XTC: BBC Sessions (Drums and Wireless)

“We would trundle down to the BBC Studios in London with our little amplifiers and, in a day, recreate more-or-less-live versions of four songs. You would play the track, get maybe one overdub and then sing it, so they were basically shoot-from-the-hip versions.”

 Andy Partridge

So I raved about one of my early encounters with XTC (though "Making Plans for Nigel" got strong radio play in Canada) and their ineffably wondrous single "Senses Working Overtime" HERE yesterday. Today, however, I can begin unleashing the out-of-print goodies on Swindon's finest (only?) rock n' roll misfits. . (For more on XTC go HERE.)



Drums and Wireless contains immediate versions of songs from all over the XTC catalog. It includes a variety of sessions from 1979-1989, all mixed up to ensure you can hear the consistency of Partridge and Moulding's song-writing.


Tracklist
1         Opening Speech     0:48    
2         No Thugs In Our House     5:24    
3         Runaways     4:42    
4         You're The Wish (You Are) I Had     3:26    
5         Poor Skeleton Steps Out     3:26    
6         Crosswires     2:10    
7         Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her     4:21    
8         Real By Reel     3:48    
9         Into The Atom Age     2:27    
10         Meccanik Dancing     2:35    
11         Ten Feet Tall     2:55    
12         Scarecrow People     4:11    
13         I'm Bugged     3:34    
14         Dance Band     2:41    
15         Jason And The Argonauts     5:42    
16         One Of The Millions     4:25    
17         Roads Girdle The Globe

Track 6 recorded 20/6/77
First broadcast on the John Peel Show 24/6/77
Tracks 9, 13 and 14 recorded 21/9/77
First broadcast on the John Peel Show 26/9/77
Track 10 recorded 13/11/78
First broadcast on the John Peel Show 23/11/78
Tracks 1, 8, 11 and 17 recorded 8/10/79
First broadcast on the John Peel Show 15/10/79
Tracks 2, 3, and 15 recorded 14/1/82
First broadcast on the David Jensen Show 25/1/82
Tracks 4 and 7 recorded 11/10/84
First broadcast on the Bruno Brookes Show 20/11/84
Tracks 5 and 12 recorded 16/3/89
First broadcast on the Richard Skinner Show 5/4/89
Track 16 recorded 16/3/89
First broadcast on the Andy Kershaw Show 11/6/89

So do you want to hear more rare XTC, MRML readers?  If so, let us know in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the BBC Radio Sessions link).

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Songs We Can't Forget: XTC's Senses Working Overtime:

The physical impact of this song has never left me, the blow it delivered has left red, raised scars on my psyche that are still tender to the touch to this day.

It's the spring of 1982 and I'm all of twelve years old, sitting on the concrete steps of my junior high school. I'm all alone at this moment but that's okay because amongst the group of older kids a few feet away from me someone has a battery-powered radio. The radio's owner fiddles with the static until the sound of an acoustic guitar being rocket-propelled by a crashing drum and bass begins ricocheting around the concrete overhang before being flung out towards the cool blue sky. The dial fiddling stops. Muttered conversation resumes but I'm all hearing, leaning forward like Matt Murdoch perched on a gargoyle high above Hell's Kitchen.

Weaned as I was on folk music, I tune first into that hard-strummed acoustic, then as a lyric devotee I listen to the explosion of words and images but of course it's the chorus with its persuasive count-in ("And I've got 1-2-3-4-5 - senses working overtime") that leaves me struck dumb. I stay still in my sun-lit corner as the song races from fever pitch to fever pitch - it is a song about a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown - till the the song ends and the DJ says,  "that was the new XTC song, "Senses Working Overtime". I file that information in my brain, not knowing that it will take up residence there and never leave.

I like to think every music fan has such a never-to-be-forgotten moment, whether it came from Duke Ellington, Willie Nelson, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan or Radiohead. Hell, if it came to you while listening to Mandy Moore, I say treasure that fucking instant because there's only a too-brief window in a person's life where some piece of music can reach past intellect, experience, fear and social conditioning and just punch your lights out. Believe me when I say that I still hear songs that hit me on a purely visceral level and that music can still be transcendental but moments where the doors of possibilities are battered down and the sun shines enough to warm your face but not enough to burn belong to an earlier, more formative times.

What's your song you can't forget? Tell us about it in the COMMENTS section.

Punching Holes: La Mer (1980)

 
Roberto's Rarities:
An irregular MRML series powered by the wild generosity of our reader, Roberto: Enjoy and don't forget to leave our benefactor a thank-you comment.

After leaving Newcastle scratchy post-punk band Punishment Of Luxury (more HERE), singer Brian Bond formed Punching Holes (with Tim Jones, Norman Emerson and rock music writer Sid Smith who would later write a successful King Crimson biography). Here's their lone single, produced by the late Dave Goodman (more to come...) for the Pinnacle label.




Reactions to this Punilux-related rarity are strongly encouraged and can be left in the COMMENTS section (where the  La Mer 7" link can be found).

Punishment of Luxury: Peel Sessions (1978-1979)

Punishment of Luxury (a.k.a. Punilux) were a pummeling late-seventies post-punk band from Newcastle, England who played in a tightly-wound, hard-hitting, funk-inflected style, comparable to the Gang of  Four but artier and more mad. Lemon Records has re-issued their landmark debut, Laughing Academy (which I picked up a few months ago). Here for all MRML readers but especially Blog Hero 1st Class, Roberto, who requested these sessions amidst all the gifts he has given us. It took me a Longy time to find the files but finally a good friend of this blog came though to help Roberto and me out.

30/08/1978
01-Funk Me
02-Let's Get Married/You're So Beautiful
03-Babylon
    Brian Bond (Lead Vocals)
    Jeff Thwaite (Drums)
    Malla Cabbala (Guitar, Vocals)
    Nevil Luxury (Lead Guitar, Vocals)
    Jimmy Giro (Bass, Vocals)

30/05/1979

01-Radar Bug/Metropolis
02-British Baboon
03-Secrets
    Brian Bond (Lead Vocals)
    Steve Secret (Drums, Backing Vocals)
    Nevil Luxury (Lead Guitar, Vocals)
    Jimmy Giro (Bass, Vocals)

Feedback on Punilux, in the form of COMMENTS, is invited. (Peel Sessions link is in that same feedback-giving section).

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The Cry! E.P. (2011)

Sure, we've got a lot of young-yet-historically-minded bands these days who compare favourably to the sadly-lost Exploding Hearts but Oregon's The Cry ((if your Canadian and OLD The Cry's name name may seem familiar) put their own bubblegum spin on the retro-sounds of today.

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