Chalkhills, Number 165

                   Monday, 1 July 1991
Today's Topics:
                  the little express...
                           oops
                     The White Horse
              Look Look; Great Fires Burning
                    Re: Boomtown Rats
                   Diskografi questions
                      New purchases

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Date:     Sun, 16 Jun 91 20:42:15 EST
From: the big leap <woiccare@pebbles.sct.clarkson.edu>
Subject:  the little express...
Organization:  fegmaniax anonymous, inc.

...in _request_? yup, in the letters column of the latest _request_ magazine
(sam goody's in store rag), there is a letter of praise from june to
_request's_ editors. after saying how much her and her friends like it, she
drops the loaded sentence, "congratulations on a job well done, and we'll look
forward to perhaps seeing a feature piece on xtc".

listened the _the big express_ for the first time in a while today. i still can
not believe that people don't get inspired by this work. "seagulls screaming"
still flattens me every time...

incidentially, the first posies album, _failure_, is now available on cd from
pop llama (i think that's the label it's on anyways). get it - it's much better
than their newer record...

woj

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Subject: oops
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 91 8:08:53 EDT
From: J Ross MacKay <ross@ray.grdl.noaa.gov>

Ross MacKay <ross@ray.grdl.noaa.gov> writes:
>New Album News from Little Express Spring/Fall '91
                                           ^^^^
er uh, make that ......................... Summer
Talk about your seasons changing :-)

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Date:         Tue, 18 Jun 91 17:24:00 EDT
From: Kevin Xhiscock <XHISCOCK@nas.bitnet>
Subject:      The White Horse

Can anyone provide information on the topography depicted on the cover of
_English Settlement_? Where is it? What are the rumours of how it came to be?
etc.

thanks

pooh

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Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 04:58:34 PDT
From: "WES WILSON, PKO3-2/T12, 223-4891" <wilson@psylo.enet.dec.com>
Subject: Look Look; Great Fires Burning

Hello everyone,

Thanks to a reader of this conference, I managed to get myself a
copy of Look Look (the Virgin video compilation).

Although the videos are fairly low budget, I find most of them
amusing and fun! I recall someone pointed out that Andy resembles
the Joker in the Batman movie - yes, I noticed that too. Makes me
wonder if Andy, with his comics background, did that intentionally.

Colin reminds me a little of Kevin McHale of the Boston Celtics! And
Terry Chambers does look a little like Griffin Dunne...yeah, it's
fun stuff.

*******

Has anyone noticed how many XTC songs mention fire? Just about
every album has a song about the purifying qualities of fire, the
burning of one's heart...even "Miniature Sun" is a song about fire.

Just an observation...

Wes

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From: hvgtw!dhgpa!adkoning@hvlpb.att.com
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 91 13:25 MDT
Subject: Re: Boomtown Rats

Ron Reall <rrrst7@icarus.lis.pitt.edu> wrote about the Boomtown Rats' song
She's So Modern as possibly being a reply to XTC's She's So Square:

- X-plaining XTC part 1 (thanks again John!) mentions demo's recorded by XTC
  (probably still called "Helium Kidz" then) early 1976, one of them being
  She's So Square.

- She's So Square was first released on single (on the back of Science
  Friction) in October 1977.

- Boomtown Rats's first album was released in 1977 (according to my Dutch
  Pop Encyclopedia).
  That book also says an early version of the Boomtown Rats was founded in
  1976.

Those are some facts. Before I looked these facts up, I was playing with the
idea that She's So Square could be a sarcastic parody on She's So Modern; it
looks like that isn't so. Does anyone else have more exact info?

By the way, I don't see too much resemblance between the two songs (I must
confess I haven't heard She's So Modern for years, I sold the lp). I guess
much of the resemblance you hear is caused by the "punk/new wave" label that
both bands had in those days (with or without their approval).

Hope this helped.

-- Andre de Koning

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Date: Tue, 25 Jun 91 16:19:00 EST
From: telly!masnet!rose!mark.laforge@zoo.toronto.edu
Subject: Diskografi questions

Thanks a lot for sending the missed chalkhills (site one up from us
was dead for a week) and the discography.

A couple of questions about some of the discography listings:

>  8. Skylarking
>     o. LP/CT/CD, Virgin Japan, VJL-111/VJT-111/VJD-11, 9 March 1988.
>           limited edition reissue.

What makes this release limited edition?  There are Japanese releases
of Skylarking both before and after this version.  Does this version
have extra tracks, different versions of songs, extra inserts (ie. a
small packet of Colin's toenail clippings)???  Or is it just a
different catalog number?

> 33. Mayor of Simpleton
>     h. CD-5, Virgin UK, 662 021 211 (VSCDT 1158), 1989.

I have only seen the 3" UK version.  Was the 5" version available to
the public or was it just a promo item?  Does this disc have the same
track listing as the 3" version?

P.S.--- A few people had contacted me about purchasing copies of the
Canadian Skylarking CD ($18 US) and the Look Look VHS video collection
($27 US).  Since the site one up from me went down for a week a number
of my replies were most likely lost.  Anyone still interested in
obtaining either of these items can do so by send a post office money
order in US funds to me at the address listed in my signature below.

Mark LaForge
p.o. box 156, adelaide st., toronto, ontario, canada  m5c 2j1
-------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: lsuc!canrem!mark.laforge@zoo.toronto.edu
      or: telly!masnet!rose!mark.laforge@zoo.toronto.edu

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Date: Mon, 1 Jul 91 1:50:46 PDT
From: "John M. Relph" <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: New purchases

I finally located a copy of _Leggy Mambo_ by Cud (produced by Dave
Gregory).  A decent album, slightly rough pop stuff.  "Robinson Crusoe"
and "Magic" are good tracks.  "Magic" seems to have seen some airplay in
the UK.  "Magic" has good lyrics, nice melody, and a good remix on the
single.  Cud is apparently one of the few bands that John Peel considers
having retained their trueness or purity and is consistently interesting
musically.  Not that John Peel is necessarily any authority...

I also found a copy of the Virgin _X-ampler_ CD.  XTC is represented by
the track "Season Cycle", from _Skylarking_.  Brian Eno, David Sylvian,
Mike Oldfield, and others also have cuts on this "low-priced" CD.

No other news to report.

	-- John

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Greetings to new subscribers Dave Criddle, Tim Szeliga,
Mario Medina, Al (BLx) Kolman, Joseph Holmes, and Barry
Parris.

For all administrative issues, such as change of address,
withdrawal from the list, fan club addresses, discography
requests (last update 28 June), back issues, etc., send a
message to the following address:

	<chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org>

All views expressed in Chalkhills are those of the
individual contributors only.  And love is hell.

---

Go back to Volume 1.

1 July 1991 / Feedback