XTC THE LATER YEARS

Cornered by great fan and erstwhile acclaimed record producer, Todd Rundgren, XTC mounted a media comeback following their disastrous and final American Tour in the early Eighties. Rundgren's domineering approach to record production unsettled the band (stationed in Rundgren's own space-station home in upstate New York) making for a most unusual ethereal sounding album bordering on styles ranging from jazz, to Sergeant Peppers, to spy-movie soundtrack material on The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul . The resulting LP, Skylarking, titled by Rundgren referring to the beginning of the album at dawn (with the sounds of birds and sunshine) and follow it through into the midnight hour and the sounds of its stillness.

Amidst Colin's and Andy's works of true genius on the album they begat their biggest song, "Dear God," which Andy wrote in a half-hearted attempt to explore his own religious questions and beliefs. After "binning" the song from the original distribution of Skylarking, "Dear God" hit heavy rotation on College Radio and crescendoed on MTV to the point of inescapability. XTC, thanks god, had made the big time finally.

In a rush attempt to save the album from public disappointment, Virgin Records re-released the album with Dear God on the second side in place of "The Mermaid Smiled". The album also yielded a more characteristic low level charter in "Earn Enough For Us".

After toying around with the idea of creating another Dukes of Stratosphere album, XTC decided instead to work some of their older abandoned material and some of their proposed new Dukes material to create the album Oranges and Lemons. This album, quite dominated by Andy's fanatic persistence and demands, almost brought about the end of the band after a heated argument between Andy and Colin Moulding. Moulding, an equally talented and respected songwriter, felt that his input in the band was being stifled by Andy. Although Moulding did get to fire off the memorable One of The Millions.Things resumed as usual, but the album was left to be remembered as a slow and grueling studio recording experience.

Although they achieved a bit of recognition from the singles "Mayor of Simpleton" and "Merely a Man," this fresh and infectiously psychedelic album was hardly a successor in the public eye to "the one with 'Dear God' on it."

In hopes of creating their best album to date, XTC, (bound in a legal contract with Virgin Records to begin their first of four more albums) were to employ the widely acclaimed producer Gus Dugeon on their album Nonsuch. Staying true to its unique form XTC continued to rail against violence in Wardance.

After inviting an old acquaintance and friend Dave Mattucks to play drums on this their most recent release, XTC put together what they unanimously agree to be both their greatest accomplishment, a deep eclectic album. To the horror of Gus Dugeon (known for producing artists such as Elton John, Joan Armatrading, David Bowie, Bruce Hornsby and the Beach Boys,) Andy Partridge proved to be intolerable in his ways of hovering and fidgeting about during the production, eventually Dugeon banned Partridge from entering the studio during the final mixdowns. While radio play was briefly given to Andy's strong political tune "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkin Head," the record has become more of a collector to true XTC devotees than a success on the charts.

Over the years XTC has shown remarkable dexterity in their sound and resiliency as a popular act, who simply don't play out any more. The last tour by the band took place in 1982, and Dave Gregory's departure in 1999 leaves just Partridge and Moulding.

In 1998, the four cd box Transistor Blast featured stellar live performances from the BBC recorded between 1978 and 1989. The band played few live shows but still managed to record these excellent alternate takes. The long awaited studio follow up appeared on TVT Records entitled Apple Venus Vol. I a sophisticated and lush orchestral sound backing the band. Always a strong political message against violence and warfare, and social messages railing against decaying British mores.

Partridge also put out an experimental work with Ambient whiz Harold Budd to lukewarm reviews. His 1980 solo effort "Take Away" caught him during his prolific heyday of experimentation with dub multi-tracking also evidenced on a remix album of XTC's second LP "Go 2" called "Go +". Also in the world of XTC is the memorable collaboration with producer John Leckie of two Dukes of The Stratosphear albums in the mid-1980's. A tip of the cap to psychedelia in its American (Beach Boys and Garage Rock) and British (Stones, Beatles) incarnations, these albums sold well and established funloving alter-egoes the likes of which were rarely seen since the last sighting of The Yellow Submarine. Now these two lp's are presented on compact disc as "Chips From The Chocolate Fireball."

And so the beat goes on for these gentleman and XTC continues to put out finely crafted pop work, evocative of British Pop's 1960's heyday, but often strikingly original BritPop laid down by the masters as they see fit.