Chalkhills Digest Volume 2, Issue 34
Date: Friday, 17 November 1995
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 2, Number 34
Friday, 17 November 1995
Today's Topics:
More XTC covers
I apologize for being so dumb...
I'm hearing voices
I'm confusing
Re: Chalkhills Digest #2-32
T-Shirt Update
Colin or Andy's Collidescope
Re: Mr. Pumpkinhead being Jesus
XTC in Spirit of the Forest?
New Town Animal...er, relatively
Where to get chalkhills, & etc..
The Case of the Missing Andy Boy PART 2 OF 4
The Plaques
Re: Chalkhills Digest #2-32
Andy's Birthday
The First Time (ooh!)
RE: Chalkhills Digest #2-32
strange places for songs
Re: Chalkhills Digest #2-29
Re: Chalkhills Digest #2-4
Re: Chalkhills Digest #2-30
How I became a fan.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Nov 95 13:12 EST From: Jeffrey Langr <0005392548@mcimail.com> Subject: More XTC covers More songs XTC should cover for their "Pin-Ups" album: "2000 Light Years From Home", Stones "I Don't Wanna Grow Up", Tom Waits (yeah I know the Ramones did it...) "She Don't Use Jelly", Flaming Lips "The Logical Song", Supertramp anything by Chris & Cosey, Throbbing Gristle, Genesis P Orridge, et al "Spinning Away", Eno/Cale "The Gulf Between Us (?)", Adrian Belew, perfect post-divorce song "Don't Touch Me There", Tubes "Momma Said Knock You Out", LL Cool J "Sexie Sadie", B*****s "Texas Radio & the Big Beat", Doors "Tiptoe Through the Tulips", Tiny Tim & others "Today", Smashing Pumpkins "Days", Kinks "Down in the Sewer", Stranglers Enough for now, Jeff L, psychopath
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 13:25:04 -0600 From: jh3@ns.cencom.net (JH3 Unlimited, Ltd.) Subject: I apologize for being so dumb... Last night I had the strangest dream! There was this big red curtain, and it kept getting closer and closer, and who should pop out from behind it but Andy Partridge, wearing a hat piled high with exotic fruit! He leaned close to my ear and whispered, "You idiot! Collideascope was ME! I was just doing my impression of Colin doing his impression of me doing my impression of him doing his impression of the guy from the Barron Knights!" I was mortified! I said, "But didn't I at least help squelch all the endless chatter about 'Dear God'?" His face grew very dark then and he said, "But I LIKE it when they go on about 'Dear God', you fool, it keeps them from talking about 'Don't Ever Dare Call Me Chickenhead'..." and then he disappeared in a haze of blue-and-green smoke, saying "and Colin WAS the walrus" or something like that... So I woke up immediately, put on "Psonic Psunspot" and listened to the song several hundred times, and I finally realized he was right! I should have just looked at the liner notes! What an imbecile I was! Anyway, the whole experience has taken a terrible toll on my psychological well-being, so I'm going to go off now and listen to some old Sonic Youth albums for a while and try to forget the whole incident. -John Hedges
------------------------------
From: Gene_Yoon@brown.edu
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 15:07:42 -0500
Subject: I'm hearing voices
>From: jh3@ns.cencom.net (JH3 Unlimited, Ltd.)
>
>Finally: "Collideascope" is definitely COLIN. Doing his best Andy
>impression, perhaps, but still Colin. (Buy "Demos 6" you won't be in any
>doubt.)
Their vocal frequency patterns must be permanently mapped into my brain by
now, so I can pompously, confidently say that XTC never, ever lend lead
vocals to band member(s) who didn't compose the song, like Lennon/McCartney
-> Ringo. The closest they get to that is Vanishing Girl, but everyone
(including Colin) is singing in harmony, and Thanks for Christmas, though
Andy gets the solo bridge.
So: Grass is Colin (in his low register for once)
Collideascope Andy (albeit a very mannered voice)
Supertuff is Barry (he doesn't get vocal credits on the Go2 sleeve, but
take a listen to Shriekback and I bet even my numb-eared
grandfather could tell)
Change My World is Sean Altman!
If you want to hear Dave Gregory's voice alone, he does that bit in Leisure
" ....
Just saw no point in the standing in line
....
Why not come in 'cause the carpet is fine."
And now you know why he doesn't get lead vocal parts.
Oh, and Limelight is by Colin, dammit! (huff, huff, hh, hh... whew) The
complete Geffen CD release of Go2 says so too. Why is it that this was the
only CD reissue that got artwork on the disk itself? Splashy colors and
that typewriter font from the cover. All the others have plain, sans serif
lettering on nothingness. I like artwork on the disk. Adds character.
Gene
||||||| And in your place, an empty space |||||||
||||||| has filled the void behind my face |||||||
------------------------------ From: Gene_Yoon@brown.edu Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 15:24:39 -0500 Subject: I'm confusing >The complete Geffen CD release of Go2 says so too. I meant Drums and Wires. Really. Gene
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 17:16:17 -0500 (EST) From: "Christopher R. Coolidge" <ccoolidg@moose.uvm.edu> Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #2-32 Well, my dear, there's nothing an atheist can do if he doesn't know if he believes in anything or not... -Monty Python
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Nov 95 16:47 MST From: philco@micron.net (Phil Corless) Subject: T-Shirt Update An update on the Chalkhills t-shirt..... I've received checks from: Beckham, Peters, Wheeler, Brenner, Williams, Sattler, Relph, Barton, Risch, Allen, Thierer and Jordan. If you haven't sent your check yet, please hurry. And let me know if you have so I can keep an eye out for it. Hopefully I can place the order in about two weeks. That should give all the overseas people time to get checks/cash to me. Thanks! BTW, the design looks GREAT!!!! IMHO.... *-------------------------------- Phil Corless Boise, Idaho philco@micron.net *-------------------------------- http://www.lookup.com/Homepages/53541/home.html
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 15:51:53 -0800 (PST) From: Laura Parent <laura@geosun1.sjsu.edu> Subject: Colin or Andy's Collidescope Since I read somewhere (Rolling Stone?) that Andy got on stage with Amy Mann to sing "Collideascope" I assume it must be Andy's. Do you think he would have done that for a Colin song?
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 19:14:45 -0500
From: pgm2@cornell.edu (Peter Mullin)
Subject: Re: Mr. Pumpkinhead being Jesus
>How about this - I'm convinced that Peter P-Head is about Jesus...Anyone
>other opinions?
I'd always thought the song was about what would probably happen if someone
like Jesus were to show up nowadays. He'd become quite popular for a time,
because the "common" people liked hearing what he had to say, but in the
end, he'd end up getting crucified (perhaps literally) because, after all,
nothing's really changed in the last 2000 years or so. Welcome to the
garden of earthly delights...
Peter.
"Do you remember when this life was in perspective?"
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 16:56:19 -0800 From: richard.pedrettiallen@octel.com (Richard Pedretti-Allen) Subject: XTC in Spirit of the Forest? I notice XTC listed in the Spirit of the Forest lineup (I've highlighted their name with **). I've never heard or seen this mentioned on Chalkhills... anybody got any details? FROM THE KATE BUSH FAQ (http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/music/kate-bush-faq/f aq.html). Richard ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Earthrise (1992): Video Tracks: U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For Dire Straits - Walk Of Life R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) Seal - Crazy Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush - Don't Give Up [version 2] Paul McCartney - How Many People Julian Lennon - Saltwater Artists United For Nature [Ian Anderson, Joe Cocker, Carol Decker, Harold Faltermeyer, Herbie Hancock, Tommy Johnson, Chaka Khan, Stevie Lange, Brian May, Michael McDonald, Richard Page, Maggie Reilly, Jennifer Rush, Sandra, Chris Thompson, Stefan Zaunder] - Yes We Can Eurythmics - Here Comes The Rain Again Sting - Fragile Spirit Of The Forest [Chris Rea, Debbie Harry, **XTC**, Fish, Joni Mitchell, Ringo Starr, Belinda Carlisle, Olivia Newton-John, Mr Mister, Bonnie Raitt, Kate Bush, David Gilmour, Brian Wilson, Little Steven, Jon Anderson, Escape Club, Sam Brown, Iggy Pop, Donna Summer, Kim Wilde, Thomas Dolby, Louise Goffin, Richie Havens, B52's, Big Country, David Clayton-Thomas, Afrika Bambaata, Plasmatics, Lenny Kravitz, Johnny Warman, It Bites, Michael de Barre, Bruce Foxton, The Ramones, Rita Coolidge, Was (Not Was), Taylor Dayne, Lucy J Dalton, Brother Beyond, Fleetwood Mac, LL Cool J, Marc Jordan, Shikisha, Amy Sky, Lisa Bonet, Raging Hormones, Dolette McDonald, Jungle Brothers, Sandra de Sa, Ivan Lins, Andy Fairweather-Lowe, Gilberto Gil, Renato Russo, Gal Costa, Ney Matogrosso, Marisa Monte, Rita Lee, Djavan] - Spirit Of The Forest Pink Floyd - Learning To Fly Elton John - I'm Still Standing Queen - Is This The World We Created? Genesis - The Brazilian (end credits [= no video]) Earthrise - Keeping The Forest Alive
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Nov 95 00:56:45 UT From: "Kristan Fackler" <KristanF@msn.com> Subject: New Town Animal...er, relatively Hello...I have already posted once, but I am a relatively new Chalkhillian, and thought I'd respond to the request for new subscribers to describe how they became XTC fans. So here's my story: I had heard a few songs I liked by XTC over the course of my early teenage years, such as Senses Working Overtime & Dear....uh, nevermind. And when Nonsvch came out I got it, but still was not that into XTC. Then, a few months after Nonsvch, a close friend of mine *demanded* that I buy the Drums And Wires CD in the used bin of the local CD store. And I have never been quite the same since. XTC inspires a devotion that is unexplainable, and unfortunately, none of my friends understand my intense love of XTC. In fact I was beginning to think I was some kind of alien freak until I discovered Chalkhills. I am so happy to find other XTC fans...I don't even mind all the religious discussions about Dear God, even though it seems alot of other people find it offensive. I know I should leave this alone, but I have to say something to vanvalnc@is2.nyu.edu. Melt The Guns, It's Nearly Africa, Cockpit Dance Mixture, and Living Through Another Cuba are incredibly good songs IMVHO. Perhaps you should try listening some more.....? :-) As far as XTC songs I don't like....everytime I think I don't like a specific one, I listen to it again and discover I can't find any song by any other band that I like as well as my *least* favorite XTC songs. (well, perhaps I exaggerate just a little). Well, that's about it for me now, except for a very big THANK YOU to John Relph for making this wonderful mailing list possible. Kristan "I would have made this instrumental but the words got in the way"
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 18:11:36 -0800 (PST) From: Laura Parent <laura@geosun1.sjsu.edu> Subject: Where to get chalkhills, & etc.. I saw a copy of the Chalkhills and Children book at our local Tower records in San Jose. I forgot where the person is who posted the inquiry about this book, but I'm sure their local Tower records could at least order it. Also, Crowded House doing "Earn enough for us" is the first idea I've seen so far where the remake may even be better than the original! As for XTC songs I don't like, will I be booted off the list if I confess I don't like ANYTHING on Big Express? So we've established that AP is an atheist. Has anyone else ever noticed that he's also quite sexist as well? (i.e. Down in the Cockpit?) Ah well, whoever said that musicians have to be perfect?
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 19:06:33 -0800
From: dfranson@earth.execpc.com (Dave Franson)
Subject: The Case of the Missing Andy Boy PART 2 OF 4
Trouser Press/October 1983 pp. 26-29
The Case of the Missing Andy Boy PART 2 OF 4
by Harry George
[continued from the first installment...]
Virgin's attitude has come a long way from the days of Go 2, XTC's second
album, with a conceptual all-type cover.
"The general feeling at that time was one of experimentation-- anything new
was worth trying. But since we haven't risen to Culture Club heights. . .
I'm told they really like us but don't know how to sell us. We're not the
archetypal group; I was in that mold at one time but quickly fell out of
it."
Indeed, XTC is less salable than ever, now that the band has given up
touring. Did Partridge have any warning of what seems to have been a
nervous illness? "A phobia about being in front of people," he
laughs. "Yeah, it was building for years-- being locked away in hotel rooms
seeing nobody, then all of a sudden seeing five or ten thousand people. I
wasn't eating very well, eating the wrong things and so I associated being
on the road with being ill."
Dietary problems played their part in his first collapse, in Paris. "I
hadn't eaten for three days, and my not wanting to go in front of the
public was getting worse and worse. I ran out on stage and after the first
few chords of the first song I just collapsed. We cancelled the English
tour. I went to see psychiatrists, doctors-- a hypnotist, even-- and went
to America thinking I might be cured.
"The first gig was as if I'd never played the guitar before. The next night
I said, 'Look, I think I'm going crazy, let's call a halt.' I considered
myself to have had a nervous breakdown, the second one I'd had through
touring. I had a really bad experience in 1979 in which I just forgot who I
was, what I was doing and started wandering off aimlessly."
Partridge's bandmates were supportive of the frazzled frontman-- with the
exception of drummer Terry Chambers.
"Terry had no time for anyone, whether it was somebody who'd cut their
thumb or somebody who'd had their leg wrenched off in an industrial
accident. He would just say, 'Don't be a baby.' After the cancelled show in
Los Angeles he flew straight to Australia to be with his girlfriend, who
had become pregnant. It's like Dallas, really!
"We came back to England. I went for more treatments and realized I really
enjoyed being at home, writing at home and working in the studio. During my
convalescence I wrote lots of songs. We phoned Terry or wrote him letters
continuously, saying, 'Are you coming back?' He said, 'Sure, sure' and
delayed it for months and months.
"He came back eventually and just seemed to have lost heart in his
drumming. We rehearsed for four or five weeks. Two weeks before making
this album he just put his drumsticks down and said, 'Look, I'm not really
a very good drummer, I'm just faking this. I should be taking my wife back
to Australia and I'm sick of struggling. We're never gonna make it, your
writing's got weirder and weirder.'
"He had this huge explosion of downism, said bye-bye and walked out. We
tried to talk him out of it, but he'd made up his mind months before and
only came back to appease us."
At least Chambers's two appearances on Mummer ("Beating of Hearts" and
"Wonderland") show no fall-off in his playing. Pete Phipps, once of the
Glitter Band, does an admirable job on the rest. Partridge, though, says
Phipps is not to be considered XTC's newest member.
"We were rather confused about whether we should accept him into the band.
We didn't, purely because since we've decided not to tour there'd be a lot
for him not to do. Also, he's not a local lad. There's lots of local,
interpersonal language that means nothing to anybody outside the band and
is very difficult to bring people into."
Personnel turnover wasn't XTC's only problem in recording Mummer. The band
found producer Steve Nye excessively thorough.
"He was extremely slow and painstaking," Partridge says, "and it tended to
kill the spontaneity. We might get to the studio and say, 'Hey, let's use
some platypus ducks on this.' Steve would go, 'Now hold on, where are we
gonna get them from and what size are they gonna be7' Silly example, but
you know what I mean."
_______________
http://execpc.com/~dfranson
* If I'd known we would be casting our feelings into words *
* I would have memorized the Song of Solomon. *
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 22:11:22 -0600 From: deadbeat@TheRamp.net (Jeff Day) Subject: The Plaques Hi all! I just wanted to clear up the Plaque issue from a while back. Jim Zittle and Seven Reule were right about the plaques. They came from the 1993 XTC Convention help in Princeton, IL. I was one of the 3 people that put it on. Just FYI the Plaques were given to each member of XTC and the writing on them was: Presented To: (Dave, Andy, Colin) To show our appreciation and to thank you for all the great music and memories you have helped create through the years. Presented at the 1993 XTC Music and Friends Convention. May 30, 1993. The whole idea to give these to the boys was Jim Lovejoy's. He wanted them to have something from the fans. This is my first time posting and John asked me quite a while ago to talk about putting on the convention. I will try to do that in the next few weeks. All I can say is it was a lot of worring untill the big day but it seem to turn out just great. Just for something else to talk about, what would you like to see at the next XTC convention. That was the hardest thing to come up with. We based ours aroung the same set up as the Convention that was held in Barrie, Canada by Peter & June of the Little Express. We were lucky enough to get Chris Twomey the author of Chalkhills and Children. He was fantastic and had some great stories about XTC. Well everyone, tell us about what you would like to see at a convention, other than XTC themselves. (although in talking to Dave Gregory, I think that he would like to come to one so there is hope of one showing up.) Jeff Day
------------------------------
From: "RUSSELL" <T.R.Russell@newcastle.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 12:46:42 GMT0BST
Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #2-32
Thanks to Giovanni Giusti for replying to me about P.P.H.
Is it really true that PPH refers to JFK? I find some of the lyrics
don't really seem relevant to JFK ("emptied churches and shopping
malls"; "Peter merely said 'any kind of love is alright'";"PPH told the
truth" are my main queries)
I must admit to being slightly ignorant of much about JFK so if
anyone could perhaps explain it a bit more I would very much
appreciate it.
Tim Russell
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 07:14:51 -0600 (CST) From: kimw@rice.edu (Kim E. Williams) Subject: Andy's Birthday Re: Also, MTV had a blurb saying 11-11-42 was Andy's birthday. Happy birthday! (unless, of course, they screwed up their research...) Try Andy's b'day is Nov 11, 1953. He's only 42 rather than 53 which 1942 would make him! Kim
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 08:04:07 -0700 From: sljor@oro.net (Sylvia Jordan) Subject: The First Time (ooh!) Greetings! Encouraged by the recent posts of other delurkifying newbies, I thought I'd cast in my $ .02 regarding how I came to admire XTC out of all reasonable proportion. It reads like a load of sentimental rubbish, no doubt, but for those willing to slog through, here goes: Back in '91, I summoned the courage to leave a spouse who'd made a ghastly transformation over 7 years of marriage from a fun- and music-loving individual into a jerkular right-wing Christian terrormonger and bona fide chapter leader of the John Birch Society (no kidding). I found a place of my own for the first time in me life -- a little house on a hill in my mountain town near Lake Tahoe. On a snowy day, the day after I moved in, a package came from my best friend and 15-years' soul mate. It was a cassette tape. She'd drawn an interesting cover for the tape box -- what looked to me like a white cat on a green background, some kind of primitive symbol, I thought. She wrote, "I think this will do you just right about now. You don't want to live another second without it, trust me." As I listened to that tape -- English Settlement and Skylarking combined -- over the seasons' cycle of winter, spring and summer, it became the mindblowing soundtrack to a new, independent life. I woke up every morning feeling like it was the first day of summer vacation, times 50. I was so glad to be alive, it *hurt*. I'd been out of the musical loop in a big way for quite some time (the Bircher frowned on rock and roll as the devil's spawn), and with that tape I was quite literally reborn. Friendships that had withered on the vine for years returned and thrived. I devoured the XTC catalog with gusto and never looked back. Today, those songs are still as essential as breath to me. I've found a hundred more musical loves since then, but none of 'em compare. The universe is drawn together into a few notes when I hear the opening seconds of Snowman or the fade-in from Thugs to Yacht Dance. Viva Partridge et al! Yahoo. sylvia
------------------------------ Date: 17 Nov 1995 11:31:41 -0500 From: "Ken Salaets" <ksalaets@itic.nw.dc.us> Subject: RE: Chalkhills Digest #2-32 > Jesus said, "He who is not for Me is against Me," which basically > indicates that there is no such thing as religious neutrality. You either > embrace Christ or you don't, and Andy certainly doesn't. >>This is b***sh*t of the highest order. Like many non-Christians I >>agree with many of the things the Bible says Christ said; that doesn't >>mean I have to swallow the whole moralistic line of organized religion >>which seems to care more about who you're sleeping with that the fact >>that 15 million children are dying of malnutrition every year. Personally, I think the line quoted above may well be the most significant statement in the Bible, but bear in mind, there were relatively few "organized" religions back then, in the 1990s sense of the term. You can embrace Jesus and His teachings, without embracing "organized" religion. IMO, anyway. So is Terry and the Lovemen really the Swindon gang or someone else? There have been comments in the recent past both ways, but I don't recall it ever being clearly resolved. Again, I think it's the best cut on TD, and if that is XTC, then their next iteration will be more than worth the weight [sic].
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 11:46:04 -0500 (EST) From: kathryn lynne burda <klburda@umich.edu> Subject: strange places for songs I once heard "Senses Working Overtime" in a Gap store about four years ago in Ann Arbor, MI. I sang along while killing time, waiting for my friend to decide what pair of pants to buy.
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 16:56:19 GMT From: Martin Wilson <mw25@unix.york.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #2-29 On Mon, 13 Nov 1995 08:41:18 -0800 <owner-chalkhills@chalkhills.org> wrote: > I was there in 1987 on my honeymoon. We were doing the whole silly > anglophile bit, checking out York, Edinburgh, Portmeirion Village, all > the Arthurian sites in the West Country, etc. We'd just done Stonehenge, > and I managed to convince my wife that we absolutely HAD to go just a bit > north and spend the night in Uffington, within a kilometer or two of the > fabulous Chalk Horse Hill! There are lots of modern legends about the area around White Horse Hill. Like the phantom hitch-hiker who rode on the back of a motorcycle - when the rider got to the next village there was no one on the back and when he rode back along the road he found his spare helmet at the spot where he picked up the hitcher. The best one concerns a group of people in a car traveling along the road at the bottom of the hill. It was very foggy and as they drove by the Hill the fogg ahead of them swirled as if something big was moving through it. Just after that there was a gap in the fog and for a moment they could see the side of the hill - with no white horse! Martin Be bold, be bold, but not too bold...
------------------------------ From: Beatleluvr@aol.com Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 12:12:34 -0500 Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #2-4 Dearest Chalkhillians- >One potential interpretation of 'Dear God' (sic) has not yet been >broached; that it is a typographical error on the lyric sheet, and is in >fact supposed to be 'Dear Rod'. Rod Stewart is responsible for many of >the evils in the modern world, and I believe that Andy, for one, was >shrewd enough to realise this. > >I believe Andy's pink thing once said in an interview that the Rutles were >an early influence. The Rutles of course are famous for their >out-of-context quote "We're bigger than Rod". Actually he said "Dear Zod" which is in direct reference to Superman II, the Evil "General Zod." Who wanted to kill Superman just like Virgin wants to kill XTC's chances for making music. Just a thread I thought I'd pick up on. Love and Kisses- Ben
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 17:21:34 GMT From: Martin Wilson <mw25@unix.york.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #2-30 > From: sellheim@zfn.uni-bremen.de (Erich Sellheim) > I also remember Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull being played "All you Pretty > Girls". He didn't guess that it was XTC, but he liked the song I'm not surprised Ian Anderson likes the Lads I've often thought XTC are a kind of Jethro Tull: The Next Generation. I like them both for all the same reasons. > From: DAMIAN FOULGER <SPXDLF@cardiff.ac.uk> > The most Bizarre place that I have heard XTC has got to be on Radio 1 > in Britain. Very Strange...... Utterly bizzare but I too have had this experience. Apparently Mark Radcliffe is a bit of a fan on the quiet. > From: Kevin Donnelly <kevin.donnelly@st-hughs.oxford.ac.uk> > Does anyone know what Senses Working Overtime is actually about? The importance of enjoying yourself in the face of adversity. There are a lot of ways the world can make you miserable (birds might fall from black skies, bullies might give you black eyes, buses might skid on black ice) so don't go looking for them; go looking for the good bits instead. BTW someone asked about the spoken lyrics in the middle. They are "England's Glory" - "A striking beauty". This is one of Andy's clever puns: 'England's Glory ' is brand of matches. Martin "But to me it's very very beautiful..."
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 12:28:31 -0700 (MST) From: colemanm@ed.byu.edu (Miles Coleman) Subject: How I became a fan. Hi everyone! First time posting here. I've been watching for several weeks and finally decided that the one thing I could say without sounding rather foolish was how I came to love XTC. I was fourteen and Skylarking had just come out. Hadn't heard of them before and got my first taste when a friend's older sister let me borrow her cassette (which had Mermaid Smiled on it, mind you) and I was awestruck. Fascinated! Couldn't stop listening to it! I asked my boss who several years older than me if he had ever heard of them, as I thought I might have a chance to introduce him to their music. I was even more excited to find that they had been around for awhile! Even more to hear! Since them I have always thought of them as 'my' group. Even in the suburbs of Chicago, no one in my high school had heard of them. I was almost disappointed when Oranges and Lemons and Nonsvch and the gained so much relative attention. I almost felt I was going to lose them to the horrible grips of pop stardom. Anyway, TD is a fine piece of work although The Rembrandt's version of 'Nigel' is pretty unoriginal, and I am awaiting the arrival of any forthcoming offspring. Thanks for listening! Miles -Must I put a quote here when I post?
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #2-34 ******************************
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