Chalkhills Digest Volume 3, Issue 84
Date: Wednesday, 19 February 1997
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 3, Number 84
Wednesday, 19 February 1997
Today's Topics:
influences on the dukes
The Ultimate Compilation
Japanese "Nigel" single for sale
Hitchcock/Skylarking outtakes
Truncheon/Cosh (Serious XTC Comment!)
Old Adventures In Hi-Fi
Puzzlin' Evidence
Bennet (not Tony) and another XTC comparison
Dukes O' Stratosphear CD
Ah Jason, Jason, Jason.....
Old ROlling Stone letters....
Martin Newell bit in MOJO Feb 97--no XTC content
Travels in Millerton
THUD Tabs?
Kittens and partridges
Dutch xtc cover band
XTC phases
I Agree With Cheryl / Personal Compilation
AMANDA and British abbreviations
Stupor Bungeeeeeee, Harper, Naive
Window Boxing
Gregsy and Peg and Al Bundy.....
Administrivia:
Find out who influenced The Dukes of Stratosphear!
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Sometimes I heave a sigh...
---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: monnickj@ubk.co.uk Message-Id: <199702031547.PAA21243@sys4.cambridge.uk.psi.net> Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 13:59:48 +0000 Subject: influences on the dukes 25 o'clock I always thought the keyboard sound to be influenced by the early Soft Machine, say the first 3 albums, where ratlidge plays with hendrix like aggression. JonM
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 21:03:39 -0600 (CST) Message-Id: <1.5.4.16.19970216210330.08c78b5e@mail.utexas.edu> From: "Jason \"Freak\" Garcia" <h.h.name@mail.utexas.edu> Subject: The Ultimate Compilation Hi. Could I have any more work to do? Yet, I'll take time out to answer this-- >What is your idea of the ultimate compilation by the guys? Oh, it's soooooo hard for me to make XTC compilation tapes-- especially for other people. I spent all V-day with a woman who wasn't my girlfriend (that's another story, not for the list) listening to music, and when it came time for me to play the XTC I was stumped. Where to begin? 'Cause with XTC, it's not like you can play 3 songs and say, "OK, this is what they sound like." So I started with Skylarking...she really got into Summer's Cauldron. I tried to make an XTC tape once for a friend and I think I failed miserably. I went for the "catchy /accessible" approach, which probably just made the whole tape sound silly. So yes, it's a difficult question you have posed there...I would say that the "Ultimate Compliation" would weave many different styles together and take the majority of its material from the less obvious songs. 'Cause as Andy himself says in the recent Making Music article, "Singles collections are a bit like the desserts from all the meals - there isn't any of the spuds and the meat. I think all our best stuff tends to lurk around in the corners of the albums." (I love his similies). In the brain today: alternately, "Devil in Her Heart" as performed by The Beatles, and "Vanishing Girl" (which I think is one of Colin's best songs). Goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow. Jason
------------------------------ From: Jdmack01@aol.com Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 23:00:17 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <970216230017_-1173412550@emout06.mail.aol.com> Subject: Japanese "Nigel" single for sale I was in "Yesterday & Today" today, which is a used record store in Rockville, MD (USA) that also does mail order business. They have the Japanese "Nigel" single (the one with the two live b-sides) with picture sleeve for $40.00. If anyone is interested, you can call them at 301-279-7007. J.D.
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 23:07:02 -0600 (CST) Message-Id: <199702170507.XAA21750@surf.pangea.ca> From: kevin@pangea.ca (Kevin Scott) Subject: Hitchcock/Skylarking outtakes Someone had said: >Which reminds me, does anyone else think that >some collaboration with Robyn Hitchcock and XTC would just absolutely >kick? To hear Robyn and Andy collaborate, well, it'd be Lennon and >McCartney and Syd Barrett all in one, now, wouldn't it? Just a thought. Intrigued as I am with the possibilities, that strikes me as the musical equivalent of dropping an Alka-Seltzer tablet into a glass of club soda. Just maybe a bit too top-heavy, especially with two personalities as strong-willed as Andy Partridge and Robyn Hitchcock. Not sure it would work, but hey, if they're willing to try... On to a different subject, I recall reading in a Melody Maker from years ago that there were several tracks that didn't make it on to the Skylarking album and they were supposed to make it on to B-sides. My memory isn't too hot anymore about the article but I don't think the songs were the ones that ended up on the "Dear God" ep. Nor did they end up on Rag and Bone Buffet. It's bugged me for years, the possibility that there are all these songs which are in all probability gems, and they've yet to see the light of day. Or maybe they have. Can anyone shed some light on this? All that I can remember about it now is that in typical XTC fashion it wasn't just one or two songs, but more like six or seven (!). Kevin
------------------------------ Message-Id: <9702170825.AA8097@mailgate.mandg.co.uk> From: David Goody/M&G <David_Goody@mandg.co.uk> Date: 17 Feb 97 8:25:59 Subject: Truncheon/Cosh (Serious XTC Comment!) What a title for a posting, eh!!! And its serious!! Yesterday (Sunday 16th) I visited our local record emporium, and took a trip to their Vinyl Shack, where they keep all their old 7", 12" and LPs. Imagine my surprise when I started looking at all the promotional gifts they had scattered along the top of all the shelves, and I spotted an item emblazoned with the letters XTC. It was a black plastic truncheon, about 10 inches long, with "XTC - The Loving" along the side. Has anyone seen one of these before? Is anyone interested in it if I can buy it (I am not sure if their promotional stuff is for sale, but I am sure they would sell at the right price.) Please E-Mail me privately if you aree interested. I also saw the new CD single by The Verve Pipe yesterday, and it has a version of Blue Beret on it.
------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 11:38:04 GMT Message-Id: <199702171138.LAA10209@popmail.dircon.co.uk> From: Simon Sleightholm <nonsuch@dircon.co.uk> Subject: Old Adventures In Hi-Fi I'm afraid, after my recent post about rediscovering the "roomfulness" of XTC on a well placed, decent-spec hi-fi (abbreviation for "high-finance", if the payments are anything to go by), there has been some concern expressed to me in off-list mail that I, as a vocal proclaimer of the greatness of XTC, should have been content with such an appalling setup. There are reasons for this - and XTC are involved - but if, Mr Relph, you see fit to exercise your blue pencil and scissors then by all means feel free. Stereophonic sound is a concept that must have been driving a particularly fast car the day it crossed paths with my wife, Amy. The wake of it's passing was enough to ruffle her hair, but there was no lasting impression made. This all has its roots in her background. Her parents have always had top-notch stereo equipment, the sort I'd gleefully kill for, and have used it largely for listening to the cricket. In the name of tidiness, they put the speakers tight up against the sides of the cabinet. Appreciation of the wonders of stereo is only possible if you rest your forehead on the cassette deck (weeping is optional). And then you notice that the speakers are the wrong way round. As one of three close-aged daughters, Amy was not provided with her own hi-fi system and instead all three girls had to make do with little boom-box things - handy devices, no doubt, but not much cop in the "panoramic soundscape" stakes. To maximise their pocket money the girls didn't buy pre-recorded tapes, they instead chose to buy five-packs of audio blanks from the market (the sort with that kind of dusty, light brown coating that fell off in little lumps if you shook it) and record favourite tunes off the radio. When we were courting (and trying not to get caught) Amy would play music on her little deck. It was sheer torture - there'd be a pause, the song would start mid way through its intro and the end would be obscured by inane DJ witterings. There would be a loud click, and then the next song would start mid-intro. And so on. To make matters worse, these were all recorded off good-old mono MW channels. The sound was awful - her deck heads were coated in a layer of magnetic gunk so I brought some alcohol swabs home from the hospital for her to wipe them down with from time to time. This led to an "hilarious" misunderstanding with her father who wanted to know who was injecting who and with what. When we first shacked up together - around 8 years ago - I brought a stereo into the mixture. Amy took a day off work to sort the flat out, and when I came home I found the speakers were stacked _on_top_of_each_other_. I was bewildered. I moved them to seperate corners of the room. She moved them back - "...tider." We had such different tastes in music and all her stuff was mono anyway, but I needed a test piece to show her what we were missing by arranging the speakers in that fashion. What to use? I thought and thought. It needed to be something that had really discernible separation. I chose "Bushman President". It has that channel-jumping "tikitish" sound, and I directed Amy to sit on the floor - dead centre of the stereo field - and raise the her right hand when she heard the sound in the right speaker, and her left hand when she heard it in the left speaker. Bless her eternal good heart, she did just that. For the whole record - watching her arms flapping like a funky penguin - I was curled up on the bed behind her, having wracking yet silent hysterics into my pillow. It's now one of those things that has passed into the "folklore" of our relationship and she knows that she can reduce me to helpless giggles by reprising the gesture on rare occasions. In the cinema, at a concert, at some formal function; if she hears a sound from one particular direction, she'll solemnly raise the appropriate hand, and I'm on the floor in a silent, shaking pile of mirth. We are the wild children, Simon *--------------------------------------------------- http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~nonsuch/bungalow.htm *--------------------------------------------------- No Thugs In Our House, only XTC.
------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 11:38:12 GMT Message-Id: <199702171138.LAA10231@popmail.dircon.co.uk> From: Simon Sleightholm <nonsuch@dircon.co.uk> Subject: Puzzlin' Evidence I know there has been much urging to discover Prefab Sprout in recent posts, but as one who considers their music - from "Swoon" to "Jordan" - bland and weak I must urge all interested parties to take care and borrow or copy someone elses CD before splashing out cash. They seem to be one of those "acquired taste" things. (I always thought it was odd that "Protest Songs" was *by* Prefab Sprout, and not *about* them...) I was rootling through a box of old tapes the other night and I found a cassette labelled "Transistor Blast". It was an old 15min computer tape, the sort I used to use with my Commodore 64, and which I later reclaimed for recording my own execrable demos on. I couldn't remember what "Transistor Blast" might be, so I stuck it in the tape deck and pressed play. There was a second or two of strumulation and then Scree-ee-eee-eek. It was a computer tape right enough. I thought for a while and it all came back to me. "Transistor Blast" was a computer adventure game I wrote (well, half-completed) that revolved around the songs of XTC. It was done around 1989 and features the characters of Sunny Jim and The Scissor Man. In a plot part Piers Anthony, part Yellow Submarine, you played Sunny Jim, hurled by the evil Liarbirds into a hanging tapestry (Nihilon) from which you had to escape, bringing the power of great music back to the world. You were hampered in your efforts by the persistent "Scissorman" who chased you through the tapestry, cutting the threads out from under you at opportune moments. Your only weapon was your music machine, which you had to assemble from parts stored around the tapestry world, and then load with music tapes each of which would defeat a certain enemy or obstacle - Great Fire defeated the Scarecrow People, Mermaid Smiled caused the Shark In The Pool go docile, etc. Parts and tapes were acquired by the means of solving puzzles. Can you tell that I was miles away from my girlfriend for most of that year? I also had (none too subtle) songs chosen to get past the situations listed below, I challenge you all to guess what the songs were (All songs were prior to 1990, and were drawn from the available albums and singles, as well as a list of known recordings in a discography from Limelight which included demos and Helium Kidz tracks). I'll award one point for a correct (the same as mine) answer, and half a point if your suggestion is a workable alternative. Best score (if anyone can be bothered) will be awarded with a special "Braniac's Daughter/Son" mention on Bungalow. 1) You reach a section of the tapestry which is girdled with roads. The great lumbering juggernaut that is Mother Motor runs you down whenever you try to cross. What song do you need in your player? 2) The Somnabulist is walking up and down a narrow corridor blocking your exit into the Outside World. You reach into your pocket and pull out which tape? 3) Your way is blocked by a huge machine which knocks you like a peg into a hole when you try to pass underneath it. Which tune? (Tricky this, I admit) 4) You are lost in a desert. A plane goes over but it can't see you. How do you attract its attention? 5) There is a table with three tapes on, you know you'll need them but they are guarded by the Mole From The Ministry who peers menacingly at you through his shades. What will get him running? 6) The Human Alchemist wouldn't let you pass until you'd helped him with his experiments? Which tune? 7) You are in the Sargasso Bar. The sign has been attacked by vandals and now reads Brass Or A Gas. The bar keeper will let you pick a couple of tapes out of the jukebox if you can help him put the sign right. How? Groove is in the heart, Simon *--------------------------------------------------- http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~nonsuch/bungalow.htm *--------------------------------------------------- No Thugs In Our House, only XTC.
------------------------------ Message-Id: <3308BA04.5C27@hp.com> Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 12:05:24 -0800 From: Michael Chisholm <mchisholm@hp.com> Organization: Hewlett Packard FCO Subject: Bennet (not Tony) and another XTC comparison Greetings Matey Peeps, In chalkhills #3-82 it was mentioned: >I read this interview with a British pop band called >Bennet. When asked about their influences, the singer answered: if there >is one band we look up to, it's XTC. I guess we wanted to sound like >early XTC on our first album. ) >In the Record Collector interview, Andy Partridge complained about XTC >not being acknowledged by other British bands, except for Blur. Well, >here's obviously another exception! Does anyone know anything about this >band Bennet? I have Bennets current 7" single "My mum has gone to Iceland" which is a catchy piece of nonsense. Its not about parents leaving their offspring to go and visit the land of Bjork and geysers as the title suggests but instead about getting them food at the Iceland supermarket chain. The single is short and to the point (like early XTC??) Eeek, these days you can't even read Q without tripping over a bundle of references to XTC. Now it seems the NME is up to the same tricks. In the 15 Feb issue they review a gig by a new band called Toaster (recently signed to Creation) containing the line "their songs (which concern '60ft Rockets' and 'Six million dollar goats') inhabit a private funny farm housed halfway between Tigers droning Moogs and XTC's wilful quirkiness". Had to give Toaster a mention as two of the band used to be at my old school up in Inverness (plug plug). Trying desperately of new subjects to post about with any relevance to XTC whatsoever, BuD PS I won't quote the Spice Girls this time, Cheryl!
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199702171419.IAA24059@dfw-ix3.ix.netcom.com> From: "huduguru" <huduguru@ix.netcom.com> Subject: Dukes O' Stratosphear CD Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 09:17:47 -0500 A lot of people have been trying to get Chips from the Chocolate Fireball to no avail it seems. I saw a copy at my local Newberry Comics* store yesterday. I finally broke down and bought White Music. I've had the vinyl for years, but not the disc. Now pool old Go2 is the only one that I don't have on CD, and I think it'll stay that way... Anyway, to repeat our top story..."Chips" is still out there to be found, but I can't say for sure if it's actually in print. Happy Hunting! Steve *(Manchester, NH if you're looking for it. Heck, they may have a web site of something...)
------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 08:37:23 -0600 (CST) From: AMANDA OWENS <ACOEA@jazz.ucc.uno.edu> Subject: Ah Jason, Jason, Jason..... Message-id: <01IFILH2LXIC8X2NXV@jazz.ucc.uno.edu> How can you not know that........... Andy is saying "As years roll by I heave a sigh" at the end of Cynical Days... HAH! You all thought I was going to respond to someone else, eh? Nope. I'll take care of that later. I WILL however respond to Mark.... by personal email. ;) BTW means "By the way", BTW. ;) Later, Amanda
------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 09:49:15 -0600 (CST) From: AMANDA OWENS <ACOEA@jazz.ucc.uno.edu> Subject: Old ROlling Stone letters.... Message-id: <01IFINX5H20E8X2NXV@jazz.ucc.uno.edu> Whilst dipping through the three large boxes worth of old RS's I just got from a friend, I came across quite a few letters about XTC in the mailbag. Here's a sample.... "How can the critics who gave XTC's Oranges and Lemons 4 stars virtually ignore them in the Critics Picks this year?" "XTC has musical genius" And this is my personal favorite..... "I'd heard of XTC but never actually listened to anything by them until I read the review of Oranges and Lemons. "I thought 'Cool, I think I'll try this out'. Thanks dude-now I'm out eight bucks." Should we hang him or burn him at the stake?????? Later, Amanda AMANDA'S MOVIE QUOTE OF THE DAY... "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberry."-....(Man, was it the Life of Brian of the Holy Grail?????)
------------------------------ Message-ID: <3308A959.2710@netwalk.com> Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 10:54:17 -0800 From: Ian C Stewart <stewart@netwalk.com> Subject: Martin Newell bit in MOJO Feb 97--no XTC content Hi again. I promised myself I wasn't ever going to post again but some things just can't be helped... Here's a reason to hunt down a copy of MOJO magazine's February 1997 issue--- apart from the truly smashing Nick Drake cover story (swoon!) there's a feature on Progressive Rock with a sidebar by Martin Newell entitled "The Kings Of Bad Timing." Got a minute? Read on. THE KINGS OF BAD TIMING "Flying in fashion's face can be careeer suicide: Martin Newell remembers GYPP" "This year, while many bands were reforming in order to celebrate 20 years of punk rock, I was busy elsewhere. I was re-learning lyrics about meeting Titania in a forest. I was busy trying to acquire some hipster canary yellow flares. I was cycling 20 miles a day and racing through the woods with my dog in order to get match-fit for the Gypp reunion. You've never heard of Gypp? We were East Anglia's finest. Progressive rock band, that is. Noodling keyboard pieces, big echoey guitar solos and a histrionic frontman who made Freddy Mercury look restrained. I'd previously sung in a glam rock band. I should have collected my 200 quid for passing Go and gone straight on to punk rock. A prat? I fear so. I was there during the summer of punk in 1977. At the marquee club in Wardour Street. That's me on the stage with the chest-length hair, the yellow loon-pants, the blue clogs and the Robert Plant pose. The bearded guy with the velvet jacket, Rick Wakeman hair and doubleneck guitar? That's my mate Ian Peppercorn. Over there on the kit, with the long hair and beard, Johnny Butters. Filling out the sound on keyboard solos and longer beard, Brian Rudd. We were the kings of bad timing. We didn't give a Flying V for those trendy London punks and their horrible gobbing. Why should we, when we could pack out Sutton village hall with 300 bikers and their molls? We had our own circuit, fan base and concept cassette. We had reason for optimism. Sure, punk rockers were grabbing the headlines but Led Zep and Genesis were selling the albums, weren't they? Punk rock would all blow over. We released our own, a three-song EP in July 1978. Nothing happened. In October of that year I returned home after a week in Germany, where I'd had to busk in a pub to pay off my manager's bar bill. I was almost broke, my girlfriend had left me, my flat was a tip and my cat was ill. Having spent my last two quid on cat food and an NME, I stood in the supermarket queue and read my First Ever National Review. Outside the shop I cried. Who was Danny Baker and why did he hate me so much? We'd bust a gut to get that record out. We'd got ourselves into debt and tied ourselves up with a duff management deal. And all this work had come to two paragraphs of slagging-off in NME. Do the critics build their career ladders from the smashed-up remains of artists' work? Or did we deserve it? Yes. The record was appalling. A decade later, two of the band members built a recording studio in a Suffolk village. They used many of our unsold records as large washers to hold the interior sound-proofing boards to the main walls. Another box of 25 discs is hidden inside my piano. It's as if the things have a half-life, like nuclear waste. Years on we still don't know what to do with them. Upon discovering a box of the discs on sale at a gig in Germany recently, I stole it and hid them. In England, outside our native rural East, we were embarassing dinosaurs. Punks would come up to me after London gigs and say "Duntchoo fink yore a bit aht of date?" I'd say, No not really. I mean, we exist now, don't we? We were stubborn East Anglians. We just couldn't see that there was a problem. In a similarly rural area of Germany, however, we were becoming rather popular. We routinely blew the little Westphalian towns apart with our sound and performance. Frequent trips there kept up morale. But as I often used to remark, 'Germany is like another country.' The thing about Gypp was that they were the nicest bunch of blokes I'd ever played with. No rows or ego battles here. It was like being in a good-humoured family. If the electric power faded in some rural studio or rehearsal room, Ian would say in his Suffolk accent, "Nip up the road, John, and tell the vicar to pedal a bit harder." Upoon seeing bondage punkettes at the Marquee for the first time, John Butters mumbled "That makes yew wonder what they'd look loike without all that get-up on." by 1979, however, I was demoralised. I left Gypp and became a musical recluse, a studio rat. I didn't play a live gig again for many years. Ian Peppercorn phoned me in late 1995 to announce a band reunion in autumn 96 in Germany-- sponsorship money had been raised by a local brewery. With so many friends and ex-members accompanying us, 41 people in all, we wouldn't make much money but we wouldn't lose any. So, late this summer, I found myself in a church by Ipswich docks with chaps I'd hardly seen in 18 years re-learning prog rock songs written 20 years earlier. At first it was hard going. Lengthy songs lumbered arthritically to their feet but stoically refused to dance. We were rustier than a North Sea dredger. Rehearsals paid off, however. The members of Gypp plus two Suffolk blues bands went out to Germany for the two all-day concerts. I found myself sharing a tour bus with men in their forties and fifties. Two of the bands' members were grandfathers. We almost qualified for a Variety Club Of Great Britain Sunshine Coach. In the event, both concerts were very good. The band was better than I remembered. Even our former roadies said so. The reunion wasn't even the big piss-up I'd expected. It was extremely moving to see and work with all these people again. I hadn't expected that at all. It was lump-in-the-throat stuff. My cycling and running had paid dividends. I was able to roar round the stage and swing from the girders as before. It just hurt a little more afterwards. It made me think what a cruel thing musical fashion is. Here was a perfectly good rock band written off at the time because the wind changed and we got stuck like that. It made me wonder about people I meet now who say "Yes. I was there. I saw the Sex Pistols. I was a punk rocker." They couldn't ALL have been there. Because I wasn't. I was here in the country being a lead singer in a prog rock band. In my perverse way, I'm sort of proud of it. Because now I know who the real rebels were. And althought I don't bear him any grudge, my former critic at the NME is currently a TV soap powder salesman. Cutting-edge stuff or what?" the accompanying photos are truly remarkable. And if anyone has Gypp's record, I'd love a dub. I'll bet anything it sounds like the Helium Kidz, which isn't so bad... for a laugh... Newell really does look like Robert Plant. A bit. I A N
------------------------------ Message-Id: <v03007805af2e2d66bbae@[152.170.238.14]> Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 11:04:31 -0500 From: Ira Lieman <ira@myself.com> Subject: Travels in Millerton Howdy Amandahillians, I had the immense pleasure of meeting one of our homey little group this weekend. Unfortunately the snow kept me there overnight, but that just meant Ben and I had a couple more hours to digest some more music. The only negative was the Chinese food. Hate to say it, but in NYC the food is exponentially better. And the people in the restaurant scared me. We didn't listen to too much XTC, but then again between us we have virtually everything. If I can find Martin Newell on CDNow, it's mine. But I'm not holding my breath. After listening to most of E.C.'s Imperial Bedroom, I think it might be my favorite single EC album. Now I just gotta buy it. It's just too bad I couldn't schlep my 200 or so CDs with me to Connecticut, but, well, then we'll just have to drag Ben to Hoboken so I can impose my musical tastes on him. I realize that if I were to buy every CD that I want, my credit card company would love me. Probably so much so that they'd send me a limo so I could be driven around to shop some more. :) Hmmm...maybe that's not such a bad idea. "Oh, Jeeves, the car please. It's time for my daily excursion to St. Mark's Place." "Right away, sir." Anyway, we (well, can't speak for Ben) had a my-t-fine time, and it reinforced my belief that none of us on the Amanda list are psycho killers. Well, that is, until I get that deafening ringing in my ears again. Ben, I'll send your book back when I'm done. Along with a few micro-point pens. -ira
------------------------------ From: Aaron Pastula <apastula@pepperdine.edu> Message-Id: <199702172101.AA05820@pepvax.pepperdine.edu> Subject: THUD Tabs? Date: Mon, 17 Feb 97 13:01:36 PST Hello All: I know that some of you are fans of Kevin Gilbet's THUD. Does anyone have/know where to get guitar tabs for any of the tunes? I'm a bass player by design so my guitar skills are marginal at best, but I really want to play some of these songs. Please Email me privately if you have any suggestions or info. Thanks. Aaron.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 16:45:42 -0500 (EST)
From: Natalie Jane Jacobs <gnat@umich.edu>
Subject: Kittens and partridges
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.95.970217150627.8064B-100000@stargate.rs.itd.umich.edu>
Hey hey -
A couple of things... the Michigan XTC party (OK, I said I wouldn't
mention it again, I'm sorry) is now a going proposition and will occur on
the afternoon of Sunday, February 23. Write to me for more details if
you're interested. Of course, all of you are invited in spirit.
Heather asks us if we've ever named our pets anything XTC-ish... my kitten
nearly got named August ("Copper chord of August's organ") but the name
didn't stick, and Andy, Colin, or Dave would have been too confusing,
since I have friends named Andy, Colin, and Dave. So my kitten was
eventually dubbed Aleister... but that's another story.
Shameless plug time: I now have my very own, very-much-under-construction
XTC web site. It's called Perdix: The Andy Partridge Appreciation Page.
(I wanted to do a site called Suck More Piss: the Terry Chambers
Appreciation Page, but I didn't have enough material...) The URL is:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gnat/perdix.html
Right now I'm in sore need of pictures - anything that's not from the
albums - magazine clippings, newspaper scraps, Silly Putty impressions,
whatever, as long as it's got Andy in it (the whole band is fine, too).
If you have any lying around, let me know. Thanks.
I'd just like to add that I got "English Settlement" on CD last week -
after years of listening to it on an ancient cassette - and it sounds
fucking fantastic. I am a happy puppy.
Natalie Jacobs
Visit the Land of Do-As-You-Please!
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gnat
------------------------------ Message-ID: <3309100D.5FA5@noord.bart.nl> Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 01:12:29 -0100 From: Harold Zijp <harold@noord.bart.nl> Organization: Iprecom groep Groningen Subject: Dutch xtc cover band hi there I wanted you (and through you everybody) to know that there is a band in the city of Groningen, Holland, called The Vanishing Girls that only plays XTC songs. It started a a one-gig-project, but we've done three gigs so far and are planning to go ahead with it. Actually we're playing live in Groningen on thursday the 20th of february 1997, in the USVA at the Munnikeholm (=street) I'll give you our complete setlist in case you're interested: No thugs in our house/Rocket from a bottle/It's nearly Africa/When you're near me.../Holly upon Poppy/Another satellite/Blue beret/Scarecrow people/Holding the baby/Love at first sight/Sgt. Rock/Travels in Nihilon//Respectable street/Life begins at the Hop/Making plans for Nigel/Vanishing Girl/Collideascope/Pearl/Knuckle down/All of a sudden/Love on a farmboy's wages/Find the fox/You're my drug/Scissor man/Complicated game This was my first ever E-mail, when I've grown more accustomed to the Internet-thing maybe I can send a soundsample of our band. I haven't got my own address, but my postal address is: Jeroen de Jong Prof. Rankestraat 29 A 9713 GD Groningen The Netherlands bye for now, Jeroen
------------------------------ From: Martin_Monkman@fincc04.fin.gov.bc.ca Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 14:50:09 -0800 (PST) Subject: XTC phases Message-id: <9701178562.AA856225866@FINSMTP1.FIN.GOV.BC.CA> Subject #1: XTC phases Okay, I'll participate in this on-going thread. My opinion: other than the obvious changes in the band's sound that occured with the departure of Barry Andrews, there havn't been truly abrupt changes in the band's sound from one album to the next. (The change in sound from English Settlement to Mummer had more to do with the change in songwriting than with Terry's departure.) In other words, I don't think that there are any distinct phases. Instead of clear-cut phases, the band has evolved over time, incorporating new elements, twists, and approaches with each successive album. The psychedelia of 25 O'Clock was anticipated by some of the flourishes heard on Mummer and The Big Express; the Beach Boys homage "Pale And Precious" inspired the distinctively XTC "Chalkhills and Children". The band continues to grow and has never failed to surprise and impress me. A long-time fan, I think that Nonsuch is one of the best things they've ever done. And I suspect that the forthcoming (!) album(s) will contain some more music that both impresses and defies categorization. In other words, attempts to group the band's output are as fruitless as attempts to categorize the band's music. Subject #2: Valentine's Day. AMANDA writes (among other things): >I wonder if Colin and Carol Moulding get all sappy and sentimental >for VD? and: >Remember, VD sucks when you're all alone. Hmmm. After my initial shock, I've decided your abreviation "VD" means Valentine's Day. But back when *I* was in college, "VD" meant "venereal disease", shorthand for any affliction we now refer to as an "STD" (sexually transmitted disease). Puts a whole different interpretation on your statements. Martin
------------------------------ Message-ID: <33092F07.3592@sprintmail.com> Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 20:24:39 -0800 From: Stormy Monday <stormymonday@sprintmail.com> Subject: I Agree With Cheryl / Personal Compilation Folxtc, >>Steven Hoskins said: >>For long time fans, Nonsuch belongs in the Dissappointed pile. And Cheryl commented: >Really?! Thats a shame! Allow me to list my credentials: I have been a fan since 1981, (Amanda was 4?) I saw them live, I read the book, I have in my posession some rare recordings (eg. "Shaving Brush Boogie"), and I spread the faith. NONSUCH IS A GREAT RECORD. *** Stormy Monday's XTC Compilation for the "Uninitiated" "Ex Tea WHO? The Best POP Band You've Never Heard, Ladies and Gentlemen X T C!" Ball And Chain Life Begins at the Hop Mayor Of Simpleton Ballet For A Rainy Day Senses Working Overtime Generals And Majors Dear Madame Barnum Scarecrow People Holly Up On Poppy Season Cycle Across This Antheap Grass Love on a Farmboy's Wages All You Pretty Girls (Phantom track at end of CD after 90 seconds of silence, not listed in liner note and absent from the cassette version) Shake You Donkey Up Bonus CD: "The Dukes: Some Toll House Morsels" You're My Drug Vanishing Girl The Mole From The Ministry Pale And Precious Mike
------------------------------ Date: 18 Feb 97 13:14:00 GMT From: david.mcguinness@bbc.co.uk (David McGuinness) Subject: AMANDA and British abbreviations Message-Id: <"<9CED093381821573>9CED093381821573@GW.BBC"@-SMF-> AMANDA wrote: >I wonder if Colin and Carol Moulding get all sappy and sentimental for VD? and >Remember, VD sucks when you're all alone. Is someone else going to tell her, or shall I? David
------------------------------ Message-ID: <c=US%a=_%p=AETNA%l=AETNA/AETNA/003A6CE0@aetna.aetna.com> From: "Witter, Karl F" <witterkf@aetna.com> Subject: Stupor Bungeeeeeee, Harper, Naive Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 11:33:00 -0500 >[David Pardue] If I have but one regret, it is that ZZ Top were not >involved in the bungee jumping at the recent Super Bowl. Utterly sick and yet curiously fitting thought. They didn't even bother to record new cuts but used the dozen-year-old original tracks. Even with my constantly "right-sized" expectations, the halftime show always knocks down the bar. We didn't get the foot-high foam blocks a la Spinal Tap, but they *did* manage to smog up inside the dome after covering the AC vents. So God-awful hilariously bad I can't tell if it's cheese or camp anymore. The many informative answers to my "Who is Roy Harper" are welcome; thanks all who replied. The show was in Boston, no others were listed, so no go. But I enjoy being around a place where I can reveal my utter ignorance without being lambasted. And no, I can't even plead callow youth. >[Jonas Lind] "Black Sea" contains..."naive" songs...like "Sgt. Rock" and >"Generals And Majors". I wouldn't call them naive. "Sgt Rock"'s protagonist is naive, but not the song. "Generals and Majors" reads naive but the sound creates a breezy (if not chipper) attitude--Colin's not presenting the lyric as if it's "All Quiet on the Western Front". Hmm, we'll have to disagree as gentlemen about this point. My week's absence left me with several Chalkhills to wade through. Hope I wasn't missed too much; I like to think I create a much-needed void here. Ring out the bells, Back in your cells, Karl Super Bowl: (SOO' per bowl), n. National Football League's endless quest to bring good pro football to cities that wouldn't have it otherwise (i.e. Atlanta, Tampa, New Orleans, Arizona, Los Angeles).
------------------------------ Message-Id: <v03010d00af30ae04e8a8@[128.148.19.76]> Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 09:10:34 -0500 From: Gene Yoon <Gene_Yoon@brown.edu> Subject: Window Boxing Greetings to all chalkhills friends far and wide. >From: McGREGOC <McGREGOC@regents.ac.uk> > >Steven Hoskins said: >>For long time fans, Nonsuch belongs in the Dissappointed pile. >Really?! Thats a shame! I'm one of the fans that was hooked by >Nonsuch. > >I don't think >all the long time fans feel this way. At least thats the impression >I have gotten from the few I have written. > >Whats the dissappointment here? I've said this here before, but to answer your question.... Personally, Nonsuch doesn't seem to work as a whole album as, say, The Big Express or Skylarking. Individual songs are strong (Holly Up On Poppy is a favorite of mine among *anything* they've done), but the songs don't fit together well with any sort of progression that one would expect from XTC. The production and mixing is so polished, which normally would be a good thing, but it's just so careful that the songs seem to lack spontaneity or personality. And save for Bungalow, there was no musical experimentation, no new ground broken. Somehow, with every previous album XTC delved into untried (at least for them) musical territories, introduced a new concept, or something. These are all piddling complaints, of course, and Nonsuch is a great album. But it ranks about mid-pack for me in their catalog because, well, I don't find it as interesting as some of the others. Please add "IMHO" after each sentence above. Subjective evaluation end. Just now a pidgeon (a partridge?) flew into my window and fell to the ground. He looks okay. Must be a sign. In an act which is sure to annoy/anger scores of people on this list, I am again turning to Chalkhills for info on unfamiliar bands or music I've heard-- Geggy Tah (they sing that groovy tune, "Whoever You Are") Throw That Beat in the Garbage Can (some German band) the guy who sings "(I Could Never Be) Your Woman" Any info appreciated. Andy's disparaging remarks about Michael Stipe and REM's "E-Bow the Letter" are getting XTC mention on our radio morning show. Of course, the announcer said something to the effect, "Partridge is just jealous and maybe he wouldn't be so bitter if XTC had a hit single in the last fifteen years." Pow. But then, any publicity is better than none. Gene don't send me email to <isksa@ziplink.net> anymore thanks
------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 08:52:10 -0600 (CST) From: AMANDA OWENS <ACOEA@jazz.ucc.uno.edu> Subject: Gregsy and Peg and Al Bundy..... Message-id: <01IFLEKPGQTK8X2PYK@jazz.ucc.uno.edu> Never in my life have I ever pictured Dave to be the type of person who'd watch Married...With Children, until I read the 'Net interview with him. He just looks too.......just not the type who'd enjoy a program like that! BTW-Someone on the Crash Test Dummies mailing list called me a skank and my boyfriend a....flit boy? (All because I said Ellen Reid was ugly and couldn't sing.)
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