For this week’s “120 Minutes” Rewind, we take a trip back to 1988 for an “120 X Ray” segment on the legendary XTC, filmed during the band’s recording sessions for Oranges & Lemons, which would be released the following year. In this clip (via MrPhilrand), we get a bit of insight into the recording process.
For this week’s installment of Vintage Video, we present a delightfully odd clip of XTC members Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding tucked away in bed (a sleeper sofa, to be precise), where they are being interviewed by onetime Utopia keyboardist Moogy Klingman and Lisa Yapp for New York a cable-access TV show.
XTC mastermind Andy Partridge took to Twitter this morning to announce that the band’s 1992 album Nonsuch will receive a new 5.1 Surround mix by Steven Wilson, the frontman for prog-rock act Porcupine Tree who has worked on remasters for King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Jethro Tull in recent years.
XTC’s Andy Partridge has re-teamed with singer-songwriter Peter Blegvad for a follow-up to the duo’s 2004 album ‘Orpheus: The Lowdown,’ and are previewing the record — titled ‘Gonwards’ — with a video for the track “Sacred Objects.” The song features lyrics and vocals from Blegvard set to music by Partridge and Stu Rowe.
Welcome to the Week in Rock, where we round up all of the headlines posted on this site over the past week. This edition includes items about Dinosaur Jr, XTC, The English Beat, The Dream Syndicate, The Cure, Peter Murphy, The Stone Roses, The Replacements, Dead Can Dance, Elvis Costello and more.
For this week’s installment of Vintage Video, we bring you another classic performance filmed for the German TV show ‘Rockpalast’ — this time a full 70-minute concert by XTC filmed in 1982, just two months before the band would play its last-ever tour date before retiring as a live act due to Andy Partridge’s stage fright.
This week’s link round-up includes celeb chef Jamie Oliver finding old Joy Division and New Order master tapes in a Manchester basement, plus XTC’s Andy Partridge on ‘English Settlement,’ Jerry Harrison pining for a Talking Heads reunion and a Kickstarter campaign to fund a second volume of Smiths-inspired comics.
EMI this week released the first in a new series of Peel Sessions compilations, a 2CD set called ‘Movement: BBC Radio 1 Peel Sessions 1977–1979′ that compiles recordings by 41 different punk, post-punk, reggae and 2 Tone acts including Joy Division, XTC, The Jam, Simple Minds, The Specials, Public Image Ltd. and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
The celebrated third album from dancefloor-ready post-punk act Shriekback — 1985′s ‘Oil and Gold,’ featuring signature song ‘Nemesis’ — will be reissued next week in the band’s native U.K. as a 2CD set featuring a remastered edition of the original album and a bonus disc with 10 B-sides and live tracks,
The classic third album from XTC — 1979′s ‘Drums and Wires’ — appears to be next in line to receive an audiophile vinyl pressing following last year’s ‘Skylarking’ reissue, which was ‘corrected’ and re-released ‘as it was intended to sound, but never has.’
British record producer Martin Rushent — who helmed The Human League’s genre-defining 1981 album ‘Dare,’ as well as beloved post-punk/New Wave-era records and singles by The Stranglers, Buzzcocks, XTC, The Go-Go’s and more — died Saturday. He was 63.
This week’s new CDs include a huge new box set from Orange Juice, plus reissues from XTC, Nine Inch Nails, Heaven 17, Robyn Hitchcock and The Fall, as well as the U.S. release of Killing Joke’s new album and a special U2 EP tied to Record Store Day.
To commemorate XTC frontman Andy Partridge’s 57th birthday today, we present this three-song live session — recorded May 16, 1989, at MTV in New York — that finds the rarely touring trio playing two songs off the just-released ‘Oranges & Lemons,’ plus “Blue Beret,” a then-unreleased outtake.
Andy Partridge this week unveiled the restored cover art — featuring close-up photos of men’s and women’s flower-adorned pubic hair — planned for the forthcoming double-vinyl reissue of XTC’s 1986 album ‘Skylarking.’
This afternoon, the Andy Partridge-run Ape House Records offered an update on the forthcoming double-vinyl reissue of XTC’s 1986 album ‘Skylarking,’ declaring the new corrected edition of the album ‘is about 30 percent better sounding than any previously heard.’
The first two solo albums by former Ultravox frontman Midge Ure — 1985′s ‘The Gift’ and 1988′s ‘Answers to Nothing’ — are set to be reissued next month in expanded 2CD editions, each featuring digitally remastered versions of the original albums and a full contingent of B-sides, mixes and live tracks, some of which are previously unreleased.
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 in the hour-long documentary ‘XTC at the Manor.’
Former XTC figurehead Andy Partridge this week releases ‘Powers,’ a 12-track, limited-edition album featuring ‘aural sculptures’ inspired by the late sci-fi book-jacket artist Richard M. Powers. Hear audio samples from the album.
XTC’s Andy Partridge today announced the band will reissue 1986′s ‘Skylarking’ on double vinyl ‘as it was intended to sound, but never has due to human error.’ No release date has been announced, nor plans for another CD reissue.
