Chalkhills, Number 190

               Wednesday, 18 December 1991
Today's Topics:
                 Barry on the Go 2 Cover
                       Tribute tape
                   XTC cover by Primus
                   Limelight Interviews

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From: wilson@psylo.enet.dec.com
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 91 11:44:21 PST
Subject: Barry on the Go 2 Cover

What is Barry Andrews drinking on the cover of Go 2? Looks like
some kind of ale or beer, but the print on my CD is so
small, I can't tell the brand.

* * * * *

I have a 3-inch U.S. CD of Mayor of Simpleton b/w One of the Millions.

I played it a few days ago and it STILL gets stuck at the
very end of One of the Millions; as in, "He's always
saying what he's gonna d-d-d-d-d-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o." Can anyone
who knows about CDs help with this problem. I don't play it
much but I's still like to fix it. Would cleaning it help?

Wes

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Date: 15 Dec 91 19:36:40 EST
From: Eric Singer <70323.3013@compuserve.com>
Subject: Tribute tape

Ok, so here's the deal.  I have mastering capabilities (digital editing
hardware/software on the Mac, DAT machine) to compile a master tape from
cassettes.  I also have a friend at a tape dupe place, so I can get tapes made
for pretty cheap.  However, I don't have a hell of a lot of free time.

So - If someone wants to handle the administrative end of things (collecting
tapes, sending me the batch, finding out how many people want copies, etc.),
I'll master and dupe the project.  Any volunteers, contact me on the board
and/or at <70323.3013@compuserve.com>, and we can work out the details.

(And Chalkhillian Dan Weir, I'll expect a contribution from you.)

-Eric Singer

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Subject: XTC cover by Primus
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 91 22:46:25 -0800
From: bmacdona@bonnie.ics.uci.edu

   I was doing a radio show not too long ago (December 13th, 1991) and
 a friend of mine calls me up (My friend and I are both RABID XTC fans)
 and tells me that he heard on KCRW 89.9fM (In Santa Monica, CA) the
 song "Making Plans for Nigel" covered by none other than Primus!

  For those uninitiated, Primus is a VERY popular punkfunk band who come
 off as a mix between King Crimson, punk, and metal.  The lyricist and
 bass player Les Claypool provide for more-than-animatory lyrics which
 help the songs bring forth a clear and outright goofy clay-mation video
 projection in your brain when listening to the songs.

 I know they mentioned being influenced by everyone from Foetus to the
 Grateful Dead to Frank Zappa to older XTC.  So I take this cover to be
 a payment in homage to the great threesome themselves (That's the
 three some known as XTC, NOT Primus that I'm referring to, to avoid
 confusion.)

 This is supposedly of the promo single of "Tommy the Cat" by Primus.

 I was wondering if ANYONE else know about this? Is this available on
 CD? If it is, and you have it, can I be your VERY VERY BEST FRIEND?

                               Brian "K!z!K" MacDonald
                             Marketing Director and DJ -- KUCI 88.9fM
                                                          in Irvine.

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Date: Wed, 18 Dec 91 18:39:24 PST
From: "John M. Relph" <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Limelight Interviews

Hello Chalkhillsians,

Marcus Deininger <deining@bruessel.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de> sent
in some stuff from some old issues of Limelight, the UK XTC Fanzine.
I'll be posting this stuff over the next few issues of Chalkhills,
unless there is an enormous outcry.  Here's what Marcus has to say
about it:

    a few years ago, I tried to order the Limelight fanzine on a
    regular base, but it was to difficult to get. I only did
    receive the first four issues (released in 1982/83). With a
    little help from our scanner, I squeezed the interesting parts
    into an ascii-file, which I thought the Chalkhills members
    might find also interesting. I put together all the interviews
    and left off all the fan-chatter, so this is the essential
    information from Limelight No.1 - 3 (I have left out No. 4,
    which is completely devoted to Dave Gregory and tells the
    story of his life - maybe I have time to scan this at a later
    date)

    I know you are always a little reserved about releasing
    fanzine-stuff like this, and I agree, we should suport them
    strongly by buying their fanzines but as I said before I do
    have only these four issues (so I will not start scanning
    Limelight regurlarly) and they are 10 years old by now - so
    nobody gets hurt.

    What follows are:

    Interview with XTC, Limelight Issue 1, Spring 1982
    Interview with Andy Partridge, Limelight Issue 2, Autumn 1982
    Andy Partridge Comments Take Away, Limelight Issue 2, Autumn 1982
    XTC History, Limelight Issue 2, Autumn 1982
    Mummer Preview and Interview, Limelight Issue 3, Spring 1983
    Interview with Andy Partridge, Limelight Issue 3, Spring 1983
    Interview with Andy Partridge about Terry Chambers departure,
      Limelight Issue 3, Spring 1983

    Enjoy, Marcus

------------------------------------------------------------

Interview with XTC, Limelight Issue 1, Spring 1982

Limelight: When did you write your first song or poem?

Colin: I've never written a poem.

(I'll have to have a go in the future.)  Wrote my first song about a year
before the first album came out.  It was terrible.  It was called "I Can't
Last Another Day" (arf, arf).  It was a real sickly love song.  I'm glad
there's no evidence of it on any of the albums.

Limelight: How do you feel about the music that XTC is playing at any
one time?

Colin: Our music is basically made up of four personalities.  The music
will always be dependent on what these people are going through at any
one particular time.

I thought that we were at possibly our most creative after Barry left.  I
felt that we were a bit roped in to begin with, because we were a very
naive group from Swindon.  But after the second album we began to find our
musical feet.  I think it's gone from strength to strength.  Just pray the
next album sells millions.

Limelight: Does your past material inspire you to do more?

Colin: Past music does inspire me to do more because of the successes
we've had.  "Making Plans For Nigel" inspired me to write other things.
If I kept on having flop after flop, I'd probably think that there was
something amiss and give up.  It's the success that prompts you -- it's an
incentive to continue writing songs.

Limelight: Did you meet and discuss with the artist before he painted
the Swindon mural?

Colin: The Swindon mural was done when we were on tour by a local chap
called Ken White.  He also painted the outside wall of the Townhouse
Studios in London.  He is good friends with Richard Branson and Simon
Draper at Virgin.  It was done from an old photograph.  If you ever come
to Swindon you'll see that it was a 1977/78 photo and where Barry is
they've put Dave's head over the top.  It looks ludicrous now -- like a
two-headed human being.

Limelight: Were you an XTC fan before you joined the group and were you
nervous about living up to the band's reputation?

Dave: Someone asked me this question in Australia and I told them that I
was the fan who caught the ultimate drumstick!

My fandom 'proper' probably began in a dressing room in Swindon in
September 1974 with Partridge bending my ears with his ludicrous guitar
phrases.  But it wasn't just his guitar playing that impressed me it was
his songs, lyrics, painting, cartoon drawings and above all his sense of
humour.  No-one can make me laugh as much as Partridge and it's this gift
that keeps the band's peckers up on the most gruelling of tour schedules.
I know of no-one more abundantly talented than Andy Partridge.

By 1976 I was catching every gig I could that the band played locally.
Even after the band was signed, Andy would call me up when they weren't
touring and I'd take a guitar over to his flat and we'd jam around or
exchange records that we'd "discovered".  I can still remember him playing
me the rough mixes of "GO 2" on one such evening and milking me for
opinions about which should be included on the album.  I was always the
first in Kempster's Music Shop to buy the latest XTC product, a fact borne
out by a full collection in original picture sleeves.  I was very nervous
about living up to the band's reputation I wasn't even sure that I was
going to be able to mould my more conventional guitar style into their
wiry music.  Also I feared the "fans of Barry" who would obviously blame
me, not the band, for changing the style of the music.  It didn't seem to
bother the others in the slightest.

Limelight: Would you like to write for XTC?

Dave: In every band I was ever in I wrote something.  I have trouble with
lyrics though.  I don't feel any compulsion to write for the band, as a)
the others have never had call to ask me to, b) two prolific songwriters
in one band is enough (ask Barry) and c) whatever I wrote I'd have to sing
-- and I can't sing.

Limelight: Do you still own your first instrument?

Andy: No.  my first instruments were really awful.  I had a Singapore
guitar called a "Swalee Golden Tone" over which I stuck lots of glam-rock
stickers and stuff.  I've had total crap as far as guitars go.  I've
either sold them or had them nicked.  I've never really owned my
instruments and even now they're all bought by our production company.

Colin: No.  My first bass guitar was a semi-acoustic Shaftsbury
Rickenbacker copy with a sunburst finish on it.  Not a Gibson or a Fender;
that was the ultimate, but more than I could afford at the time.  I bought
the guitar on hire purchase, so I sold it and put it as a downpayment on
my first Fender guitar.  I sometimes wish that I still had it because it
did have a nice tone to it.

Dave: Terry Jackson bought back my old "Rosetti" from Rod Sheppard for #8
(Pounds Sterling) and still has it, although it hasn't had a of set of
strings for years and the pop-art finish has long gone.

Terry: No.  The first kit I had was good to learn on, but I soon found that
it was not up to a lot of hard work such as getting it in and out of vans.
It was a "Broadway" kit, not to be found in the shops any longer.

Limelight: Do you have a complete XTC collection?

Terry: No.

Dave: All except the 10" "Guillotine" album and "Too Many Cooks".

Andy: No.  There are some obscure things that I just don't have -- in
fact, I don't even have a "Respectable Street" single.

Colin: No.  I'm forever giving away the albums to friends who know I can
get them free.  Consequently my XTC catalogue isn't up to scratch.

Limelight: Have you any favourites from your own material?

Colin: I have quite a few favourites.  I think that "Respectable Street" is
one of XTC's best and obviously I like "Making Plans for Nigel" and
"Generals And Majors".  I don't like Andy's love songs, I think he writes a
better "meaningful" song.  I think songs like "Helicopter" and "Rocket From
a Bottle" are a bit light-weight.  I like it when he turns on the
heaviness.

Andy: I have on-and-off favourites.  From the last album my favourite
track was "Burning with Optimism's Flames", because it always made
me feel good inside in a stupid, naive sort of way when I heard it.  I used
to like "I'm Bugged" a lot; not for the sentiment of the song, which was
really just ludicrous, but rather for the texture and syncopation of the
music.  I like some of the more obscure things such as "Pulsing, Pulsing"
which is one that I occasionally grip on to, although I don't think that
I've got a copy of it.

Of Colin's, I used to like "Heatwave" the best and then "Making Plans for
Nigel" but then again, ninety per cent of the musical idea was mine and
so I felt personally involved with it a great deal.

[ ... to be continued ... ]

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A seasonal welcome to new subscribers James A. Flournoy
and will kreth.

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