Music / XTC

XTC circa 1989. Left to right: David Gregory, Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding.

Influences:

• Roxy Music
• Brian Eno
• The Beatles
• The Beach Boys
• The Kinks
• David Bowie
• Bob Dylan
• 10cc
• New York Dolls
• Pink Floyd
• Syd Barrett
• The Small Faces
• The Who

Influenced:

• Oingo Boingo
• Cardiacs
• Jellyfish
• Blur
• Porcupine Tree

"Drowning here in summer's cauldron
Under mats of flower lava
Please don't pull me out, this is how I would want to go"

— "Summer's Cauldron"

XTC were a long-running cult favourite Alternative Rock band from Swindon, active between 1976-2006. From 1982 to 1998, the band had the following core members:

• Andy Partridge - vocals, guitar
• Colin Moulding - vocals, bass
• Dave Gregory - guitar, keyboards, string arrangements, backing vocals

The band's other two initial members were keyboardist Barry Andrews (who left after two albums in 1979 and was replaced by Gregory; Andrews wound up joining Robert Fripp & The League of Gentlemen shortly thereafter and later formed his own group, Shriekback), and drummer Terry Chambers (who left in 1983 when the band's retirement from touring severely cut into his income, and was replaced by a series of session musicians for each album).

XTC throughout their existence were based around the two main songwriters, Partridge and Moulding. Their initial style was a frantic, hyperactive variation of New Wave that added in elements of Funk, Punk Rock, Ska and Reggae. This stylistic fusion found favour with the contemporary Punk Rock movement, and the band gained some success with its first two albums.

Andrews' resignation from XTC in 1979 and replacement with Gregory proved to be a pivotal moment in the band's career, as Gregory's sixties-influenced guitar style steered the band towards its later sound, and his invaluable contributions to the band's albums helped drive Partridge and Moulding to new musical heights. For a while after Gregory's arrival, the band got slightly more attention from the mainstream and managed to score a few hits, such as the goofy, Moulding-penned single "Making Plans for Nigel" and Partridge's "Senses Working Overtime" and "Sgt. Rock is Going to Help Me".

The band retired from touring definitively in 1982 after Partridge suffered a severe mental breakdown, forcing their world tour to be cancelled. They remained studio-bound for the rest of their career, making occasional live appearances on radio and television (like a 1989 appearance on Late Night with David Letterman where Partridge looks absolutely uncomfortable). In response to the loss of touring income, Chambers left and moved to Australia. Partridge, Moulding and Gregory didn't bother to replace him, instead recruiting session drummers on an album-per-album basis. These drummers have included: Pete Phipps (Gary Glitter, Eurythmics), Prairie Prince (The Tubes), Dave Mattacks (Fairport Convention), Pat Mastelotto (Mr. Mister, King Crimson) and Dave's brother Ian Gregory.

Once Chambers left, the group completely changed their style, with the dreamy, pastoral folk-rock of Mummer serving as arguable New Sound Album. From that point on XTC became a full-blown Psychedelic Rock band, taking production cues from The Beatles (and The Beach Boys), jangly guitars from The Byrds and idiosyncratic, humorous lyrics critical of society from The Kinks. Soon afterwards, XTC recorded the album commonly regarded as their masterpiece, Skylarking. Besides critical accolades, Skylarking managed to gain them a controversial hit single as well, the Beatlesque rock of "Dear God", where Partridge basically embarked on a long Nay-Theist Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter rant, railing against God's horrendous, callous treatment of humanity. God was so incensed by Mr. Partridge's display of testicular virility that he personally purchased 250,000 copies of Skylarking.

Around the same time, XTC recorded some outright Psychedelic Rock Affectionate Parodies, under their alter egos The Dukes of Stratosphear. As The Dukes, the band released an EP, 25 O'Clock (1985), and an album, Psonic Psunspot (1987), where they were all credited under Stage Names (Partridge was Sir John Johns, Moulding was The Red Curtain and Gregory was Lord Cornelius Plum) and did their damnedest to pass the material off as genuine Sixties psychedelia. The EP and album were initially available on vinyl only, but simultaneous with the album the two were compiled as Chips from the Chocolate Fireball on CD only. It wasn't until 2009 that the original works were released on CD separately, with bonus tracks and credited to XTC as The Dukes of Stratosphear. The Dukes were also jokingly thanked in the Skylarking liner notes for allowing XTC to borrow their instruments.

This wasn't the first time the band recorded material under pseudonyms:

• Partridge had released a solo album in 1980 as "Mr Partridge", Take Away/The Lure of Savage, featuring dub reconstructions of XTC songs. These experiments were later collected on the Explode Together: The Dub Experiments 78-80 compilation.
• Moulding and Chambers recorded the "Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen" single under the name "The Colonel" the same year.
• They recorded a Viz promotional single as "Johnny Japes and his Jesticles".
• They recorded the 1983 Christmas single "Thanks for Christmas" as "The Three Wise Men".
• They also appeared on their own tribute album Testimonial Dinner as "Terry and the Lovemen"; Instead of covering one of their own songs, they contributed "The Good Things", a song that was cut from Oranges and Lemons.
• Aside from the Dukes credit, the Skylarking liner notes also humorously credited "the Beech Avenue Boys" (actually the band and Todd Rundgren) with backing vocals.

Benefiting from renewed attention, XTC managed to revive their commercial fortunes with their next two energetic Psychedelic Rock albums, Oranges and Lemons and Nonsuch, gaining three more hit singles from them: "The Mayor of Simpleton" and "King for a Day" from the former and "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" from the latter. However, they became embroiled in a long contractual dispute with their label Virgin Records and went "on strike" until they were released from their contract in 1998.

Now independent and benefiting from a large settlement obtained from Virgin (Partridge had discovered the label withheld substantial royalties from them), XTC formed their own record label and Partridge and Moulding installed recording studios in their own homes. A double album of material written during the dispute named Apple Venus was planned, which was eventually released in two volumes in 1999 and 2000, the second album containing their last major single, "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love". However, the band experienced a new setback when Gregory left in 1999 due to a conflict with Partridge and Moulding. Their fanbase became absolutely incensed by this announcement, with fans slamming Partridge and Moulding for forcing Gregory's departure. (He and brother Ian Gregory would reunite with Moulding and Partridge in 2003 for a charity single as The Dukes of Stratosphear.)

The band itself disintegrated by the mid-2000s due to Moulding's decreasing contributions and lack of interest, with Partridge officially announcing XTC's breakup in 2006. After some on-and-off squabbling over the ensuing decade-plus, Partridge, Moulding and Gregory have now said (in separate interviews) that they are back to being on more-or-less friendly terms, although they have no intention of working together again.

Two spin-off projects that reunited former XTC members occurred after the breakup. In 2007, Partridge and keyboardist Barry Andrews (collectively billed as "Monstrance") released an album of improvised freeform instrumental jazz music which sounded nothing like XTC. In the late 2010s, Moulding reunited with former XTC drummer Terry Chambers for an EP and live dates billed as "TC&I", playing both XTC-ish new material and selections from Moulding's XTC catalogue. They had broken up by 2020.

Partridge continues to release occasional material, usually one-off singles and EPs.

Younger tropers may be more familiar with Andy Partridge's son, web animator Harry Partridge.

Discography:

• White Music (1978)
• Go 2 (1978)
• Drums and Wires (1979) - First album with Gregory.
• Black Sea (1980)
• English Settlement (1982) - Last full album with Terry Chambers.
• Mummer (1983) - New Sound Album, marked their definitive break with New Wave. Drums here were handled by Peter Phipps, who also worked with Eurythmics and Gary Glitter. Terry Chambers played on three tracks before leaving the band.
• The Big Express (1984) - Drumming duties here were split between drum machines, Phipps, and Andy Partridge himself.
• 25 O'Clock EP (1985) - The Dukes of Stratosphear release. This time around the drummer was Dave's brother Ian Gregory.
• Skylarking (1986) - Prairie Prince of The Tubes stepped in as drummer, credited as "the part of the time bomb". Mingo Lewis provided extra percussion on "Mermaid Smiled" and "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul", and "That's Really Super, Supergirl" started with a drum machine^note Prince claims that his girlfriend misunderstood his "time bomb" credit and thought he was responsible only for said drum machine, leaving him to inform her he actually did the drums.
• Psonic Psunspot (1987) - The Dukes of Stratosphear release. Again, the drummer was Dave's brother Ian Gregory.
• Chips from the Chocolate Fireball (1987) - The Dukes of Stratosphear compilation, containing 25 O'Clock and Psonic Psunspot. Please don't tell us you already forgot who was the drummer.
• Oranges & Lemons (1989) - The drummer's stool was passed to Pat Mastelotto, of King Crimson and Mr Mister fame. The band played a series of live performances at radio stations in the U.S. and a BBC session to promote the album with Ian once again playing drums.
• Nonsuch (1992) - Continuing the famous guest trend, the drums here are played by Dave Mattacks of Fairport Convention, with extra percussion credits for Andy and producer Gus Dudgeon.
• Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999) - Last album with Gregory, who left midway through recording. Prairie Prince returned behind the kit.
• Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) (2000) - Four songs had Prince on drums, with the rest being played by Chuck Sabo.

You can vote for your favourite XTC album by heading over to the Best Album crowner. You can also vote for your favourite XTC track here!

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XTC provide examples of the following tropes:

• Abusive Parents:
  • The song "Runaways" gives them a sympathetic, rueful context.
  • "No Thugs In Our House" is a sarcastic take on the harsh home life of a kid who is growing up primed to be a thug.
• Affectionate Parody: The Dukes of Stratosphear incarnation was a faithful recreation of British psychedelic music in The '60s, Gratuitous Panning and all.
  • "Brainiac's Daughter" in particular is one to the music of Paul McCartney.
• After the End: "This World Over", after a nuclear apocalypse.
• Album Title Drop: Oranges & Lemons is named after a lyric from "Ballet for a Rainy Day", a song on their previous album, Skylarking, and it doubles as a reference to the old eponymous nursery rhyme. Nonsuch is titled from a lyric in "Chalkhills and Children" from Oranges & Lemons. To top it all off, Apple Venus is named after a lyric in "Then She Appeared" from Nonsuch. Andy has since admitted that the first two instances were unintentional, but after fans repeatedly pointed them out he decided to use a lyric from a previous album as the title of Apple Venus on purpose.
• All Drummers Are Animals: Terry Chambers apparently fit this trope during his tenure with the band.
• Anti-Love Song: "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love"
• Armchair Military: "Generals and Majors"
• Author Appeal: Partridge loves American comics and references this quite a bit, like in "Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)", "Brainiac's Daughter" and "That's Really Super, Supergirl".
• Ballad of X: "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead".
• Berserk Button: After becoming strictly a studio band, Andy Partridge was extremely annoyed in interviews about people asking him why the band didn't tour anymore.
• Bowdlerization: The single version of "Respectable Street," with "abortion" changed to "absorption," "contraception" to "child prevention," and "sex position" to "proposition." The BBC still wouldn't play it because the song contained the word "Sony," which could be construed as an advertisement.
• Book Worm: Coulin Moulding. He once expressed a desire in an interview to own a bookstore.
• Break-Up Song: "Snowman", "That's Really Super, Supergirl", "1000 Umbrellas", "Another Satellite" and "Your Dictionary".
• Cannot Spit It Out: A recurring theme in Partridge's songs is the inability to tell the object of his affection that he loves her, most notably on "Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her" and "Ladybird".
• Careful with That Axe: Andy pulls this off surprisingly well in "Complicated Game".
  • "No Thugs In Our House" has several as well.
• Christmas Songs: "Thanks for Christmas" and "Countdown to Christmas Party Time", a single credited to The Three Wise Men.
• Compilation Re-release: The Dukes of Stratoshpear E.P. 25 O'Clock and the Psonic Psunspot album were released on one CD titled Chips from the Chocolate Fireball.
• Concept Album: Skylarking.
• Concept Video: "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" draws parallels between the deaths of Jesus and John F. Kennedy. Heavy, man.
• Control Freak: According to Partridge, Todd Rundgren was one during the Skylarking sections. He'd already worked out which songs he was going to use from the demos he made them send ahead of their arrival to the studio and also had a running order before the band started recording. Rundgren, in a later interview, claimed that Partridge was one, habitually taking control of recording sessions until Rundgren stood up to him.
• Cool Shades: Partridge took up wearing John Lennon-style glasses from "English Settlement" onwards.
• Cover Album: A Testimonial Dinner: The Songs of XTC. Notable because XTC performed on it themselves (however, due to the problems with their old label, they went by the name Terry and the Lovemen for their appearance).
• Cover Version: They covered "All Along the Watchtower" on White Music and "Ella Guru" on the obscure Captain Beefheart tribute album Fast N' Bulbous.
• Cozy Catastrophe: In "This World Over", families still go on Sunday hikes after a nuclear apocalypse, even though London is a pile of rubble and babies are born with extra limbs from the mutations.
• Crapsaccharine World: "Scarecrow People" describes one.
• Demoted to Extra: A factor in Gregory's departure. Partridge bought a synthesizer that allowed him to create string arrangements, something Gregory had done in the past.
• Design Student's Orgasm:
  • The cover art for Oranges and Lemons, in full Psychedelic glory.
  • The cover art for the Dukes Of Stratosphear albums give it a run for its money.
  • Other XTC albums that fit this trope include Drums And Wires, Apple Venus, the original cover for Skylarking and Nonsuch
• Doesn't Like Guns: "Melt The Guns".
• Doting Parents: Parodied with "Making Plans for Nigel" and "No Thugs in Our House".
  • "They thought that it was just a boy's club badge he wore"
  • "Her son is innocent; he can't do wrong/'Cause Dad's a judge who knows exactly what the job of judging's all about"
• Double Entendre:
  • According to Partridge, "Pink Thing" was written for his son Harry. The lyrics read like one man's ode to his penis.
  • "Things we used to do on grass" can be taken a couple different ways.
• Double-Meaning Title: The B-side "Don't Lose Your Temper", which is about a guy telling his partner not to lose her fiery attitude (i.e. her temper) because he's in love with her wild side.
• Extreme Doormat: "Snowman".
  It seems you would say I was too soft-hearted
  If you made a dunce-cap I'd don it!
  People will always be tempted to wipe their feet
  On anything with "welcome" written on it.
• Failed Future Forecast: According to "Living Through Another Cuba", recorded in 1980, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were due for another replay in 1998.
• God Is Evil: "Dear God".
• Gratuitous Panning: Well, hey, Psychedelic Rock. XTC's albums tend to be subtle about this or not use it at all, but it's very much in effect on The Dukes of Stratosphear material.
• Green-Eyed Monster: "Crocodile"
• Grief Song: "Dying".
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding, at least before the latter's departure effectively ended the band. They grew up together and Partridge even described their relationship as a "male marriage." Their partnership very obviously spurred each other on, with Andy admitting that nothing gave him greater impetus to write than having Colin present a good song to the band — he felt he had to keep up. In the nearly 25 years the duo worked together, they spurred each other to create 13 full-length albums (and enough non-album material to fill up several more.) Since XTC broke up, though, their productivity has plummeted precipitously. Though both Partridge and Moulding have continued to occasionally record material, it's been mostly very, very widely-spaced one-off singles or EPs (and also in Partidge's case, the odd experimental instrumental recording). In fact, in the over two decades since XTC's last album Wasp Star, neither Partridge nor Moulding has managed to release even one complete full-length album of newly-written pop songs.
• High-School Dance: "Life Begins at the Hop".
• Humans Are Bastards: "Scarecrow People", "The Smartest Monkeys".
• Humans Are Morons: "Across This Antheap"
  The stars are laughing at us, as we crawl on and on across this antheap.
• I Am the Band: Averted by Partridge, who decided not to continue using the name XTC after Moulding left.
• I Have Many Names: The Dukes of Stratosphear, The Three Wise Men, Johnny Japes and his Jesticles, Terry and the Lovemen, etc.
• In the Style of:
  • "Battery Brides" is done in the style of Brian Eno, if the "(Andy Paints Brian)" subtitle was too subtle.
  • The various Dukes of Stratosphear songs are usually done in the style of specific psychedelic bands. For example, "Bike Ride to the Moon" and "Have You Seen Jackie?" are reminiscent of early Pink Floyd, "The Mole from the Ministry" is a pastiche of The Beatles' "I am the Walrus", and "Pale and Precious" is based on Pet Sounds-era The Beach Boys.
• Insignificant Little Blue Planet: "Across This Antheap"
• Intercourse with You: "Grass". Outside, no less.
• Kids Rock:
  • Todd Rundgren got the daughter of a friend, Jasmine Veillette, to sing the first stanza and last line of "Dear God".
  • Lily Fraser, the daughter of the owner of Sawmills Studio, recited "psychedelic nonsense" (Andy's description) in between some songs on Psonic Psunspot. Andy said that their first plan was to ask Deryck Guyler to do so, as a tribute to Stanley Unwin's monologues on The Small Faces' Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, but Guyler's agent asked for £10.000, which was their entire recording budget. Lily did it instead for "a pat on the head and ice cream money."
  • Andy's daughter Holly does backing vocals on "Playground".
• Kindhearted Simpleton: The narrator of "Mayor of Simpleton".
• Large Ham: Andy Partridge was one in the band's touring days despite suffering from stage fright and being on Valium.
• Lead Bassist: Colin Moulding. Although Partridge was officially the leader, Moulding penned the lion's share of the band's early hits, including "Making Plans for Nigel" and "Generals and Majors".
• Lead Singer Plays Lead Guitar: During their initial lineup with Barry Andrews on keyboard, lead singer Andy Partridge played lead guitar as he was the only guitarist in the band. Once Andrews left the band and Dave Gregory joined, Andy often left the role of lead guitar to Dave but occasionally did still perform many lead guitar lines. This can be heard in the outro solo of "Books are Burning", which Andy and Dave both play.
• Lesser Star:
  • David Gregory. Though he didn't write songs, he contributed a lot to the group's distinctive sound.
  • Terry Chambers. His drumming was one of the defining elements of the band's early records.
• Literary Allusion Title: Skylarking is named after Percy Shelley's poem "Ode to a Skylark".
• Longest Song Goes Last:
  • Black Sea closes with "Travels in Nihilon" (6:56).
  • Apple Venus Volume 1 closes with "The Last Balloon" (6:40).
  • Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) closes with "The Wheel and the Maypole" (5:55).
  • Additionally, both of their Dukes of Stratosphear albums close with their longest tracks. 25 O'Clock closes with "The Mole From the Ministry" (5:50), while Psonic Psunspot closes with "Pale and Precious" (4:24).
• Lyrical Dissonance: These guys are masters at it. Don't let the vocal harmonies or upbeat backing track fool you, "Big Day"'s lyrics are a bit more skeptical and realistic towards marriage. And under all those catchy Beatles riffs, "Earn Enough For Us" is a huge Angst-fest about being married and broke.
• Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: "No Thugs In Our House".
• Manchild: Andy Partridge loves comics and collects toy soldiers.
• Mercy Kill: The reasoning behind "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love", as Andy elaborates:
  If love is an ‘Eros’ like god, he would beg me to kill him, as he hasn't worked for centuries. I'd be doing mankind a good service. Nobody seems to need love anymore.
• Minimalism: The guitar solo on "Love at First Sight" is just a single note repeated over and over at an increasing speed until it accelerates into frantic shredding.
• Minimalistic Cover Art:
  • Go 2, which features satirical white on black text describing what an album cover does in place of an actual album cover.
  • English Settlement shows the Uffington White Horse against a green background.
  • Mummer simply shows the band members' shadows projected onto some crumpled paper with yellow light.
  • The cover art for The Big Express is a photo of the wheel of a steam train against a black background; early LP releases went a step further and came in a circular sleeve containing just the wheel.
• Misogyny Song: "Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)". According to Andy, he wrote the song as "a bit of fun", played it to the band, and started to have second thoughts. The record company, however, liked it, and effectively forced Andy to release it as a single. Consequently, Andy disowned the song after it was released.
• Money Song: Or, rather, lack of money song— "Love on a Farmboy's Wages", "Earn Enough for Us", "Paper and Iron" and "Bungalow"
• Mundane Made Awesome: The band themselves. In a Rolling Stone article in 1989 to promote the release of Oranges and Lemons, Andy Partridge said that they were the "ninjas of the mundane."
• Nay-Theist: "Dear God".
• Never Heard That One Before: In interviews, Partridge can't contain his annoyance at how many people have asked him why the band didn't tour anymore.
• New Media Are Evil: Andy Partridge hates Spotify because of its low royalty payouts to artists, which is the reason why both Apple Venus albums - which unlike their previous records were released by the group independently - are unavailable. Given how much the band was jerked around by Virgin, it's not that surprising that he'd be critical of something that major labels love so much.
• New Sound Album: Drums and Wires was their first album with David Gregory and emphasized the guitars. Mummer saw the band shifting to a more pastoral sound after Partridge's breakdown, coming to full flower with Skylarking.
• Obsessively Normal: "Respectable Street" shows the hypocrisy of people with this mentality:
  It's in the order of their hedgerows
  It's in the way their curtains open and close
  It's in the look they give you down their nose
  All part of decency's jigsaw, I suppose
• Performance Anxiety: Partridge's stage fright was the reason why XTC stopped touring.
• Preacher's Kid: Or judge's kid, in the case of "No Thugs in Our House".
• President Evil: "Here Comes President Kill Again", complete with a Meet the New Boss punchline.
• Psychedelic Rock
• Punny Name: The band's name is a play on "ecstasy," based on a quote from Jimmy Durante.
• Record Producer:
  • They got Todd Rundgren to produce Skylarking and ended up with acrimony. Partridge is still kind of pissed off by what he perceives as Rundgren's Jerkass-ish behaviour. Other observers feel that Rundgren and Partridge were just never ever going to get along, as both sides were inflexible. The problem? XTC had produced their last three albums assisted by an engineer, and Partridge was used to the control that gave him over the finished product. Rundgren, meanwhile, was hired at the label's insistence to produce a record that would be commercially viable, and was used to having complete control in the studio ... after all, he wasn't hired to co-produce the record, he was hired as the producer. Over time, Partridge has admitted that Rundgren's work as producer on the record was what the album needed ("Todd conjured up some of the most magical production and arranging conceivable.") ... though he will still slam his work as a recording engineer. (A "reversed polarity" issue had to be fixed for a later reissue of the album.)
  • Andy has also complained about Gus Dudgeon, feeling he was an inappropriate choice of producer for Nonsuch.
  • And then there was XTC's ill-fated attempt to work with Clive Langer, who apparently walked out in the middle of a session for the single "Ball And Chain", after the band decided against re-arranging the song in line with Langer's suggestions. The released single recording of "Ball And Chain" was from a completely different session, produced by the band with Hugh Padgham.
• Religion Rant Song: "Dear God" details a struggling agnostic raging against God for His apparent apathy towards the suffering of mankind and conflicting ideas of what His will constitutes, ultimately concluding that believing in Him is pointless and self-defeating. The music video compounds this, depicting God as a looming tree that Partridge angrily chops down in the climax.
• Retraux:
  • Their material as The Dukes of Stratosphear.
  • The cover of Oranges And Lemons, based on a radio station poster by Milton Glaser, is done in the style of a late '60s album.
  • The album version of "Respectable Street", and by extension, Black Sea, opens with a snippet of the bridge done in the style of an old 78 rpm record.
• Revolving Door Band: After Terry Chambers left, the remaining members recruited a new drummer for every album, to the point where fans called the band members Andy, Colin, David and "The Drummer".
• Round Hippie Shades: One of Andy Partridge's visual trademarks.
• Shaped Like Itself: "I'd Like That":
  "Each drop would make us grow really high, really high, like a really high thing".
• Shout-Out: The cover of English Settlement◊ depicts the Uffington White Horse, a local landmark not far from Swindon, and the cover of Nonsuch◊ uses John Speed's depiction of Nonsuch Palace from a 1610 map of Surrey◊.
• Shrinking Violet: "When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty" and "Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her"
• Silly Love Songs: Hilariously so. "My Love Explodes", "Stupidly Happy", "Rocket from a Bottle", "The Loving". "Then She Appeared", "That Wave", "You're The Wish You Are I Had".
• Slobs Versus Snobs: "Respectable Street".
• Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter: "Dear God".
• Spell My Name with a "The": Colin Moulding's Dukes of Stratosphear alias was The Red Curtain.
• Stage Names: Everybody who played on The Dukes of Stratosphear albums is credited using a nickname.
• Stalker with a Crush: "25 O'Clock". Just in case somebody might miss it, Colin screams the chorus as if he's about to kill whoever the song is addressed to.
• Surreal Music Video:
  • "Dear God".
  • The two they made as the Dukes of Stratosphear: "The Mole from the Ministry" is very much an Affectionate Parody of Magical Mystery Tour, and "You're a Good Man Albert Brown" is a psychedelic Punch and Judy show.
• Sympathetic Murderer: "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love"
  Before you throw me in your dungeon dark / Your Honour, they'll be putting statues up in every park
• Those Two Guys: As the band's songwriters, Partridge and Moulding were frequently interviewed together.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead", about a messianic figure who is literally crucified by his enemies.
• Truck Driver's Gear Change: Occurs in "Meccanik Dancing", "When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty", "Respectable Street", "Rocket from a Bottle", "Towers of London", "Don't Lose Your Temper", "Ball and Chain", "Senses Working Overtime", "Great Fire" (which is itself a rewrite of "Senses"), "Me and the Wind", "The Everyday Story of Smalltown", "You're the Wish You Are I Had", "Bike Ride to the Moon", "Another Satellite", "You're a Good Man Albert Brown", "Pale and Precious", "Easter Theatre".
• Unable to Support a Wife: "Love on a Farmboy's Wages", "Earn Enough For Us".
• Unreplaced Departed: The band did this twice, continuing as a trio after drummer Terry Chambers left and replacing him with various session drummers, and as a duo after David Gregory left until Colin Moulding's lack of interest ended the band for good in 2006.
• Updated Re-release: The band's CD reissues added B-sides from the singles released from each album to the running order as bonus tracks. The early versions took the unusual step of putting them right in the middle of the track listing rather then appending them to the end. Later reissues tacked the bonus tracks onto the end of the albums, in keeping with the standard practice.
• Vocal Tag Team: The original lineup had three lead vocalists: Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, and Barry Andrews. The replacement of Andrews with Dave Gregory brought it down to just Partridge and Moulding. While Partridge tends to be the band's face, Moulding has sung lead on some popular songs, including their first semi-hit, "Making Plans for Nigel".
• Wall of Text: The cover of Go 2 designed by famed art collective Hipgnosis (of Pink Floyd fame), which says this, verbatim:

  This is a RECORD COVER. This writing is the DESIGN upon the record cover. The DESIGN is to help SELL the record. We hope to draw your attention to it and encourage you to pick it up. When you have done that maybe you'll be persuaded to listen to the music - in this case XTC's Go 2 album. Then we want you to BUY it. The idea being that the more of you that buy this record the more money Virgin Records, the manager Ian Reid and XTC themselves will make. To the aforementioned this is known as PLEASURE. A good cover DESIGN is one that attracts more buyers and gives more pleasure. This writing is trying to pull you in much like an eye-catching picture. It is designed to get you to READ IT. This is called luring the VICTIM, and you are the VICTIM. But if you have a free mind you should STOP READING NOW! because all we are attempting to do is to get you to read on. Yet this is a DOUBLE BIND because if you indeed stop you'll be doing what we tell you, and if you read on you'll be doing what we've wanted all along. And the more you read on the more you're falling for this simple device of telling you exactly how a good commercial design works. They're TRICKS and this is the worst TRICK of all since it's describing the TRICK whilst trying to TRICK you, and if you've read this far then you're TRICKED but you wouldn't have known this unless you'd read this far. At least we're telling you directly instead of seducing you with a beautiful or haunting visual that may never tell you. We're letting you know that you ought to buy this record because in essence it's a PRODUCT and PRODUCTS are to be consumed and you are a consumer and this is a good PRODUCT. We could have written the band's name in special lettering so that it stood out and you'd see it before you'd read any of this writing and possibly have bought it anyway. What we are really suggesting is that you are FOOLISH to buy or not buy an album merely as a consequence of the design on its cover. This is a con because if you agree then you'll probably like this writing - which is the cover design - and hence the album inside. But we've just warned you against that. The con is a con. A good cover design could be considered as one that gets you to buy the record, but that never actually happens to YOU because YOU know it's just a design for the cover. And this is the RECORD COVER.

  • The back cover, as well as the original vinyl labels, follow suit with this design.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: "Hold Me My Daddy".
• Word Salad Lyrics: Some of their lyrics, like "Mermaid Smiled". When that happens though, it's usually because Andy decides to express something using confusing metaphors.
• Worst Aid: Andy Partridge's collapses during the 1982 tour were caused by his then-wife Marianne throwing away his supply of Valium, apparently unaware of the severity of benzodiazepine withdrawal.
• "X" Makes Anything Cool: Andy Partridge chose to spell the band's name this way, adapted from a phrase by Jimmy Durante, because he thought that it looked good in print. The band quickly becoming a critical darling might have proved him right.

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