Tonight in the Music Club let’s wish a Happy Birthday to one of the UK’s cleverest pop song writers of the post punk era; Andy Partridge of XTC.
Born on this day, November 11th, in 1953 Andy formed his first band with fellow Swindon, Wiltshire UK teenagers Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers. After many band names and the edition of keyboard player Barry Andrews they settled on the name XTC.
Signed to Virgin in 1977, they recorded their first record, the 3D-EP, in the summer of that year.
The band would go on to have moderate success in the UK with their first 4 albums reaching the country’s Top 40 charts. Their 4th album, 1980’s Black Sea, was their first to crack the top 20. It was also their first album the break the US top 100, reaching to 41 on the Billboard album charts of that year.
Their following album, 1982’s English Settlement, was destined to break the band huge in North America but following memory loss and limb seizures happening on stage due to the chronic stage fright Partridge had always suffered from the band had to cancel a big North American tour they had just embarked on. This caused them to lose steam in grabbing the attention by a budding American audience. Save for the rare TV appearances and the acoustic sets they did as a tour of American radio stations in 1989, XTC has never performed live since.
The band continued as a studio based project, building a strong cult following and releasing 7 more albums over the next thirteen years as well as two albums under their psychedelic rock pseudonym the Dukes Of Stratosphear.
XTC's last album of new material, Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2), was released in 2000. In 2006 Partridge gave several interviews about the future of the band. Stating that bandmate Colin Moulding was no longer had interest in writing, performing or even playing music he could not and would not continue the band without him.
Tonight, let's go back to when the band was brand new. From their first EP in 1977 here's "Science Friction."
What are you listening to tonight?
