March 30, 2016: Allyson Seconds has just launched a Kickstarter
campaign for her Little World album. The songs on it are
written by Anton Barbeau, and they've got that Colin Moulding singing harmonies
on the title track. Whereas Anton had to get his courage together to approach
Colin to play on his Magic Act album, Colin quite enthusiastically
volunteered to sing on Allyson's track. Allyson, like Anton, is a huge XTC fan
and is still in the pinching-herself stage. They're currently finishing up a
video for the song, trying to work out details with Colin's dog, Pip. For the
moment, please take a look at this and help out if you're so inclined! Thanks
very much!
February 12, 2016: According to The Monkees Live Almanac, “Andy Partridge of XTC, a
lifelong fan of The Monkees, took to Twitter to show his excitement for Good
Times! ‘The Monkees gave me SO MUCH joy as a kid, it's all I can do
to repay it. They are liking 3 of my tunes so far, and I hope they dig the
latest?’ Partridge's “You Bring the Summer’ is another lock
for the album.” Yes, it's true, the new album from The Monkees is called
Good
Times! It will be released on June 10, 2016, by Rhino Records, and
it will feature songs written by Andy Partridge, Rivers Cuomo, and Noel
Gallagher, among others, and will be produced by Adam Schlesinger. It's
“. . . about recapturing that 1960s jangly guitar
sound. . .”
December 8, 2015: 31 March 2015 will see the publication of Complicated
Game - Inside The Songs Of XTC by Andy Partridge and Todd
Bernhardt. Developed from a series of interviews conducted over many months,
the book details Andy Partridge songs from throughout XTC's career and provides
a unique insight into the work of one of Britain's most original and
influential songwriters. Filled with anecdotes about Partridge, his XTC
bandmates, and the band's adventures around the world (all told with
Partridge's legendary humor), Complicated Game casts new light on the
writing of lyrics, the construction of melodies and arrangements, the process
of recording, and the workings of the music industry. The book includes pages
from Partridge's songwriting notebooks, reproductions of his original artwork
designs, a guide to Andy Partridge's Swindon and a foreword by Steven Wilson.
All pre-orders sold through Burning Shed/APE come signed by Andy Partridge.
August 16, 2015: 16th October [update: delayed until 30th October -- Ed.] will see the
release of Oranges
& Lemons, the third in a series of remixed & expanded XTC
classics. The album has been mixed from the original studio masters by Steven
Wilson with input from Andy Partridge, and is fully approved by XTC. The CD
features a completely new stereo album mix, while the Blu-Ray features a wealth
of content, continuing the “virtual box set on a single disc”
concept of the first two releases in the series:
- 5.1 Surround album mix in 24bit/96khz available in LPCM and DTS HD MA
- a new stereo album mix in 24bit/96khz LPCM audio
- instrumental versions of all new stereo mixes in 24bit/96khz LPCM audio
- a flat transfer of the original stereo album mix in 24bit/96khz LPCM audio
- 2 separate sets of demo & work tape sessions showing the evolution of the album and associated recordings
- 1 set of pre-recording rehearsals, promos & ID links for radio stations & record companies
- a collection of single mixes & XTC's version of Captain Beefheart's “Ella Guru”
- promo films for “The Mayor of Simpleton” (3 versions),
“King for a Day” and “The Road to Oranges &
Lemons’, a rarely seen home-made film by the band explaining the album (and themselves!) to Geffen Records USA.
Presented in special packaging with expanded booklet and sleeve-notes by Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding & Dave Gregory.
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June 10, 2016: BACK TO VOLUPTUOUS VINYL
February 22, 2016: FUZZY WARBLES ARE HERE AGAIN
August 10, 2015: XTC. ORANGES AND LEMONS IN 5.1
June 10, 2015: XTC's APPLE VENUS and WASPSTAR CDs
April 28, 2015: NEW XTC T SHIRTS
September 25
Todd Osborn thought we would especially like this, “The 10 Most Eccentric British Songwriters”, in Music Aficionado.
¶ American Songwriter features, in its “Lyric of the Week” series, “XTC, ‘The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead’”.
¶ Defending Axl Rose reviews Complicated Game.
September 18
Roberto Serrano Bazán is a busy man. He lets us know that SwindonLink has finally realized that the Complicated Game “Book about Swindon band XTC reveals key details to fans across the world”. He mentioned this review of Complicated Game: Inside the Songs of XTC in the pages of Elmore magazine. He shared “XTC – Live At The Rainbow 1979 – Past Daily Backstage Weekend”. He teases us with “Andy Partridge: The Big Interview” from Prog magazine (annoyingly incomplete because that's how TeamRock rolls). And he points us to “A Chat With Andy Partridge Of XTC – 1992 – Past Daily Weekend Pop Chronicles”.
¶ Rich Kamerman is blogging about his favorite albums of 1986. His latest is “Thirty Year Thursday – XTC “SKYLARKING’”.
¶ Mark Smotroff shared his reviews: “A More Dynamic XTC English Settlement” and “XTC's Skylarking Takes Flight Once Again”.
¶ Mark Johnson shared the fact that XTC is at #143 on Pitchfork's list of “The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s”
¶ Jean-Pierre Morin points out that XTC comes in at #7 in Pitchfork's list of “The 25 Best Music Videos of the 1970s”.
¶ Bob O'Bannon points out that XTC comes in at #7 on Paste magazine's “50 Best New Wave Albums”.
July 31
Darren Keeping provided a review of Oranges and Lemons from Hi Fi News and Record Review, March 1989, and a review of Oranges and Lemons from Melody Maker, 1989.
¶ Ray Hill provided a review of the English Settlement reissue from The Sunday Times.
July 17
gedatsu-kitteh shared her designs for costumes for the characters in her “Scarecrow People” comic.
¶ Wankwinkel covers The Dukes Of Stratosphear's “Your Gold Dress”.
¶ Huw Thomas shared his review of The Big Express that he wrote for an assignment.
¶ Jeff Truzzi posted updated tablature for “Roads Girdle The Globe”.
¶ The State Library of Queensland posted “A Night at Cloudland with XTC, Flowers (Icehouse) and The Numbers (1979)”.
¶ Rockcellar Magazine published this Q&A: Andy Partridge Talks About the Monkees.
¶ Andy Partridge talks about Complicated Game: Inside the Songs of XTC in Episode #461 of the Just Off The Radar podcast.
¶ Paste magazine posted a list of what it thinks are “The 50 Best Post-Punk Albums”.
September 25, 2016: Press - Reviews of Complicated Game: Inside the Songs of XTC by Andy Partridge and Todd Bernhardt (2016), “Song of the Week -- Colin's take: Colin discusses ‘Frivolous Tonight’”, XTCfans, March 29, 2009, Reviews of Martin Newell: The Greatest Living Englishman (featuring the New, Improved Andy Partridge), 1993, Reviews of Wasp Star – Apple Venus Volume 2 (2000), Reviews of Apple Box (October 2005), "Top 10 Reasons I Love Andy Partridge" and other writings, Mullet Over, May 2003, "Partridge Tweets: XTC (xtcfans)", Twitter (2014-), Reviews of Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999), “XTC, ‘The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead’, American Songwriter, August 1, 2016, “The 10 Most Eccentric British Songwriters”, Music Aficionado, September 23, 2016, “Andy Partridge goes ape for Monkees!”, Goldmine, August 30, 2016
September 18, 2016: Press - Reviews of Skylarking (1987), Reviews of English Settlement (1982), “XTC – Live At The Rainbow 1979 – Past Daily Backstage Weekend”, Past Daily, September 3, 2016, “The 50 Best New Wave Albums, Paste, September 8, 2016, “The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s”, Pitchfork, August 22, 2016, “Andy Partridge: The Big Interview”, Prog, August 18, 2016, “A Chat With Andy Partridge Of XTC – 1992 – Past Daily Weekend Pop Chronicles”, Past Daily, August 21, 2016
August 28, 2016: Discography - [Shindig! single]
July 31, 2016: Discography - XTC: Skylarking
July 30, 2016: Discography - XTC: English Settlement
July 17, 2016: Discography - [Bonzos Project], Leader Of The Starry Skies – A Tribute To Tim Smith Songbook 1
July 15, 2016: Discography - XTC: Skylarking
Chalkhills is a web resource dedicated to XTC
(the now defunct band). Peruse Chalkhills to find a wealth of information about
XTC, their music and recordings, and much more. Chalkhills was
created by me, John Relph, and is infrequently
updated (I am often busy with other things) so check back often. Chalkhills
was the longest extant XTC mailing list, created in April 1989 as an offshoot
of the venerable Love-Hounds list and killed off (in a bizarre kitchen
accident, of course) in August 2014. Chalkhills is the longest extant XTC web
site, first hacked together in May 1994, although FTP archives were first made
available in April 1991.
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