XTC thread
 

Can't find a thread on here for this remarkable band, so I decided to start one. What's your favorite XTC song? Ever see them live? Unfortunately, I didn't see them before they stopped touring. I had a chance to but passed it up. Such is life.

I was a little late to the party when it comes to XTC. This is the first song I ever heard by them. It's still my favorite:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_IQHuGroIk

i like this band

They certainly deserved to be more successful than they were. Any partiucular songs or albums of theirs you especially like?

i love english settlement and skylarking, the early stuff is really zany too i love that. need to listen to more of them

I first heard XTC around 1979 or 80 when I was scanning the FM dial and found a local college radio station which happened to play "Life Begins at the Hop." I went out and bought their first 3 albums at a local record shop, shortly afterwards. Mind-blowing level of musical talent. Even though they're fairly well-known by now, I've always thought they deserve more recognition than they've had over the years. Probably my second all-time favorite pop/rock group next to the Beatles.

Yeah, those first three albums were amazing. Hard to say exactly why they didn't get more recognition. It could very well be their decision to stop touring. Back in the day, I noticed that in some US cities, they were starting to book them into somewhat larger venues--those shows were cancelled. Maybe some people were put off by Andy Partridge's voice. He wrote the majority of the songs and had a less conventional voice than Colin Moulding.

I always wished that Barry Andrews would have stayed in the band an written more songs. Here's one of his from the Go2 album:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4ugu5oQCBg



Some may find the lyrics a bit offensive. That's not my intent in posting the tune. But here's another Andrews tune from Go2:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u77DocKI04

I haven’t been impressed by Ken Jennings’ tenure as the host of the TV game show Jeopardy. But when XTC was the correct response to one of the clues on tonight’s edition of the show (none of the three contestants got it), Jennings proclaimed the band was “one of my favorites.” Maybe Ken isn’t such a bad guy after all. Wonder what his favorite XTC album is? My guess: Skylarking.

I'm surprised there's not more love for XTC here, but then most of the crowd here doesn't seem to want to look too far outside the mainstream. Which is unfortunate because XTC wrote some fantastic pop music. The last thing that really made me happy was Andy Partridge's 2019 collaboration with Robyn Hitchcock - the Planet England EP. Great stuff.

I didn't know about that Planet England EP. I'll have to give it a listen.

I love it. Hitchcock does most of the vocals, but Partridge is definitely in there and you can't mistake his song production. I'd post a link, but MB won't let me yet because I'm still a "newbie." Check Utube for "Turn Me On Deadman" from the EP.

What are you favorite XTC albums?

I really need to hear that Hitchcock/Partridge record. Hitchcock will be playing in my area on March 1 and I'll be there, barring some emergency.

Favorite albums... Black Sea, Drums & Wires, English Settlement... Skylarking has its moments. I like their early '80s punk-pop stuff the best.