XTC: The Never-Ending Obituary
Published on July 30th, 2009 in: Issues, Music, Over the Gadfly's Nest |But the band still does not tour. They do a “radio tour,” which is a bit like going on a cable-public-access tour: nobody really gives a shit except for the handful of local fans who trek down to the radio station to get their memorabilia autographed. The band serves up acoustic-only versions of tunes and Partridge fires off witticisms. Amidst that time, they go on Letterman, with the laconic Moulding being thrust in the limelight, while Partridge stays in the back and bobs his head along with the terminally unhip Paul Shaeffer.
This taste of success is squandered with the release of the under-promoted Nonsuch in 1992, which marks the death knell of the relationship between XTC and their label Virgin. Royalty disputes abound, a cadre of lawyers are called in, and the band proceeds to go “on strike” for much of the ’90s. What nobody informed Andy Partridge about is that if the coal mine stops producing, then the average person goes looking for fuel elsewhere. In fact, coal becomes a quaint resource.
This is not to diminish his and his mates’ gargantuan talents, but it speaks volumes to the fact that there was a certain lack of understanding here. The band had attained a tenuous-but privileged career position and somehow could not see their way around capitalizing on it (in the way that Prefab Sprout had, although genius Paddy McAloon seems to suffer from a similar malaise). During their “strike,” stories leak out about Andy shuffling onstage drunk and in slippers at a local dive to back up a band. Hopes pitter-pat from the faithful, while a whole new generation says, “Who he?”
1999 and 2000 respectively see the release of Apple Venus Volume 1 and Wasp Star: Apple Venus Volume 2, the orchestral work and the rock work, respectively. These albums mark the end of XTC. Dave Gregory leaves during the recording of the first volume, unable to take Andy’s domineering personality. And post-2000, Colin Moulding throws his towel in as well (apparently going so far at one point, as to move house with his family and not inform Andy where he had gone). Andy Partridge’s smart-assery culminated in his “Ask Andy” column (the equivalent of John Lennon opting to become Ann Landers) in 2008. When asked about the possibility of working with Colin again, he wrote:
“Yes I believe my musical partnership with Colin Moulding has come to an end. For reasons too personal and varied to go into here, but we had a good run as they say and produced some real good work. No, I won’t be working with him in the future. Wear something white at night.”
—Swindon Advertiser, July 30 2008
As an ersatz minister presiding over the grave of XTC, I can only say that it’s been a wild ride being an XTC fan. In some respects, it might be easier to become a fan while they are a museum piece because one doesn’t have to constantly wonder, like an over-anxious parent, if they’re going to come back home safely every time they go out. Now as Mr. Partridge enters his silver years, post-XTC, I somehow imagine him trundling up to the local pub in slippers again, a bit soused, brain unloading madcap jokes and barbs to anyone who will listen or buy him a drink. I can only hope that he eventually takes control of and places as much importance on XTC’s musical legacy as others have, rather than placing the history above the bar like an old trophy.
Pages: 1 2
5 Responses to “XTC: The Never-Ending Obituary”
July 31st, 2009 at 11:00 am
Great article John! I love XTC and it’s a shame they never quite made it bigger then they deserved. For a long time Skylarking was my favourite too but I recently gave Apple Venus Vol.1 a spin and I have to concede that’s (IMO) their best album.
I don’t know if you are aware Andy now has his own label Ape Records.
Here’s a recent interview with Andy
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_popmachine/2009/05/the-ever-melodic-adventurous-underappreciated-british-band-xtc-had-just-come-off-1984s-coolly-digital-low-selling-th.html
It’s not very encouraging for those who want more Partridge material..
“Well, I’m going to be truthful with you. I’ve written so many songs in the last handful of years that I just haven’t felt the need to finish them up. I just have literally about 350 parts of songs that I’m kind of thinking, well, what do I need to finish these up for? I’m wrestling with my attitude to music at the moment. I rather like being an enabler and running the Ape label and being the sleeve designer and the A&R man and all that kind of thing. But as far as my own music goes, I’m really wrestling with: Does anybody need any more songs from me? Do we need a lot of the music that’s out there? We don’t. But it’s that human desire to [dump] everywhere, isn’t it”
July 31st, 2009 at 11:48 am
Thank you, Rob!
And thanks for the link to the recent Andy interview – sort of sad to read, actually.
>>PM: Is Colin there? Do you run into each other at the grocery store?
Partridge: No, he lives about three or four miles out of town in a village outside the town. We just seem to send each other irate e-mails.
July 31st, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Great piece, bro. Lots of sharp references, my favorite (which you knew as you wrote it) being the buck-toothed record store dude. LOL!
The story of XTC highlights the timeless love-hate relationship between tyrnants and Bands (capital B). A tyrant needs the Band at first to pose, falsely, as a member rather than as the tyrant. And he needs the Band to go on the road and share the blame. At some point (like the Man Who Would Be King), the tyrant forsakes his Band, and wrests more and more control. Finally, he is alone and effectively dead. The hurtful irony seems to be that he, the tyrant, ultimately cared more for himself than for the illusion that made thousands (we wigh it was MILLIONS) of fans happy.
Luckily the best of the music remains to speak so well for itself, even as we followers believe there could have been so much more of it had it not been for X, Y or Z.
It’s hard to take the good with the bad in art, especially when you identify so closely with a work, and wish there was more. After I saw Immortal Beloved – a terrible movie telling a nonetheless important story, I lay awake that night wondering if Beethoven might never have written the 9th symphony if his father hadn’t beat him up. I guess the watered-down XTC version of that would be: if Andy had just stayed commercial in 1982 and not flipped out, would we never have been gifted the riches that so perfectly capped off the XTC collection?
August 1st, 2009 at 11:56 am
Good, prescient points, Mat.
August 9th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Thanks for the post. I only discovered XTC accidentally 2 years ago when a bandmate played Senses Working Overtime on acoustic. I thought that was wicked. I later found out that I have some of their stuffs all along, Skylarking and Apple Venus, but they were labeled Andy Partridge by my dad for some reason. I stayed away thinking it was some country, folk stuffs that I never really dig..
Do I feel sorry for a super-talented band for not being as huge as they were supposed to? Not really. I never really dig that whole Andy Partridge breakdown, refusing to tour because of stage-fright thing, blah blah blah. As a member of a band, I can be happy to have even just a pinch of Andy’s genius, and for him putting to waste those 350 unfinished songs is just so damn tragic. I really feel sorry for Coulin Molding and co. who obviously do not share Andy’s views. Do I want them to reform? Hell Yeah! It would be nice if they perform even for one last moment just to give closure to their bewildered fans.
Time limit is exhausted. Please reload the CAPTCHA.