perhaps they should have led with Travels in Nihilon...

[trotsky assortment]

And they took the word abortion out of Respectable Street - fine.  They left in Sony... no BBC prime time airplay there, then...

I heard the single version the other day, for the first time in ages.  I can't be 100% sure, but I think the words 'sex position' were slightly altered to either 'best position' or 'next position'.  Something wasn't quite right, anyway.

[The Mumbler]

I was only ten (!)  It was a rather rousing leaping around the room accompaniment.  The lyrical (and musical) irony was lost on me at the time.

But yes, I had also really liked Generals & Majors (which got tons of Radio 1 airplay, but barely grazed the top 40 in 1980 - a year in which singles sales were abominable).   When I got Fossil Fuel (as a convenient compilation in 1996), virtually every track sounded like a top ten single.  They had one.  How does that happen?  How, when Virgin put out a singles compilation in late 1982 (the year of Senses Working Overtime), with many of the tracks never included on albums, it got to #54?

[mayer]

*bump*


So does anyone have any interesting XTC or XTC-related audio rarities that they could post up here? Agony Andy, The Dukes on Saturday Live, Andy Partridge on Roundtable, non-LP b-sides, that sort of thing?

I've got a Smash Hits flexidisc with a version of Ten Feet Tall on one side and Olympian by The Skids on the other. It's a great song, but the reason I love it so is the spoken intro by the magazine bloke..

"That was Olympian by The Skids, and now here's a band who's name I just can't pronounce, so I'll spell it.!  X.. T... C... with a re-recorded version of their single Ten Feet Tall"


I can post it to someone who can rip it from vinyl? If it's not easily available/pointless to do so.