Trivia / XTC

• Bad Export for You: English Settlement was pared down to a single album for its first release outside of the U.K.
• Better Export for You: The first UK CD issues of English Settlement in 1984 removed the songs "Leisure" and "Down in the Cockpit" for no real reason; even if those songs are kept, the entire album is still just 2 minutes shy of hitting a standard CD's limit of 74 minutes. The US CD release by Geffen Records restored the tracks, with this configuration carrying over to all later reissues worldwide.
• Black Sheep Hit: Their only number one hit in the U.S. is "Dear God", an extremely dark and serious tune about the thoughts of a young man who curses God for His callous and uncaring nature and blames Him for all the tragedy in the world. All of this coming from a band who's catalogue consists mostly of upbeat, quirky, and fun songs. XTC has created songs with complex, and dark ideas however, even when dealing with more serious subject matter, XTC's music tends to maintain a sense of playfulness and humor. "Dear God" doesn't possess either of those two.
• Breakthrough Hit: "Making Plans for Nigel" in the U.K., "Dear God" in the U.S.
• Channel Hop: Mummer was the first album released in the U.S. by Geffen Records after their previous U.S. label, Epic Records, dropped them, deeming the album uncommercial. They would remain with Geffen stateside until they got out of their Virgin contract. The band had been through several other U.S. distributors, including Atlantic Records and RSO Records, before Epic. Geffen itself would switch distribution from Warner (Bros.) Records to MCA when it was purchased by the latter in 1990. XTC signed with Cooking Vinyl worldwide for the Apple Venus and Wasp Star albums following a lawsuit against Virgin over unpaid royalties. The remastered versions of the Virgin-era albums were distributed in the U.S. by Caroline Records, an imprint of Virgin. Vinyl remastered versions of the band's work would later be issued on Andy Partridge's own APE House records. Virgin would ultimately end up in the arms of Geffen's parent label, Universal Music Group, following the sale of EMI in 2012.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Partridge described the songwriting on XTC's first two albums as "semen-stained."
  • Initially Partridge resented Skylarking, due to what he felt was Todd Rundgren's jerkass working style leading to a Troubled Production. (Rundgren has been equally adamant that Partridge was a jerkass bully until he stood up to him mid-production.) In a rare example of Vindicated by History with a creator, Andy later said the album was "a summer's day baked into a cake", specifically praising Rundgren for his production and arrangement work.
  • Partridge considers "Sgt. Rock" from Black Sea to be the worst song he's ever written, due to its blatant sexist undertones, and was outraged when Virgin insisted it to be on the record, as well as putting it out as a single. He also said he wishes he never wrote "Another Satellite", but not because of quality, but because it offended his partner and damaged their relationship for a while.
  • Dave Gregory has gone on record as disliking the production and mixing of The Big Express.
• Creator Breakdown:
  • Partridge's severe stage fright, which caused him to collapse on stage, forcing the band off the road.
  • Despite struggling not to do it, Partridge wrote "Your Dictionary" from Apple Venus about his divorce from his wife Marianne.
• Executive Meddling: XTC have a history of this. They...
  • ...recorded a song hinting about their former manager having screwed them over ("I Bought Myself a Liarbird"), but a lawsuit which stretched all the way until the release of Nonsuch forced them to not discuss the matter in public further as part of the settlement.
  • ...had the American release of Mummer delayed by nearly a year after their American label Epic Records rejected the album (it finally got issued by Geffen Records).
  • ...had Virgin reject Andy's initial "pubic hair + flowers" cover for Skylarking (but somehow managing to okay a picture of a naked man and woman playing flutes). The original artwork was eventually used for the 2011 vinyl and 2014 CD remasters.
  • ...had Geffen alter the US tracklisting of Skylarking to replace "Mermaid Smiled" with "Dear God". This being one of those examples of Executive Meddling having a good outcome: "Dear God" became a smash hit on American rock radio (despite or because of objections from Moral Guardians) and after the re-issue with the changed tracklist, Skylarking was estimated to have sold an extra 250,000 copies in the US. "Mermaid Smiled" was not added back to the track list of the American version of the album until 2001.
  • ...had Virgin arbitrarily cancel the release of the "Wrapped in Grey" single and destroy all the advance copies because they felt it had no chart potential, causing the band to go on strike.
  • ...had Virgin prolong their "strike" by continuously stalling on renegotiating or cancelling their contract until a change of management at the label.
  • And finally...discovered during said strike that Virgin had withheld substantial royalty payments, and successfully sued to regain them.
• Feelies: The 7-inch single release of "Making Plans for Nigel" came with a board game.
• He Also Did: Andy has popped up in a few unexpected places:
  • He provided vocals for the track "Margaret Freeman" on The Residents' The Commercial Album, under the alias Sandy Sandwich.
  • He played guitar on Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me with Science".
  • He sang and wrote the lyrics for "Papersnow" on The Heads' No Talking, Just Head.
  • He wrote and performed the opening theme for Wonderfalls, aptly titled "I Wonder Why the Wonder Falls".
  • Dave Gregory has lent his guitar playing to records by Peter Gabriel and Porcupine Tree.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: While most consider Skylarking to be their best album, Partridge views Apple Venus as their best.
• Promoted Fanboy: Mr. Mister and future King Crimson drummer Pat Mastoletto was a fan of the band before being tapped to play drums on Oranges and Lemons.
• Protection from Editors: Oranges and Lemons was Paul Fox's first major production job. He let the band do pretty much whatever they wanted.
• The Pete Best: Averted by keyboardist Barry Andrews, who left after the second album. He went on to form the Post-Punk band Shriekback, who were decently successful throughout the 80's.
• Referenced by...:
  • Their use of a Punny initialism full of Xtreme Kool Letterz as a name was later echoed in the names of U2, INXS, and R.E.M..
  • They Might Be Giants referenced the band by name in their song "XTC vs. Adam Ant" on Factory Showroom, which pits the two British artists as contrasts of "content versus form" and "Beatle-based Pop versus New Romantic."
  • On Gilmore Girls, music lover Lane Kim likes them, and excitedly rushes over to the Gilmore home to share album Alpha Venus vol. II with Rory in the second episode. The show would go on to use many XTC songs as background music, including "Earn Enough for Us," "We're All Light," "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love," and "Then She Appeared."
• Technology Marches On: "Respectable Street", recorded in 1980, mentions "portable Sony entertainment centers" as part of contemporary consumer culture. If the song was written today, it would have likely mentioned the iPhone instead.
• Wag the Director: According to Todd Rundgren, Andy Partridge would override the producer in the studio as a sort of "executive producer". Rundgren claims that Partridge's bitterness over Skylarking was because Rundgren remained in creative control.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Colin Moulding was seriously considered as a replacement for Roger Waters after he left Pink Floyd.
  • Dave Gregory nearly left XTC to join Blondie during the band's heyday.
  • The band considered having John Paul Jones produce Nonsuch, but his fee was too expensive, so they went with Gus Dudgeon instead.
  • Andy Partridge and Barry Andrews' improv record, Monstrance, was originally devised by Andy as a concept album based around if the Soviets invented Rock & Roll.
  • Around 1993, Andy Partridge conceived the idea of a compilation of fake bands from an imaginary label called Zither, playing homage to 60's bubblegum pop in the same way that the Dukes of Stratosphear did for 60's psychedelia. This fell through because the Virgin executives didn't understand the concept (and because the songs utilized deliberately blatant sexual innuendo), but "Standing in for Joe" (which he had written for the project) was later recorded for Wasp Star, "Cherry In Your Tree" (another song originally intended for the project) appeared on a Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego tie-in compilation, and the fake band name "Knights in Shining Karma" was later used as the title of a song on Apple Venus Volume 1.
  • None other than Brian Eno considered joining XTC in 1980.
  • After recording Oranges & Lemons, their new manager Tarquin Gotch made a last-ditch effort to get them to un-retire from touring— Andy Partridge suggested the rest of the band tour without him, comparing it to how The Beach Boys toured without Brian Wilson. Gotch then suggested they get Thomas Dolby as a live frontman, which Andy felt was a ruse to get him to perform by wounding his ego.
• Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: "Dear God" already caused plenty of controversy when it was first released, but it grew worse after a deranged student who was an XTC fan held a faculty member hostage at knife-point at a high school and forced the school to play the song over its PA system.

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