Chalkhills Digest Volume 12, Issue 60
Date: Friday, 22 December 2006
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 12, Number 60
Friday, 22 December 2006
Topics:
Frank Blackman
(obv) M.P. Reference
<<<Sonic Boom>>>>
Dear God... A Heart warming Christmas Story
26 years ago
Andy discusses "Thanks for Christmas," MySpace song of the next two weeks
Best
Thanks for Chalkhills
Best
RARE XTC LITTLE EXPRESS FAN CLUB auctions on ebay
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Countdown to Christmas party time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 07:50:44 +0100 From: "don device" <device@noos.fr> Subject: Frank Blackman Message-ID: <01be01c71f4c$2e77d7d0$2a824251@computer> Hiya, >From the Cooking Vinyl press release for his new disc 'Christmass": *Frank*: My father always encouraged me to one day put out a Christmas album, which I always found a bit strange, since he was a self-declared pagan. But, I guess by 'Christmas' he meant winter. And it always sort of bothered me that that extra 's' got dropped off of Christmas. *Violet*: Merry Christmass then, Frank. *Frank*: And a Happy Green Man to you, Darling. xo, d-squared
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 06:02:46 -0800 (PST) From: Kzincat <kzincat98@yahoo.com> Subject: (obv) M.P. Reference Message-ID: <173233.12097.qm@web90505.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Another Steve said: >>Wes Long said: >> >>Andy Partridge, I am so damn mad at you. For the past >>twenty-plus years I've occasionally smacked down >small >>wads of cash for XTC discs - and other than >>mindbogglingly creative life-altering music drenched >>in orgasmic wordplay and garbed in the most clever >>packaging conceivable - I've received absolutely >>nothing in return. >> >>You bastard. > >Hear, hear! Absolutely nothing... >apart from the sanitation, >the medicine, education, >wine, public order, >irrigation, roads, >the fresh water system, >and public health. > >Geez. > >Another Steve BLOODY ROMANS!
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:25:51 -0600 From: "James Lowe" <jamielowe@msn.com> Subject: <<<Sonic Boom>>>> Message-ID: <BAY116-DAV163726A14FE49C46262197BED40@phx.gbl> Dear Chalkholders; My friend Jeremy has posted Andy's Sonic Boom as one of his songs of the week along with I Don't Want to be Here as MP3s on his site http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/ His superlative narrative is below. Doing his part to enlighten the masses. THIS WEEK'S FINDS week of Dec. 10-16 "Sonic Boom" - Andy Partridge As buoyant, crisp, and driven as any number of great XTC songs Partridge wrote in his years as that seminal British band's principal singer and songwriter. And why shouldn't it be? This was one of more than 100 songs Partridge had accumulated over a couple of decades that never made it to an XTC album for a variety of reasons. They've come to the light of day, along with many alternate recordings of songs XTC did release, on the eight so-called Fuzzy Warbles CDs Partridge has released over the last three years or so. The series has been gathered this fall into one spiffily-designed boxed set (The Fuzzy Warbles Collector Album) that is a crazy overload of songwriting goodness for XTC devotees. From disc number seven, "Sonic Boom" is an ode to loud music--in particular to the role an electric guitar can play in the redemption of a listless teenager--that is not itself, cleverly, a particularly raucous song. (After all, extolling the virtues of loud music in a really loud song would not speak to the unconverted.) Instead we get cheerful, crunchy pop with a really great guitar sound. For me, the siren-like riffs that ring from the intro are the key to the song's presence and depth. Listen in particular to the second verse, beginning around 0:55, and how the guitar at that point remains in that higher register to puncutate the lyrics with semi-dissonant squawks. And then, wow, the concise guitar solo, from 1:37 to 1:55, is a brilliant bit of controlled chaos that might pass you right by if you don't pay close attention. As with the vast majority of the songs on all the Fuzzy Warbles CD, the irrepressible Partridge does all the singing and playing. Fingertips Exclusive MP3!: The Fuzzy Warbles collection is packed with cool songs, so in the spirit of artistic overflow represented therein, I'm offering this week a second Andy Partridge song as special bonus MP3--the delightful "I Don't Want To Be Here." Thanks to Toolshed, Steve Young, and Andy Partridge for this exclusive free and legal download. The link will be available for three weeks only. Enjoy! Best Regards, Jamie Lowe Your Resident Purveyor of the worlds best XTC Bumper Stickers http://xtcstickers.jamielowe.net/ It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently. - Warren Buffett www.islandgoats.org
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 06:26:15 -0800 (PST) From: Jackson <jydson@yahoo.com> Subject: Dear God... A Heart warming Christmas Story Message-ID: <131162.29369.qm@web56808.mail.re3.yahoo.com> What A Wonderful Story There was a man who worked for the Post Office whose job it was to process all the mail that had illegible addresses. One day, a letter came addressed in a shaky handwriting to God with no actual address. He thought he should open it to see what it was about. The letter read: "Dear God, I am an 83 year old widow, living on a Very small pension. Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had $100 in it, Which was all the money I had until my next pension check. Next Sunday is Christmas, and I had invited two of my friends over for dinner. Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with. I have no family to turn to, and you are my one hope. Can you please help me? Sincerely, Edna" The postal worker was touched. He showed the letter to all the other workers. Each one dug into his or her wallet and came up with a few dollars. By the time he made the rounds, he had collected $96, which they put into an envelope and sent to the woman. The rest of the day, all the workers felt a warm glow thinking of Edna and the dinner she would be able to share with her friends. Christmas came and went. A few days later, another letter came from the same old lady to God. All the workers gathered around while the letter was opened. It read, "Dear God, How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me? Because of your gift of love, I was able to fix a glorious dinner for my friends. We had a very nice day and I told my friends of your Wonderful gift. By the way, there was $4 missing. I think it must have been those bastards at the Post Office."
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 20:17:01 -0600 From: "James Lowe" <jamielowe@msn.com> Subject: 26 years ago Message-ID: <BAY116-DAV15B60103C7F3F0E42EF53FBECA0@phx.gbl> Chalkholders; It has been 26 years since 12/20/80 when our favorite band laid down on tape a rocking good set at the Hammersmith Palais for the BBC. It still rocks and reminds me of another time and place every time I hear it. I always bring it out this time of year for a listen and it never disappoints. Andy's banter about it "good to be back" in England, and the "dreadful knitwear".... The dueling guitars, the crowd joining in on Respectable Street and the punch of the rhythm section are true bliss for an XTC fan like myself. In short, this 57 minute record was lamentably one of, if not the last, great live XTC moments. It is a great pleasure and if you have not heard it lately treat yourself... I wish all of you a very happy holiday season and I heartily recommend you give this disc a spin sometime over the holidays. See you in Chalkhills soon. Happy Holidays, Jamie Lowe Your Resident Purveyor of The worlds best XTC Bumper Stickers http://xtcstickers.jamielowe.net/ It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently. - Warren Buffett www.islandgoats.org
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2006 18:48:18 -0800 (PST) From: Todd Bernhardt <beat_town@yahoo.com> Subject: Andy discusses "Thanks for Christmas," MySpace song of the next two Message-ID: <640230.20818.qm@web32008.mail.mud.yahoo.com> weeks Hi: Over at the XTCfans MySpace site (http://www.myspace.com/xtcfans), the song of the next two weeks (we're taking a bit of a holiday around the holiday) is -- oddly enough -- "Thanks for Christmas," from the 1983 single by The Three Wise Men, now found on Rag and Bone Buffet (http://www.xtcidearecords.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Compilations_15.html). If you want to know who the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (and how) is, and exactly what the hell a "vhorus" is, check out the XTCfans blog site (http://blog.myspace.com/xtcfans). -Todd It's such a shame it's only one day every year / Three hundred and sixty-four days full of doubts and fear / You've been saving your love up, let it out, 'cos Christmas is here -Andrew Partridge, songwriter (1953- )
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2006 06:19:17 -1000 From: Jim Smart <jimsmart1@mac.com> Subject: Best Message-ID: <16663E1E-66FD-4D5C-A93B-6AECC74554C1@mac.com> The best reason to have a MySpace page: Todd's XTC page, and the interviews with Andy that he posts on the blog. They come right to my MySpace page with a little alert. They come in bite size chunks and go down nice. Thanks for Thanks for Christmas, Todd (and Andy). Best albums of 2006 Ray Davies - Other People's Lives The Decemberists - The Crane Wife The Raconteurs- Broken Boy Soldiers Tom Petty - Highway Companion Lullaby Baxter - Garden Cities of To-Morrow Roger Manning - The Land of Pure Imagination Another Fine Day - Golden Smog The Beatles - Love The Who - Endless Wire Andy Partridge - Fuzzy Warbles complete set Too bad my own album Seven Fathoms wasn't good enough to make the list...Don't quit yer day job, Jim! Best time waster: Stephen Colbert It's been geek heaven around here since Stephen Colbert "called out" the Decemberists on his show and challenged them to a guitar duel. See, both of them have invited their fans to use green screen footage to make them look cool. Here's Colbert's challenge to the Decemberists: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87pFZKqaqQY And here's my movie about their "battle": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=103Yz7mzo60 All of this will come to some sort of a head on Colbert's show this week: December 20. Silly, I know. aloha, Jim http://www.familysmart.blogspot.com/ http://myspace.com/jimsmartsongs
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 10:27:17 +0100 (CET) From: Gary Nicholson <member@snurge.fsnet.co.uk> Subject: Thanks for Chalkhills Message-ID: <2912843.74021166693237714.JavaMail.www@wwinf3002> Hi people, Haven't posted for quite a while, but I keep reading the digests and buy the latest XTC products. However, I'm mainly writing to say thank you to John Relph for yet another year of hard work in putting Chalkhills together. Love the new layout! I've been recording some songs over the autumn with producer Pat Collier (Ex Vibrators and Boyfriends bassist, and sometime producer of Robyn Hitchcock/Soft Boys/House of Love etc.). There is also an XTC connection, but I'll bore you all with it in the new year! All the best for Christmas and 2007 Gary. In a fog and frostbound house, Winchester, UK. Not far from Swindon. Not far enough.
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 08:29:27 -1000 From: Jim Smart <jimsmart1@mac.com> Subject: Best Message-ID: <9970148E-029C-43BA-9B1B-72F17F10FBD2@mac.com> The best reason to have a MySpace page: Todd's XTC page, and the interviews with Andy that he posts on the blog. They come right to my MySpace page with a little alert. They come in bite size chunks and go down nice. Thanks for Thanks for Christmas, Todd (and Andy). Best albums of 2006 Ray Davies - Other People's Lives The Decemberists - The Crane Wife The Raconteurs- Broken Boy Soldiers Tom Petty - Highway Companion Lullaby Baxter - Garden Cities of To-Morrow Roger Manning - The Land of Pure Imagination Another Fine Day - Golden Smog The Beatles - Love The Who - Endless Wire Andy Partridge - Fuzzy Warbles complete set Too bad my own album Seven Fathoms wasn't good enough to make the list...Don't quit yer day job, Jim! Best time waster: Stephen Colbert It's been geek heaven around here since Stephen Colbert "called out" the Decemberists on his show and challenged them to a guitar duel. See, both of them have invited their fans to use green screen footage to make them look cool. Here's Colbert's challenge to the Decemberists: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87pFZKqaqQY And here's my movie about their "battle": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=103Yz7mzo60 All of this will come to some sort of a head on Colbert's show this week: December 20. Silly, I know. aloha, Jim http://www.familysmart.blogspot.com/ http://myspace.com/jimsmartsongs
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 05:42:51 -0800 (PST) From: Kzincat <kzincat98@yahoo.com> Subject: RARE XTC LITTLE EXPRESS FAN CLUB auctions on ebay Message-ID: <251979.86219.qm@web90511.mail.mud.yahoo.com> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200061250191&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1 or http://tinyurl.com/y47doj Not me selling, but maybe someone on here, and of interest to collectors, eh? I have a few of these myself from back in the day. Happy Holidays! Dave in Detroit
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