XTC Reel by Real: XTC: Go 2
Last update: 3 June 2023
Go 2
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This is a RECORD COVER. This writing is the DESIGN upon the
record cover.  The DESIGN is to help SELL the record.  We hope
to draw your attention to it and encourage you to pick it up.
When you have done that maybe you'll be persuaded to listen to
the music - in this case XTC's Go 2 album.  Then we want you
to BUY it.  The idea being that the more of you that buy this
record the more money Virgin Records, the manager Ian Reid and
XTC themselves will make.  To the aforementioned this is known
as PLEASURE.  A good cover DESIGN is one that attracts more
buyers and gives more pleasure.  This writing is trying to pull
you in much like an eye-catching picture. It is designed to get
you to READ IT.  This is called luring the VICTIM, and you are
the VICTIM.  But if you have a free mind you should STOP READING
NOW! because all we are attempting to do is to get you to read
on.  Yet this is a DOUBLE BIND because if you indeed stop you'll
be doing what we tell you, and if you read on you'll be doing what
we've wanted all along.  And the more you read on the more you're
falling for this simple device of telling you exactly how a good
commercial design works.  They're TRICKS and this is the worst
TRICK of all since it's describing the TRICK whilst trying to
TRICK you, and if you've read this far then you're TRICKED but
you wouldn't have known this unless you'd read this far.  At
least we're telling you directly instead of seducing you with
a beautiful or haunting visual that may never tell you.  We're
letting you know that you ought to buy this record because in
essence it's a PRODUCT and PRODUCTS are to be consumed and you
are a consumer and this is a good PRODUCT.  We could have
written the band's name in special lettering so that it stood
out and you'd see it before you'd read any of this writing and
possibly have bought it anyway.  What we are really suggesting
is that you are FOOLISH to buy or not buy an album merely as a
consequence of the design on its cover.  This is a con because
if you agree then you'll probably like this writing - which is
the cover design - and hence the album inside.  But we've just
warned you against that. The con is a con.  A good cover design
could be considered as one that gets you to buy the record, but
that never actually happens to YOU because YOU know it's just a
design for the cover.  And this is the RECORD COVER.

This is the back of a RECORD COVER.  Catalogue No. V2108.
This writing is the DESIGN on the back of the cover.  This
design is not like that on the FRONT.  Its aim is to impart
information about the RECORD and the GATEFOLD INSERT within
rather than trying to sell it by being impactful or clever
or any of those things.  We have kept it in the same style
so that the entire package has a sense of IDENTITY which-
ever way you see it.  The record is by XTC.  This is their
second album.  We won't attempt to describe their music
because all you have to do is play it and you can describe
it for yourself.  XTC is made up of Andy Partridge, Barry
Andrews, Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers.  We have shown
photos of them below because this is regarded as commer-
cially sensible and helpful in creating their image.  And
if you're curious at all you might find it interesting to
see what the musicians actually look like.  And there are
more pictures and words on the very colourful insert
which you can only see if you buy the whole thing.

Many people think it helpful and       useful to know some details
about the songs on the record in      side, so here they are:-
1. Meccanik Dancing (Oh We Go!)      2. Battery Brides (Andy
Paints Brian) 3. Buzzcity Talki     ng 4. Crowded Room 5. The
Rhythm 6. Red 7. Beatown 8. Li     fe is Good in the Greenhouse
9. Jumping in Gomorrah 10. My     Weapon 11. Super-Tuff
12. I am the Audience.  You m    ay also be interested to know that
the record was produced and     Engineered by John Leckie with
assistant engineers Haydn Be       ndall and Pete James at Abbey Road,
also, Andy Llewelyn and Jess          Sutcliffe at Matrix and that Barry's
Roots photos were by Dave Eagle.         We have to repeat the catalogue
number on the insert for bureaucratic       reasons and here it is V2108.

Lastly we would like to make it clear that this is a
product of Virgin Records Limited, partly because they
wanted us to and partly because it is a legal necessity.
Virgin Records' head office is located at Vernon Yard,
Portobello Road, London W.11. and is (P) Virgin Records
1978 and (c) 1978 Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd. This
sleeve was written and photographed by Hipgnosis and
printed in England by James Upton Ltd.

GO 2

XTC
This is a record company biography which, unlike a real
biography, tells you only what is convenient for you to
know.  Its style and appearance, which will be
applauded by some as iconoclastic and dismissed by others
as pretentious, corresponds closely to that on the cover
of XTC's new album 'Go 2'.  Its function is to provide
information about the group for the recipient, usually
a journalist, to employ when writing about them.  Often,
a biography exceeds that function by expressing
carefully programmed opinions in persuasively vacuous
biz-speak.  This provides the company representative
with some vague sense of purpose and the journalist with
an opportunity to paraphrase the results without recourse
to such tiresome activities as thought, the eventual
intention being that the public should view the band
exactly as wished by their record company.  All that
need be known about XTC, other than what is written
about them by those who are not duty-bound to enthuse,
is that the present line-up was formed early in 1977
when keyboards player Barry Andrews joined.
Previously, guitarist Andy Partridge, bassist Colin
Moulding and drummer Terry Chambers had worked
together, with others, as Star Park and The Helium
Kidz.  Beginning in their home town of Swindon, the
band soon built up a substantial following.  Their
first record after signing with Virgin was 'XTC 3D EP'
(VS 18812), released last October.  With the assis-
tance of constant touring, this sold out its listed
edition of 30,000 copies and was subsequently re-
issued with the catalogue number VOLE 3.  Their
first LP 'White Music' (V2095), which contained
eleven XTC originals and the group's interpretation
of Bob Dylan's 'All Along The Watchtower', was
released in January 1978.  It was preceded by the
appearance of a single 'Statue of Liberty'/'Hang
On To The Night' (VS 201) and a European tour with
Talking Heads, and followed by a 33-date UK tour of
their own.  A second single 'This Is Pop?'/'Heatwave'
(VS 209), was released in May 1978.  Their new album
'Go 2' (V2108), recorded this summer, contains 13
new songs and two more, 'Are You Receiving Me?'/
'Instant Tunes', are released as a single.  A 'dub'
EP of album tracks follows soon after.  Adjectives
employed most frequently when describing XTC are
'attractive', 'energetic', 'unique', 'bizarre',
'addictive', 'intelligent', and 'inventive'.

[Virgin promotional literature, Autumn 1978]

XTC's second album, and second of the year 1978, also reaches the U.K. Top 30. Its literate and very unusual cover reflected two very important characteristics of the band.

Geffen CD Release 1991 includes one track not on the original album: "Are You Receiving Me" (written by Partridge), which appeared previously on album only on Waxworks. All else remains the same, except for a couple of words on the classic cover: "RECORD COVER" has been changed to "COMPACT DISC COVER".

[Geffen promotional literature, 1991]

Andy: “Four weeks worth of songs, hastily scribbled on hotel notepaper and beermats. We were living out of carrier bags and in rental vans, making nasty noises at each other and with each other. Something had to give and here it is.”
Andy: “A squabbling band made that album. A maelstrom of a session. Plus we were living together in a situation reminiscent of The Young Ones.”

Lyrics, Charts and More

  1. Meccanik Dancing (Oh We Go!) (lyrics) (chords) (interview)
  2. Battery Brides (Andy Paints Brian) (lyrics) (interview)
  3. Buzzcity Talking (lyrics)
  4. Crowded Room (lyrics) (chords)
  5. The Rhythm (lyrics)
  6. Red (lyrics) (interview)
  7. Beatown (lyrics) (interview)
  8. Life is Good in the Greenhouse (lyrics)
  9. Jumping in Gomorrah (lyrics) (chords)
  10. My Weapon (lyrics)
  11. Super-Tuff (lyrics)
  12. I am the Audience (lyrics)

In many countries the album also included "Are You Receiving Me?".


Recording Information

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, England, August-September, 1978.
Produced and engineered by John Leckie with assistant engineers Haydn Bendall and Pete James with Andy Llewelyn and Jess Sutcliffe at Matrix.
Originally released on 13 October 1978 in the U.K.
Reached No. 21 on the U.K. album chart.

Barry played loads of things including crumar group 49 cheesy organ, farfisa organ, lawrence electric piano, wurlitzer e-piano, mini-moog, clavinet, steinway grand piano.

This album was originally to be titled Strong and Silent (which implied that XTC were weak, and they were very loud indeed).


FIFTIES KITCHEN CURTAIN
(of Mr and Mrs PARTRIDGE)
In all, a green with pieces
of missing,in all a black with
wire figures,figures like a bamboo
room divider.Hunters on a
Parisienne street cafe,you know,
all wrought iron all skirts all
white blankets where the petticoats
areI/n a billion blankly missing
Eiffel Tower legs,wrought in
wrought.
  Tables as thin as a con-
temporary look,all in all,jazzy
jazzy,chairs with figured vests
in wrought stripes,paris jazzy,
Paris green,black table,iron
legs,wine sketches,bamboo jazz
interlocking in cold, coldjazz
love,Paris in Seine fish are
dead in a midstream,wire river
four waves then halt as street
cafe,wall of thin,starved iron,
flat skirts,pile of sunglasses,
pile of legs,sharp pointed chair
Eiffel heads,trillion criss cross
iron jazz,Paris criss crossed non
stopped,green on red wire heads,
pour wrought wine out of sketch
bottles....Ghost rail,wire writing,
Rue,Seine,La Touer,jazz kissing,
balloon over pavement cafe,wire
fish are safe,safe.

GO+

The following is an excerpt from "X-plaining XTC" (part 1), based on an interview by Steve Kolanjian and David Dasch, published in Aware (A Rock Music Research Journal), No. 8, Winter 1981-82:

GO+ GO+: These tracks are dub versions of songs on Go 2, respectively "Meccanik Dancing (Oh We Go!)", "Jumping in Gomorrah", "Battery Brides (Andy Paints Brian)", "I Am the Audience", and "The Rhythm". In dub technique, the original tape is reprocessed through the mixing board, with some elements altered, some removed, and some new ones added. "We Kill the Beast" features the sound (inadvertently recorded) of a tape of another piece rewinding. GO+ was initially issued with Go 2 in Britain (and perhaps elsewhere), the LP and EP wrapped in a poster and all three items in a plastic bag. Later, they were sold individually by record dealers in the US.
  1. Dance With Me, Germany (pics) (lyrics)
  2. Beat The Bible
  3. A Dictionary Of Modern Marriage
  4. Clap, Clap, Clap (pics)
  5. We Kill The Beast

Originally released on 13 October 1978 in the U.K. as a free bonus with the first 15,000 copies of the Go 2 LP (V 2108).
Also available on Explode Together.

See also discographical details.


Singles

#\#a href="http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=2327444" target="churl"#/##\#i#/#Are You Receiving Me?#\#/i#/##\#/a#/#

Are You Receiving Me?

   

Art

#\#a href="http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1919842" target="churl"#/#cover of the #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# LP#\#/a#/#

cover of the Go 2 LP

#\#a href="http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3277901" target="churl"#/#UK #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# LP back cover#\#/a#/#

UK Go 2 LP back cover

#\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# Virgin CD back cover

Go 2 Virgin CD back cover

#\#a href="http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3668766" target="churl"#/#cover of the UK #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# cassette#\#/a#/#

cover of the UK Go 2 cassette

obi from Japanese release of #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/#

obi from Japanese release of Go 2

French #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# LP front cover

French Go 2 LP front cover

French #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# LP back cover

French Go 2 LP back cover

cover of Yugoslavian #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# LP

cover of Yugoslavian Go 2 LP

Virgin International USA #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# cassette cover

Virgin International USA Go 2 cassette cover

cover of the #\#i#/#1+1#\#/i#/# double cassette of #\#i#/#White Music#\#/i#/# and #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/#

cover of the 1+1 double cassette of White Music and Go 2

#\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# cassette cover

Go 2 cassette cover

#\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# picture CD

Go 2 picture CD

#\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# photo insert

Go 2 photo insert

#\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# map of Swindon

Go 2 map of Swindon

‘Fifties Kitchen Curtain”

‘Fifties Kitchen Curtain”

photographs by Barry Andrews from the liners notes to #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/#

photographs by Barry Andrews from the liners notes to Go 2

a piece of cardboard that Terry Chambers drummed “Science Friction” on

a piece of cardboard that Terry Chambers drummed “Science Friction” on

Side One of the Virgin International USA cassette of #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/#

Side One of the Virgin International USA cassette of Go 2

Side Two of the Virgin International USA cassette of #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/#

Side Two of the Virgin International USA cassette of Go 2

Virgin Records #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# promo poster

Virgin Records Go 2 promo poster

Virgin Records bio of XTC included with promo copies of #\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/#

Virgin Records bio of XTC included with promo copies of Go 2

#\#a href="fanart/../../product/Go_2.pdf" target="churl"#/##\#i#/#Go 2#\#/i#/# CD booklet#\#/a#/#

Go 2 CD booklet

#\#a href="http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3225383" target="churl"#/##\#i#/#GO+#\#/i#/# back cover#\#/a#/#

GO+ back cover

 

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