There
circa 2000
by Tony DiCarlo & Ric Stewart
Once upon a time, there was a young lad in Swindon Town named Andy Partridge. Andy was a child blessed with a rare creative energy and found his calling early on. Armed with an electric guitar, Andy and his musical accomplices would develop one of the most consistently productive and experimental groups ever to succeed on both sides of the Atlantic.
XTC The Early Years
XTC began paying its dues on the Pub circuit as the Helium Kids, Clark Kent, Star Park and Stray Blues. While young and raw, Andy and his bandmates had no problem writing music, slamming beer or chasing women drawing increasing amounts of attention until A & R men from British labels decided that they were the next Beatles. The rush to develop this hot musical property was on.
Aiming to explore and expand vast musical tastes, Andy Partridge (Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica and sometimes Alto Sax) would work frantically with fellow perfectionist Colin Moulding (Bass, Vocals, and Songsmithing) to create their hallmark style and meet their destiny. With the tight drum sound of their alcohol-friendly drummer, Terry Chambers, and an ever-expanding fan base, the time was ripe for XTC to put out the White Music record. The album included a good dose of uptempo par for 1977 punky, edgy material (including a bizzare cover of Dylan's "Watchtower") and featured keyboardist Barry Andrews who soon founded Shriekback after a pit stop with Robert Fripp. XTC soldiered on, and entered a golden period where the aggression level and tempo cooled and their musical crafts coalesced. Partridge and Moulding played true-to-Beatles types as John and Paul on guitar and bass respectively, in the process building one of the most convincingly quirky pop acts of all time.
From 1979's Drums and Wires and Black Sea through English Settlement in 1982 the band could do no wrong. By comparison, XTC were the weird outsiders looking in; David Byrne's Talking Heads were merely simulating weirdness in a more precious manner. Partridge & Co. came by their weirdness naturally (they weren't pretending anything) when they stopped touring in 1982 it was because of nervous breakdowns and an oversupply of this strange destructive intensity — long considered a hallmark of the true greats (e.g., James Brown, Jerry Lee or Elvis). The music carefully fermented in this process incorporating elements of Reggae Dub, Fifties and Sixties Pop, Avant Garde and the surrounding Punk movement with adept lyrical take-offs on philosophic worlds, for seasoning toss in the occassional irrational scream. Nobody did it better than XTC.
Drums and Wires (Virgin)
Partridge came into his own as a writer and bandleader on this disc, while Moulding presented a softening melodic force. Drums and Wires yielded the catchy British hit, "Making Plans For Nigel". A contemptous look at the English socialization of its youth into little captains of industry. The song offered the catchy hook "he has his future in the British Steel" sung in reggae of the white inflections made more popular by Sting — who toured on the same bill with XTC during this period with The Police. The record also featured experimental ravings "Complicated Game" and "Roads Girdle The Globe" in which Partridge utters the memorable line "Hail Mother Motor, Hail Piston Rotor, Hail Wheel." A classic, 'nuff said.
Black Sea (Virgin)
The follow up, Black Sea, offered even more memorable tunes, including "Respectable Street," "Generals and Majors," and rhythmic outlay "Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins)." The agenda had widened to social decay, failure of leadership, and disdain for institutions along with a yearning for peace and compassion. These formulae would keep Partridge and Moulding busy for several more albums as they began to experiment with the studio (Partridge took time off to record Take Away a worthwhile foray into dub) and shift into polyrhythmic tracks and lush ambient effects for the next decade. The compact disc offers three bonus tracks to Black Sea, including the excellent "Somnambulist" a wicked ambient sleeper.
English Settlement (Virgin)
By all rights this is XTC's greatest work. As a double album it simply contains more material (watch out for cd releases which cut off a couple of tracks — get the vinyl if you can). "Senses Working Overtime" initiated a new round of college radio airplay for the band, while "It's Nearly Africa", "No Thugs in Our House," and "Snowman" hinted at the reserves of songwriting skill which the band harbored. No collection complete without at least one copy.
The Big Express (Virgin)
1984's Big Express held place after 1983's Mummer, which few understood. Moulding's fretless bass solo on "This World Over" provided one high point, while the angst of "Wake Up" and "Reign of Blows" recaptured some of the aggression of earlier efforts. "Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her" was an audio equivalent of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds": unnervingly romantic. A band in transition, XTC was to take on the identity of the Dukes and realise commercial potential at long last.
XTC The Later Years
Skylarking (Virgin)
Cornered by great fan and erstwhile acclaimed record producer, Todd Rundgren, XTC mounted a media comeback following their disastrous and final American Tour in the early Eighties. Rundgren's domineering approach to record production unsettled the band (stationed in Rundgren's own space-station home in upstate New York) making for a most unusual ethereal sounding album bordering on styles ranging from jazz, to Sergeant Peppers, to spy-movie soundtrack material on "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul". The resulting LP, Skylarking, titled by Rundgren referring to the beginning of the album at dawn (with the sounds of birds and sunshine) and follow it through into the midnight hour and the sounds of its stillness.
Amidst Colin's and Andy's works of true genius on the album they begat their biggest song, "Dear God," which Andy wrote in a half-hearted attempt to explore his own religious questions and beliefs. After "binning" the song from the original distribution of Skylarking, "Dear God" hit heavy rotation on College Radio and crescendoed on MTV to the point of inescapability. XTC, thanks god, had made the big time finally.
In a rush attempt to save the album from public disappointment, Virgin Records re-released the album with "Dear God" on the second side in place of "The Mermaid Smiled". The album also yielded a more characteristic low level charter in "Earn Enough For Us".
Oranges and Lemons (Virgin)
After toying around with the idea of creating another Dukes of Stratosphere album, XTC decided instead to work some of their older abandoned material and some of their proposed new Dukes material to create the album Oranges and Lemons. This album, quite dominated by Andy's fanatic persistence and demands, almost brought about the end of the band after a heated argument between Andy and Colin Moulding. Moulding, an equally talented and respected songwriter, felt that his input in the band was being stifled by Andy. Although Moulding did get to fire off the memorable "One of The Millions". Things resumed as usual, but the album was left to be remembered as a slow and grueling studio recording experience.
Although they achieved a bit of recognition from the singles "Mayor of Simpleton" and "Merely a Man," this fresh and infectiously psychedelic album was hardly a successor in the public eye to "the one with 'Dear God' on it."
Nonsuch (Virgin)
In hopes of creating their best album to date, XTC, (bound in a legal contract with Virgin Records to begin their first of four more albums) were to employ the widely acclaimed producer Gus Dudgeon on their album Nonsuch. Staying true to its unique form XTC continued to rail against violence in "Wardance".
After inviting an old acquaintance and friend Dave Mattacks to play drums on this their most recent release, XTC put together what they unanimously agree to be both their greatest accomplishment, a deep eclectic album. To the horror of Gus Dudgeon (known for producing artists such as Elton John, Joan Armatrading, David Bowie, Bruce Hornsby and the Beach Boys,) Andy Partridge proved to be intolerable in his ways of hovering and fidgeting about during the production, eventually Dudgeon banned Partridge from entering the studio during the final mixdowns. While radio play was briefly given to Andy's strong political tune "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkin Head," the record has become more of a collector to true XTC devotees than a success on the charts.
The Beat Goes On
Over the years XTC has shown remarkable dexterity in their sound and resiliency as a popular act, who simply don't play out any more. The last tour by the band took place in 1982, and Dave Gregory's departure in 1999 leaves just Partridge and Moulding.
In 1998, the four cd box Transistor Blast featured stellar live performances from the BBC recorded between 1978 and 1989. The band played few live shows but still managed to record these excellent alternate takes. The long awaited studio follow up appeared on TVT Records entitled Apple Venus Vol. I, a sophisticated and lush orchestral sound backing the band. Always a strong political message against violence and warfare, and social messages railing against decaying British mores.
Partridge also put out an experimental work with Ambient whiz Harold Budd to lukewarm reviews. His 1980 solo effort Take Away caught him during his prolific heyday of experimentation with dub multi-tracking also evidenced on a remix album of XTC's second LP Go 2 called Go +. Also in the world of XTC is the memorable collaboration with producer John Leckie of two Dukes of The Stratosphear albums in the mid-1980's. A tip of the cap to psychedelia in its American (Beach Boys and Garage Rock) and British (Stones, Beatles) incarnations, these albums sold well and established funloving alter-egoes the likes of which were rarely seen since the last sighting of The Yellow Submarine. Now these two lp's are presented on compact disc as Chips From The Chocolate Fireball.
And so the beat goes on for these gentleman and XTC continues to put out finely crafted pop work, evocative of British Pop's 1960's heyday, but often strikingly original BritPop laid down by the masters as they see fit.
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