Chalkhills, Number 11

                  Wednesday, 3 May 1989

Today's Topics:
                       RE: The Dukes
                      Happy Families
                      Drums and Wires
          Wow! Where did you find all that shit!
                 Andy's feelings on Barry?

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Date: Tue, 2 May 89 07:07:08 EDT
From: ektools!martin@kodak.com (Brian Martin)
Subject: RE: The Dukes


John,
  You know, I actually agree with Andy and Collin....I admire their ability
to stop making The Dukes when the idea is still strong.

  You never know what will be next...maybe, "The Mirrorballs"..
XTC masquerades as a DISCO band!...
It would probably be the best thing that ever happened to disco....

----------
Brian A. Martin
"Sounds like a good idea to me!"

	[The Three Wise Men were pretty disco, especially
	 "Countdown to Christmas Party Time" -- John]

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Date: Tue, 2 May 1989 21:44:18 PDT
From: John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Happy Families

    The John Hughes film [_She's Having a Baby_] has been
    released in North America, along with the excellent
    soundtrack album including XTC's "Happy Families".
    XTC were not pleased with the finished mix for the
    song.  Andy explains... "We finished it and I was
    relatively happy but the Hughes corporation, the
    Hughes Foundation, the Hughes people said they didn't
    like the mix at all and could they remix it with
    somebody they wanted to use.  So they did it and
    mailed up a cassette saying, `What do you think of
    this?'  And we didn't like it at all, but they said
    they liked it a lot and it's been used, so the thing
    kind of escaped us, and it's a shame it even got
    relegated to background music... oh well!"

That was from the March/April 1988 _The Little Express_.

So I am really happy that the original mix of "Happy Families" has made
it out here for our listening pleasure.  Definitely the only redeeming
quality of the "King for a Day" 12-inch, unfortunately.  And is there
actually any difference between the so called `7-inch mix' of "King for
a Day" and the album track?  They sounded pretty much the same to me.

	-- John

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Date: Wed, 3 May 1989 7:39:49 PDT
From: John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Drums and Wires

Gary asked who wrote which songs on _Drums and Wires_.  Here's the
list, and I've included every song that ever appeared on _D&W_.

Andy wrote these:
      Helicopter; When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty; Roads
      Girdle the Globe; Real by Reel; Millions; Outside World;
      Scissor Man; Complicated Game; Chain of Command.

Which means Colin wrote these:
      Making Plans for Nigel; Day In Day Out; Ten Feet Tall; That
      is the Way; Life Begins at the Hop; Limelight.

Gee, I had never checked.  The credits that appear on the lyrics sheet
that originally appeared with _D&W_ claim that Colin wrote "Complicated
Game", but the credits on the record label and the CD both say that Andy
wrote it.  And even without looking I figured it was Andy responsible
for it.

	-- John

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Date: Wed, 3 May 1989 7:46:46 PDT
From: John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Wow! Where did you find all that shit!

The following is the letter that Gary mentioned a few days ago
(or did he?).  I think it captures a certain feeling.  And the
Dukes story is worth printing.  So I hope you don't mind, Gary...
	-- John
                ---------------

Date: Thu, 27 Apr 89 22:24:05 CDT
From: Gary Jedlicka (GJJ5315@TAMSTAR.Bitnet)
Subject: Wow!  Where did you find all that shit!

John,

	Gee.  I've never been on a list that made me feel so inadequate:
Where do you get all those releases? , :-)

	I must confess that my experience is rather limited.  In fact the
first 'XTC' album I bought was 25 o'clock without knowing that XTC existed
(well I knew of them but never heard anything in the Nazi-ridden south).
I read the credits to 'Skylarking' and I read the 'thanks to the Dukes...for
loaning us their guitars'. I thought, "How nice of them!".  It wasn't until
I heard "Vanishing Girl" on the radio with a reference to the band being the
same that I made the connection (I never read of any connection). I couldn't
speak for approx. 2 hours.  I guess that's the first time that XTC almost
threw me off the road.

	Anyway, I guess what I wan't to ask is how long have you been
listening to them?  Seeing from your discography, I imagine it was a long
time!  Personally (and embarassingly) I only have the studio releases of
XTC and the Dukes, WAXWORKS (no BEESWAX!!), and the "Mayor of Simpleton"
12-inch. I couldn't even find the "Dear God" EP. I did see the "Meeting
Place" 12-inch but didn't buy it at the time.....ARRRRGH!!

	So here I am in love without a penis (or something like that).
Do you know of any place I can order the old stuff?  Geeez...I never
knew a band's B-sides could be so goood!!

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Date: Wed,  3 May 89 14:36:17 CDT
From: "THOR::GJJ5315"@star.tamu.edu
Subject: Andy's feelings on Barry?

	My how your mind does wonder when you're bored!  I liked the
part in the "Mayor of Simpleton" video where Andy is hit in the butt
by "Barry the Car".  Could this be Andy's way of saying that he tried
to keep Barry Andrews under control, but he turned around and bit him
in the ass?

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