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The "XTC are really really good" thread

Started by Stoneage Dinosaurs, July 19, 2015, 12:48:13 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Absorb the anus burn on May 18, 2019, 05:55:17 PM
Fuck them!

No Thugs In Our House is one of the most articulate statements against racism and violent neo-Nazi actions in pop music.

Some wanker tweeted something like "Oh dear, it seems Andy had Graham's pamphlets in his drawer all along".  As Danny Baker said, "Why would I suddenly reveal myself as this phantom racist after all these years?

Crabwalk

Just a heads up that the TC&I live album, gleaned from their run at Swindon Arts Centre, is available for pre-order:

https://burningshed.com/tcandi_naked-flames_cd?filter_name=Tc&i&filter_sub_category=true

Tracklist:

1. Say It
2. Ten Feet Tall
3. Scatter Me
4. Wonderland
5. Grass
6. The Meeting Place
7. Bungalow
8. Big Day
9. Standing In For Joe
10. Generals and Majors
11. Making Plans For Nigel
12. Statue Of Liberty
13. Life Begins At The Hop

That's about half of the songs they played each night.

non capisco

Crabwalk, if we ever meet again on an occasion when I'm not just about to be overcome by the delayed effects of food poisoning then we shall bollock on about XTC.

DrGreggles

Quote from: Crabwalk on July 04, 2019, 10:53:06 PM
Just a heads up that the TC&I live album, gleaned from their run at Swindon Arts Centre, is available for pre-order:

https://burningshed.com/tcandi_naked-flames_cd?filter_name=Tc&i&filter_sub_category=true

Tracklist:

1. Say It
2. Ten Feet Tall
3. Scatter Me
4. Wonderland
5. Grass
6. The Meeting Place
7. Bungalow
8. Big Day
9. Standing In For Joe
10. Generals and Majors
11. Making Plans For Nigel
12. Statue Of Liberty
13. Life Begins At The Hop

That's about half of the songs they played each night.

That's some collection of songs though.
I wonder if an official Moulding compilation* has ever been on the cards?



*'Colin Occupants of Interplanetary Craft'?

Crabwalk

Quote from: non capisco on July 05, 2019, 12:31:26 AM
Crabwalk, if we ever meet again on an occasion when I'm not just about to be overcome by the delayed effects of food poisoning then we shall bollock on about XTC.

I look forward to the prospect, and will withhold violent anecdotes just in case.

Crabwalk

Quote from: DrGreggles on July 05, 2019, 08:10:57 AM
That's some collection of songs though.

For reference, here's the full setlist they played each night, with songs missing from the live album in bold:

QuoteSay It
Day in Day Out
That Is the Way

Ten Feet Tall
Greatness
Scatter Me
Wonderland
Where Did the Ordinary People Go?
Grass
The Meeting Place
Sacrificial Bonfire
War Dance
Big Day
Bungalow
The Smartest Monkeys
Cynical Days
Kenny

Ball and Chain
King for a Day
Standing In for Joe
Generals and Majors
Making Plans for Nigel
Statue of Liberty
Life Begins At The Hop

I'm surprised Sacrificial Bonfire, Smartest Monkeys and Ball & Chain didn't make it, as I remember them being especially good. They rearranged King for a Day quite a bit, which I wasn't that keen on, so less surprised by its omission.

Not complaining though, as I wondered whether this would ever see the light of day after Colin pulling the plug on TC&I so suddenly.

Artie Fufkin

Quote from: DrGreggles on July 05, 2019, 08:10:57 AM
That's some collection of songs though.
I wonder if an official Moulding compilation* has ever been on the cards?



*'Colin Occupants of Interplanetary Craft'?

Colin All The Heroes

DrGreggles


Absorb the anus burn


purlieu

He's walked that fine line between stridently anti-authoritarian and conspiraloon for a long time now, and has been gradually falling over the wrong side of it. I'm only thankful Captain Sensible isn't on social media much, otherwise he'd be doing the same.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: purlieu on July 05, 2019, 11:49:03 AM
He's walked that fine line between stridently anti-authoritarian and conspiraloon for a long time now, and has been gradually falling over the wrong side of it. I'm only thankful Captain Sensible isn't on social media much, otherwise he'd be doing the same.

Who Colin?

purlieu

I somehow missed all the Colin posts and was talking about that Andy stuff from months ago. I'm good at this message board malarky, me.


Artie Fufkin


daf

#824
Yeah, meant to mention this when I got the burning shed email a couple of days ago.

Here's the link - https://burningshed.com/store/ape/artists-ape/andy-partridge

Both XTC and Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians were my absolute top bands in the mid-80s, so this is like my teenage dream mash-up.

Went for the vinyl & CD bundle - the postage is flippin' outrageous though (more than the cost of the CD on it's own), . . . still, at least you know the artist get a good whack out of it by buying from that site.

Artie Fufkin

Yeah, I almost went for the cd & Black Sea vinyl, but resisted.


Great story, huh?

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: daf on August 05, 2019, 10:39:16 AM
Yeah, meant to mention this when I got the burning shed email a couple of days ago.

Here's the link - https://burningshed.com/store/ape/artists-ape/andy-partridge

Both XTC and Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians were my absolute top bands in the mid-80s, so this is like my teenage dream mash-up.


It's about bloody time!

Crabwalk

Wow, Steve Tilling has let slip that Colin and Terry asked Dave to join them for the TC&I Swindon shows and Dave said no.

https://dwbullock.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-visit-to-pub-with-steve-tilling.html?m=1

Rich Uncle Skeleton

In case anyone hasn't seen it yet the next Steven Wilson set is the dukes! separate vinyl reissues too.

I hoped any future reissue would have a crack at a mono mix too but definitely all over this one!

I remember someone saying or quoting partridge (in this thread?) a while ago that remixing these was unlikely so I'm very pleased with this. The dukes are well up my list of favourite XTC stuff and it'll be good to finally OWN a copy haha

Artie Fufkin


Artie Fufkin


a duncandisorderly

if I ever tell you I'm sick of this, come round here & shoot me, I'm done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06gsX59kTBo

Crabwalk

Sounds like TC&I are going to tour... just without the 'I'. Terry Chambers and Steve Tilling are putting a band together to tour most of the set they played last year, plus 6-7 of Andy's big songs in the set too. All done with Colin and Andy's blessing apparently. Sounds like it'll be a fun night out, but what a shame Colin doesn't have the appetite to join them.

From a fan interview by Darryl Bullock posted on Facebook:

QuoteHere's the third and final part of our Convention 2020 exclusive interview with Terry Chambers. Thanks again to Lynn Farrar, to Steve Tilling and, of course, to  TC himself. Thanks also to the admins here for allowing the cross-posting. 

Putting a live band together brought Steve Tilling into the frame, and he and Terry soon became firm friends. Steve quickly deciphered Dave and Andy's guitar parts and did a magnificent job bringing them to a live audience, but was it hard for Terry to have to learn other people's drum parts? "Yes, that was very difficult," he admits. "There were some great players on those records, you know. Dave Mattacks, Prairie Prince, Pat Mastelotto, Chuck Sabo, they're all great players and some big shoes to fill. Obviously we're all different, but I just tried to pick as much as I could out of the original songs and do it in my own way. I tried to get them as close to what I felt I could play and customised them a little bit, hopefully to Colin's satisfaction! I just sort of did my own thing, and in fairness to Steve and Gary I thought that they did a great job as well, especially as they hadn't played on any of them; at least I was fortunate enough to have played on some of those songs originally! It took me a while to get some of the songs, things like King For A Day, because I'm not a 'swing' player; that's not a thing that comes easily to me at all."

Rehearsals went well but the duo, and their band, had yet to face a proper audience. A few nights before the Arts Centre shows, Colin and Terry stepped onto the stage at Swindon's Victoria pub, the first time that the pair of them had faced a live crowd together since 1982. "We did two shows at the Vic: we wanted to have a bit of a workout but didn't want to put anybody under any extra pressure, so we did those for family and friends really. It was good to have some people stood there: we didn't charge anything to get in and let the Vic keep the bar... it was a Tuesday and a Wednesday night, when they wouldn't have had anyone on anyway."

"I was very surprised at the reaction," he says when talking about those live shows. "When we started the Arts Centre gigs we initially booked two nights, thinking that's 500 people assuming that no one turns up twice, which a lot of people did! Originally we were thinking of doing just one show at the Mecca, but Stuart Rowe told us that the Mecca isn't very good for sound. That's one of the reasons we picked the Arts Centre, because that was one of the first places we ever played anyway but it was also a better venue to record live – and we didn't have to put on a massive firework display there to get it to work. We also knew that it wouldn't be full of teenagers, people wanted a bit of comfort with a bar there and whatever... But we had the two nights then added another two so we had this block of four and that was going to be it then they sold out immediately and so we added two more."

Most recently he has been in the studio with Stu Rowe, working on the mixing and final track selection for the limited edition TC&I live album Naked Flames. Sadly, because of technical issues -and Steve suffering from laryngitis for the first few nights – the only recording that was serviceable was from the last night of the six shows. "The reason some of the other songs didn't make it was because there was some interference in there, or feedback or some tuning issues," Terry explains for those wondering why the whole show could not be put out. "We picked the best songs performance-wise. The problem with mixing a live album is that you don't have the isolation; if somebody plays a bum note it contaminates everything else. As good as we liked to think we played at those shows, under the microscope when Stuart and I went into the studio to listen to this stuff and isolate each instrument there was always something coming from somewhere else, and often it was a case of 'we can't get rid of that' so those things didn't get used. We used the best of what we had, and that's why that running order is the way it is. Most live albums are recorded over three or four nights, but the first four nights were buggered anyway [due to Steve's loss of voice], so that only left us with two nights really.

"Dave said to me that he's listened to the CD and commented on how good a job Steve did in authenticating the original sound... and Gregsy's not played some of those songs live either. It was a challenge, and in fairness to Gary and the others they did a really great job and held it together very well."

Sadly, shortly after the live shows, Colin decided that he was going to put TC&I on hiatus but, as I had discovered when I recently interviewed Steve Tilling, Terry has plans to work on a new project that will see our favourite powerhouse drummer back on his stool at venues across the UK. "It's going to happen," he says firmly. "We had a rehearsal on Tuesday, and we've got another next Tuesday, we're working with two other guys and need to give them time to get their head around some of these songs. We're working on nearly all of the songs that we did in the TC&I set apart from about six, which we're going to replace with six of Andy's songs.

"We haven't completely finalised the line-up yet, but it's going to be a four piece outfit. It's still in the embryonic stage at the moment but we're looking at some gigs out of town. It looks like most of this will be in the spring, but we want to do maybe half-a-dozen gigs in the lead up to Christmas and see how the thing goes. Hopefully it will be reasonably successful. These things can be a little bit iffy, but if they go well we'll probably do quite a few more in the spring.

"Steve and I are going to try and keep this thing going, and there's an open option if ever Colin feels like doing something. I've got to keep going; I always wanted to play live, that's what I enjoy doing, more so than the others. They prefer to record but I want to play live, it's the whole thing. Songwriters always want to get that song perfected: Andy has said to me on a few occasions that 'you wouldn't expect Rembrandt to keep duplicating his paintings around the world'. I understand that: he's thinking, 'I'll do my one masterpiece and move on', whereas I like to get out there. Dave's very much like that: he loves to play live.

Was it hard finding other people to join you? "There are a few people that can be relied upon, but there's others, as there are in every town, who think they're better than they really are," Terry says. "There are timewasters, and Swindon is no better or worse than anywhere else. We auditioned some guys from out of town, but I just felt that the distance and the logistics of getting everyone together to rehearse was going to prove troublesome.

"We needed people who had nothing else to do. If they're holding down another job then that's another disadvantage," he explains. "I want to do this, and I want to do it for real. If it's going to be done then I want to do it properly. If I'm getting people involved to promote and put these gigs on then I want people I can rely on. There are all sorts of things that can go wrong and you've got to be confident that the three of four individuals that you've got are on the same page, have the same mindset. You're only as good as your weakest link in any situation.

"I've done a lot of stuff in my time and I've always gone with my gut: if there's a shadow of a doubt in something I'm gone, but with Steve I'm absolutely confident that he's there for the long haul. I want that same feeling from the other guys. It's a gut thing. Like any relationship you want to be as certain as you possibly can that this is the right one. It's like a marriage in a sense, in that you're relying on them."

Will this new outfit, which Terry sees in some way as similar to bands like Bruce Foxton's group From The Jam or Brian Downey's Alive and Dangerous, stick to XTC material? "As it stands at the moment, yes. Mainly because Steve and I know 26 of these songs, and we're going to put some of Andy's in, like Mayor of Simpleton, Peter Pumpkinhead, Sgt Rock, This Is Pop, Senses Working Overtime, that sort of thing. We think that will add a little weight to what we're doing because these are quite popular songs! It will strengthen the set. You have to remember that some of these are covers for me, but there's going to be a lot that I originally payed on and that's about the best that I can do.

"Unfortunately, these days, in these sorts of bands there's only one individual or two at best still involved." It's good to hear that both Andy and Colin approve of Terry's plans and, even if they're not going to be involved, have given their blessing. 

Do you see a point where you and Steve might be writing new material? "That's where we're heading," he admits. "We're going to do this in the beginning, get the group together then start introducing our own stuff. It's better than starting on the first rung of the ladder: if we can gain anything by what we achieved last year, then it's by using that as a platform to launch from. That's the big picture: Steve's got some good ideas, and I'm more than happy to incorporate that into what we're doing together."

I wondered if having  spent so many years apart and having avoided the difficulties that finally split the band had made it easier for Terry to maintain a friendship with all of his former bandmates. "I've seen Andy a couple of times recently. We saw him when Todd Bernhardt was over [Terry, Lynn and Todd went to see King Crimson together, which gave Terry the opportunity to meet Oranges and Lemons drummer Pat Mastelotto for the first time]; it was one drunken night in the Tuppenny, and Andy was on magnificent form. He's one of the funniest human beings I've come across in my life.

"There's something about my relationship with Andy. I'm not a particularly funny sort of guy, although I have my moments, but he seems to be the catalyst that just triggers things off. It was an hilarious night. Recently I was out with Steve and we saw him. It was his son's birthday and he was out in Old Town – Harry's birthday is the same day as Colin's – and we had another riotous few hours. I saw Dave recently too: he came 'round because I had a record that needed to be signed by everybody [a 12" copy of Senses Working Overtime, to be presented to Swindon Town Football Club, who have recently taken to playing the song every time Swindon score a goal]. I've been in touch with Andy and I'll see him to get it signed later."

daf

Dukes 'Psurroundabout Ride' remix 5.1 CD/Blu ray out now :



Includes a bonus signed postcard* when ordered from Burning Shed :
QuoteSir John Johns and the notoriously reclusive E.I. E.I. Owen will each sign a number of cards for initial buyers of Psurroundabout Ride. The cards will be randomly allocated, so purchasers may get either signature with their purchase.

New Interview with 'Sir John Johns' :
QuoteHow did it feel going back with Steven Wilson and re-examining all that stuff?

Sir John Johns : "John Leckie feared we'd lose a lot of the sound effects we had, which were spun in live at the mix. But we did find that some were spun in during recording, so they were on tape. Those that were spun in live we had to go and hunt out similar sound effects – or, in a couple of cases, go and find exactly the same one because they were from standard BBC libraries. So it wasn't as difficult as John Leckie and I feared. "

So there's a little bit of faking going on...

Sir John Johns : "There is but you'd be hard pressed to discover it. Steven Wilson is very smart and knows how they're doing those sounds. He didn't have access to three tape machines like we did to make genuine tape phasing, so he auditioned loads of plug-ins until he found one that sounded just like real tape phasing."

Are you pleased with what Steven's done?

Sir John Johns : "Yes, I am. It's a bit perverse because we were trying to sound like it was straight out of 67. I thought if it gets digitally remixed and done in surround sound, which they didn't really have in 67 (it was at the experimental quad stage), it's not going to sound genuinely of the time. But I think what makes it more genuinely of the time is the songs and the recording techniques. The fact that they are spread around the room at the same relative volume levels doesn't change the inherent width of the material.

Psurroundabout Ride sounds the same, it's just all around your head – and the Dukes, ironically, would have loved that. They'd have said, "Yeah, spin it round, get it going faster round your head." The fact that it's not captured on tape but captured digitally means it's clearer, so some of the dirty varnish is by necessity missing. It's more revealed, but that has its thrill as well. It's like every frame of a film being cleaned up: "Wow, I never noticed that detail!" There is delight in the revelation of the higher quality."

- - - - - - -
* (i got drummer 'EI EI Owen')

Crabwalk

I got Sir John Johns and it's as beautifully scribed as you'd expect from his artful hand.

Head Gardener


Head Gardener


Rich Uncle Skeleton

XTC convention at Steam Swindon, no less?! Sign me the hell up.

MiddleRabbit

Quote from: Head Gardener on October 23, 2019, 03:04:21 PM


mines signed by E.I.E.I. Owen

I got Sir John Johns'.  The surround mix is fucking ace: exactly as loony as you'd want a psychedelic mix to be.  I find most surround mixes far too conservative and respectful to the stereo mixes.  This one needed to be off its tits.  And it is.  Cracking stuff.

Brundle-Fly

That Partridge/ Hitchcock EP is blinding!