Amazingly, I am now in the privileged position of actually getting to speak with Andy Partridge from time to time. Here are the news items I've extracted from our conversations so far, interspersed with news from other sources (noted where applicable).
It is not possibly, however, for me to keep on top of fast-breaking news so for the very latest information, make Chalkhills your next stop...
Sunday, October 19th, 1997
There's still no drummer for the album - mostly through budget restrictions than anything else (Dave Mattacks cost the band 10,000 pounds for the album sessions and they're looking for someone to work this tune for around half that). One possibility is Prince's (I know, but I don't have that squiggle symbol on my keyboard) drummer Michael(?) Bland ("a big black guy with tall hair"). I asked if they ever considered Ian Gregory (The Dukes'drummer) as their "regular session drummer" but apparently he's very much a part-time drummer and isn't really that committed to music. The last two albums cost around 250,000 pounds and they're trying to put this one together for nearer 100,000 (with money borrowed from their Japanese record company). They don't have any pulbishing deal as yet - in fact they had to fight a little with EMI to get the rights to the Virgin-era home demos (the Easter Theatre, River Of Orchids era demo tape) so they could use them.
The two-disc notion for the next release is still very much the aim, though there was some thought when it was discovered that Andy's initial textured cover ("like something immersed in water") would cost something like an extra 80 pence per copy. It looks like we'll get a plain sleeve and two discs. The album will be recorded in Chris Difford's studio and, as can be expected, the band are itching to get into the studio. There are 21 songs sheduled for the sessions and these are split between those we almost all know (the Virgin-era demos) and the newer demos (Playground, Wheel And The Maypole,etc.) that virtually no-one has heard (me included...). He didn't have the list to hand so I couldn't get any titles I'm afraid.
Andy has several projects still on the go; the "Thunderbirds" style TV show Ravenheart; co-writing for the Verve Pipe with the band's guitarist and a complete illustrated history of military uniforms since the time of the Spanish Accession (a bigger task than he expected as there are _thousands_ of them) - he's painting all the illustrations himself, of course. And in his spare time he's working in the shed with his girlfriend, Erica - a singer/songwriter - on some of her material.
We talked about the Neville Farmer book for a short while, too. It seems that the band are in line for a share of the book's profits (if there are any). It might have seemed like a dumb question, but I just didn't know how these book deals worked and whether the subject was necessarily entitled to the any of the proceeds. It seems they made about 500 pounds between them off the Chris Twomey book (Doomy Twomey they called him, apparently he was a bit of a dour sort), but Twomey himself has been messed about by Omnibus who it seems haven't really audited the book's sales properly. Some of the advance for the Farmer book was intended to go to the band, but because Farmer is hard up and needed the advance to get a word-processor and interviewing gear and stuff they have waived their percentage in favour of a profit deal (again, if there are any.) The band weren't overly enamoured of the Chalkhills And Children book - they liked the first chapter, but felt a lot of the best stuff was missing. Twomey only used about 10% of what they told him, but he was pushed into a quick turnaround by the publishers. For those of us hoping that they might get a good deal on this new book, be aware that Hyperion books are a division of Disney.
The Mervyn Peake project Andy was working on was to have been an animated film of "Letters From A Lost Uncle" - he was working one of the animators who put "James And The Giant Peach" together (sorry about my problem with names here, but my copy of Cinemania is on loan), but they only managed to secure the rights for a year and, having approached Miramax with the idea, the film company took rather a shine to the animator and took him on their staff, effectively wrecking their plans. So, as he said, "not only do I have four songs about a big peach, but I have one about a lost uncle too." he then sang me a bit of it (!) :D
He has seen the Wildstar comics and quite liked them, though he thought the artwork was merely _okay_. He admitted that he finds it hard to get excited by comics now; it's a something that he feels he's, well, he used the term "outgrown" but he didn't mean it had anything to do with maturity, just that it was something he used to do, but now didn't.
Thursday, September 18th, 1997
I'm sitting at home, wrapped around my wife and listening to Through The Hill. It's 9:40pm and the phone rings. I grumble over to the phone, cursing the spoiled moment. "Hello?", "Hello Simon? This is Andy Partridge..."
On the whole I think I coped pretty well. About ten minutes into the conversation I got hit by a wave of "fuckinghellit'sandypartridge!!!" but I think I recovered and remembered to use vowels before he noticed anything amiss. Actually it was probably more difficult for him to talk to me that the other way around; I know his voice so well, and we all so so much about him from interviews and his music, while he was talking warmly to someone he's knows nothing about. It was strange - because I knew the voice so well it was easy to slip into a fairly natural conversation mode with him.
We chatted about the band and what they were up to; they are still working on that book with Neville Farmer about all their songs - it's taking a lot longer than they expected, but they're remembering the oddest little details, even if they do have to listen back to some old stuff a few times.
He's been approached to supply 6 songs for a possible new film by noted Brit writers Dick Clemence and Ian laFrenais about the comedic tribulations of a reformed 70s Glam Rock band. This could be a very easy commission, he said, because he could just haul out some old Helium Kidz material and give them that.
Idea are still looking for a producer for the next album but the problem of having no money gets in the way a little especially as they want him to do a double for the price of a single. I asked him if there was no way he could do the production and he said Dave and Colin wouldn't take to kindly to him having total control in the studio.
He was interested to know which demos I had (and was pleased to discover that I rated Easter Theatre highly, he didn't even baulk when I told him about my gingham thing_...). Work on the bootleg album has been started but, along with the formation of Idea and other things, there have been a few unforseen minor difficulties such as "Obscene Procession" being in a key that was ideal for him whispering along to in the attic, but absolutely no good for a full-on bellow in the studio.
He told me about some of the weird things he gets sent, religious books with passages marked for his special attention, that kind of thing, and I mentioned some of the strange e-mail I've had on his behalf - he checked in the mirror and agreed that he did, indeed, wear glasses and was thus, of course, obviously Mark Chapman - (the Chalkhills mailing list and I myself were briefly harrassed by an "original" thinker who accused Andy of being the killer of John Lennon and preached loudly that, of course, he was planning to kill the other Beatles too.)
He and Harold Budd are working together by means of a sort of postal tape exhange, so there may be more from them at some time.
Idea would love to sign Jamie Block and may well do in time.
What can I tell you? He's as nice a guy as I always hoped he'd be - open, talkative (no surprise there) and keen to converse rather than just say his piece.
Main bulk of this was posted by John Relph in Challkhills Digest #3-160
As of Wednesday, August 27th, 1997, XTC signed a licensing deal for their record label 'Idea' to 'Cooking Vinyl' for the world excluding the US, Canada, Central America, South America and Africa. Various licencees are representing the band throughout the world including Pony Canyon in Japan and Roc in the Far East. New licencees are about to be announced in major territories.
The uniqueness of the deal allows greater artistic control for the band. Something they have been striving for for some time.
The band are at the moment looking for a Producer and have been talking to people such as the Dust Brothers, Roy Thomas Baker and Bruce Fairburn. XTC are in pre-production at the moment and have been rehearsing with several musicians. There will be a new album in May 1998 of material written since 1991 to date.
The band are preparing to promote the album next year, so please keep a look out for various appearances. There will also be a new XTC book (published by Hyperion/Disney) in mid-summer 98. This will be the authorised story of the band. Written by Neville Farmer (longtime friend of the band) the book will be a track by track analysis of their entire catalogue, with comments and discussion on each track by the band.
