XTC on AOL, Spring 1999 (Slightly edited to try and smooth out some rough edges...)

OnlineHost: We have XTC!

Bavatar: What was the concept behind the Dukes of Stratosphere? The music, especially What's In The World is brilliant. -

Andy: The Dukes were, I suppose in the long tradition of bands, you think you're going to be in when you're in school and then you grow up and it's not the band you thought it was. The Dukes were the sort of thing I listened to when I was in school so I thought we'd try and put history right by putting a piece of history and so the Dukes were every psychedelic band from the 60s and 70s all wrapped up in one.

Colin: I didn't get into psych so I had to go along with the other guys, really. But I got into it. It was kind of nice to do.

Andy: It was fun because it's like being in a masked ball. You don't have to be yourself. I could be anyone from that era I wanted to be. You can mix all this stuff up and it's really like being at a fancy dress party. You don't have the responsibility of being yourself, therefore, it's just
pure fun. It's just one of the sorts of music that have influenced me and have influenced Colin. And I realize the older I get, the deeper its influence was. Because I remember watching when I was 10 seeing the girls scream. And I thought it was great. The Beatles hitting when the hormones were going twang and I thought they don't seem to have any trouble getting girls so you could see which way my brain was going. If I wear that sort of hair cut and that sort of shirt, and hold my guitar a certain style then I'll get the girls. but it's not only music, it's every sensory input you've ever had. Everything. All the sensory input in your life is going to make you what you are.

Colin: It's become very fashionable to dip into that.

DinsdaleP: Thank you for Apple Venus! Why is there no XTC sheet music in print? A complete songbook would help all of us struggling musicians decode your secret chords! Please consider it!!

Andy: There was a book called 11 Different Animals that had 11 of our singles. But I've heard you have to pay these music book companies to get these books into circulation. I don't know how it works, but if there is somebody out there who wants to spend the time with us working it out, I'm sure we'll do it.

Colin: I'm sure Virgin would have done it.

Andy: But if there's somebody out there who wants to help, get in touch with TVT REcords.

Tmblweed16: I know that you recently taped an episode of Space Ghost, do you know when it is going to air? Hope to see you guys tomorrow at the Virgin Megastore!

Andy: We'll be the ones hiding behind the table. Space Ghost was a strange little thing because you sit in a darkened room with a black sheet behind you and the guy has a list of things to say just to provoke you. Like give me one of your fingers. And you have to react. They then take your reactions away and animate things to match your reactions. But it was kind of fun doing it.

Strawb100: Why did you choose prairie prince to drum for the new album? I had heard that you contacted prince's michael bland (mispelled in your book as michael blass). I was excited to hear that collaboration. Will you use him in the future? -

Colin: Prairie Prince, I expect the fans will know, he drummed on an album of ours and we were impressed with him, and just him as a person, we were impressed with so I thought we'd like to use him again.

Andy: We were actually listening through all of our albums and we got to listening to Skylarking and Colin and I were nudging ourselves about how we loved the drum licks and we thought, why don't we ring him up and get him to do some more work?

Colin: It was actually us doing the interviews for the book that prompted us giving him a ring.

Andy: As for Prince's drummer, I'd love to work with him, but it was a little late, someone else got to him.

XTCFan: Did you ever imagine a designer drug bearing your name would become so popular?

Andy: It's a bit of an annoyance. It really is. Can one say a bit of a "piss-off" If we'd have been really sharp, we'd have gotten royalties from it. We took it from Jimmy Durante's playing the last chord. We've had it since 1975. Thank goodness we didn't settle on TDM

Colin: It's actually been pinched quite a bit and I think it's now a condom too.

Andy: You can get XTC condoms and XTC sports drinks, all of these are from companies being bloody minded But there was, at the turn of the century in America, XTC tobacco because someone sent to me a label and it said XTC, so it's obviously not a new idea, folks.

TyIsDaGuy: Who would win in a fight - 38special or XTC.?

Andy: .38 Special are what? I don't know them? Well, they would

Colin: Unless we got my big brother.

Andy: They'd out-number us.

Vertigo11: do you guys have any plans for reissuing a compilation of videos from 1979 to present?

Andy: We don't own them. We own nothing that we did for Virgin. They own everything. So I would actually like to put out a video compilation from '79 to now, but for some reason Virgin won't get off their bums and do this. If there's a second volume I'd like to call it Video Rideo which in Latin means I saw and I laughed, which sums up our career.

Question: Hi Andy, could you shed some light on a line from I Can't Own Her. is it wind sliding down or what?

Andy: it's "I own this river, I own this town all of its climbers and its winos sliding down." Because winos slide down. What else does a wino do than slide down?

MrsHugh: I was wondering who were your musical influences as a child?

Colin: All sorts of people. The Kinks, the Beatles, Small Faces, um if I was here for the next half hour I could probably not think of them all

Andy: Inadvertently, you don't want them to influence you, but they do. If you're exposed to this stuff it has to influence you.

Question: Andy: John Fogerty had a great aversion to touring at one time
but now revels in it--do you think this could happen to you?

Andy: Do you mean do I want to turn into John Fogerty? Maybe, like people say when are you going to tour? and I say, When you least expect it. Right now I'm not interested Neither of us are interested in touring. We like making records and being song writers.

Colin: I think the decision not to tour was largely taken from Andy, but I can see the benefits now. I think we've done the best work. And we can't take the orchestra on the road.

RJeffers: Is there any chance for a reconcilliation with Dave Gregory? Would you consider working with him, but not as a member of XTC?

Andy: LIke in a restaurant or something? Do you want him to collect our garbage? No, I wouldn't work with Dave because of how our history has been soured. Dave was in the band nearly 20 years and I've known him since around about the age of 14 when I used to go to the Penn Hill Hop, Life begins at the Hop. It was a St. Peter's Church Hall Hop and I used to go there around the age of 14 and see Dave Gregory with his band on stage. the Hop.

Question: I read on the Chalkhills page that you're compiling a set of demos ... when might that come by and will you put PRINCE OF ORANGE on in?

Colin: Yes, there are plans to take our demos and digitally remaster them or master them and let the fans just see what we've been up to in the privacy of our own bedrooms. So, yeah, it's on its way and so we're trying to make it a package.

Andy: People keep coming up to us in the streets and saying, "I have all your demos." and I thought, we don't even have them, where are they getting them?

Colin: A lot of the demos got out when we circulate them to record companies and people get a hold of them

JMEM1994: Who is Nigel?

Colin: Oh, God, Nigel isn't anybody in particular, it stems from I used to go to school with quite a few Nigels and I suppose that's where it stems from. I don't know, it's just a name.

Andy: Oh, tell the truth, it's a name for your penis.

Melsta: Nice hat Andy. Very David Lynch!

Andy: There's more razorhead really than David Lynch. I had the two worst haircut in my life in San Francisco. They were both in San Francisco. The guy just took the clippers like a Marine camp. So my advice is think twice before getting your hair cut in San Francisco.

retrogirl: The music on Apple Venus Vol 1. is very cinematic (and beautiful). Have you ever or would you want to ever do film soundtrack music?

Andy: I've wanted to do songs for films, but not incidental music. The only time I think that any music I've been involved in has been used incidentally was in Jerry Maguire, which is at the end when he realizes he's got to get back to his lover. And I saw that for the first time a few days ago in a hotel and I started saying, hey, that's me. But I think Colin and I are going to one day do a musical.

Colin: It probably would be a different kettle of fish if you had to write music from a story line. Because a lot of what we write is from our own imaginations. And writing for a musical is not writing from your own imagination.

Andy: What we write about is our lives and what we see and do.

Nigel: When do you expect that the second volume of Apple Venus will be out in the U.S?

Andy: We're going back to England and working on getting our own studio sorted out. A space offered by the lovely Colin. He's sacrificed his garage.

Colin: My lawnmower is sitting out in the rain right now. I've made the sacrifice.

Andy: I think there will be such a millennium kak that it won't be before the first of the year.

OnlineHost: Thank you for joining us

All original work is acknowledged as being the copyright of the originator.