Chalkhills, Number 91

                    Friday, 4 May 1990
Today's Topics:
                      XTC Radio Tape
                     Towers of London
                 Re: Skylarking Costumes
         Acoustic tour/Compact XTC/Moulding query
                    Domestic releases

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Date: Thu, 26 Apr 90 18:20:31 EST
From: "Loden,Tom , MIT Lincoln Lab, *8^)" <LODEN@ll.ll.mit.edu>
Subject: XTC Radio Tape

For those of you who haven't traded yet:

Comments (a la Stereo Review):

   Performance: Execellent, superb, wow-ness.
   Recording:   Leaves a bit to be desired

In terms of overall sound quality, it's a little less than one would hope for.
I suppose that's to be expected with something of this nature (many different
cassetts decks, contributors, ...) Having said that, I must say John did a very
fine job! It's very evident that there was a veritable shitload-o-work involved
in putting it together. The segways (sp?), flow of material, and general theme
were well thought out. I originally thought I wasn't going to like the
interviews but this turned out to be wrong - I never knew Andy was so
sarcasitc! Quite the bit of good fun.

If you're a strick audiophile - don't bother ; if you're a REAL XTC fan -
DON'T MISS IT!

Tom.

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Date: Thu, 26 Apr 90 16:59:50 -0700
From: rice@ernie.berkeley.edu (Daniel S. Rice)
Subject: Towers of London

	Does anyone have any idea what "Towers of London" is about?

						Dan

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Date: Fri, 27 Apr 1990 19:47:03 PDT
From: John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Re: Skylarking Costumes

Wes Wilson <wilson@pneuma.enet.dec.com> asks:

>What's the story behind the costumes that Andy, Colin and Dave are
>wearing on the "Skylarking" sleeve?

>I had heard that the lads didn't like the costumes picked out for them,
>and went out and came back with these adult-sized "English schoolboy"
>outfits.

This is from the recent interview in _Contrast_ magazine (thanks,
Stewart), which I highly recommend (the interview, not necessarily the
magazine).

    Contrast: XTC are often in costume on your [record]
    sleeves.  Tell us about the Catholic school girl uniforms
    on _Skylarking_.

    Andy: OK, now this is a great mistake because it's not
    catholic school girls.  Everybody thinks it is.
    Originally I wanted to have a very close up shot of the
    pubic area of a young girl on one side and the pubic area
    of a young man on the other side, and meadow flowers and
    things fitted into the hairs.  Because the shot was so
    close and hopefully well photographed, it would be this
    kind of flowery, fleshy thing and maybe it might click as
    to what it was.  It was sort of like the frolicking in the
    grass, out in the fields, and _Lady Chatterly's Lover_.
    Virgin was very skeptical about the sleeve.  I said,
    "Let's just try it."  So they did a photo session.  They
    found a girl model who would do it and a male model, so
    they photographed it, mocked it up into a sleeve with an
    opening at the top, with two photographs so you could
    display whichever sex you please, whatever your preference
    was.  They took it around to record stores and said,
    "There would be no problem with this sleeve, would there?"
    And all of these record stores said forget it.  We figured
    it would be even worse in America.  You don't see a nipple
    on the TV in America.  You see plenty of nipples being
    blown off, though!

    So at the last minute I changed the cover. . .

    . . . I thought with a title like _Skylarking_, which
    means messing around and having a good time, that it would
    be great fun to have three really disapproving figures on
    the back cover.  So I ordered three Quaker costumes, and
    when we turned up at the photo session nobody thought the
    costumes looked like Quaker costumes.  They were like
    three school girl outfits!  So we did the photo session in
    these _kind of_ school girl outfits, and I thought, "Oh
    shit, this has gone horribly wrong!"  So we reduced it to
    a tiny little photo!  And people said, "Oh, that's really
    enigmatic having that little photograph with you dressed
    as three girls."  It was just this horrible cock-up!
    History has a way of bringing out cock-ups.

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From: William H Stoner III <bilbo@cis.ohio-state.edu>
Subject: Acoustic tour/Compact XTC/Moulding query
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 90 16:06:43 EDT

Hullo,

The Acoustic tour is quite humorus, thanks.  The soundquality leaves a bit
but thwe contents more than make up for it.

Any more on that rumor that Geffen is planning to release "The Compact XTC"
state side?  And what about that CD that Virgin is compiling of non-album
material?

Would someone out there tell me if "take this town" is decent?  There's a
copy of _Times Square_ soundtrack goin for $3.00 near me. is it worth it?

Who was in the band, and when? the discs I own are very short on this kind
of info.

I was thinking of compiling a "Songs of Colin" tape.  Could someone out there
give me a list of what songs by him aren't on: Go2, Drums and Wires, English
settlement, Mummer, Black Sea, The Big Express, skylarking, and L&O?  Also
who wrote which of the Homo-Safari tunes???

Thanks,
bilbo

Ps anyone out there wanna make me a copy of "making plans for andy"?
PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE???

--
"Her name was Ingrid, he called her Margret, she|  William H. Stoner III
just heard 'Ingrid', not the stuff of movies."	|  Systems Operator OSU CIS
jane siberry - Ingrid (and the footman)		|  bilbo@cis.ohio-state.edu

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Date:      Thu, 3 May 90 21:17:53 EST
From: LIBHTK@suvm.bitnet
Subject:   Domestic releases

As far as I am able to tell, there are four XTC CDs available in
the United States, all released on Geffen:

English Settlement 4036-2
The Big Express 24054-2
Skylarking 24117-2
Oranges & Lemons 24218-2

Are there any others?  I haven't seen them if there are. Is Mummer
available only as an import?  I would think it would be another
possibility as a domestic (Geffen) release.

 -- Tom Keays   Bitnet:   LIBHTK@SUVM
                Internet: LIBHTK@SUVM.ACS.SYR.EDU

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