Chalkhills Digest Volume 6, Issue 176
Date: Thursday, 29 June 2000

         Chalkhills Digest, Volume 6, Number 176

                  Thursday, 29 June 2000

Topics:

                      russian accent
           RE: It's quiet . . . too quiet . . .
                   oh to be in England
                   XTC press in Germany
             Big Review of Wasp Star / Misc.
       Andy's 'List' appearance-airs July 13 on VH1
                      Stupidly Happy
            Slapping at a City on the Rebound
XTC Sighting: DisneyWorld, also Storefront Hitchcock & the XTC si
               Stupidly happy over football
                       2 XTC books
               XTC in new Jim Carrey movie
                      Sound on Sound
                      The Boys on TV
    URGENT Apologizes and Next Week's Listening Party
       Me, Myself and Irene... yeah, I'd Like That.

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    Chalkhills is compiled with Digest 3.7b (John Relph <relph@tmbg.org>).

So we're working every hour that God made / So we can fly away.

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

Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 10:14:45 +1100
From: SEBASTIEN MAURY 02 9950 3315 <maury.sebastien@a2.abc.net.au>
Subject: russian accent
Message-ID: <200006220019.KAA0000001412@inmail01.abc.net.au>

My flatmate, who was reviewing Onegin (which the lovely Microsoft would
render into "Oregon") for a local radio station, wandered into my room
last night and informed me that, among other things, Martha Fiennes has
directed an XTC video.  Can anyone either confirm or deny this?
Cheers,
Seb.

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

Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 12:25:39 +0100
From: "Smith, David" <David.Smith@tfeurope.com>
Subject: RE: It's quiet . . . too quiet . . .
Message-ID: <4BBE67B71C1DD411A23600508B65F71E0E5273@tfsecmsg04.tfseur.co.uk>

Hi all

Just back from a three day sojourn to Dublin's fair city and I've
found something out - if you're in a city, it doesn't matter how
beautiful/historic/exciting it is, if you spend three days in a hotel
organising a conference and don't get out once! Grrrrrrrrrr!

Anyroad, random response generator on . . . in 171, Warren said
"surely if you're going to site a really rotten band it would have to be
ones
that don't play thier own instruments,or write their own songs and sang
crappy songs say Boney M or Boyzone or Racey etc".

Couldn't agree more mate - and Racey? Good call. In the current UK
slang vernacular . . . "whass all that abaaart then?"

BTW, I too will admit to liking ELO (actually, bloody love them) and Wings
and Phil Collins circa "Face Value" and "Hello . . ." - hey, I even still
listen to Wind & Wuthering by Genesis. Don't like ELP though - never
did. Flame away . . .

***

Dorothy Spirito made the point that Canadian teams sometimes win the
world series - true, but it still doesn't make them "World Champions".

Seriously, in truth, we Brits have two problems with this: one, we will
never, NEVER EVER on God's green earth, be good enough at baseball,
ice hockey, basketball or gridiron to realistically challenge; and two, we
now can't even get CLOSE to being the best in the world at the sports we
actually invented - soccer, cricker, rugby etc. It's very depressing.

Continuing the sports thread, after seeing the recent fan violence at the
European Soccer Championships and after the NBA finals, I've noticed
something really strange. English fans riot when we lose. American fans
riot when they win! Whass all that abaaart then?

***

Errrrm , musicals. I like some (Brigadoon, West Side Story, Porgy &
Bess), I don't like others (South Pacific, Sound of Music, Gilbert &
Sullivan). I particularly hate Andrew Lloyd Webber. I don't know why.
I don't CARE to know why. I'm very, VERY sorry.

All I know is Dunks' posting regarding them in 172 was sooooo long I've
got a little pile of vowels and few consonants in a heap on my desk where
they spilled out of the bottom of my monitor. Good God man, edit, EDIT!

Oh, and for the benefit of the "can't see a jokey post when I see it"
brigade, here's the obligatory annoying smiley face thingummybob :-)

***

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh - just read Belinda's posting re the Gary Crowley
show. Was in Dublin. Didn't know about it. Now beating my head
against my desk.

Belinda - did you record it perchance?

Bye byyye . . .

Smudgeboy
E-Mail: david.smith@tfeurope.com

So long Alan . . . and thanks for the goals.

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

Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 23:14:45 CDT
From: "Megan Heller" <hellerm@hotmail.com>
Subject: oh to be in England
Message-ID: <20000622041445.2920.qmail@hotmail.com>

well, I've finally managed to slog through the numerous Chalkhills that
piled up in my mailbox during two weeks' holiday in London, Paris, and
Brussels (during the two days last weekend between football fan riots).
Lovely time had by all, yes, thank you.  Leading to...

Huw Davies asked--
>Just out of curiousity, is anyone out there a fan of the Divine Comedy?
There's bound to be a few XTC fans out there who also like Scott Walker,
and I think anyone who likes Scott Walker will also appreciate the Divine
Comedy. Casanova has got to be one of the best albums of the 1990's.<

I actually stocked up on some Divine Comedy cds during my usual mad
cd-buying that occurs when I go to London, although Cassanova was not among
them, along with the cd compilation of Scott Walker's Jacques Brel covers.
Even met a couple Chalkhill-ers, one of them being the person responsible
for me listening to Scott Walker (hello, John Peacock).

The other was the legendary Dom Lawson, and I think it's time that it was
revealed that Dominic is actually a 76 year old grandmother with seven cats.
  Still, charming fellow. ;)

on the topic of musicals, I have mixed feelings on them (not usually big on
theatre in general, though), but when I was in London I read in Time Out
magazine about one which could certainly be an argument against them--
"Lautrec!".  Ahem.  My best friend and I had a lot of fun trying to imagine
how someone came up with the idea that a musical about a deformed
syphillitic artist hooked on absinthe and obsessed with dancers could
actually work.  We envisioned something in the style of South Park.

oh so jet-lagged,
megan.

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

Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 21:21:13 +0200
From: Jeff Thomas <JTNet@freenet.de>
Subject: XTC press in Germany
Message-ID: <39526728.E7670D0@freenet.de>

Hi "Kreideberger",

I am WAY behind again on the digests, so forgive me if one of my other
"Kollegen" here in Deutschland has already mentioned this.  As with
everywhere else, the German music press is busy printing reviews of Wasp
Star.  I've sent translations of two of them to John Relph, and I think
there's something there for everyone.

One is from the German edition of "Rolling Stone" and is quite positive,
basically stating that behind Wasp Star's simple facade, XTC has packed
a wealth of clever stuff onto this album.  The author is Wolfgang
Doebeling, one of the most respected pop music journalists in Germany.
(Not that RS is any better here than in the US, but there are some good
people at both mags.)  He gave it 3  of 5 stars.  For those of you who
like to compare:  Ween, Ice Cube, and Kirsty MacColl also got 3  stars
in the same issue, Belle & Sebastian and Elliott Smith got 4, Neil Young
4 .  Duran Duran got 3.

The second (from "Musikexpress/Sounds") will please the anti-"WS" camp,
it is an interesting case for XTC's getting older, lazier, and worse.
They basically say that the two guys are sitting back and relaxing, and
that the sharpness that once was XTC's music has now dulled.  They gave
it 2 stars out of 6.  Of course, the usual problem with ratings is
evident.  In the same issue, they gave Cotton Mather, Alice Cooper,
Sinead O'Connor, and Wilson Phillips 3 stars; Duran Duran, Eminem,
Phish, and Whitney Houston got 4, the Dandy Warhols got 5.  Of about 150
reviews, only about 7-8 were equal to or worse than XTC.

Keep an eye out in the reviews section of the 'Hills, I'm sure John will
put them in there soon.

Cheers -

- Jeff

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 08:39:31 +0200
From: Klaus Bergmaier <klaus.bergmaier@maxonline.at>
Subject: Big Review of Wasp Star / Misc.
Message-ID: <51018E3C4D8BD311A8E90000C0C7910D01CB28@NTSRV>

Liebe Kreideberger!

Im Folgenden lest Ihr meine detaillierte Abhandlung uber das aktuelle Album.
Dieses Unterfangen nahm eine Weile in Anspruch, aber um nicht nur einige
wenige zu beglucken, I'll switch to English:

Dear Chalkhillians!

It would be easier for me to post this in German, but this is my longform
review of WS. It took quite a while, therefor it is more reflected now...

As I am no native English speaking person, I will concentrate more on the
musical than on the lyrical aspects.

1. Playground: a good opener, it somehow reminds me of Peter Pumpkinhead.
That's because Colin starts his excellent bass quite a while later than
drums and guitar do. A good technique... Holly's vocals are perfect for what
they are meant to be. Anyway a catchy tune I liked from the very start and
still do.

2. Stupidly Happy: Why do they do the same thing with the bass guitar as in
track 1? This song may seem a little boring - as some of you assumed -
because of the drums. Well, they are programmed/looped (the bassdrum sound
never saw a drumskin), it's not exactly what you expect from Prairie Prince,
but it fits for this song. "All the birds of the air..." reminds me strongly
of the line "Even I never knew..." from Chalkhills & Children, but who can
blame the writer of both songs? The programmed/looped tambourine that starts
doing eights after quite a while is almost too much...

3. In Another Life: Yes, I do definitely buy XTC albums because of Colin's
songs (I Remember the Sun, Smartest Monkeys are some of the greatest tunes
ever written). I remember someone complaining about the harmonica. Well, the
whole instrumentation is not my kind of thing, too, but anyway a great song.
Best phrase (musically): "Well, I'll be the master..."

4. My Brown Guitar: A song you have to hear more often to realise how great
it actually is. The low voice "on my brown guitar" shocked me a bit in the
beginning. Then I remebered, that AP co-wrote with Squeeze's Chris Difford
(I'm looking forward to these songs being released someday, maybe on Marti
Pellow's solo album???). This must have inspired him to that...

5. Boarded Up: Guitar, percussion and the harmonica sound remind me strongly
of "Dying". That leads me to Depeche Mode, a band with a great songwriter,
which I saw live two times. The fade out clarinet sample of "Dying" always
reminded me of DM as did some other elements in that 1986 song, that is one
of my favourites on Skylarking. Anyway, what I like about "Boarded Up" is
Colin's voice, which reminds me a bit of Colin Vearncombe and spreads a sad
mood. What a great singer CM is! The percussive stuff has something of
Genesis's "I Can't Dance". BTW one of the greatest moments in rock music
history is when Phil Collins starts his hi-hat in "No Son of Mine". That's
the kind of tension, that sends shivers down my spine like many moments on
all of XTC's albums do.

6. ITMWML: The typical single, close to The Loving or Mayor of Simpleton.
Not exactly a single I would buy, if I heard it, nor is it a song that would
turn ME to XTC. But XTC need radio airplay and they (or the record company)
know what to do; I hope it works. Great is  "The middle of the song, I'm
guilty.." which brings up an edge in Andy's vocals that remained almost
unheard since "A compli-, a -cated..."(Game). Bass guitar is really
outstanding in that section...

7. We're All Light: A somewhat uncommon rhythm for XTC. Fantastic harmonies.
Standard AP songwriting quality. Fade out is alittle boring and long

8. Standing In For Joe: It's one of the most dicussed songs on the album,
which I find good. I feel in love with it from the very first time (BTW I
never heard any demos!) and thought: God, that will be the most underrated
song on the album. I was wrong. It is my favourite. I can't really hear
"Tell Me What You See" (only a bit). I hear "I'm Only Sleeping" and some
Motown stuff (in the fade out) as well.

9. Wounded Horse: That did shock me the first few times when I listened to
it. Almost a Paul Mc Cartney chorus (with a Paul McCartney bassline). The
best lines are the ones sung by Colin. The low voice doubling "Well my
frinds all say" is again Chis Difford inspired. The synth solo is extremely
uninspiredand uninspiring, although it accompained by good guitars. It's one
of the places, where I miss Dave, too. Another gem is the harmony vocal on
the end chorus (Beatles, Beatles, Beatles...).

10. YATCWSBB: The Beatles start this song, too. But after a few seconds
somthing different comes along, towering up to a - as many of you already
said - Sting-style chorus (the greatest moment is "ah"). I am not really a
Sting fan anymore. Besiedes his Police work, he had only one great solo song
"Fortress Around Your Heart", just listen to its chorus. And didn't the
Police also inspire our Swindonian heroes heavily in the lines "That's this
world over, over, over and out", at least i think so. What do you want? They
toured together. BTW: Which of them came up with reggae first?

11. COW: Beautiful beginning, then a low point of the album (drum
programming of the first verse) just for a few seconds, I am excused for it
at the moment "men have gargoyles round their hearts", and it is a truly
excellent song ever after. Someone was right by mentioning, that a greater
gospel choir in the fade out would have been better. But maybe there are no
masses worshipping at the COW and Andy wanted to illustrate that via a small
sized gospel choir as opposed to those myriads backing TV preachers. And
isn't the gospel choir thing overused by U2 and Blur? And it is too
expensive to get a gospel choir into the studio.

12. TWATM: Best Andy song on the album, a great closing song. Those crashes
and 4 bass drums before "Maypole.." are a bit weak. Maybe Dave would have
had some ideas in this place. There is also nothing much happening after
"Everything decays..", but I like it that way. Great bass work (as always).
When they bring us "The pot won't hold our love" to mind again at the very
end, I always have to laugh... Prairie Prince was finally worth his money
with this song. He didn't too much audible stuff on the other three he did.

BEACH BOYS: Chalkhills & Children is mostly inspired by "Good Only Knows",
it is almost the same chorus. GOK is my favourite BB song.

KC: I wanted to see & hear King Crimson in Vienna last friday, but Adrian
Belew was ill. Luckily they cancelled the concert. It would not have been
nearly as interesting without him. I love his solo albums, most of all
"Here". You should have a listen to it, if you don't know it by now. I hope
KC will have another concert date in Vienna.

Maybe you will throw bricks at me, but I have a recommendation: Steve
Lukather's latest solo album "Luke", the second song "Broken Machine" will
be something for you XTC fans.

I wish you all the best. Round goes the wheel

Klaus

Mag. Klaus Bergmaier MAS
Umweltgemeinderat der Stadt Krems

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

Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 11:25:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brown <mb2@deltanet.com>
Subject: Andy's 'List' appearance-airs July 13 on VH1
Message-ID: <200006241825.LAA20586@mail2.deltanet.com>

Hi guys,

I trust you had a relaxing break, Mr. Relph?.. muy bueno!  How is everybody
else doing?

Just a reminder--

According to TVT's website- The episode of VH1's 'THE LIST', featuring Mr.
Partridge, is scheduled to air on JULY 13.  I expect to hear John Keel
hooting his support from the peanut gallery ..the lucky sod was there for
the taping..  -MARK THOSE CALENDARS-

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet(?).. Wasp Star is on KCRW's 10
by 5, for June.  That's 5 of the music programmers recommending 10 of their
favorite albums.  It also means that KCRW members get a discount on these
albums at selected L.A. area music stores.  Increased sales, more converts..
Peachy keen!

Is it sunspots, food additives, continental drift, ..what?  Something is
keeping me from sleeping.. lots of wandering around a dark house, trying not
to wake anyone else.. often, I'll just put on the headphones and listen to
music, until I feel tired enough to go back to bed (this is the ONLY cool
thing to do at 3 a.m.).. a couple of nights ago, I popped in Dave Brubeck,
Crowded House and XTC (AV1 and WS).. by the time WS was playing, I was
drifting in and out of a light sleep.. I think I was only slightly aware of
hearing 'I'm The Man Who Murdered Love', when this ridiculous image popped
into my head..  Andy was dressed in exterminator garb and he was stalking a
scattering horde of tiny, six-legged cupids, a spray can of 'amour-be-gone'
in his gloved hand...   I woke up, giggling like a bufoon...   Ladles and
jellybeans, it would appear that the Orkin Man is THE prime suspect in this
case...   I have got to get more sleep..seriously..

Perfect segue into this.. a couple of digests back, I posed this question..

--Whose well-known mug(s) have starred in your dreams, Chalkers?--

Sushiman responded with this-
<<<Well , according to my DREAM RECORD FILE , besides AP there was : William
Burroughs ( several times ) ; Jack Kerouac ( several times ) ; Allen
Ginsberg ; Darryl Hannah ; Alistair Cooke ; The Animals ; Doris Day ; FDR
; Telly Savalas ; Jonathan Richman ; Leonard Bernstein ; Ringo Starr ; Ray
Davies ( several times ) ; Beach Boys ; The Kinks ( several times ) ;
George Harrison ; Miles Davis ; Morrissey ; Martina Navritalova ; Maria
Sanchez ; Elizabeth Montgomery ; Monty Python ; Mick Jagger ; and Rush
Limbaugh .>>>

Good mix here.. just enough apple pie and mayhem to keep things interesting.

Anyway, I'd still like to know who's appeared in your dreams..  Don't want
to clutter up the digest?
Fine, just send your lists directly to me.   Thanks, all.

>From the little blue canary on the night light-

Debora 'too many sheep to count' Brown

-- "Jack Daniel's, my eye!..nothing tastes better than an icy bottle of Iron
City beer, first thing in the morning!" --    Mother Teresa  (August 1965)

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

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 09:13:56 +0100
From: Peter Walker <PeterW@angliabc.co.uk>
Subject: Stupidly Happy
Message-ID: <A9726086F944D411952F006097278BC503300B@WALLACE>

One for the UK based.......

Hopefully someone else was as astonished as me on Saturday when the BBC's
coverage of the football (it's football, not soccer, we were here first!)
showed one of their montage bits at half time, with players and spectators
looking happy to a backing of "Stupidly Happy". Yet more conclusive proof
that the BBC's sports coverage blows ITV's out of the water, methinks.

Over and out,
Peter

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

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 14:26:17 EDT
From: Hbsherwood@aol.com
Subject: Slapping at a City on the Rebound
Message-ID: <e8.644c399.2688fa49@aol.com>

This Just In:

Lawmaker objects to ``Full Monty'' set in Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. (Reuters) - A decision to set the Broadway musical version of
the hit movie "The Full Monty'' in Buffalo rather than Sheffield, England,
has angered a New York lawmaker, who says it is a slap at a "city on the
rebound.''

The musical version of the play, which tells the story of six unemployed men
living in an economically depressed city who turn to stripping to make money,
is currently running in San Diego, California, and will open shortly on
Broadway.

Terrence McNally, the playwright who adapted the movie version for the stage,
has decided to change the setting from Sheffield to Buffalo, a former steel
town, when it opens in New York.

Rep. Jack Quinn, a Republican who represents western New York in Congress,
wrote McNally a letter Wednesday protesting the use of Buffalo as a setting.

"Your current treatment of our city is both incorrect and irresponsible,'' he
wrote.

"As you may be aware, the city of Buffalo is following in the footsteps of
other cities like Baltimore, Maryland, and Cleveland, Ohio, in developing a
prosperous waterfront facility,'' Quinn said.

The congressman suggested the playwright choose a fictional setting for the
play. That, he said, would avoid "undue harm to the psyche of a city on the
rebound.''

------

Comments, please, Mr. Yazbek?

Molly: You're in Buffalo, aren't you?

Harrison "Oh, yeah? Well, Fauquier County too, pal!" Sherwood

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

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 10:23:24 -0500
From: Jill Oleson <Jill_Oleson@kurion.com>
Subject: XTC Sighting: DisneyWorld, also Storefront Hitchcock & the XTC si
Message-ID: <81CC73FC2FACD311A2D200508B8B88AA1C8E30@KURION_EXCH>

ngle
Saw a great big XTC Wasp Star poster at the Virgin MegaStore in the
Downtown Disney section of DisneyWorld in Florida recently.  Printed
on a transparency so it could be backlit for dramatic night-viewing,
the giant ad was placed right outside the front door of the store so that
the million or more people who will visit DisneyWorld this summer will
see the announcement for XTC's latest album.

I assume there's only one reason Virgin would use this prime
advertising space for XTC:  Because they expect Wasp Star to
sell a lot of copies and make a lot of money!  (Ironic, isn't it?)

While at the store, which is certainly the largest audio/video store
I've ever been in, I checked to see if they had the DVD version of
Storefront Hitchcock that Ken Herne told us about.  They didn't.
One of the super-groovy attidudes, who acted as if he had never heard
of Robyn Hitchcock or Jonathan Demme, looked it up on the computer
and said that Virgin does carry the disc, but I'd probably have to
order it from their Web site.  *Very disappointed.*

Also, speaking of being disappointed, I bought four copies of Wasp Star
at Best Buy the week the album was released and they did not have
*any* copies of the single.  I spoke with the audio/video manager, who
said that she knew nothing about it.  Guess I should have been loyal
to our local Waterloo Records, which apparently did have the single
because some of my fellow Austinites were able to pick it up there.
Bummer!

Jill Oleson
Austin, Texas

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

Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 18:24:28 GMT
From: "Tim Brooks" <bridgered@hotmail.com>
Subject: Stupidly happy over football
Message-ID: <20000625182429.56989.qmail@hotmail.com>

XTC in national prime time BBC1 Broadcast shock :

Still in shock after seeing nearly the whole of Stupidly Happy at the half
time interval of the European quarter final Portugal V Turkey footie
match.  The song was aired at 6.00p.m. on BBC1 with scenes of fans from
the tournament being well.. stupidly happy. The whole song was used bar
the "devil" style verses which were edited out.

This surely proves beyond doubt that this would make the best single from
the album - come on Cooking Vinyl give it one big push, fund and persuade
the lads to make a video. If it can be used at such a prime time slot on
the TV then heavy radio plays would surely follow. Its a perfect summer
pop record.

This following so soon after a great interview earlier in the week on
London Live makes a nice change to actually see the media at last waking
up to the wonders within Wasp Star.

Keeping fingers crossed they air this film again - during the final would
really be some publicity for the band!!!

TMB over and out

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

Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 13:10:59 -0400
From: "Annamarie DeCarlo" <DeCarloA@trinitydc.edu>
Subject: 2 XTC books
Message-ID: <s950bf0b.052@smtp.trinitydc.edu>

I have heard there is a book about XTC - "Arcana Edition." Don't know the
author. Does anyone out there have it? Also, I'm interested in getting the
Italian book about XTC written by Vittorio Azzoni.

Thanks,
Annamarie
imsunbake@aol.com

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

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 05:55:16 -0700
From: "Ray Aoki" <ayok@3web.net>
Subject: XTC in new Jim Carrey movie
Message-ID: <000101bfdf6d$c652aec0$16f994d1@raoki.intergate.bc.ca>

Greetings from Vancouver, Canada.  Long time lurker...very infrequent
contributor.

If it hasn't been mentioned previously yet (I know Chalkhills is unavailable
for a week), "I'd Like That" is played for about 45 seconds in the new Jim
Carrey flick, "Me, Myself & Irene."  It is played in an early scene when Mr.
Carrey's policeman character hops on his motorcycle and drives from his home
into town.  What a pleasant surprise!  It was great to hear Andy's voice
heard in surround sound in a movie theatre.

Oh, the movie...at times, hilarious...at times, repulsive...but not
surprising fare from Jim Carrey and the Farrelly brothers.  Entertaining,
but mindless.  The main characters in the movie visit the Ben & Jerry's
amusement park in the film...made me run to the supermarket to pick up some
Cherry Garcia.

Cheers,

Ray

PS:  "Wasp Star" has received a somewhat encouraging response in Vancouver.
I don't listen to the local radio stations here so I honestly don't know if
it is being played here.

Sam's, a Canada wide record chain, in downtown Vancouver had "Wasp Star" as
#3 in its Top 30 CD's in its 2nd week of release.  It subsequently dropped
to #17 and is now #27.

The Georgia Straight, a local freebie entertainment newspaper, listed "Wasp
Star" as #40 in its top 50 CD's in the 2nd week.  It then dropped to #50 the
following week and out of sight.  The paper also showed an ad of the CD on
sale at A&B Sound, and actually had a contest where the prize was the CD and
an autographed poster of the band...I don't think I won.

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

Date: 26 Jun 2000 12:41:00 +0100
From: "Robert Wood" <Robert.Wood@mutech.co.uk>
Subject: Sound on Sound
Message-ID: <00002C9D@mutech.co.uk>
Organization: Mutech Ltd

Excellent article in the usually shite Sound on Sound this month all
about Idea studio and bits about recording the album. Well worth
getting.

What reminded me of it was this from Ed's rather good posting.

" Sure, I've admitted that "Nonsuch" features my least favourite
production job of any XTC album, but it's still an XTC album, full of
songs that I love & that have meaning for me, regardless of the
too-clean (to me) digital sound. Personally, I'm loving the "simulated
analog" sounds on WS, but again, we all seem to hear different things
"

Quite ironic this, because from what I've read about WS' recording is
that it's the most digitial of the records they've ever made. Chopping
up verses and choruses, cutting and pasting bits of the song to make
the finished article.

Nonsuch is a fairly clean sounding album, but it's not to do with
digital recording (didn't they use a Mitsubishi 32 track 1" machine?)
- they could have got the same type of "clean" sound with a 2"
analogue machine;it's the production that really dictated Nonsuch's
sound. The producer (Gus thingy?) will have worked hard to get that
precise sound. Personally, it's my favourite XTC album in terms of
production. I don't think any of the other albums comes close in terms
of sheer power in the *sounds*. I'm not arguing in terms of song
quality (although they're superb too, IMO), but in the sheer audio
impact. I'll never forget the first time I heard Peter Pumpinkead,
putting the record on, turning the volume up and being totally stunned
by that opening guitar sound, then the drums absolutely crashing in,
the stupendous harmonica riff and energy of it all.

Rob.

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

Date: 26 Jun 2000 12:04:00 +0100
From: "Robert Wood" <Robert.Wood@mutech.co.uk>
Subject: The Boys on TV
Message-ID: <00002C95@mutech.co.uk>
Organization: Mutech Ltd

Was watching one of the Euro 2000 games over the weekend and Gary
Lineker started going on about what a great tournament it has been
(IMO the best I ever remember watching) and asked us to cast our mince
pies over something they'd put together at the beeb.

So this massive riff starts up and I start to think, I have this song,
what is is it. A split second later it crashes into my head - it's
"Stupidly Happy"! Fanstastic, I'm saying to my wife, "it's XTC, it's
XTC"; she couldn't understand it when I didn't listen to her while it
was playing! They edited out my favourite bits of the song - where
Andy's doing his chanting through the mega phone bit - which is a
shame, and they didn't say who the song was by, but still, fantastic
to hear the boys on proper TV. :-)

The collage of images they'd put together was of the crowd and the
players really enjoying themselves. One of the funniest bits I seem to
remember was of Pierluigi Collini doing one of his massive wide eyed
grins to the line "I'm stupidly happy, idiot grin"!

Rob

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

Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 11:57:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: Molly Fanton <mfanton99@yahoo.com>
Subject: URGENT Apologizes and Next Week's Listening Party
Message-ID: <20000624185758.16865.qmail@web1302.mail.yahoo.com>

I have to apologize for those who were at today's
listening party for Go2.  I wasn't there, because I
was with my parents' doing something.  I was wondering
if anybody wanted t do it again, or just bag it and go
on to Drums & Wires?  It'll be at the same time as the
other, and I swear I'll be there.  Just let me know
ASAP.  Thanks.

Molly

=====
Molly's Pages: http://www.angelfire.com/mn/mollyfa99/index.html
My Tribute to Talk Talk & .O.Rang:
http://www.angelfire.com/mn/mollyfa99/talktalkorang.html

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

Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 12:03:42 -0700
From: "Fitzroy" <fitzroy@fidalgo.net>
Subject: Me, Myself and Irene... yeah, I'd Like That.
Message-ID: <000c01bfde0f$257eb5c0$314a66d1@Pfitzroy>

Well, since I don't see anything on the page (I'm ashamed to say I haven't
yet joined the mailing list, so I'm not sure what's been said there), a
friend told me today that during a scene in the new movie Me, Myself, and
Irene (which he said was hilarious, by the way) XTC makes a brief appearance
on the soundtrack with "I'd Like That."  Considering the band's past
experience with movie soundtracks, this is rather surprising... but along
with the release of the new album, and the oh-so-commerciable hopes of
"Stupidly Happy" as a novelty summer radio hit (cross fingers here), I'm
rather ecstatic about the whole thing... pun intended.

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

End of Chalkhills Digest #6-176
*******************************

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