Video, Vintage Video — August 5, 2010 at 9:17 am

Vintage Video: ‘XTC at the Manor,’ 1980 BBC doc about recording ‘Towers of London’

On Aug. 24, 1980, the members of XTC set up at Richard Branson’s Manor Studio to record another version of “Towers of London,” a track destined to be the second single off the band’s just-completed, but not-yet-released album Black Sea — a weekend session captured for posterity 30 years ago in this hour-long documentary called “XTC at the Manor.”

The program — seen in the playlist above, or by individual segment at Slicing Up Video — aired Oct. 10, 1980, on BBC2 and examines, in great detail, the band’s creative process. As the doc’s narrator says in the introduction, “It will take them the best part of three days to record four minutes of music, and this program is a condensation of that working weekend and of the multilayered process of creating the sound.”

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One Comment

  1. This is a brilliant little slice of XTC history that is yet one more reminder that these guys rank with the best of them. Andy’s summation is priceless. Thanks to all concerned for posting this program.

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