I've heard a few songs from here (Visit To The Doctor, Cherry In Your Tree, Candymine), and all of them are fantastic. Could have been this the best album on the world? And will they ever finalize this project?
From chalkhills.org FAQ:
<i>[In 1993] Partridge had presented a new project, songs he had written as homage to the bubblegum-pop bands of the late Sixties to early Seventies. He felt the idea was blissfully simple: "I wanted Virgin to say that they'd bought this entire back-catalogue from this imaginary label called Zither. They said, 'So you go on Top of the Pops and play one of these songs?' I said, 'No, this is a fake historical document!' So they said, 'Okay, we get a young band and dress them up in early Seventies clothes?' I said 'No, no!' They just didn't get it." Cue much shaking of pony-tailed heads.
The Zither project was to have been “nicely banal, pitched around 1970, a dozen tracks about sex. . .” Three of the songs have been released in one form or another. “Cherry In Your Tree” (originally intended to be performed by “The Captain Cooks”) was released on the children's album Carmen Sandiego Out Of This World in April 1994. “Candy Mine” was released on a single Andy Partridge did for John Flansburgh's Hello CD of the Month Club in November 1994. “Standing In For Joe”, released on Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2), was originally intended for the bubblegum album. And one of the fictional band names intended for the project, Knights In Shining Karma, was used as the title of a song released on Apple Venus Volume 1.
― zeus, Monday, 21 January 2008 21:20 (eighteen years ago)
Ooh, would definitely like to hear these.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:13 (eighteen years ago)
Great idea.
Anyway Partridge seems to have become bored with proper music, what with all that banging instruments palaver. Perhaps he's just enjoying himself.
― Autumn Almanac, Monday, 21 January 2008 23:06 (eighteen years ago)
Since his '82 meltdown, Andy's been really gung-ho about all these fake band ideas, maybe because he didn't like having his actual name in the spotlight anymore and has been grinning and bearing it since?
Anyway, I guess he feels no one wants to write songs with him anymore (with occasional avant/prog exceptions like Peter Blegvad) hence Monstrance, whom I like a lot! But XTC -- the band -- is gone.
― Mackro Mackro, Monday, 21 January 2008 23:44 (eighteen years ago)
Yep. Gone.
14 albums plus the Warbles is a good run by any standard, though.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 22 January 2008 00:06 (eighteen years ago)
Anyway, I guess he feels no one wants to write songs with him anymore
He wrote a song with Robyn Hitchcock for Hitchcock's Ole Tarantula.
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 22 January 2008 03:22 (eighteen years ago)
Perhaps he could do this bubblegum album alone, though Moulding had some songs for it too. It would be really a great loss if we'd never hear these "nicely banal tracks about sex, pitched around 1970".
― zeus, Tuesday, 22 January 2008 10:40 (eighteen years ago)
This idea came up when his kids were still quite young. I don't kow if he'd be interested anymore.
Although, he did turn eight-year-old demos into Apple Venus 1 and 2, so...
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 22 January 2008 20:04 (eighteen years ago)
I've got the Carmen Sandiego album - the XTC track is nothing special. Most notably, it just sounds exactly like XTC not like a "lost" bubblegum track (this is the first time I've heard that is the origins of the song). There's no way anyone would mistake it for "a fake historical document" in a million years.
― everything, Wednesday, 23 January 2008 03:24 (eighteen years ago)
Hmm. Having dug out this cassette and listened to it for the first time this century, I've perhaps been a bit unfair on "Cherry In Your Tree". It's actually a pretty good facsimile of the 1910 Fruitgum Company. Except with Andy Partridge singing and some joker from the 80s on bass. It should definetely be called "Cherry Cherry" though.
― everything, Wednesday, 23 January 2008 04:23 (eighteen years ago)
Did anyone ever do that?
I mean, with XTC it was mostly self-penned material by Partridge alone, apart from a few Colin Moulding songs that weren't credited to Partridge at all.
Still kind of sad they don't work together anymore. I kind of like the interplay between Partridge's "dark" style and the somewhat "lighter" and "tweer" style of Moulding. Kind of like Squeeze except in Squeeze the main songwriter/vocalist (Tilbrook) was the "light" one while Difford would offer the occasional moments of darkness.
― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 23 January 2008 09:37 (eighteen years ago)
I think he still sometimes acts as a songwriter for hire. I know he has written with Sophie Ellis Bextor and Charlotte Hatherley's most recent album has a Partridge co-write on it.
― cheasyweasel, Wednesday, 23 January 2008 14:07 (eighteen years ago)
About a third of his work is accepted, too.
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 23 January 2008 19:33 (eighteen years ago)
always hated xtc
― the galena free practitioner, Wednesday, 23 January 2008 20:25 (eighteen years ago)
^ discourse
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 23 January 2008 20:42 (eighteen years ago)