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
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 9 March 2017 16:50 (seven years ago) link
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
― 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/
― You're going to see a lot of love. Okay? Thank you. (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 9 March 2017 16:54 (seven years ago) link
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.
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 9 March 2017 17:43 (seven years ago) link
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.
― kwhitehead, Thursday, 9 March 2017 17:55 (seven years ago) link
Hmmyeah, I don't agree with that.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 18:00 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 18:03 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 18:05 (seven years ago) link
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.
― flappy bird, Thursday, 9 March 2017 18:44 (seven years ago) link
QUICK! CALL THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECAWRRRDS!
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Saturday, 11 March 2017 00:08 (seven years ago) link
I think 500 seats is more accurate but what do I know
― calstars, Saturday, 11 March 2017 00:39 (seven years ago) link
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?
― akm, Saturday, 11 March 2017 17:42 (seven years ago) link
even more frustration and anticlimax!
― flappy bird, Saturday, 11 March 2017 21:47 (seven years ago) link
http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2017/03/11/xtc-this-is-pop-documentary-petition/
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 11 March 2017 22:18 (seven years ago) link
http://68.media.tumblr.com/65cd1a8c4b92c1488f0ac88065edaaca/tumblr_oodkmu8V5B1rp9p7do1_500.jpg
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 3 May 2017 17:43 (six years ago) link
ok
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 3 May 2017 17:57 (six years ago) link
http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/s_ThingsFallToBits.html
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 3 May 2017 17:59 (six years ago) link
https://youtu.be/ne35P7kbucs
Mentioned upthread, this is the band recording Towers of London at an estate with a chain smoking Steve Lilly white.
― calstars, Sunday, 23 July 2017 01:03 (six years ago) link
It is and it isn't - this was pretty much staged for the cameras and isn't actual footage of them recording the song as it appeared on Black Sea, which had already been done by the time this was shot.
― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Sunday, 23 July 2017 01:07 (six years ago) link
AP: I'm not sure whether it's a fire extinguisher making that initial clank. It's certainly one in the fake "re-recording" that we did at the Manor studios -- you know, in that BBC film, "XTC at the Manor." I've got a funny feeling it may have been a dinner plate and something else on the actual version we recorded on Black Sea, at the Townhouse studios. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a dinner plate and something like the bottom of a heavy mic stand, or a section of pipe or girder or something. I think the fire extinguisher was the only thing laying around at the Manor that sounded vaguely right.
― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Sunday, 23 July 2017 01:14 (six years ago) link
Hahaha
― calstars, Sunday, 23 July 2017 01:32 (six years ago) link
AP just announced that Black Sea is the next 5.1 reissue
― MaresNest, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 10:55 (six years ago) link
'Living Through Another Cuba' and 'Travels in Nihilon' should sound ace in 5.1
― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 11:41 (six years ago) link
love you AP but please write some new music
― frogbs, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 13:56 (six years ago) link
Living through another cuuuuueBA!!!
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 14:56 (six years ago) link
Russia and America are at each other's throats, but don't you cry
― Many men scream death (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 15:04 (six years ago) link
Not sure if this has been posted but I really enjoyed this podcast interview with Andy https://www.sodajerker.com/episode-8-andy-partridge/ - he comes off as a right grumpy West Countryer, kind of adorable
― Shat Parp (dog latin), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 15:25 (six years ago) link
What about the narrator of "my bird performs" kind of bragging about his stupidity the same way the protagonist of "mayor" does. "Shakespeare's sonnets leave me cold" - yeah right
― calstars, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 23:53 (six years ago) link
I always thought 'My Bird Performs' was partly innuendo...
― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Wednesday, 2 August 2017 18:59 (six years ago) link
Andy sure does like his thinly veiled innuendo, cf. "Wonder Annual".
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 3 August 2017 01:28 (six years ago) link
Pink Thing = not so thinly veiled
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 3 August 2017 02:21 (six years ago) link
my bird performs was a colin though
― ciderpress, Thursday, 3 August 2017 02:24 (six years ago) link
LOUDER THAN TANKS ON THE HIGHWAYLOUDER THAN BOMBERS IN FLIGHT
― Shat Parp (dog latin), Friday, 4 August 2017 08:04 (six years ago) link
I'm a stuck record I know, but Mummer *is* the best.
― MaresNest, Friday, 4 August 2017 09:04 (six years ago) link
I just can't stop listening to Mummer this week. I'm in danger of overloading. Favourite bit: 'The only job that I do well is here on the farrrrm / And it's breaking my baaaack' - just this little moment of poignance in an otherwise positive-sounding song, akin to the 'Something tells you that you've got to get away from it' on Madness's 'Our House'
― Shat Parp (dog latin), Friday, 4 August 2017 09:51 (six years ago) link
Just gonna put this out: Not very keen on Supergirl or Ladybird for some reason, even though I presume these are considered highlights on their respective albums
― Shat Parp (dog latin), Friday, 4 August 2017 09:56 (six years ago) link
'Ladybird' rules, it's 'Human Alchemy' that I'm not fond of.
'Love On A Farmboy's Wages' is such a perfect, beautiful song and it just sounds great. Some of the most beautifully recorded 12-string guitar I've ever heard is on Mummer.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Friday, 4 August 2017 11:50 (six years ago) link
All the more impressive when you think how shoddy a lot of guitar music in the '80s now sounds. '...Farmboy's Wages' is probably my favourite XTC song these days.
― Gavin, Leeds, Friday, 4 August 2017 12:16 (six years ago) link
From the '80s, rather.
― Gavin, Leeds, Friday, 4 August 2017 12:17 (six years ago) link
'the wheel and the maypole' ambushed me on youtube yesterday, properly a classic
― rove mcmanus island (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 4 August 2017 12:18 (six years ago) link
LOAFBW is the song that's got me back into the band I have to say.. Despite having it on a compilation, I never took notice of it. I'm enjoying quite a few cuts off the slightly-maligned Oranges & Lemons too, with its Skeletons and Scarecrows and warpy basslines
― Shat Parp (dog latin), Friday, 4 August 2017 12:38 (six years ago) link
xpost:
'The Wheel and The Maypole' is one of their best ever songs! It's the last song on their last album and it's fantastic... even more remarkable given Wasp Star is one of their patchiest records.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Friday, 4 August 2017 14:24 (six years ago) link
yeh cosign, tw&tm rules
― nxd, Friday, 4 August 2017 14:25 (six years ago) link
pissed off that the Apple Venus / Wasp Star albums aren't on Spotify. At least get Maypole up on there.
― Shat Parp (dog latin), Friday, 4 August 2017 14:27 (six years ago) link
I know Andy hates all their videos but I've always found this one eerily evocative/perfect for the song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VSFU0jKVYs
― Οὖτις, Friday, 4 August 2017 15:45 (six years ago) link
I love that Terry plays on "Beating of Hearts," where he's essentially just playing a drum loop. Did he play on Love on a Farmboy's Wages and then quit, or was the song introduced and he threw his sticks up in the air and walked out?
― flappy bird, Friday, 4 August 2017 17:17 (six years ago) link
They attempted to run through 'Love On A Farmboy's Wages' with Chambers, but he quit before they could get a decent take, iirc. If Partridge is to be believed there was no throwing up of sticks in the air - it wasn't that kind of departure.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Friday, 4 August 2017 17:39 (six years ago) link
This is interesting, local public access TV show from 1981 in Lawrence KS featuring XTC playing live and some awesome localised TV ads.
https://archive.org/details/BTABHXTC
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 11:34 (six years ago) link
Gave a listen to English Settlement for the first time in forever the other day -- first time I'd listened to any XTC album in a long time -- and I was reminded what an engaging success it was. Also how I was listening to it -- it was less the tunes-as-such, more the sheer variety in arrangements, rhythms and so forth.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 13:05 (six years ago) link
That's the next one on my list. I'm finding it a little impenetrable so far, but I love Drums and Wires and Black Sea
― Shat Parp (dog latin), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 13:20 (six years ago) link
ES is just so verdant, it and and BS are perfect siblings.
― harbinger of failure (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 13:38 (six years ago) link