Chalkhills, Number 166

                  Wednesday, 3 July 1991
Today's Topics:
                       Too Much Joy
                   Re: Chalkhills #165
                   Re: The White Horse
                    XTC Peel Sessions?
                RE: Diskographie questions
                   New Partridge song?
                   Re: Chalkhills #165
                  Top Modern Rock Songs
                     The White Horse

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From: hvgtw!dhgpa!adkoning@hvlpb.att.com
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 91 11:58 MDT
Subject: Too Much Joy

In these a-bit-low-on-the-XTC-news days, a little "trivia":

The Dutch magazine "OOR" with a review of the album "Cereal Killers" by "Too
Much Joy" (reproduced, translated and shortened without permission):

        [...] The debut produced by Paul Fox (XTC) [...]  They are
        Beatlesque powerpopsongs, which remind of The Knack in the high-days
        of "My Sharona" and of which the tongue-in-cheek lyrics know an
        irresistible sort of absurd humour [...]

Now who was it that also compared O&L with the Knack in Chalkhills? 8-)

-- Andre de Koning

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From: rar84@ihlpf.att.com
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 91 08:51 CDT
Subject: Re: Chalkhills #165

Hi all,
  While I was listening to WXRT-Chicago yesterday, they played
'Mayor of Simpleton', and afterwhich the DJ mentioned that XTC was to
release 2 records this year.  The first one, due out in about 3 weeks
was to contain rarities, demos and the like.   I've heard no mention of
this on "Chalkhills", so I thought you all might like to know.  The second
record is evidently the much delayed one we've been hearing about - due out
in the fall according to the DJ.

Rick Rockershousen

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Date: Mon, 1 Jul 91 18:39 CDT
From: John Johanneson <JOHANNESON@vms3.macc.wisc.edu>
Subject: Re: The White Horse

In Chalkhills 165 Kevin Xhiscock <XHISCOCK@nas.bitnet> writes:

>Can anyone provide information on the topography depicted on the cover of
>_English Settlement_? Where is it? What are the rumours of how it came to be?
>etc.

"The Uffington White Horse lies just below the Iron Age hillfort of Uffington
Castle in Oxfordshire...Best seen from a distance or from the air, the figure
is 111 meters from head to tail.  It was probably carved by the Iron Age
Celts around 100 BC - the horse was highly venerated in Celtic times as the
goddess Epona...The White Horse may be a dragon, according to local tradition,
and not a horse at all.  Close by is Dragon Hill where St. George is said to
have killed the dragon...The figure may therefore be a graphic commemoration
of St. George's triumph...[It was] originally outlined by cutting away the
turf and leaving the white chalk exposed."
- from everybody's favorite scholarly reference work _The Atlas of Mysterious
Places_.

The discussion from the last several _Chalkhills_ leads me to wonder why
XTC didn't use the Cerne Abbas Giant chalk drawing instead of the horse, as
it boasts a 9 meter "Pink [actually white] Thing".

Also, on the basis of the cover illustration the album should've been called
"Celtic Settlement" or "Pre-English Settlement" as the "English" didn't
arrive in the British Isles until AD 500-600.

-John

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From: eck@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Hangnail Whipperwill)
Subject: XTC Peel Sessions?
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 91 15:03:31 EDT

   I was reading the teeny weeny type on the front of a Peel Sessions CD
the other day (the Fall, it was...) and noticed, right in between Wire and
The Shop Assassins(I think, all but Ass is cut off) that there is an
XTC Peel Session!  I was moderately surprised, as I had never seen anything
of that sort, and it wasn't in the discography.

   Is the BBS lying, or have they just not issued it yet?  A buttload of old
Peel Sessions are being re-released these days, so...

Brian

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Date: Tue, 02 Jul 1991 21:47:25 CDT
From: akolman@mnsmc1.mnsmc.edu
Subject: RE: Diskographie questions

On Tue, 25 Jun 91 16:19:00 EST, telly!masnet!rose!mark.laforge@zoo.toronto.edu
   writes...

>A couple of questions about some of the discography listings:
>
>>  8. Skylarking
>>     o. LP/CT/CD, Virgin Japan, VJL-111/VJT-111/VJD-11, 9 March 1988.
>>           limited edition reissue.
>
>What makes this release limited edition?  There are Japanese releases
>of Skylarking both before and after this version.  Does this version
>have extra tracks, different versions of songs, extra inserts (ie. a
>small packet of Colin's toenail clippings)???  Or is it just a
>different catalog number?

The Japanese version is the only CD release that contains Mermaid Smiled - a
song that I sometimes like better than Dear God - it's replacement on the later
versions of the US/UK/Everywhere else releases.  Mermaid is, of course,
available on the vinyl release of Skylarking, and on Rag & Bone Buffet (or is
it Explode Together?  I don't have them in front of me at the moment).
=============================================================================
Al Kolman
    (or...)
BLx - The x is silent, the u is non-existent
                                =============================================
USnail:					Internet:
Saint Mary's College #789			akolman@mnsmc1.mnsmc.edu
700 Terrace Heights
Winona, MN  55987-1399
fax: (507)457-1633
=============================================================================

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Date: Tue, 2 Jul 91 23:18 CDT
From: John Johanneson <JOHANNESON@vms3.macc.wisc.edu>
Subject: New Partridge song?

I was in a record store today and saw a CD called _Place of General Happiness
Lyrics by Ernest Noyes Brookings, Vol. 2_ that had a XTC song called _Rocket_
on it (music by Partridge, lyrics by Brookings).  Although the back says
_Rocket_ is done by XTC, inside it says regarding _Rocket_:"Played, sung,
and recorded by Andy Partridge at The Shed, Swindon, England".

The title of the CD is as above, the label is ESD (Mpls. MN) and the CD
number is ESD 80522.

John <-> johanneson@vms3.macc.wisc.edu

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Date: Wed, 3 Jul 91 0:14:04 PDT
From: "John M. Relph" <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Re: Chalkhills #165

Mark <telly!masnet!rose!mark.laforge@zoo.toronto.edu> asks some
Diskografi questions:

>>  8. Skylarking
>>     o. LP/CT/CD, Virgin Japan, VJL-111/VJT-111/VJD-11, 9 March 1988.
>>           limited edition reissue.
>
>What makes this release limited edition?  Does this version
>have extra tracks, different versions of songs, extra inserts???
>  Or is it just a
>different catalog number?

I think it's the latter.  I got the information from the latest issue
of _The Little Express_.  I think it's limited edition merely because
few were pressed.

>> 33. Mayor of Simpleton
>>     h. CD-5, Virgin UK, 662 021 211 (VSCDT 1158), 1989.
>
>I have only seen the 3" UK version.  Was the 5" version available to
>the public or was it just a promo item?  Does this disc have the same
>track listing as the 3" version?

I have this, it is not a promo item, but I'm not exactly sure that
it's a UK release.  It might be from Germany or some other European
country.  Yes, the track listing is the same as the UK 3-incher.

	-- John

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Date: Wed, 3 Jul 91 0:20:51 PDT
From: "John M. Relph" <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Top Modern Rock Songs

bob gaj <MKT_RGAJARSK@VAXC.STEVENS-TECH.EDU> posted "the top 250 of
wdre (92.7, long island)'s top 500 countdown of `modern rock' or
whatever stupid phrase you want to use."

XTC appears twice in the top 250.  At number 80 was "Dear God", and
"Mayor of Simpleton" appeared at number 145.

ed@wente.llnl.gov (Ed Suranyi) posted "the Live 105 top 300
progressive songs from their Memorial Day countdown."

XTC appeared five times in the top 300:

    32.  DEAR GOD
    81.  SENSES WORKING OVERTIME
    222. MAKING PLANS FOR NIGEL
    257. GENERALS AND MAJORS
    286. MAYOR OF SIMPLETON

	-- John

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Subject:   The White Horse
Date: Wed Jul  3 16:09:54 1991
From: stewarte@sco.com

    From: Kevin Xhiscock <XHISCOCK@nas.bitnet>
    Subject:      The White Horse

    Can anyone provide information on the topography depicted on the cover of
    _English Settlement_? Where is it? What are the rumours of how it came to
    be?  etc.

Haven't we been 'round this one before?  Still, never mind, let's try it
again:

It's the White Horse of Uffington, Uffington being a village quite near
XTC's hometown of Swindon, in Wiltshire.  The horse is a prehistoric
hill carving, meaning a spot where the grass and soil have been removed,
leaving a patch of bare chalk on the side of the hill.  There are a number
of these around England, but as they require periodic maintenance most of
them have changed over the years, and in fact the only other ones I've seen
were much more "realistic" depictions of horses due to major revamping in,
I believe, the Victorian era.

-- Stewart

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