Chalkhills, Number 232

                  Tuesday, 28 July 1992
Today's Topics:
              real real nonesuch impressions
                    Quest for the Book
                    XTC in the Charts
                    Another XTC dream
                   Dear God/Homo Safari
                  LIVE??!! and PRODUCERS
                    Peter and the Roof
            The Mayor of Simpleton 12" single
                     XTC info hunger
                 XTC Nonsvch Party Report

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Subject: real real nonesuch impressions
From: ine@west.darkside.com (Re Ine)
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 92 12:57:19 PDT
Organization: The Dark Side of the Moon +1 408 245 SPAM

Now I have really done justice listening to Nonesuch, and I like it
a lot!  Oranges & Lemons had things that made it unlistenable on
a regular basis, and Nonesuch has none of those, which is the first
good sign, and there are many many things about it that make me want
to listen to it.  I am tempted to program out Peter Pumpkinhead,
Smartest Monkeys, Disappointed, and Humble Daisy because I have heard
them so much, on the radio and the Disappointed single, and I'm not
too crazy about Crocodile or Books are Burning... but the rest is
absolutely great.. not revelationary the way Skylarking is, but ranking
with the best of their fun pop, like the Dukes album, or the Big Express.

Then She Appeared and Wrapped in Grey are my favorite songs probably,
and Bungalow is good...
the "luxury accomodation hides the sun (ah ah ahhh)" is very good..
all of Guy Barker's trumpets seem to be kind of a new element for
them, and i like the element..
all in all, a very good, authentic album with a lot of good songs!
--
I've been listening to Brian Eno's Before and After Science album,
and I noticed that on the mellow side, Dave Mattacks drums on the
first track "Here He Comes"...
---
then she ap peareddddd
ter  ror ris ummmmmmm
happy AAAI!

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Subject: Quest for the Book
From: unkaphaed!phaedrus@cs.utexas.edu (James Hartman, Sysop)
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 92 02:25:59 GMT
Organization: Unka Phaed's UUCP Thingy

I've been searching far and wide in the Whoston area for The Book.
Even though this is a FAQ, please please please can someone send me the
correct title, author, and ISBN number of this puppy?  None of the chains
can locate "XTC" or "Chalkhills and Children" or even "XTC: Chalkhills and
Children," and the last thing any "Toomey" wrote was eons ago...  Sigh.
--
phaedrus@unkaphaed.UUCP (James Hartman, Sysop)
Unka Phaed's UUCP Thingy, (713) 943-2728
1200/2400/9600/14400 v.32bis/v.42bis

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Subject: XTC in the Charts
Date: 20 Jul 92 08:52:01 GMT
From: "John M. Relph" <relph@presto.ig.com>

As of Thursday, 16 July 1992, XTC's album "Nonsuch" was number 42,
down from last week's number 35, after seven weeks on the Georgia
Straight Top 50, from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  The
Georgia Straight Top 50 is a weekly survey of the best-selling albums
in the Greater Vancouver area, based primarily on record sales charts
provided by major retailers, and modified by chart trend indicators
such as new singles, releases, radio airplay charts and add-ons, and
trade magazine charts.  Chalkhills has no affiliation whatsoever to
this chart.  Thanks to Trent J Jakubec <jakubec@mprgate.mpr.ca> for
this info.

As of the week ending 12 July 1992, XTC's single "The Disappointed"
was at number 35, up from last week's number 42 (interesting
coincidence, that), after two weeks on the Australian Top 20 Singles
Chart as compiled by ARIA (The Australian Record Industry Association
Ltd.).  As of the week ending 19 July 1992, XTC's album "Non-Such"
(sic) was predicted to hit the Australian Top 20 Albums Chart as
compiled by ARIA (The Australian Record Industry Association Ltd.).
Thanks to Robert Pearson <pearson_r@maths.su.oz.au> for this info.

On the WQAX 100.3 Cable FM Chart for the Week of 7/20 -- 7/27, XTC
appeared at number 16 (I don't know if this is requests, album, or
cuts).  Thanks to Sid <mwilkenf@silver.ucs.indiana.edu> for this
information.

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Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 11:53:02 PDT
From: "John M. Relph" <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Another XTC dream

Woe!  I had another XTC dream.  Actually, it was more of an XTC shopping
dream.  I dreamt I was in a record store of some sort, and I was looking
around and I found a big XTC collectors book!  It was perhaps 11" by 14" and
.75" thick (sorry, I don't do metric in my dreams), lots of glossy photos of
strange XTC collectibles.  So of course I HAD to get it.  I took it up to the
counter to pay, and I pulled out a pocketful of change, but it was all foreign
coinage, including some very heavy oblong pieces, all bronze-like.  The
cashier was apologising as if I had received those coins in change from him
earlier.  In any case, now I had paid for the book, and had it in a bag, but I
wanted to leave the bag there whilst I looked around further.  So I did, but
staircases later, I was trying to get back to that part of the shoppe and was
having much difficulty doing so.  And then I woke up so I could go to work and
send this message.

How odd.

	-- John

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Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 13:50:50 BST
From: Toby Howard <toby@computer-science.manchester.ac.uk>
Subject: Dear God/Homo Safari

Just picked up a new CD. Dear God, with Homo Safari 1 to 6 on it too.
Virgin CDEP3. Is this a new one for the discog?

Hey, can you postpone the San Francisco XTC party? :-) I'll be in SF from
11 August! Oh well...

Toby

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Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 09:42:24 CDT
From: tmeyer@sbcoc.com (Tom Meyer)
Subject: LIVE??!! and PRODUCERS

Hello Chalkhillians,

	As this is my first posting to the board, please be patient...

	I suppose it is a pre-requesite for every good XTC fan to list their
favorite albums, so here they are..(1) Skylarking (2) Black Sea (3) Drums and
Wires (4) English Settlement (5) Nonsuch.

	Now on to more pressing issues...I recently read in _Alternative
Press_ magazine that the band was in the negotiating stage of a proposed live,
electric performance, to take place in the MTV studios.  Calls to MTV have
yielded nothing.  Anyone out there have more info on this??

	Onward...Upon browsing the Chalkhills archives, there seems to be a lot
of talk about the producers that the band has enlisted over the years.  Various
sects look to have formed about the merits/demerits of these men.  My opinion
is this: Why do they even NEED an outside producer? Andy and Dave have both
produced the work of other artists, not to mention the various XTC pieces they
have had a hand in.  Who better to decide what they like and don't like? Why
shouldn't they be given a chance by Geffen(and I think that is the main
sticking point) to do their own thing?  If this happened, the band and fans
alike would no one to blame but you know who.  There would be no more
post-release sniping by Andy, no more abandonment by Messers Lillywhite and
Padgham, no more being locked out of the mixdown my Mr. Dudgeon, and no more
electronic catfighting by people like us(right!!).  I know there a certainly
reasons why a band might need an outsdide guy, but I think XTC have progressed
enough to realize what direction they really want the music take.  A John
Leckie may have been necessary in 1977, but not in 1992.

	Lastly, from the _something we'd all like to see_ catagory: Put Andy,
Elvis Costello, and Robyn Hitchcock in a studio, lock the door for a few days,
and see what(or who) emerges.  Combine Andy's wit, Costello's lyricysm and
Hitchcock's twisted insight and I think we all know what the result would
be: John Lennon!

	Breaking away..Anyone wishing to discuss the aforementioned Elvis,
Robyn or other bands like Husker Du/Bob Mould, Wire, They Might Be Giants,
Sonic Youth, Pixies, Mission of Burma/Roger Miller, or the Minutemen, feel free
to mail me at tmeyer@sbcoc.com.

Enough for Now,

Tom Meyer

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Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 13:30 CDT
From: Jill Strauss <JSTRAUSS@macc.wisc.edu>
Subject: Peter and the Roof

Something I found interesting:

"So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in
front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came,
bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could
not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him;
and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic
lay."              --Mark 2.2-4

"Where he spoke, it would raise the roof."
                   --"Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead"

Hmmmm. And I thought it merely rhymed.

The English major in me (who looks for things that quite possibly aren't there,
but who can write a 6-8 page paper on them anyway) also has a question: Is the
incredibly bad lip-synching at the end of the "Senses Working Overtime" video
intentional? I don't think it's as noticeable on the "Look Look" compilation,
but I remember watching MTV in its early days and almost being embarrassed by
how bad the lip-synching is at the end of "Senses" (those who taped Andy's
recent appearance on 120 Minutes can go back and verify). In fact, this could
have been a key to getting me interested in the band -- the mismatched mouthing
caught my attention, I felt embarrassed for the group but then wondered "Was
that intentional? 'Senses Working Overtime' -- the visual not matching up with
the aural. Huh. _What's_ this group's name again?", and I remembered the song
when I came across _English Settlement_ at the local public library a couple
years later. I checked it out, intending to tape just a few songs, ended up
taping the whole thing, and the rest, as they say, has been a burning hole in my
pocket ever since.

So: Does anyone know if the bad lip-synching (and Terry's "now you see it, now
you don't" neck-chain, as the Little Express called it) was bad editing or
thematically brilliant?

One more thing before I go:  President Kill.   Vice President Gore.
Politics aside, it's a little eerie.  Pe,

--Jill

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Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 11:09:38 CDT
From: Ingrid de Beus <ied1@midway.uchicago.edu>
Subject: The Mayor of Simpleton 12" single

Hello all.  I was prowling the second-hand disk store in my neighborhood,
and I came across a 12" single of The Mayor of Simpleton, which had
a couple of other songs on it, including one called "Ella Gum" or
something syntactically similar.  Does anyone have an opinion on
these b-sides? I didn't buy the thing right off (take a bow, Mr. Funds-are
-Low), but I'm considering it, as a present for a buddy.

As an aside, I note that Chicago's North Side still harbors many
XTC fans.  I recently witnessed the total clearing out of the tables
in favor of the dance floor in a club, the minute the DJ played
"Generals and Majors".  Pretty cool to see.  And to dance to!

Regards,

Ingrid
___________________________________________________________________________
Ingrid Elvire Maria de Beus			there is no god
ied1@midway.uchicago.edu			only greed,dung,and lies
oracle@usite-next.uchicago.edu			you've got no soul
eyes of green smoke and hair of gold		only rips in your eyes

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Date:         Tue, 28 Jul 92 10:17:27 EDT
From: Rick <MMLRICK@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu>
Subject:      XTC info hunger

Well, I finished reading all the digests up to now through anonymous FTP
at turbo.bio.net, and still my XTC-info hunger cries out for more.

XTC-relevant comment: I picked up Nonsvch in Halifax, Nova Scotia on cassette
for $8.99 from Sam the Record Man. Now I WAS going to gloat about the great
deal I got (regular price was $14.99 for cassettes there). Woe is me, however.
It lacks a lyric sheet, despite some great musician notes for each track.
Being one with no talent for deciphering lyrics (I listen more to arrangements
and vocal quality rather than words) I can't catch all of Andy's erection
euphemisms on Omnibus or the garbled rant of the Ugly Underneath without the
printed crutch. I understand that the Geffen release includes lyrics.
Is that true??? If so, Virgin has done uf confumers a differvice.

Bring water!
Rick

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Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 11:15:07 PDT
From: "John M. Relph" <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: XTC Nonsvch Party Report

This is the Chalkhills broadcasting network.  Although we were unable
to get a live feed from the Nonsuch Party which took place on Saturday
25 July, our reporters were there covering the event.  Initial reports
were very positive.  Here's a report from our man in the field, John
Relph.  John, are you there?

Thanks, John.  A great time was had by all at the South Bay Nonsuch
Party.  Many thanks are due to our hosts, Karen Schipper and her
roommate, for putting up with us on Saturday evening.  Here's a
rundown on the evening's events.

I arrived late, due to a chronic time dysfunction, lugging my two
boxes of XTC paraphrenalia.  I received immediate praise for the
Difappointed T-shirt I was wearing (thanks to John Johanneson!).
Already in attendence were Karen <Karen.Schipper@corp.sun.com>,
Sherman Lewis (friend of Ingrid <ied1@midway.uchicago.edu>) Edward
Keller <Treefrog@cup.portal.com>, Kathy Davis (XTC fan extra-
ordinaire), and Karen's roommate (not an XTC fan).  Kathy had pictures
>from the Andy Partridge autograph session, including photos of the
now-legendary "Train Running Low Buck" and proud bet-winner Jon
Drukman <jondr@sco.com>.  Kathy showed a few bits of her collection
'round the table (which was round as well), including a number of
heretofore unseen unauthorized CDs and a few promotional items.

As this was happening, Will Kreth <kreth@well.sf.ca.us> and his friend
Tim arrived, as well as Dennis Hilgenberg <syd@ecn.purdue.edu>.

I spent some time proudly displaying all the XTC stuff I had brought,
much to the collectional chagrin and wonderment of Ed and others.  The
"Sgt. Rock" poster sleeve 7" single got quite a good reaction, as well
as the _Nonsvch_ "concentration" Card Game and the "Making Plans for
Nigel" game sleeve 7" single.

Then it was video time.  In no particular order we watched "The Ballad
of Peter Pumpkinhead", "Grass", "The Mayor of Simpleton" (US version),
"XTC Play At Home" (including videos for "Love on a Farmboy's Wages",
"Human Alchemy", "In Loving Memory of a Name", "Funk Pop a Roll", as
well as the live acoustic version of "Train Running Low on Soul
Coal"), MTV's "120 Minutes" with Andy Partridge hosting (from 1989),
"The Mole From the Ministry", parts of "Rockpalast" (live broadcast),
"The Road to Oranges and Lemons" (otherwise known as the "XTC Puppet
Show"), "Dear God", and "The Mayor of Simpleton" (UK version), and
ending up with the latest "120 Minutes" appearence (with "Dorky" Dave
Kendall).  "The Mole from the Ministry" and "The Road To Oranges and
Lemons" got the best reactions, and of course we all sang along to
"The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead".  Many of us hadn't seen most of
these videos before and much fun was had by all.

By this time it was getting quite late, so I bid the party adieu and
gave Dennis a lift home.

Quite an evening all told!  Now back to our regularly scheduled
broadcast, after a word from our sponsor.

	-- John

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