Chalkhills, Number 241

               Thursday, 10 September 1992
Today's Topics:
                   producers ad nauseum
                     Parthenon Huxley
                    A Day at the Fair
                    New World Records
                     Stump, the band
             Critical Acclaim Cannot Explain
             about that Woody Allen voice...
                  Legion of Superheroes
                    Two Vinyl Wants...

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Subject: producers ad nauseum
From: Desi The Three-Armed Wonder Comic <jondr@sco.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 13:43:45 PDT

Wes Wilson @PKO3 - 223-3413  02-Sep-1992 0936 <wilson@pharos.enet.dec.com>
>Does Dave Stewart of "Hatfield and the North" fame produce bands?
>He and Barbara Gaskin covered "Roads Girdle the Globe" on
>"Up from the Light", released a few years ago.

Yeah, Dave Stewart does produce.  He's responsible for "Neil's Heavy
Concept Album" - an album of comedy and 60's psychedelia by Neil of
The Young Ones (nigel planer).  Probably others, too, but my
Canterbury-obsessed officemate is AWOL, so I can't ask him.

My vote (today) is for cEVIN Key and Dave Ogilvie.  I just dug out my
copy of "Journey To The Center Of The Bowl" by Hilt and boy is it a
brainfucker.  Imagine what an XTC album produced by these guys would
sound like... yowwweeee.  Of course, if Andy hated Todd's incessant
dope smoking, he'd probably not cotton on to cEVIN & co's chemical
indulgences either...

Jon Drukman (God's personal DJ)                 uunet!sco!jondr   jondr@sco.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cerebral damage is imminent.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 13:54:54 PDT
From: "John M. Relph" <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Parthenon Huxley

Last night I attended the concert by Tori Amos in San Francisco.
Opening for Ms Amos was E, otherwise known as A Man Called E.  E's debut
album was produced by Parthenon Huxley, who shook tambourine on "Cynical
Days" from _Oranges and Lemons_.  I got Mr Huxley's autograph, he drew a
cool picture (of E I think, but it's hard to tell).  I told him I had
heard he was an XTC fan, he asked where I had heard that, I said the XTC
fan club magazine, and he said, "Oh the Little Express?".  Yes, it's
true.  I guess I'll have to get Mr Huxley's album, as the show was quite
good.  The E-ster's show, that is.  His album is a very nice pop album.
Good songwriting, arranging, playing and singing.  What more could you
ask for?  Oh yes, E and co. did a good version of "I'm Only Sleeping",
complete with "backwards guitar", actually Parthenon on voice imitating
the backwards guitar.  Gotta love it.  Don't miss it.  Oh, and I already
had an XTC connection somewhere back there...  Pe,

	-- John

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Date: 04 Sep 92 20:41:53 EDT
From: Steve Levenstein <70750.1117@compuserve.com>
Subject: A Day at the Fair

   Did anyone read the "mutual interview" with Andy in the new
Alternative Press magazine? Interesting concept which works well!
It was the first issue of AP that I received since mailing away
a subscription, and I hope my free XTC sampler CD comes soon...

   Today I took the Happy Family to the Canadian National Exhibition.
Just inside the entrance sat the "CFNY-fm Boombox", a giant-size
"radio" with a real working DJ inside. So we checked it out, me
wearing my new "Nonsuch" T-shirt (received from Mod Lang).
We stepped up just in time to hear two girls request that the DJ
play XTC's "Dear God". I seconded the motion, and the DJ complimented
me on my tasteful T. To the familiar strains of "Dear God", we set
off to enjoy the rides and games...
---> Steve

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Date: 06 Sep 92 00:08:46 EDT
From: Steve Levenstein <70750.1117@compuserve.com>
Subject: New World Records

   Those of you who peruse the Classifieds section of the
Little Express may have seen an ad for XTC product by New World
Records in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. Maya and I have gone there
before, today we went again and found some choice cuts!
   Since they take no credit cards, our purchases were less than
our wants, however we did buy a The Big Express cassette,
the double 7-inch "Towers of London" single with the neat
"kinetic" plastic sleeve, and the Tom Tom Club's CD maxi-single
called "Sunshine & Extasy". This contains the "XTC mix" and the
"XTC dub" of the title track. Some of you (especially those who
have read The Book) know of the connection between XTC and
Talking Heads, and Tom Tom Club consists of two former (?)
members of the Heads.
   Still left on the shelves at NWR were:
Psonic Psunspot LP on coloured vinyl ($25)
Life Begins At The Hop 7-inch clear vinyl ($20)
cassettes of White Music, Go2, The Big Express, and Nonsuch
12-inch "This World Over"
7-inch singles like "Wonderland", "All You Pretty Girls",
"Mayor..", "free" single included with Drums and Wires, had
"Chain of Command" & "Limelight", 3DEP, and lots of the 10-inch
vinyl of "The Disappointed". We shall return!

"...or on the back of this record sleeve"
---> Steve

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Date: 06 Sep 92 19:20:18 EDT
From: Steve Levenstein <70750.1117@compuserve.com>
Subject: Stump, the band

   While browsing the delete bin at New World Records, I came across
a CD by the band "Stump" called "A Fierce Pancake".
   Previously, while reading the "mutual interview" of/by Andy in
Alternative Press, I noticed that "Stump" was mentioned. Andy had
asked the AP guy to name a few bands that XTC sounded like.
The AP guy said that XTC were "progenitors", and said that many
other bands had tried to sound like XTC. Among them was "Stump",
said to be "XTC nickers". Andy remembered them, too.
   Well, based on that, and also the $4 price, I bought the CD.
Sure enough, it does indeed resemble XTC circa 1980-82.
   The song "Charlton Heston", in particular, could have come off
"Black Sea" or "Eng. Sett." easily. "A Fierce Pancake" is from 1988.

"... it's there for me to feed my face..."
---> Steve

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Date: Tue, 8 Sep 92 13:24:21 CDT
From: tmeyer@sbcoc.com (Tom Meyer)
Subject: Critical Acclaim Cannot Explain

Lying in bed listening to Wire's _Chairs Missing_ LP last night and
heard these particularly relevant words during the song _Go Ahead_(a
gloriously disjunct little piece of venom directed at the music biz):

>Advertise and communicate
>Radio players hesitate

>Critcal acclaim cannot explain
>The extent of the sale

>Why this one pales - in comparison
>In comparison with what?

>You may well as go ahead

Check it out if you got it!

Nonsuchly,

Tom Meyer

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Date: 08 Sep 92 21:00:40 EDT
From: Steve Levenstein <70750.1117@compuserve.com>
Subject: about that Woody Allen voice...

   While reading the "Little Express"'s Back Issue Compilation #II
yesterday (get a life, guy!), I found a great interview with XTC
that answers in full one of those Frequently Asked Questions.
   Actually, I finished The Book and wanted a further refresher
into XTC of years gone by. The "Little Express Back Issue Compilations"
are really great in this respect!
   Anyways (get to the point, guy!), people have been frequently
asking about that "Woody Allen voice" that comes up at the end of
The Dukes' "My Love Explodes". Here are Our Boys to give the
explanation, straight from the chalk horse's mouths:

ANDY: "The little voice at the end after all the fireworks go off,
courtesy of the same BBC sound effects record, is a tape that
John Leckie had. He was in New York a little while ago, and had his
radio/cassette player going and he was tuned into this ludicrous
New York radio station where this chap was singing this rather...
how would you describe this song he was singing?

DAVE & COLIN: Rude!

DAVE: It was actually a protest song.

ANDY: Called "Hey, go f... yourself with your atom bomb", this chap
was singing this song over the air, and John Leckie couldn't
believe the banality of this song so he turned on his cassette to
capture it for posterity, and he left the cassette running.
At the end of the thing there's a phone-in where they invite people
to phone in and comment on the song, and there's this marvellous
guy who phones in, with this Woody Allen voice, and he is really
outraged... "That's the most obscene abomination of a song!"
So we thought this was marvellous and we nailed him on the end of
My Love Explodes. So the strange "Woody Allen" voice is a very
irate New Yorker who's commenting on the song "Hey, go f...
yourself with your atom bomb".

DAVE: In fact, if you want to hear more of the original version,
at the end of side 2 on the run-out grooves, if you've got a
record player capable of playing it, you'll hear spinning backwards
at twice the speed, a snatch of this gentleman's song in it's
original form".

   OK, I guess that answer's the FAQ about the tiny speedy
backwards voice at the end of "Mole from the Ministry", too!

Thanx to XTC and The Little Express for the above excerpt.

"...if they're not careful your watch won't be the only
    thing with a radioactive glow..."

---> Steve

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Date: Wed, 9 Sep 92 15:01:44 PDT
From: "John M. Relph" <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Legion of Superheroes

In Chalkhills #226 I wrote:
>
>  A person just in front of us in line had a few copies of the Legion
>of Superheroes comic with Andy Partridge in it (ya have to read the
>Little Express to find these things out), and Andy nearly got down on
>one knee to thank the fellow for his gift.

As it turns out, the person in front of us in line that day was one of
the artists involved in producing that issue of the Legion of
Superheroes comic, Alan Gordon (forgive the possible misspelling).  He
phoned asking how to get involved with Chalkhills (he got my number
>from The Little Express).  We talked for a while and after a bit I
figured out that it must have been he who Andy was so thankful to, and
sure enough!  He told me all about it.  He got Andy to autograph a
couple of copies and gave him a couple of copies to keep.  Alan said
that they still have plans to have an "Andy Peartree" character in
some future comic from Image Comics.  Andy has expressed his interest
in cooperating with the project.  Perhaps we shall see something soon.

Good luck to Alan, I hope he finds a way to connect up to Chalkhills.

	-- John

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Date: Thu, 10 Sep 92 09:42:01 PDT
From: Wes Wilson @PKO3 - 223-3413  10-Sep-1992 1239 <wilson@pharos.enet.dec.com>
Subject: Two Vinyl Wants...

I'm wondering if someone in Chalkhills land can help.

I'm looking for two vinyl XTC items:

Skylarking (the album)
Mayor of Simpleton 12'' (with the demo tracks Living in a Haunted
 Heart, The Good Things, etc.)

If you have these or know where they can be had, let me know.
We can workl out a cash trade/CD swap (if you're overseas
and want American CDs), or a tape trade (I have several XTC
bootlegs).

Condition is important. Must be in like-new condition! If you
need a mailer for the records, I have one; just let me know.)

Thanks,

Wes

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

For all administrative issues, such as change of address,
withdrawal from the list, fan club addresses, discography
requests (last update 10 September), back issues, FAQ list,
etc., send a message to the following address:

	<chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org>

The Chalkhills archives are available at "http://chalkhills.org/".

All views expressed in Chalkhills are those of the
individual contributors only.  You took me down, down, down a peg...

---

Go back to Volume 1.

10 September 1992 / Feedback