Chalkhills Digest Volume 5, Issue 217
Date: Friday, 28 May 1999
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 5, Number 217
Friday, 28 May 1999
Today's Topics:
Wow!
XTC Videos
Another Member Of The XTC Retail Club
Off Topic - Man. U. v. Bayern Munich
alternative music cafe
Robyn Who?
Viva Las Swindon
The Visitation
... and here is a phonograph record of me saying it!
silentious appointment
This is Pop - the book
Who were those Goons again?
piggies
On the cover of "Record Collector"
Grays, and really vague XTC content
Head Like a Hole
The Grays
AUTOreverse AP DEMOS article, part one
Stoner witch
Ethel the Frog
XTC videos
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So we're working every hour that God made / So we can fly away.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: kburda@sial.com Message-Id: <8625677D.00681A4E.00@notesgw.sial.com> Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 13:54:09 -0500 Subject: Wow! About six digests ago Debie Edmonds said: I met up with Dave Gregory yesterday lunchtime (as he helped me choose my new guitar at Kempster's), and he mentioned to me that he will be playing live very soon in Swindon. He has agreed to play with David Marx's band "The Refugees" at the KosovAid Concert to be held on Sunday 30th May at The Oasis, Swindon. And guess what?? Barry Andrews will also be joining Dave on stage to play keyboards!! There are a number of other artistes performing as well. <snip> Dave AND Barry? How lucky can the audience get? You know, if Terry could join them that would make one heck of a band. Dave and Barry could do the singing. It'd be worth the price of admission to see THEM tour together! Debie- how about passing that suggestion on to Dave? Yes, I am being serious!! Kate P.S. Until this point I never realized that there are now more ex-XTC members than there are current XTC members. Anyone in the same boat?
------------------------------ Message-ID: <374C623F.D53424A2@which.net> Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 22:06:08 +0100 From: B Blanchard <b.blanchard@which.net> Subject: XTC Videos Sorry about this but I just want to let all the people know who kindly emailed me that, although I have most if not all of the XTC videos, I am not in the position to make copies (my copy is not itself very good). As a result of my posting about some of the directors of some of the XTC videos, I received quite a bit of mail from people asking if I could make them copies or if I knew where they could get all XTC videos from. If there is anyone out there who is in a position to make copies and sell them on they could make themselves known? You clearly have a market out there! I am not in a position to do this for people. Belinda
------------------------------ Message-ID: <000c01bea7bd$eb00ac60$09558218@we.mediaone.net> From: "Victor Rocha" <wstsidela@mediaone.net> Subject: Another Member Of The XTC Retail Club Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 14:22:52 -0700 Hello Hillbillys, well I did it! I've just finished repurchasing the entire XTC music catalogue on CD. AT RETAIL PRICES!!!!! why did I do this? Because I can...........and besides the boys get a piece of it now. Another Member Of The XTC Retail Club, Victor Rocha www.pechanga.net
------------------------------ Message-ID: <001301bea7c4$f0109600$c3c856d1@mcuevashome> From: "Mark Cuevas" <denizen@mindspring.com> Subject: Off Topic - Man. U. v. Bayern Munich Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 15:13:07 -0700 Congratulations to Man. United for the incredible win over Bayern Munich today. Two of my friends and I were in a Santa Monica, CA pub to watch the match and by game time the place was wall-to-wall Man U. fans. When United scored in the final minute the place absolutely erupted. Never have I heard louder fans - in (American) football, basketball, or baseball. When United went ahead 2-1, I thought the place would come apart. Four pitchers of Bass and One of Boddington (bleechh), into it, we realized we were seeing history being made. I can only imagine what Manchester is like right now.
------------------------------ From: list@cinemaclassics.com Subject: alternative music cafe Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 19:09:56 -0500 Message-Id: <36306.798568981484800.290@localhost> There's a cool new cafe called Cinema Classics in New York's East Village that features an alternative music format. Plus they show classics movies on 16mm every night for only $5! Cinema Classics is located at 332 East 11th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues) in Manhattan. They also have a Web site: http://cinemaclassics.com
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19990526235939.33451.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "Duncan Kimball" <dunks58@hotmail.com> Subject: Robyn Who? Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 16:59:39 PDT I read that Robyn Hitchcock is coming to Australia soon. I hear his name mentioned in hushed tones in these hallowed halls. Pardon my galactic-scale ignorance but he is one of those artists whose name I know but whose work I really don't. Vaguely remember hearing something or other by RH & the Egyptians years ago - that's it. Is he worth seeing? If so - why? Dunks
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19990527001238.58077.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "Duncan Kimball" <dunks58@hotmail.com> Subject: Viva Las Swindon Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 17:12:38 PDT Elvis? Elvis Presley?? Singing XTC??? What a totally ridiculous concept. Should fit right in next to my long-cherished dream-concept albums, tentatively titled: "La Fucking Stupenda: Joan Sutherland sings the Sex Pistols" Dunks
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19990527003535.48362.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "Duncan Kimball" <dunks58@hotmail.com> Subject: The Visitation Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 17:35:34 PDT Was Andy PRXTCFAN *really* him? To be honest, the reason I didn't give it any thought was that, A) I misread his post and B) oddly enough, I saw nothing unusual about there being a real XTC fan in Puerto Rico - or anywhere else this world over. I'm intruiged, but still skeptikal. Must be my atheist upbringing - I want proof! Doubting Dunks
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19990527013634.59526.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "Duncan Kimball" <dunks58@hotmail.com> Subject: ... and here is a phonograph record of me saying it! Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 18:36:33 PDT From: "Mark Strijbos" <mmello@knoware.nl> Subject: Re: Monty Python >Methinks that both MP and Beatles (in particular John!) owed a great >deal to the Goon Show, the legendary British comedy show with (i >think) Peter Cook & Dudley Moore. Yes (and no). Yes Lennon LOVED the Goons, as did everyone from that era - it was phenomenally popular and immensely influential on generations of actors, musicians, writers and comedians. The term "Goonish" has become part of the language. It was really THE defining point of postwar English-language humour - the first rea,l innovative break away from traditional sketch/situation/standup models, and the first comedy program to really come to grips with, and properly exploit, the full possibilities of the radio medium. Yes, the Pythons have paid often tribute to the Goons, and to Spike Milligan in particular. It was no accident that he turned up in "Life Of Brian". In essence, what they were really doing was trying to translate onto TV what the Goons did with radio. They have often acknowledged Spike personally for the insights he gave - especially the realisation that a sketch - or indeed the entire show - need not follow traditional "rules" of continuity. I've heard them specifically mention Spike's early "Q" TV series and some other BBC shows he did, where sketches or whole segments would suddenly start - or end - with no apparent explanation or reason. This is typified by Spike's famous device of having the sketch suddenly halt, and all the actors walk out of shot chanting "What are we going to do now? ... What are we going to do now?" And I hate to be pedantic, but the Goon Show cast was Spike Milligan, the late Peter Sellers, and Harry Secombe, and the scripts were mostly by Spike, sometimes in collaboration with Eric Sykes, Larry Stephens(?) and others. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore first appeared in the famous "Beyond The Fringe" revue, which also featured Jonathan Miller and the wonderful Alan Bennett (whose marvellous "Talking Heads" series is getting a rerun in Australia from this Sunday on ABC). They became famous through their three(?) groundbreaking "Not Only, But Also..." TV series, most of which was later erased by some penny-pinching arsehole at the BBC. The Pythons (like so many other Brit comedians of the last 40 years) got their start in the Cambridge Footlights revue, then went into telly, working on topical comedies like "That Was The Week That Was" and "The Frost Report", and jobbing away writing situation comedy and other stuff like "The Two Ronnies" and "Doctor In The House". Mostly they worked in two teams - Cleese/Chapman, Jones/Palin, and Idle wrote on his own I think. The thing which brought them together and led into the Python series was the legendary "Do Not Adjust Your Set" (1967-69) which also featured The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band as the house band; this was the connection between the Pythons and Neil Innes, who later did music for them and appeared as the minstrel in "Holy Grail" singing the "Brave Sir Robin" song. Sorry you asked, aren't you Yours anally Dunks
------------------------------ Message-ID: <374CCF81.89488AC6@earthlink.net> Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 21:52:17 -0700 From: Yoshiko Yeto <beaudrillard@earthlink.net> Subject: silentious appointment Dear Chalkhillians- Regarding the Rick Springfield inquiry posited at the fair gender, I will neither confirm nor deny a predilection to the man, myth, or music in my pre-teen years. With complete immunity, Malady Nelson, Esquirette
------------------------------ Message-Id: <l03130300b372d1eb1fda@[194.128.83.69]> Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 10:45:06 +0000 From: Mark Fisher <fisher@easynet.co.uk> Subject: This is Pop - the book The new catalogue for Canongate Books lists a title called This is Pop: The Life and Times of a Failed Rock Star to be published in September. It's by someone called Ed Jones who was in a band called The Tansads that never got anywhere (but were once supported by The Verve, Cast, Pulp, etc). As far as I can tell from the blurb, there is no XTC connection apart from the title, but it might be interesting to see when it is published. - Mark http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~fisher/
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199905271325.GAA23469@sgiblab.sgi.com> From: "Tim Parsons" <tim.parsons@oblivion.force9.co.uk> Organization: Oblivion Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 14:23:43 +0100 Subject: Who were those Goons again? Chalkstickfigures:> A short note (probably one of dozens, but what the heck: nobody's ever written anything in response to anything I've yet written here, so I figure my writing's invisible anyway) Mark Strijbos said: > Methinks that both MP and Beatles (in particular John!) owed a great > deal to the Goon Show, the legendary British comedy show with (i > think) Peter Cook & Dudley Moore. The Goon Show was Spike Milligan (writer and chief Goon), Peter Sellers (yes, /that/ Peter Sellers) and Harry Secombe. It started in the fifties, and revolutionised radio comedy. Pete and Dud came later, part of the wave of comedy that spewed from Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the sixties, and were best known (together, anyway) for a TV comedy called "Not Only... But Also..." I don't know enough about the sources of the Lennon Muse to be able to be certain of this, but given that many of his formative years would have been during the time when the Goon Show was at its height, I suspect the main thust of your point is correct, however. Coming back to XTC, I am also becoming a little tired of the XTC covers posts. Interesting though the idea is, it would only really be a reasonable suggestion if XTC themselves no longer existed. Okay, so maybe we'll never see them performed live by XTC, but do we /really/ need to? They had their reasons for giving up with live performances (TBH, I think Andy did well fighting his pathological stagefright for as long as he did) and the band's continued existence was in order to provide the punters with as near-as- dammit perfect pop music in a medium that is perfect for it. (To illustrate my point, I saw Echo and the Bunnymen play live a few weeks back. They were, as you'd expect, scintillating. For the third encore, Mac said, quietly, "This song is /really/ special" and they started to play Ocean Rain. Until some bozo in the audience shouted something offensive at the top of his voice, not 20 seconds in. Broke the spell, Mac stopped, told him he'd spoiled it, and they left the stage, for the last time. Left a sour taste in my mouth that lasted a couple of days. But here, with my hifi behind me, I can lovingly unsheath the vinyl and play the song as it was supposed to be heard, with no bozos, no interruptions... Can you imagine what a modern audience would /do/ to XTC? One that wasn't familiar with the back catalogue, that hadn't grown up with them, or grown to love their music, one that was there /just/ because they'd heard AV1?) The XTC product doesn't come in a form that can be experienced live, and that's the way they want it. Nobody else is, or can ever be, XTC, and all the endless posts suggesting artists covering XTC songs, to my mind, just illustrates that point perfectly. Can we not be content with what we have? Oh, and a quickie response for Richard (Chalkhills 5-215): Thanks, ta and cheers all mean "thank you". "Ta" is the form that infants seem to be taught ahead of more complicated words, but works as informal shorthand, and "cheers" /tends/ to be "thanks and goodbye" but can also just be "thanks". Bests, Tim tim.parsons@oblivion.force9.co.uk ...What do you call that noise that you put on? This is Pop!
------------------------------ Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19990527144403.007d6100@mail.utexas.edu> Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 14:44:03 -0500 From: Claudia Alarcon <cad@mail.utexas.edu> Subject: piggies Greetings! John Yuelkenbeck wrote: >I was listening to "Your Dictionary" on the jukebox at the bar and it got >to this little transitional string run that sounded just like the little >transitional string run in the Beatles' "Piggies." Anyone else hear it? Yes, I do, and I posted it a while back in my first or second post, but nobody commented. I figured maybe it was my own delusion...it sounds just like "Piggies", doesn't it, John? It occurs to me, how about a writing campaign to get XTC on PBS' "Sessions at West 54th"? I think the setting is perfect for our boys to perform in a small scale stage, and David Byrne would be the perfect interviewer. What do ya'll think? Back to my cave now. Soundgarden *seriously* rules! Cheers! Claudia.
------------------------------ Message-Id: <v04011700b373665a4daf@[129.105.37.210]> Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 16:18:15 -0500 From: Olof Hellman <hellman@ksan.ms.nwu.edu> Subject: On the cover of "Record Collector" Anyone else catch XTC in Skylarking garb on the cover of "Record Collector" magazine in April?? Not many? Then you must not have been perusing the racks of magazine shops in Japan. This will probably be my summer reading / Japanese study project. It just goes on for pages and pages.... - Olof Olof Hellman Northwestern University, Dept. Materials Science & Engineering 2225 N. Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 Tel: (847)-491 5883, Fax: (847)-467 2269
------------------------------ From: ElizaS33@aol.com Message-ID: <2fba85be.247f12d2@aol.com> Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 17:27:46 EDT Subject: Grays, and really vague XTC content Hey y'all, I seem to have become the Miss Lonelyhearts of uniting people with their very own copies of Ro Sham Bo, so let's try it again! You can find many copies, at wildly variant prices, at either: www.musicfile.com or www.gemm.com I also saw about 20 cassette copies for 99 cents at an outlet mall in Barstow, if anyone's in the neighborhood... I'll back up the recommendation, except (gulp) I usually have to skip over three of the four Falkner tunes. If anyone is interested in a recent solo album by Buddy Judge (you know, the songwriter in the Grays who isn't Jon Brion or Jason Falkner, and who actually wrote some of my favorite stuff on RSB), by the way, I'm in line for notice when it becomes available... email me and I'll put you on the list of people to notify. (Ben, loved your story about the record shop owner... it backs up a theory I'm developing, actually!) Completely unrelated plug: My friends and possibly my favorite band, the Solipsistics, have some gigs coming up in New York City, Wilmington, NC, and Los Angeles. I figure I can bring this up here because the last review of their new album compared them to early XTC (which I'm not sure is accurate, but they've now been professionally compared to everyone on the planet who I think is genius, which is kinda cool). If you're in any of those areas, write me for the dates... these guys are really amazing. Speaking of people I've heard compared to early XTC, any thoughts on Burning Airlines? I haven't heard them, but have heard some very evangelical speeches on their behalf. *And* the Negro Problem, who've been compared to "XTC meets Sly and the Family Stone," have a new CD out this week. Haven't heard this one yet, but if it's half as good as their first it'll be stunning. That's all! Elizabeth The Gallery of Indispensable Pop Music http://homepages.go.com/~popgallery
------------------------------
Message-ID: <374DC147.1BE41C95@tmbg.org>
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 17:59:29 -0400
From: Ben Gott/Loquacious Music <gott@tmbg.org>
Organization: http://listen.to/loquacious
Subject: Head Like a Hole
Kiddies,
So...I was watching David Letterman a few nights ago, and he had Courtney
Love on the show. To this point, I had simply shrugged Ms. Love off as a
woman "cashing in" on the talent of her friends and acquaintances.
However, she was friggin' *hysterical*, and I went out and bought
"Celebrity Skin" the next day.
Woah! It's pop! There are tambourines! It was mixed by Tom and Chris
Lord-Alge and Jack Joseph Puig (sp?)! "Awful" is amazingly catchy, as are
most of the other tracks! I'd recommend it...and I think that Our Boys
would find it interesting, too...
How interesting that the line between "alternative," pop, hip-hop, and the
other "genres" of popular music are blending together... That's the future
of music, methinks. Would anyone else like to see Andy work with Dr. Dre?
Imagine XTC with samples, a kickin' drumbeat...! I think it'd be great.
-Ben
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
Benjamin Gott . Loquacious Music . Salisbury, CT 06068
AOL: Plan4Nigel . Telephone (860) 435-9726 . Mobile (207) 798-1859
I can see a hole in the sky / As wide as your smile...
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
------------------------------ From: "STEVE PERLEY" <steveandlauren@grolen.com> Subject: The Grays Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 18:01:26 -0400 Message-ID: <01bea88c$77769320$126140d8@steveandlauren.grolen.com> Yep, off-topic once again: I've seen a lot of requests for The Grays' Ro-Sham-Bo lately. I got my copy (and last week saw another one) in the cutout bin of Newbury Comics in Manchester, NH for about $3. If you live near a Newbury Comics, ask them - they might have a copy or 50 in their warehouse that they can get for you. I think that they may also be on-line. I'm not sure. Steve (And what post would be complete without a totally shameless plug for www.rat.fink.net ?)
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199905272309.TAA01284@mail.netwalk.com> From: "Ian C Stewart" <ian@AUTOreverse.net> Subject: AUTOreverse AP DEMOS article, part one Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 19:06:06 -0400 The entirety of this article appears in the new issue of AUTOreverse and also on the website at http://www.autoreverse.net/ along with 45 minutes of unreleased AP demos in Real Audio format!!! If you like it, please buy a copy of the magazine! And if you disagree with any of it, please let me know! Enjoy... Cheers, Ian C Stewart One half of the stately Swindon pop due XTC, ANDY PARTRIDGE is also a hometaper! Granted, it's not every hometaper who has a model of guitar named after him (see: FANO GUITARS' "Partridge" model)... Hometapers spend their free time making and recording music, perhaps for their own enjoyment. ANDY PARTRIDGE is no different, it's just that his day job happens to also be writing songs and making music perhaps for his own enjoyment. Many new XTC products have been released in the last year after a protracted battle with their former label, Virgin. XTC formed its own record label, IDEA RECORDS, and TVT has taken up the reigns and has already released one box set (TRANSISTOR BLAST) and a new album, APPLE VENUS VOL 1. There's already talk of another box set and more new albums on the new label. One box set is to be titled FUZZY WARBLES and is said to include many PARTRIDGE demos. ANDY PARTRIDGE has been recording at home since the very early 1970s when he won a reel-to-reel tape recorder in a Draw Your Favorite Monkee contest. Though no tapes from this period are currently in circulation, demos of his later music have grown in popularity almost unmatched. To wit: A first-edition pressing of THE LITTLE EXPRESS fanclub cassette "JULES VERNE'S SKETCHBOOK," a collection of PARTRIDGE demos, recently sold on eBay for nearly $300. He's also prolific: A bootleg collection of XTC demos came out in the early 1990s--8 CDs worth--and even that didn't include everything. He's a one-man cottage industry. PARTRIDGE's demos circulate via an ever-expanding fanbase that remains hungry for new songs during long lulls between XTC albums. Tapes and CD-Rs change hands with alarming frequency. PARTRIDGE himself has said that he doesn't mind if the tapes are traded as long as no money is changing hands. He doesn't want eager fans ripping each other off in the name of a 50th generation dub of a cassette. But where do the original tapes emanate from? Who starts the ball rolling? .............. http://www.autoreverse.net/
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199905280016.UAA07035@tool.epix.net> From: "Michael Davies" <miser17@epix.net> Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 16:54:23 -0500 Subject: Stoner witch > As for "drug-related things", I think you've completely missed the point, > presuming that you're referring to the "stoner metal" bands I listed. I > won't pretend that I don't smoke loads of pot, but there's no reason why > you would have to in order to appreciate these wonderful records. I have > numerous clean-living pals who often shake a tawdry buttock to the sounds > of, say, Clutch or Cathedral and they don't feel the need to dismiss an > entire genre because, gasp, the people involved might be, wait for it, > drug users! Honestly, don't be so daft. It's not that it was created by people who take drugs that makes me not like it, it's that when someone talks about "stoner metal" they mean a specific type of music - really slow with a deep-voiced singer (exception: Black Sabbath). Examples are Bongzilla (this band is just tiresome because of the constant drug references in their name, their song titles, the art on their records, their album titles; if something other than pot was that much of a theme in a band's work I wouldn't like it either), Sleep, and the Melvins. By "I don't like drug-related stuff" I mean that I don't like this type of music, which is usually associated with drugs. All together now: "Thanks for spending so much time clearing that up, although I really don't care at all." > They also > did a song called "Hose", about Michael Jackson's penis - which can only be > a good thing (i.e. the song, not the penis). That is the funniest thing I've seen on Chalkhills so far, replacing last digest's "I haven't even written 'em, but they've got 'em." Partridge quote. Michael davies miser17@epix.net np: Royal Crown Revue
------------------------------ Message-ID: <000b01bea906$4013f420$2ebb0b3f@default> From: "Joe Funk" <jomama68@email.msn.com> Subject: Ethel the Frog Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 07:33:09 -0500 Concerning Monty Python, The Goon Show and the following: >As for Peter Cook and Dudley Moore -- they had a BBC TV show in the 60's >but I'm not clear on the name (I did read it somewhere -- maybe it was >called "Not Only, But Also"). John Lennon did a guest spot w/ them on one >show, playing the part of a washroom attendant. Cook and Moore also had a British TV series in the mid-sixties called Pete and Dud. But their major achievement that influenced Python and much of the satirical comedy of the day was a theatrical troupe they formed with Dr. Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett called "Beyond the Fringe"! The show ran from around 1960 till 1966, including a couple of stints on Broadway! It's biting satire and the players amazing characterizations of public figures heavily influenced the formation of Python. There is actually a film out there somewhere called "Monty Python meets Beyond the Fringe". Check it out if you can find it! Jomama Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lin-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Ole-Bisquitbarrel..... Silly Party.....
------------------------------ Message-ID: <000501bea8ac$4f07b8e0$37bfa0d0@meridith-s> From: "squirrelgirl" <squirrelgirl@citrusonline.net> Subject: XTC videos Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 21:49:17 -0400 Howdy 'Hillians I was unpacking some boxes and decided to revisit my 6 XTC videotapes. Most of the stuff is self-explanatory - live performances and old interviews (Terry Chambers speaks!); however in both the copies I have of The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul, there is a reference to Part 2. What's Part 1? What is the significance of the men and woman dancing around the chess board - seemed that may have been related to Part 1, which I don't know anything about. Had forgotten how good they sounded on Letterman back in '89; Colin really seemed to be enjoying himself up there. Wonder if they'll do something similar for AV2. Chris Rees, are you out there? You are the one who taped Letterman for me way back when. Lost track of you but thanks anyway! Back to the videos - Squirrelgirl
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #5-217 *******************************
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