Animal And Panicking; The
making of "Mummer"
Andy talks to BBC Radio
1's Simon Bates, 11 November 1982
Andy talks about the
departure of Terry Chambers
Top
Sitting here in the stifling heat and
frenetic activity of the multi-million pounds intentional
Limelight offices (at a desk in me bedroom, actually), I've
been lucky enough to have heard four all-new XTC tracks. By
the time you read this, Great Fire, Human Alchemy, Wonderland
and Beating Of Hearts will doubtless be emblazoned in your
minds, but that's not going to stop me writing about them
now...
Of the album as a whole, Andy says:
"It's our most keyboard dominated album to date since
Drums And Wires. It was something we wanted to do after the
acoustic sounds of English Settlement. It's mostly Dave
playing keyboards; he's really the keyboard person. I can
just hit it with one or two fingers. I'm pretty good at the
sounds, but not the physical playing, so if I come up with
the sounds he'll play them. I actually find that I'm playing
less and less on my own records. I'm getting into being a
director or conductor; encouraging others to go in the studio
and make these noises and I'm waving my arms at them, 'No,
no. Play it more like this.' And it's really the part I
should be in there doing!"
Of the four songs I've heard, keyboards
are most prevalent on Colin's Wonderland. The warm, tropical
sound with it's McCartney-esque melody reveals XTC in
confident spirit and demonstrates the group's adaptability to
different styles. Colin is in fine voice and the song is yet
another must for Moulding Maniacs. Along with Beating Of
Hearts, it was recorded in the early autumn (i.e., with Terry
still there) as a "feeler" for the news album and
was considered as a single, but Virgin got cold feet and
decided not to release it (a foolish move in my opinion).
I asked Andy what he thought. "The
music reminds me of those Rousseau paintings; he's Frenchman
who does paintings of jungles with tigers attacking people.
The song's about having a false sense of security. Actually,
the music reminds me of Stevie Wonder after taking a lot of
acid! It's like Stevie Wonder kind of chord changes, but
they're very dream like. Funny you should mention McCartney,
because I thought that the first time I heard it, when he
brought his demo along, but I think not it's finished it's
more like Stevie Wonder. I think it's Colin's best song on
the album. I know what you mean about it making a good
single: the melody, but Virgin didn't have the same idea.
"I played acoustic guitar and
electric guitar all the way through Wonderland, but we talked
about it and it really wasn't wanted, so in the end all the
guitar apart from the bit at the very end was taken off the
track. What Colin really wanted was some jungle, so that's
what I ended up doing. Along with some tapes, I'm supplying
most of the jungle sounds! (Laughs) So that's my lot on that
track: a few vocal harmonies, the jungle and a bit of guitar
at the end!"
Wonderland is another of Colin's subtly
ironic songs. Like Generals And Majors and Officer blue
(although I've always felt that the latter never lived up to
the class of the former), Wonderland lures us into its cosy
surroundings only to turn the tables on us. The Wonderland is
transparent, evasive and superficial. Of course, this is no
reason for us not to enjoy the beautifully lilting refrain
crowned by the perfectly executed false ending - after all,
how could we do otherwise?
Human Alchemy was also seriously
considered for release as a single, but this time, in
deciding against it, Virgin made the right move. Not that
it's not a fine song; Duran Duran, The Police, The Jam or
Adam Ant (in their day) could undoubtedly sell it by the
lorry-load, but even for a die-hard XTC fan it needs several
plays before it clicks. "Alchemy", the dictionary
tells me, is the transmutation of baser metals into gold,
stick "Human" up front and we're talking about
turning men into money; a grim song about the African slave
trade. A powerful album track, yes, but surely somewhat out
of place alongside Ooh To Be Ah!
Andy continues: "Again, Virgin got
an attack of the brave and said 'Yeah! Let's have Human
Alchemy. Great single! Who cares if it's a bit strange!' We
said, 'Wow, great, love this new attitude!' and gave them the
track. They had it for a few days and then decided it wasn't
really suitable. So they have these periodic attacks of doing
something very brave, like Rough Trade or something, and then
they seem to go all EMI and ring us up to day it's too weird
and wanting us to make something like The Rich Kids.
"Human Alchemy is a bit of work to
listen to. It is quite oppressive. As a track it's meant to
be about slavery from the slave trader's point of view,
turning people into money, but being as much slaves as those
people. So it's got to have an oppressive feel to it. The
kind of flayed choir is actually real voices mixed in with a
mellotron.
"We were delighted when Virgin
suggested that we finish the track off. We even did special
single mixes; edited out all the dub section at the end and
things, And then, as I say, they had a touch of the
EMI's."
Human Alchemy, then, will remain
"for fans only"; to be played in those quiet,
sullen moments when you feel like being absorbed into the
stark heavy atmosphere of tormented voices and strange
electronic sounds.
I don't think that the melody of
Beating Of Hearts is quite commercial enough to make it a
hit, but this was yet another would-be single. I spoke to
Andy about it.
"Possibly my favourite XTC track
ever."
I remembered his previous favourite had
been Wait Till Your Boat Goes Down.
"I think this has knocked it to
number two. I don't know, I just get the shivers when I hear
it. I mean every word of it."
Melt The Guns is anti-war, whereas
Knuckle Down is pro-love, but Beating Of Hearts successfully
combines the two ideas. I asked Andy if it was one more than
the other.
It's fifty-fifty. You can't really have
love and war. So it's a bit of both. It gives me a shiver
when I hear it; all of my very favourite XTC tracks do. I
still get a shiver when I hear Travels In Nihilon, Making
Plans For Nigel (although, that's wearing off a little
because it was a single(, Complicated Game, Wait Till Your
Boat Goes Down and one or two other tracks. I think it's
something you decide that you got when you're writing it, it
becomes imprinted in you, especially if you really mean the
lyrics."
The song has an Indian fell to it in
places, so I asked Andy what instruments had been used.
"It's actually a 12-string guitar
with every string tuned to the same note. As you drag a
plectrum across it you get the percussive effect. It was an
idea I was trying out at home and it sounded very powerful.
"I was really annoyed, because we
did this in early autumn to be a single, but Virgin got the
EMI's. Then Blancmange came out with Living On The Ceiling
which had a quasi-Indian sound on it. I thought 'Gasp!' and
got the paranoids. And Echo And The Bunnymen with the Cutter
which got to about number six. It could have been Beating Of
Hearts there. I got very upset about that.
"The Indian orchestra on beating
Of hearts is a keyboard. The only little bit of keyboard I
played was the kind of reed pipe before 'You have heard...'.
Dave did the kind of squeeze box solo in the middle of that
frantic Indian bit."
Finally, the song that did make it onto
seven-inch, Great Fire. Of the four, this is the one that has
"Make Me A Single" written all over it. It simply
bubble with prime-time bounciness. Beating Of Hearts might
have more deeply felt sincerity and a more important message,
but this is the one that most people are going to hear and
they won't be disappointed.
"The situation arose where we did
the album (we finished off a dozen tracks) and then as soon
as Steven Nye had finished with us, he went of to another
band in Canada. So we were rather left in the lurch after
just finishing the album completely. Virgin asked if we had
any other songs now we had finished the album. I said 'I've
got one called Great Fire and I've finished the demo with me
playing all the instruments really badly on my little
porta-studio.' They said 'er...wait for it...Great! This is a
single.' They said they didn't want us to do it with just an
engineer and they wanted a professional producer. They came
up with Bob Sargeant who's done work with The Beat and
Haircut 100. We did two tracks: Gold, which was one of the
ones we hadn't finished off properly with Steve Nye, and
Great Fire. I thought it should sound like a piece of music
from Oliver or a kind of bouncing around the baby's den
music."
Top
Simon: Happy birthday Andy
Andy: Thanks Simon.
Simon: How does it feel to be a
year older?
Andy: A year older? I feel about
a thousand years older.
Simon: What have you been doing
with yourself, 'cause you vanished from view?
Andy: That's right, yeah. We're
playing the four Howard Hughes' of rock and roll and we're
hiding away. Right now we're rehearsing for a new album which
we start next week, so we'll pick up our bicycles and rush to
the studio and build something wonderful.
Simon: Wee that's kind of a
surprise because you vanished from view and Waxworks/Beeswax
came out, which is all old stuff, I mean, did you stop
playing for a while?
Andy: Well what happened is lots
of ill health and things. We were just touring ourselves
stupid and just killing ourselves on the road. So what
happened was, we said 'OK, let's top touring and concentrate
on what we really want to do", which was actually making
the music in the first place, in the studios and videos and
things like that. So it was a great time all through the
summer, just to get a whole new batch of songs and ideas, and
we've just worked up a load of ideas and things which, as I
say, we shall be recording next week.
Simon: Well, you said you were
rehearsing, when are you going to record, next week?
Andy: That's right, yeah. We're
actually rehearsing in a... how can I describe it? It's an
old Great Western building down here, deep in the heart of
Swindon so there should be a few puffa train vibes on the
album I think.
Simon: Now this will be all
original stuff as opposed to Waxworks/Beeswax
Andy: Oh yes. It's kind of like
the next official... well this is an official album, but
it'll all be brand new, with a brand new drummer. We've had a
line up change.
Simon: Who's that?
Andy: We've actually got the
drummer from the Glitter Band. I don't know if I should say
that.
Simon: Really?
Andy: Yeah. I know it sounds a
bizarre combination.
Simon: That's Pete
somebody-or-other, isn't it? Whatsisname?
Andy: Pete Phipps is the drummer
we've had, and Terry has just left?
Simon: Oh I see. Why did Terry
leave?
Andy: He was just sick of music,
he just tired and put his sticks down one day and said 'I
don't want to do this nay more.' I believe he's gone to live
in Australia, or he's going to live in Australia.
Simon: Well good luck to him,
good luck to Pete with the new band. Does recording and doing
videos and so on mean you won't be touring at all?
Andy: I don't like touring. It's
basically a brain crushing process. I much prefer the initial
creation, the videos and television and records and things. I
might be doing a little spot for a show that is going out on
American TV. It hasn't got a title yet, but I play a nutty
professor in kind of a 'Ready Steady Go' like club in which
people drift in and out.
Simon: Does that mean you're
going to end up like Sting, acting as well?
Andy: Well if I can end up as
handsome. Yeah. I'll probably end up more of a Charles
Laughton type character I think.
Simon: Swinging from the bells
in black and white?
Andy: Yeah, I'll play the hunch.
Simon: Well look, don't give up
touring altogether because in the five years you've been
together, well, obviously your drummer's left, but in the
five years the band has been in existence you've made a heck
of a lot of fans, and I would have thought they'd want to see
you live.
Andy: Well we get the most
amazing fan mail, especially from America, where these people
who write to us, they make me feel really humble, 'cause
they'd literally do anything for us. They write and treat us
almost as quasi-religious characters. So I know a that a lot
of people out there really like us intensely.
Simon: Well good luck anyway. I
mean a happy birthday, don't give up the touring. Look
forward to the videos, the records and possibly even a movie
in about five years.
Andy: Well I'll stick me head in
and have a look if you can't get enough of me. I'll come up
and see you.
Simon: Why don't you?
Andy: Alright, you're on.
Simon: Happy Birthday
Andy: Alright Simon.
Simon: Bye bye.
Andy: Bye.
Top
Andy Partridge muses over the departure of
Terry Chambers in an exclusive Limelight interview...
LL: Were you surprised when
Terry decided to leave?
Andy: Yes and no. I think we
wouldn't have been earlier on in the year, because he went
over to Australia to stay with his then girlfriend who was
pregnant (all very scandalous!). We thought, "He's being
a long time about this Australian sojourn," he was over
there for months. He wasn't ringing anybody. We were getting
snatches of letters he'd sent to relatives saying he'd be
back soon, but he never wrote to us. We had a lot of new
material and we wanted to start rehearsing. He eventually
came back. he looked a lot thinner and he looked as if he had
a lot more pressure on his shoulders; he had a kid and they'd
decided to get married.
He was up for rehearsing and he was
very enthusiastic about doing the album; so we thought,
"Great, he really hasn't gone away, he's just had a long
holiday and he's come back ready to start again." We got
into rehearsing (we were rehearsing in a British Railways
Institution building, which is like the scenery store of
theatre, quite dilapidated) and you could tell that his mind
wasn't on it after four weeks or so. You'd ask him to drum
something and he would forget it two minutes later. We had
the most strenuous time.
The one dinner time he put his sticks
down and said he didn't want to do it any more. This was what
we had been waiting for months earlier. he gave so many
reasons, I think really it was none of those at all. A
nebulous, all-covering blanket book of reasons. He said he
was sick of struggling and he wanted to go back to Australia.
He didn't like not touring, because that was the only thing
he enjoyed, seeing as how he didn't wrote songs, he didn't
get a kick out of not writing, and he didn't enjoy being in
the studio because he wasn't a very creative person. He then
started putting his own drumming abilities down and said that
he was fed up with just" getting by" and he felt
that he was shamming us and the public. He said he didn't
think the new material was any good. He didn't like the
policy of wanting to do more films and things. He found it
difficult to grasp the new material for the first time ever
(we couldn't understand it, because in a way the songs are
simpler than ever). We chatted for about an hour and we asked
him if he'd thought about it and he said yes. He said
"All the best, well, I'll be off then" and wandered
out of the door and that was the last we saw of him.
LL: So was he married at the
time?
Andy: Yes, he got married in
Australia just before he came back. He bought a house on the
outskirts of Swindon and I know his wife (Donna) wasn't
happy. It was permanently pissing down with rain and she'd
come from a very sunny clime; lots of tropical fruit and
surfing. She was stuck in a kind of Western Front: a few
houses the size of rabbit hutches. So she was a lot of the
instigator to get back to Australia. I believe he left that
he left for Australia a couple of weeks after that.
LL: Have there been echoes of
the split with Barry Andrews?
Andy: No, it's not the same as
Barry, because Barry really wanted something else - his own
thing. He wasn't content with being a session man for the
other three, which is a bit cutting, because he wasn't really
and he had as many ideas as anyone. Barry wanted his own
group to follow his own ideas. Terry just wanted out
permanently and I think when he puts his drum sticks down
that's possibly the last time he'll touch a pair, unless he
gets involved with any bands in Australia.
LL: So what is Terry doing now?
Andy:Apparently, Dave saw his
brother (who's a cab driver) who said that he's not working
and he's living with Donna;s dad and the kid. So he's bumming
over there as opposed to bumming over here! I know that when
he went to Australia earlier in the year, when we thought
he'd left, he was tinkering around with some Australian
bands. He played on some tracks on the Icehouse album. I
don't think he's playing on Hey Little Girl, despite the fact
that there's a drummer sat there (on Top Of The Pops), I
think it's a drum computer.
LL: Barry was described as
making up 40 per-cent of the XTC sound. How important was
Terry?
Andy:Well, my maths is non
existent! If was the same amount, it'd leave 20 per-cent
between the other three! I think he was a great part of it.
In some ways, because some of the songs were written for
Terry, we almost tried to imitate his sound on a few tracks.
LL: Will you miss Terry?
Andy:Yes. Not so much socially,
because we never used to see each other socially, but
musically it would have been interesting to hear what the
whole album sounded like with Terry drumming. I'm reasonably
happy with the way it'll turn out.
LL: Do you see the other members
of the group on social level?
Andy: Occasionally, yes. I never
used to see Terry. I suppose my interests are relatively
artistic and creative whereas Terry's were just kind of
drinking every night, football and physical sports. Me and
sports are like oil and water, I'm just a weed. So we had no
interests like that. With Colin I share an interest in books
and literature and things like that. With Dave it's kind of
musical and comical... so there's lots of room to socialise
when we do, but with Terry I'm afraid there was no place for
the key.
LL:I remember an interviewer in
a music paper a couple of years ago that if there was ever a
TV serial made about you, in the same way that Laurel and
Hardy share the same bed, you'd all get in the same bed
together, because there was that sort of relationship between
you - without any sexual connotations.
Andy: (Laughs) Yeah, we all used
to joke about getting in a big bed. When we were touring,
people would say (silly voice): "What d'ya do after the
show?" We'd all turn round in unison and say we were
going to get into a bed. Even before that interview (in fact,
the interviewer might have heard us saying that) that was
what we used to say and we were aware of it as well. In the
same way as The Beatles circa Hard Days Night and Help! and
the Monkees; people assume that you all live in one big
house. It is like that mentally, you all live in the same
mental house but...
LL: So to some extent, and with
Terry quite a large extent, it was more of a working
relationship?
Andy: Yes. He was certainly the
odd one out personality wise. He'd rarely do interviews when
the other two wouldn't mind. If Terry did an interview he
inevitably ended up getting drunker and drunker and
assaulting the interviewer. So we never used to give him the
interviews after a while because we knew it would end with
assault. He was much more boisterous and couldn't handle the
questioning, he found difficulties in verbal fencing.
LL: So how do you see Pete
Phipps fitting in?
Andy: I know it sounds small and
narrow minded, but because he doesn't come from the same
town, I don't think we see him except on the very rare
occasion. So there's not very much social getting-about
there.
LL: Presumably you do get on
when you have been recording.
Andy: Oh, yeah. We get on very
well. He's very amiable fellow. He's not averse to trying out
strange suggestions like rattling bits of chain or playing
along with a drum box and using one bonk of the electronic
drum as opposed to the one bonk he was doing on the drum, and
allowing bits to go bonk if you tapped it with your fingers,
which Terry would have balked at if anyone had suggested it.
LL: Do you see Waxworks as
rounding off any particular stage in XTC's career other than
"Chambers-era XTC"?
Andy: No, the music is
constantly changing from one shape to another. It's like
plasticine. One weeks it's a chair and the next week it's a
statue. It's like Lego really; hundreds of components and it
can be anything that you want. I suppose it does round off
the Chambers-era. I didn't think of it at the time, but I
suppose it has. It wasn't our intention to release it. It was
totally a Virgin idea. I suppose it puts the cap on the
Chambers-era, but it wasn't intended as being like that.
