XTC

XTC biography

XTC were a New Wave / pop band from Swindon, England, active between 1977 and 2005. The band enjoyed some chart success, including the UK and Canadian hits "Making Plans for Nigel" (1979) and "Senses Working Overtime" (1982), but are perhaps even better known for their long-standing critical (rather than commercial) success.

History

Early days: 1972-1976

First coming together in 1972, the core duo of Andy Partridge (guitars & vocals) and Colin Moulding (bass & vocals) went through many band names (including The Helium Kidz and Star Park) over the next five years. As the Helium Kidz, they were featured in a small NME article as an up-and-coming band from Swindon. Drawing influence from the New York Dolls, particularly the "Jetboy" single, and the emerging New York punk scene, they played glam rock with homemade costumes and slowly built up a following. Drummer Terry Chambers joined in 1973. Keyboard player Jonathan Perkins followed, replaced by Barry Andrews in 1976, and the band finally settled on a name: XTC.

Touring years: 1977-1982

In 1977, XTC were signed by Virgin Records. They recorded the 3D - EP that summer, and followed it up with their debut LP White Music in January 1978. These and future XTC releases would find Andy Partridge writing and singing about two-thirds of the material, while Colin Moulding would write and sing approximately one-third. (White Music also featured a cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower", sung by Partridge.)

White Music received favourable reviews and entered the British top 40, but lead single "Statue of Liberty" was banned by the BBC because of its supposedly "lewd" reference to the famous statue ("in my fantasy I sail beneath your skirt"). The group also picked up a cult following in Australia thanks to the support of the Sydney rock radio station 2JJ (now Triple-J) and the nationally broadcast weekly music TV show Countdown, which screened all of the band's early videos (beginning with their first Australian single release - "This Is Pop"); thanks to this interest, the group made two well-received tours there in 1979 and 1980.

Their second album Go 2, released later in 1978, featured a typewriter-text cover (designed by Hipgnosis) and early pressings were accompanied by a bonus disc Go +, a collection of dub mixes of songs from the album. Following its release, Barry Andrews left the group; the group initially sought a new keyboard player and Thomas Dolby was among those who auditioned) but they eventually selected guitarist and keyboardist Dave Gregory. Andrews went on to form Shriekback and also worked with Robert Fripp's League of Gentlemen.

Coinciding with Gregory's arrival, XTC scored their first charting single in the UK with "Life Begins at the Hop", which was also the first XTC single penned by Colin Moulding. The replacement of Andrews' keyboard playing with Gregory's 1980s-influenced guitar style steered the band on a path towards a more traditional rock sound; Gregory also contributed occasional keyboards (and later, string arrangements). Their third album Drums and Wires contained the band's first major hit single "Making Plans for Nigel" (another Moulding composition), which caused a minor controversy because of its lyrical reference to British Steel. Drums and Wires also marked their first sessions at London's Townhouse Studios. The studio was at the time much sought after for its highly reverberant "live" drum room, and it was greatly favoured by their producer Steve Lillywhite and his engineer Hugh Padgham, who were at that time also creating influential recordings with Peter Gabriel and Genesis. The Lillywhite-Padgham connection also led to Dave Gregory contributing to Gabriel's third solo album.

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