XTC - Discography Hagiography Part 1

by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 4 / 5 / 2024

In the first of a two part ‘Discography Hagiography’, our series in which we provide a disc-by-disc evolution of music’s greats, Tommy Gunnarsson reflects on the early career of XTC.

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XTC – Discography Hagiography, Part 1 After all these years and thousands and thousands of articles on Pennyblackmusic, there still hasn’t been a single piece about the iconic British band XTC. Until now. And it’s about time, don’t you think? When I sat down to write this article, I tried to remember when I first heard about Swindon’s Pride, and I clearly remember liking ‘Mayor of Simpleton’ when I heard it on the radio back in the late 80s/early 90s, and I also remember hearing (and liking) ‘Making Plans for Nigel’ when listening to some “indie” 80s CD compilation around the same time. Some years later, I found the 2CD compilation ‘Fossil Fuel’ cheap at record sale, and by then I was completely hooked, and I have been ever since. Andy Partridge and his band mates never cease to amaze me, and I can still to this day find new hidden gems when listening to their albums. For example, have you ever noticed how brilliant ‘Yacht Dance’ (off ‘English Settlement’) is? I have now. Short back story before we kick off: XTC was founded in Swindon in 1972 as Star Park by Andy Partridge (vocals, guitars), Colin Moulding (bass, vocals) and Terry Chambers (drums). They later renamed themselves The Helium Kidz, and finally became XTC, before keyboardist Barry Andrews joined in 1976. After being spotted by John Peel at a gig, he invited them to do a session for his BBC show, and suddenly four record labels wanted to sign them. They finally chose to go with Virgin Records, and in October 1977, the debut EP, ‘3D EP’, was released. So, let’s take a walk together down the winding road that is the XTC album output, from the debut ‘White Music’ in 1978, up until 2000’s ‘Wasp Star’! WHITE MUSIC (1978) After spending two weeks with producer John Leckie at the classic studio The Manor, XTC was ready to release their debut album in January 1978, packed with frenetic, quirky and post-punky songs. Andy’s vocals on these early albums are quite different from the ones that can be heard on their later efforts and could be described as being as choppy and frantic as his guitar playing. And if you discovered the band with albums like ‘English Settlement’ or ‘Oranges and Lemons’ you might be a bit taken aback by these early recordings, as they are far from their more commercial pop songs on the aforementioned records. But I must say that I do enjoy their debut too, even though it is a bit uneven. Among the highlights here are the single picks ‘Statue of Liberty’ (which was banned by the BBC for allegedly ‘explicit lyrics’) and ‘This is Pop’, but also the opener ‘Radios in Motion’ and ‘Into the Atom Age’. And their cover of Dylan’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’? Well, it’s not the best recording they released, let’s leave it at that. The album was rather successful at the time as well, reaching the #38 spot on the UK album charts, though none of the singles managed to chart. The band even re-recorded ‘This is Pop’ for the single release, but that sadly didn’t help. Oh, and the album title is a reference to “white noise” (it was initially going to be called ‘Black Music’, but the label talked them out of it). GO 2 (1978) Just six months after the release of their debut album, XTC was ready to record the follow-up, and contacted fan Brian Eno and asked him to produce. He declined, and said that they could produce themselves, but the label didn’t quite agree with him, so John Leckie was once again brought in to help the band. This would turn out to be an even more experimental album than ‘White Music’, and the label didn’t even release any singles off it (though the amazing single ‘Are You Receiving Me?’ would be added as an extra track on the US version of the album). The album cover is something of a classic among record sleeves, designed by the legendary Hipgnosis, and it consists of an essay on how record sleeves are designed to attract potential buyers (because of the lengthy text in English, some non-English speaking countries opted to release the album with a group shot on the cover instead). ‘Go 2’ would also be the final album with Barry Andrews as a member of the band. He wrote a bunch of songs for the album, but the rest of the band didn’t want to use most of them on the finished album (‘My Weapon’ and ‘Super-Tuff’ are credited to him), and instead decided to leave the band (he would later form Shriekback with former Gang Of Four bassist Dave Allen). As his replacement, Dave Gregory joined on guitar, which meant that XTC was now without a keyboard player, something that would change the overall sound of their recordings to come. Despite the album being more demanding of its listeners, it managed to beat the debut in the charts, and reached a # 21 peak in late 1978. The first 15,000 copies of the album also came with a bonus 12” single, ‘Go+’, which consisted of five dub remixes of songs from the album. DRUMS AND WIRES (1979) So, here we are finally starting to get a sneak peek into what would become the trademark XTC sound in the early 80s. After Colin Moulding started to get frustrated with the band’s “quirky” reputation, the band decided to walk down a more commercial and accessible path, which was clearly audible on the non-album single ‘Life Begins at the Hop’, released between ‘Go 2’ and ‘Drums and Wires’, and recorded just as Dave Gregory had joined as a second guitarist. The single also marked a change of producer, as Steve Lilywhite had replaced John Leckie behind the desk, and he would go on to produce both ‘Drums and Wires’ and ‘Black Sea’, before handing over to Hugh Padgham, who was the engineer who developed the gated drum sound used on both those albums (and that would later famously be used by Phil Collins on ‘In the Air Tonight’). But that being said, ‘Drums and Wires’ are far from a super accessible chart topper. Sure, there are some smashing pop songs here, like the hit single ‘Making Plans For Nigel’ (which is probably still their most famous song, together with ‘Senses Working Overtime’), ‘Helicopter’ and ‘When You’re Near Me I Have Difficulty’, where the latter was even considered for single release, but it eventually never came to that (but a rejected single recording was finally released on the ‘A Coat of Many Cupboards’ compilation in 2002). But there are also plenty examples of the ‘old’ XTC here, like ‘Outside World’, ‘Scissor Man’ and closing track ‘Complicated Game’. So, you could easily argue that this is a bridge of sorts between the old and new XTC, with one foot still steadily on each side. That being said, though – XTC would never be a band that filled their albums with perfect pop songs, and that’s probably one of the things that made them interesting until the very end. BLACK SEA (1980) In 1980, XTC was still a touring band (‘Black Sea’ was originally titled ‘Work Under Pressure’ in reference to their hectic touring schedule), and as the band wanted to be able to perform their recorded songs in a more truthful way on stage, their sound turned more and more to the traditional setup of guitars, bass and drums. The aforementioned bombastic, gated drum sound was a bit tricky to reproduce live, but that didn’t stop them from using it again on this album, especially on tracks like the excellent single ‘Respectable Street’, ‘Love At First Sight’ and ‘Sgt Rock (Is Going To Help Me)’, where the latter was Partridge’s least favourite song of the album, and he even went as far as saying that he regretted writing it. It was nonetheless a single, and actually their most successful one at that time. The following tour took them around the world, partly as opening act for The Police, but also on their own (when playing in Athens, Georgia in the US, the opening act was an unknown band called R.E.M.) But this tour would prove to be the beginning of the end as XTC as a live band, as the larger and larger venues and constant touring began taking its toll on Andy, who suffered several nervous breakdowns and panic attacks on stage. As a way to ease the pressure on the band to continue touring, he steered the band to record more complex and intricate arrangements on their albums, arrangements that would be hard to replicate live… ENGLISH SETTLEMENT (1982) … and it’s not hard to hear that when listening to the ambitious double album ‘English Settlement’, released in February 1982. Andy had bought himself a new acoustic guitar (he had given away his previous one during a performance on the children’s TV show ‘Swap Shop’), Colin had purchased a fretless bass, and Terry had bought a timbale for his drum kit, which showed the way for a more acoustic approach than on previous albums. Songs like the aforementioned ‘Yacht Dance’ are excellent examples of this, where all these “new” instruments can be heard in all their glory. Three singles were released from the album – the classic ‘Senses Working Overtime’, ‘Ball and Chain’ and ‘No Thugs in Our House’ – but there are plenty of other potential single tracks among the album’s 15 tracks! The songs here are definitely leaning more towards the material we got used to on their later albums, with some lyrics even bordering on being political (for instance ‘Ball and Chain’, which is a comment on Thatcher’s economic politics, and ‘No Thugs…’, which is about two parents who are trying to accept that they have racist son). And the tour that followed… well… it lasted for a month (with a forced two week long pause in the middle after Andy’s first breakdowns) before Andy finally pulled the plug on XTC as a live act while on their first headlining tour of the US in early April 1981. This decision would not only affect the band as a touring force but would also change the line-up of the band forever. Drummer Terry Chambers didn’t want to continue if they would never play live again, as he preferred the stage to studio, but he did manage to play on two tracks on the next album (‘Beating of Hearts’ and single track ‘Wonderland’). He then said farewell to the band and returned to Australia, where he was living by then. Looking back, ‘English Settlement’ is a milestone in the XTC discography, and probably one of their very finest efforts, with both Andy and Colin contributing some of their very best songs. The abandoned tour, and Chambers’ exit, forced especially Andy to take a new approach his band, and secluded himself for some time to write new songs and to spend time away from people in general. In September 1982, XTC was ready to enter the studio again, with a new producer and a new line-up…