I've heard he's an XTC fan. That's got to be a good thing.

And XTC are notorious comedy fans. Good comedy, I mean (Python, Derek And Clive, The Day Today etc). Anyone else think that a Partridge/Moulding/Eldon collaboration could only be a good thing?

If you listen to Dukes of Stratosphere`s(XTCs 60s psychedelic alter ego) Chips from the chocolate fireball CD,the track Collideascope you can hear a sample of Jimmy Jewel from the Nearest and Dearest film expounding "Bloody hell!"
Kevin Eldon doesnt go much for the whole self publicity bit, so dont hold your breath for that Heat interview .He is however excellent.As are XTC.

And that Woody Allen-esque voice on the Dukes CD. Do you know the origins this? John Leckie (producer) recorded it off a live phone-in on American radio. Very chopped down from a much funnier whole.

If you really like XTC, get new Lp 'Wasp Star'. Best thing they've done since 'Oranges and Lemons' - a pop album released in the Summer. Finally they get the timing right.

Partridge/Moulding/Eldon - mmm, interesting.

I agree about "Wasp Star" - right up there with "Oranges and Lemons" and "Skylarking".

Almost forgot - the voice on the phone is some radio listener getting angry about someone playing a Fugs song with 'atom bomb', 'go', 'yourself', 'with', 'your' and a rude word in the title. Said song (if song is the right word) is played backwards at high speed at the end of 'Mole From The Ministry'

Are we talking about Kevin Eldon or XTC - com on play the game

Wasp Star is fantastic,but I thought Apple Venus was breathtaking.Anyway we should go off to the Chalkhills and Children site to harp on about Swindons finest.

I did read somewhere once that Kevin Eldon is a bhuddist, and he used chanting techniques to create Simon Quinlank's 'unstoppable' voice - anyone know if this is correct?

Kevin Eldon achieved the Simon Quinlank voice by spending six weeks encased in a lead box buried in a central reservation just outside Shepton Mallet.In fact Kevin is not a Buddhist, but holds fanatical Taliban beliefs and works part time when hes not filming Jam in their Charity shop in Balham with Roger Mann who shares his creed.

We can't go to Chalkhills because no one ever talks about XTC on there. Let's get back to Kevin.

What is XTC?

Judging by some of the comments on this thread I fear you may be about to find out...

I wish I hadn't started it now.

Does Kevin still do his Steptoe & Son impressions? Y'know, to a paying crowd like he used to.

I am really intrigued by this XTC that you talk of. Can no one enlighten me?

I am stunned that none of the XTC heads have risen to the challenge! I'm not a big fan and I don't own any of their albums, so this info is patchy at best. They began as a new wave band in the early 80s(?) and had a couple of hits like Making Plans For Nigel, Senses Working Overtime, and the aforementioned Sgt Rock is Going to Help Me. They continued releasing albums through the eighties including the acclaimed Skylarking, and double album Oranges and Lemons. They recorded some albums under a fake name: The Dukes of Stratosphear, which did quite well in the US. XTC proper are still going, and have just released a new album. That's all I know...

The lastest issue of Guitar Magazine has a feature on them - but i didn't read it. Perhaps i will.

On of the people in XTC producedd early sessions for 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' by Blur, but the tapes went missing and they had to do it again with someone else.

It was Andy Partridge, and he claims that the tapes didn't in fact go missing (although some members of the band maintain that this is true), but that he was fired by Food Records (Blur's label) for refusing to use drum machines instead of Dave Rowntree on the tracks...

>They began as a new wave band in the early 80s(?) and had a couple of hits like Making Plans For Nigel, Senses Working Overtime, and the aforementioned Sgt Rock is Going to Help Me.

Why thankyou Al. I can see it was a painful recollection for you.

Painful! Arguably the best British pop group of the last thirty years. Which is why Blur employed Partridge, in order to make themselves sound like XTC. They rejected the tapes because they sounded *too* much like XTC.

Seems a flimsy reason, given that Coxon has nicked the 'Respectable Street' riff for a few Blur songs (eg. 'It Could Be You').

The new single is worth picking up, 'Man Who Murdered Love, but in a just and sane world they'd release 'Stupidly Happy.'

Hurrah! I knew one of the XTC cavalry would arrive eventually!

>Hurrah! I knew one of the XTC cavalry would arrive eventually!


Haha! And I'll never mention the subject of this thread again, just to show 'em.

Just curious - has anyone ever heard 'Blue Beret', an "Oranges And Lemons" outtake that they apparrently performed on some American radio show?

Commonly available on bootleg. In fact the US radio tour is probably over populated on boots.

I've got the demo as well.

You've got my address, TJ!

I've never really heard XTC, apart from 'Nigel' and 'Sgt Rock'. Is there a compilation or Best Of album you could recommend as an introduction?

I saw 'Sgt Rock' on an early 90s BBC2 music show, that just played the favourite tracks chosen by a R1 DJ. It was Dave Lee Travis' choice. Along with 'She's Not There' by UK Subs.

No kidding. Or maybe I misunderstood the point of the show, and they were his least favourite. Anyway, he definitely chose them for some reason, and that's how I got to see XTC on TOTP from 19-whenever, performing 'Sgt Rock'. As well as UK Subs performing their song. With eerie uniforms on. Also still going, like XTC, apparently.

There is a singles compliation available, "Fossil Fuel", but obviously this omits some of the better album tracks. My advice is to get "Oranges And Lemons", which is probably the best starting point as an introduction to the band.

There's also a reasonable American collection named something like "Upsy Daisy Assortment", which mixes singles and album tracks. No 'Sacrificial Bonfire' though, which is a shame.

I think it was DLT who introduced Sgt Rock on TOTP anyway. Oh no, tell a lie - it was Peter Powell. Who was as thin as a cornflake so I suppose it adds up.

'Foosil Fuel' or O&L;you can't fail either way but 'FF' has about forty tracks on it. Don't be deceived though. Some of the 'single vesions' are the wrong takes - often radio edits or the trimmed 'Wait Til Your Boat Goes Down' which loses Dave Gregory's finest guitar solo.
A Japanese reissue of the first 'best of' is available, 'Waxworks', but that's too expensive for the casual buyer I suppose. 2nd hand copies of the LP are better, because the CD is mastered from vinyl anyway.

Another comp is 'The Compact XTC' which does the singles up to 1985. That's where I started.

So anyway, Kevin Eldon...

don't buy any best ofs, buy the following albums. bet you most of them are mid-price:

nonsuch
skylarking
oranges and lemons
english settlement
wasp star
black sea

and get the dukes thing - chips from the chocolate fireball or whatever it's called. andy partridge is just about the greatest living english songwriter, and certainly the greatest living english lyricist.

and dave gregory's website, http://www.guitargonauts.com is triffically nerdy. and kevin eldon is brilliant at nervous people (but mark heap is better - discuss...)

love,

j xxx

Is he really married/ living with Jo Unwin, or was that just a running gag for TMWRNJ series 1?

That was just a gag; Jo Unwin is actually Chris Morris's partner.

There's a novelty techno act called Sgt. Rock, who perform wearing silly costumes and twat about in front of the audience.

I'm raising the stakes. Now, we're not just not talking about Kevin Eldon, I'm not even talking about XTC, I'm just talking about a band named after a song by one of his favourite bands.

Dare anyone to go further and start a Sgt. Rock tribute band, just to write in about them.

Andy Partridge was drafted in to produce Blurs second album as the band are big fans of XTC.However,at the time Blur were going through a boozy period and that combined with Partridges school masterly meticulous approach to producing meant that it all fell apart quickly.The band remained on good terms with Partridge and Andy sold Damon his portastudio.Apparetly the aborted sessions include a samba version of Chemical World and a cover of Video Killed The Radio Star.I wish someone would put together an XTC tribute band as it is unlikely theyll ever play live again.Which brings me round to Kevin Eldon who would make an ideal frontman for this proposition.

No, you're still talking about XTC, which is only one step away from K.Eldon. But I've taken us 2 steps away from Eldon. Go on, try for 3 steps away from Eldon...

The version of Video Killed The Radio Star was produced by Dave Rowntree, while the band were on tour in America. I think it was their original idea for the NME's "Ruby Trax" compilation before someone or other interfered.

>No, you're still talking about XTC, which is only one step away from K.Eldon. But I've taken us 2 steps away from Eldon. Go on, try for 3 steps away from Eldon...

XTC recorded a song in 1992 called "The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead". Two years later, it was covered by Canadian group The Crash Test Dummies for inclusion in the Jim Carrey/Jeff Daniels movie Dumb & Dumber. The screenplay for this movie was submitted by Bobby & Peter Farrelly, who before their foray into motion pictures, contributed an episode to the 1992-93 season of Seinfeld entitled The Virgin. The subject of this episode was an interior designer called Marla, played by British-born actress Jane Leeves, later of Frasier fame. While still in the UK, Leeves made several appearances as a dancer/actress on The Benny Hill Show. Benny Hill supposedly paid tribute to Frankie Howerd following his death in April 1992, but couldn't possibly have done as he'd died three days earlier than Howerd. According to Bob Monkhouse's 1993 autobiography "Crying With Laughter", Howerd tried to make a pass at him in the 1950s. Monkhouse did have an affair with Diana Dors at around this time, however. Diana Dors, like Mark Lamarr and Melinda Messenger, was born in Swindon, home of....

Shit.

>Apparently the aborted sessions include a samba version of Chemical World

Readers might like to know that a CD has been released this week by Senor Coconut consisting entirely of Latin American-style cover versions of old Kraftwerk songs (e.g. 'Showroom Dummies (Cha-Cha)').

Distressingly, I am not making this up.

An awful lot of people want to natter on about XTC. Shall we start a seperate thread? Yes, I will.

I suppose Justin's proved that everything in the world is connected to Kevin Eldon by no more than 5 obscure links.

>I suppose Justin's proved that everything in the world is connected to Kevin Eldon by no more than 5 obscure links.

Justin's certainly proved that he knows WAY too much about this sort of thing. (Good links, though.)