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The members of XTC hate the adjective "quirky"; it's been used too often by critics and others trying to capture the elusive sound of this maverick English band. Fronted by Andy Partridge, a bookish singersongwriter-guitarist who prefers a domestic life in the British countryside to the urban frenzy of rock stardom and has a morbid fear of live performance, and sporting another talented singer-songwriter in bassist Colin Moulding, the group has escaped critical pigeonholes since its inception in 1976. Despite a lack of major sales, chronic difficulties with producers, and an out-right refusal to tour since 1982, the band has cultivated a reputation as one of the best songwriter-oriented pop bands around.

Partridge was born on the island of Malta, but moved to the small English town of Swindon with his family when he was a boy. "I have a very split background," he told Guitar Player in a 1992 interview. "One half of me wanted to be in [1960s TV pop group] the Monkees, and use the guitar as a fishing rod to get girls," while the other half discovered the mysterious delights of jazz, fusion, and various experimental forms thanks to a more "bohemian" friend. "So I would get exposed to a lot of out-there stuff. [Free-form jazz legend] Sun Ra was quite shocking. I heard Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band's Trout Mask Replica for the first time ever. These were albums that stuck with me forever and ever," along with recordings by jazz greats including saxophonist Sonny Rollins and guitarist John McLaughlin. Out of Partridge's desire to fuse the exploratory impulses of modern jazz and avant-rock with the melodic imperatives of pop songcraft would grow his mature style.

At age sixteen, Partridge told People, he left school and played in what he described as various "loud and horrid" bands including one called Helium Kidz; these groups, influenced by glam-rock superstars like the New York Dolls, served as his "fishing rod for girls." In 1976 he, Moulding, and drummer Terry Chambers—the Helium Kidz lineup—formed XTC, hoping the group's name would suggest "short, sharp, shocking, wonderful music." Partridge recalled to Rolling Stone: "We wanted to make records, but we weren't quite sure of what."

"Clamorous Applause"

Keyboardist John Perkins was in and out of the band before XTC managed to get the attention of Virgin Records; Barry Andrews had replaced him by the time the group put out their debut effort, 3D EP, in 1977. The first full-length album, White Music, appeared in 1978—"with clamorous applause from the critics," according to Melody Maker—as did its successor, Go 2. The latter album saw guitarist and synthesizer player Dave Gregory take over for the departing Andrews. "At first I was attempting to copy Barry's keyboard style with my guitar," Gregory explained to Guitar Player, "but Andy said, 'Forget Barry. Let's reinvent the band. From now on we are a guitar band.'"

It wasn't until their third release, Drums and Wires, that XTC earned any serious attention in the United States. Thanks to Moulding's small-scale New Wave hit "Making Plans for Nigel," and such Partridge ditties as "Helicopter" and "Life Begins at the Hop," the group created great expectations; surely they would soon be massive alternative-pop stars like fellow Englishman Gary Numan or American "spud-rockers" Devo. Jon Páreles of Rolling Stone was frustrated by the band's willful experimentation; their music, he observed, "alternately accepts and abuses pop" and the songwriters are "firmly entrenched in Brain Pan Alley"—an allusion to Tin Pan Alley, the old district of hack tunesmiths. Páreles owned that Partridge's "This Is Pop" was "XTC's finest three minutes."

Don Shewey's Rolling Stone review of 1980's Black Sea, however, claimed that "the band's youthfully aggressive, revved-up, white-noisy style has settled like dust around an industrious sculptor, leaving a finished product that combines streamlined originality with Beatles-type buoyancy." The singles "Generals and Majors"—which translates Partridge's fondness for toy soldiers into an indictment of real-life military gameplaying—and the acerbic "Respectable Street" widened the band's following.

"Evermore Abstruse and Adventuresome"

On 1981's English Settlement, according to Rolling Stone's Parke Puterbaugh, "XTC [had again] managed the difficult feat of sounding accessible even while moving into evermore abstruse and adventuresome territory." Settlement features the single "Senses Working Overtime," another hit on college and alternative radio stations.

In 1982 Partridge had what he and his bandmates would later recognize as a breakdown. A growing fear of crowds culminated in a kind of paralysis before a show in Hollywood. "The only good thing about touring was that for an hour you had a good sweat and a jump around," he told People. "It was like a high-decibel sauna. But when I started to get stage-fright, that ended it." He added that "I was forced by the manager to feign physical illness so promoters wouldn't have my legs broken." The band has since declined many tempting offers to return to the road.

Moulding and Gregory decided to adjust to Partridge's decision, but Chambers quit; his place has since been filled by a roster of session drummers. Even so, the band's disdain for the trappings of stardom has insulated them from any ill effects from not touring—except, of course, the lack of a huge commercial breakthrough. Gregory admitted to Musician, "We just got used to the idea of being always the bridesmaids, never the brides." The bandleader appeared to have few regrets about his non-stardom. "Our band doesn't have any rock & roll lifestyles, I'm afraid," insisted Partridge in a Rolling Stone interview. "We're horribly mundane, aggressively mundane individuals. We're the ninjas of the mundane, you might say."

XTC racked up more good reviews with its first album of new material for the U.S. label Geffen, 1983's Mummer. J. D. Considine insisted in his Rolling Stone review that "all too frequently, the group's gimmickry gets in the way of its songs," but this effort "finds the band concentrating on reinforcing, not cluttering, its material, and the result is XTC's most accessible album yet." The Big Express, released in 1984, impressed Erica Wexler of Musician as an album "compulsively bursting with invention, originality and wit"; it includes the single "The Everyday Story of Smalltown."

Alter-Ego and Greater Non-Stardom

In 1985—on a lark—the group recorded an EP as a psychedelic alter-ego, the Dukes of Stratosphear. The record, 25 O'clock, was such a sensation that the label begged them to record a follow-up; the group finally relented, delivering the full-length album Psonic Psunspot in 1986. Rolling Stone called Psunspot "a loving mimicry of British post-[Beatles album Sgt.]Pepper pop." Meanwhile, paired with strong-willed producer Todd Rundgren, XTC repaired to the laboratory to make Skylarking. Partridge and Rundgren reportedly struggled for control in the studio, leaving the former frustrated, but the results impressed even longtime fans of the group.

The initial good reviews, however, didn't prepare anyone for the sudden popularity of a B-side called "Dear God." The song, not on the album's first printing, was an emotional burst of agnosticism from Partridge, and caused enough controversy to promote the band to new listeners. Geffen promptly added the song and reissued the album.

It wasn't until 1989 that the group released another album, this time the double-length Oranges and Lemons, featuring Partridge's "The Mayor of Simpleton" and Moulding's hit "King For a Day." It sold reasonably well, though Partridge wasn't entirely thrilled with the endeavor. "I wanted to make a very simple, banal-sounding record," he told Musician's Scott Isler, "and it got lost in translation a little and came out rather multilayered—in fact, very dense." Despite the band's somewhat improved fortunes, Partridge still disdained stardom. "I like people to buy the records," he reflected in Isler's profile, "but I'd be quite happy if we were faceless musicians and it was just the name XTC they bought, like a steak sauce. I always felt uncomfortable with fame. [Reclusive American tycoon] Howard Hughes is my hero."

1991 saw the release of Rag and Bone Buffet, a collection of XTC B-sides and other curiosities that earned an "A" grade from Audio magazine. The following year the group put out a new collection, Nonsuch. Isler, reviewing the album for Musician, admired its "solidly constructed songs," and People's Craig Tomashoff called the record "perhaps their best." Meanwhile, Rolling Stone's Michael Azerrad, who noted that overall the record "makes the band's noise beautiful," also clarified the group's commercial impasse: "Too lovely for college radio, too challenging for legions of baby boomers unwilling to progress, XTC has built itself a very gorgeous golden cage." Partridge opined to Brett Milano of Pulse!, "These songs are more labyrinthine, more maze-like [than those on Oranges and Lemons]. You just have to wander around in them a little more."

The group played some live radio performances, but continued to resist the lure of touring. As for long-term fame, Moulding—whom Partridge has usually over-shadowed in interviews—probably spoke for the band when he admitted to Karen Schlosberg of Musician, "I'd like to be remembered as having some really good songs."

—Simon Glickman