XTC : Classic or Dud.

Back when I used to play a bit of bass, working out and playing XTC basslines was always fun.

Although Mayor of Simpleton is a cunt to play especially the second bar of the loop, you can tell it was probably written on a guitar.

http://podcast.tunetribe.com/?name=podcast_96_-_andy_partridge.mp3

This looks sweet, thanks for sharing!

I'm only 15 minutes in but he is, as always, a v entertaining interview

XTC: This Is Pop, the inevitable rockumentary, http://www.c21media.net/screenings/specialtreats/xtc-this-is-pop/10210

I don't know how much of Andy Partridge I can take tbh.

If That Wave had been on The Crow soundtrack.

http://bigtakeover.com/news/song-premiere-that-wave-xtc-cover-by-fassine

Simpleton bass line is one of my favorite moments in music

YES:

@xtcfans
Ideally, I would have wanted 4 teenage Japanese girls to play XTC, and it all take place in the Japanese equivalent of Swindon. Subtitles

really enjoyed watching that trailer

yeah, looks great

might've mentioned this upthread, but the Chalkhills & Children book is so sad, XTC got fucked six ways to sunday with the Liarbird manager, their label, AP's refusal to play live even after the band was offered a two-night stand at Madison Square Garden in 1989 that promoters were sure would sell out, Dave Gregory having to take day jobs in the studio years because he wasn't making any publishing money like AP and CM... and the fact that AP was such a thrilling live performer, a total ham, but coming off of Valium like he did will fuck you up for life... reminds me of Hüsker Dü a lot, that quote Mould had at the end of their chapter in Azerrad's book: "We could've done so much more." XTC was such an amazing live band, i'm sure i'm not the only one that would pay way too much just to see AP solo with an acoustic. argh

two-night stand at Madison Square Garden in 1989 that promoters were sure would sell out

really? I can't envision this myself

yeah me neither, even with the (moderate?) success of 'Dear God' and the O&L singles.

the book is a thoroughly depressing read, but a necessary cautionary tale, it should be required reading for anyone in a band or working in the music industry.

Books about rock bands are invariably depressing ime.

should we poll "Most Depressing Musician Bios"? "The One" about James Brown would top my list.

xp Generally they're depressing in a different way: huge success, drugs, inevitable fallout with or without death/overdose/breakup... really the feeling I got from Chalkhills & Children was frustration and anticlimax.

Mismanagement is a recurring, almost compulsory, theme though.

should we poll "Most Depressing Musician Bios"? "The One" about James Brown would top my list.

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, March 8, 2017 2:21 PM

Trouble Boys.

two-night stand at Madison Square Garden in 1989 that promoters were sure would sell out

really? I can't envision this myself

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, March 8, 2017 2:09 PM (eighteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I could maybe see it selling out if these were guaranteed to be their only live shows that year, or for the foreseeable future. They probably had enough fans outside of NY and the US that would've made the trip, and once you combine those with however many NY/northeast US fans they had, a two-night MSG sellout doesn't seem impossible.

But if done a full US tour in '89, they wouldn't have played anything larger than 5000-seat venues.

if *they'd done

Mismanagement is a recurring, almost compulsory, theme though.

― Return of the Flustered Bootle Native (Tom D.), Wednesday, March 8, 2017 2:33 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

absolutely, and i think the fact that XTC never made a dime off of any of their touring (allegedly) because of their shit managers is a big part of AP's reluctance to play live at all - and also now he says that he doesn't want to get onstage and "be the old guy," music is a young man's game, he hates seeing old rockstars, etc. reading that book, there were so many times that XTC were on the verge of success/fulfillment, and it got cut off at the pass for some stupid reason.

Tom D's absolutely correct, even some of the biggest bands like Fleetwood Mac, Queen and even The Rolling Stones all have horror stories of mismanagement at some point in their career.

The story of Badfinger probably one of the saddest I can think of right now.

Yeah the Stretch (fake Fleetwood Mac) story is some amazing management chicanery. xp

Can I just mention Moby Grape here.

would probably be harder to come up with a list of bands that *weren't* screwed over by their management at some point

This syllabically awkward couplet from "the Loving" drives me crazy:

"Babies at the breast / those in power and those oppressed"

would probably be harder to come up with a list of bands that *weren't* screwed over by their management at some point

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, March 8, 2017 10:10 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

U2?

Yeah the Stretch (fake Fleetwood Mac) story is some amazing management chicanery. xp

― You're going to see a lot of love. Okay? Thank you. (Dan Peterson)

link plz

aw :(

@xtcfans Just heard re documentary, that BBC aren't interested in showing it. Ha ha. I knew it. Not famous enough for them.

The story of Badfinger probably one of the saddest I can think of right now.

Yeah that's tough to beat.

They'll show it at some point. Graham Parker isn't more famous than XTC, to name but one act who has had a documentary I've fallen asleep to on BBC4 (xp).

BBC4 ran a Sun Ra documentary, so yeah, "not famous enough" likely wasn't the reason.

Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing... obviously it would have no chance of being shown on BBC 1, but I can't see why it wouldn't get shown on BBC 4.

Is Guy Garvey in it? becuase that could be problematic if not.

Yeah, I imagine they turned it down on the basis that it doesn't feature Guy Garvey saying something insightful like "eeeeeee, listening to vinyl records is like being by a warm, crackly fire"

A petition has been made to show interest to the BBC, can't hurt to sign, I guess:
https://www.change.org/p/bbc-bbc-please-air-the-xtc-documentary-this-is-pop?recruiter=129880795

Yeah the Stretch (fake Fleetwood Mac) story is some amazing management chicanery. xp

― You're going to see a lot of love. Okay? Thank you. (Dan Peterson)

link plz

― sleeve, Wednesday, March 8, 2017 5:37 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://www.jonkutner.com/why-did-you-do-it/

should we poll "Most Depressing Musician Bios"?

Careless Love is right up there. The last 100 pages or so read like a Stephen King story.

As much as I love XTC, I really can;t see them ever making it much bigger than they already were, esp. without touring. And, the more popular they got, the more their records suffered. Enormous drop in quality from Skylarking on.

Hmmyeah, I don't agree with that.

Mostly because their most popular period in the UK was roughly from 1979 to 1982, but also because Nonsuch and Apple Venus are two of their best ever records.Skylarking was a massive commercial flop here.

Like, it made it to number 90 on the album chart for one week. An astonishingly poor commercial performance given how highly the record is rated today.

XTC could've kept touring 5,000+ cap venues through the 90s, obviously that would've helped their career and the public's awareness of them massively. It's pretty easy to go through this life having never heard a single XTC song ime. thank god a good friend of mine turned me onto them last year.

QUICK! CALL THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECAWRRRDS!

I think 500 seats is more accurate but what do I know

what happened to the trailer for this? it seems to have vanished from the internet and it's not even on the page linked above. documentary cancelled?

even more frustration and anticlimax!

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2017/03/11/xtc-this-is-pop-documentary-petition/