XTC Singer Discusses Public Appearances
(Contributed bv Jesús Quintero)

As its long-frustrated fans well know, the British group XTC doesn't tour — at least not in the conventional sense. But to support Apple Venus Volume 1, its first album of new material in seven years, the group's Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding are coming across the pond for two weeks of promotion and personal appearances.

Don't, however, expect to actually hear them play any songs.

"It's not going to be anything performance-wise," says Partridge, who expects to do several in-store autograph sessions, and perhaps read some passages from the book XTC: The Exclusive Authorized Story Behind the Music. "There's not going to be any acoustic guitars in evidence or anything like that. It's just a visitation; we're gonna be descending from Olympus to cure the odd leper. But, really, it's just us talking to radio stations and that type of thing."

It'll be a pretty full slate, though. The duo arrives Thursday (Feb. 18) in Atlanta, where the next day it will film an episode of the cable TV show Space Ghost Coast to Coast. The only public appearance set so far is an in-store at Tower Records in New York City on Feb. 23, the day the album is released. The visit also has the group hitting New Orleans, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Toronto, Buffalo, Denver, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

In other XTC news, Partridge has given permission to rapper Willie D, formerly of the Geto Boys, to reinterpret the first verse (the part the little girl sings) of XTC's 1987 hit "Dear God" on his upcoming solo album.

— Gary Graff

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