Chalkhills, Number 143

                  Tuesday, 26 March 1991
Today's Topics:
                   Re: Chalkhills #142
                      Women and Men
                   Re: Chalkhills #142
                  He who laughs last....
                  New Geffen CD reissues
            Re: XTC's semi-mythical ex-drummer

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Date: Mon, 25 Mar 91 08:07:35 CST
From: oconnor!siouxsie!jtl@oddjob.uchicago.edu (Joe Lynn)
Subject: Re: Chalkhills #142

meep@wpi.wpi.edu (MEEP) writes:

> This may have come up already, but does anybody know the identity
> of the fourth Duke Of Stratosphear?

Why, "E.I. Owen", of course... :-)

Actually, it's Dave Gregory's brother, Ian.

Doug Nonast <dnonast@bonnie.ics.uci.edu> asks:

> Does anybody remember XTC having a fourth member (a drummer, I believe)
> when they first started out that they canned after just a few albums?

You are probably referring to Terry Chambers, who was the band's drummer
 from its inception through 1983.  Terry drummed on all XTC albums from
_White Music_ (1978) through parts of _Mummer_ (1983).  That's a lot of
music...  Up until _Drums and Wires_ (1979) when Dave Gregory joined
the band, XTC had a keyboard player.  Barry Andrews went on to form
Shriekback in his post-XTC days.

Sounds like you may want reprints of recent Chalkhills digests with
reprints of the "History of XTC" articles...

"d. brykowski -- uses and endorses heroin" <UOG01365@vm.uoguelph.ca> sez:

> as both "Mermaid" and "Dear God" are on the Virgin Canada domestic
> disc. When it came out, I bought the domestic vinyl, which didn't
> have either. Then I bought the Geffen CD (in Buffalo) which had
> Dear God. Then the Canadian CD came out with both.

Am I reading this correctly?  There was a Canadian version of _Skylarking_
that had *neither* "Dear God" nor "Mermaid Smiled?"  I highly doubt this,
as the album was supposed to have "Mermaid" in its original running order.
If this is true, it's another one for the discography, John.

> It's really strange that Big Express is finally coming out on CD in the US.

Umm... _The Big Express_ has been available on CD from Geffen in the
US since late 1988...  The discs being released on March 26th are:
_White Music_, _Go 2_, _Drums and Wires_, _Black Sea_, and _Mummer_.

Now if they's only get around to a domestic release of _The Compact XTC_...

Joe Lynn

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Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1991 11:23:46 PST
From: Chalkhills Administration <chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org>
Subject: Women and Men
Organisation: Chalkhills Anonymous
Keywords: statistics

Ok, the latest statistics for Chalkhills are in:

We're 90% sure that we have 12 female subscribers.  The remaining 221
subscribers are probably all male.

210 of the subscribers are most likely from the United States of
America.  At least 7 subscribers are from The U.K.  At least 7 more
hail from Canada.  And following that, one subscriber from each of the
following countries: Australia, Finland, France, New Zealand, Norway,
Sweden, Switzerland, and The Netherlands.  And one subscriber is
somewhere else in Europe, but we don't know where.  (Chuck Membrino,
where are you?)

All of the above statistics are best guesses based on the e-mail
addresses and subscription information.

P.S.  The XTC Acoustic Radio Tour tape is still available.  E-mail to
      <chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org> for more details.

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From: jon drukman <jsd@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us>
Subject: Re: Chalkhills #142
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 91 9:52:21 PST

The fourth Duke Of Stratosphear is Ian Gregory, Dave's brother, who
plays drums.

/j/

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Date: Tue, 26 Mar 91 17:14:24 -0500
From: Mark.C.Kirk@physics.umass.edu
Subject: He who laughs last....

Justice has been served to my local "in" record store.  Seeing as the XTC cds
are going to be released domestically (at realistic prices) the store
is having to sell the imports they have in stock at domestic prices to clear
them out. *evil laugh*  So I finally got that copy of _Black Sea_ on cd that
I'd been putting off.  $11 with a "Made In England" sticker on it to prove
your good taste in music to your friends.  Still waiting for the others to
come out domestically!

There was a comment about how _Cockpit Dance Mixture_ should have been
released on the _Explode Together_ cd.  Nyet!  It would have stuck out like a
sore thumb!  _Explode Together_ is more in the class of the early Severed
Heads type sound.

/mk/
"I bought myself a liarbird..."

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Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1991 18:38:02 PST
From: Chalkhills Administration <chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org>
Subject: New Geffen CD reissues

Hot off the presses!  Geffen USA releases entire XTC back catalog on CD!

Ok, they're here!  I've seen _Black Sea_, _Drums and Wires_, and
_White Music_ with my own eyes.  No sign of _Mummer_ or _Go 2_,
however.  Good news: according to the packaging, _Drums and Wires_
contains "Life Begins At The Hop", just as the recent UK picture CD
does.  The catalog numbers reported recently in Chalkhills were
slightly in error.  The actual catalog numbers are as follows:

    GEFD-24373   White Music
    GEFD-24374   Mummer (not verified)
    GEFD-24375   Go 2 (not verified)
    GEFD-24376   Black Sea
    GEFD-4034    Drums and Wires

If anyone sees _Go 2_ or _Mummer_, please let us know!

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Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1991 18:44:38 PST
From: John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Re: XTC's semi-mythical ex-drummer

Doug Nonast <dnonast@bonnie.ics.uci.edu> asks:

>	Does anybody remember XTC having a fourth member (a drummer, I believe)
>when they first started out that they canned after just a few albums? If so,
>who was he? Is he selling insurance now?

Yes, it's true.  Terry Chambers was XTC's drummer from their conception,
er, inception until he quit the band during the recording of _Mummer_.
He now lives in Australia with his wife.  He quit because XTC weren't
touring any more, and also because the songs were getting more complex
and less hard.  (He should have stayed for the recording of _The Big
Express_.)

	-- John

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