XTC’s Andy Partridge always seems to have a new project cooking. This one, THE 3 CLUBMEN, is a trio performing what I would call posh pop. The four songs on their EP, The 3 Clubmen, are smooth and kinda quirky. Think of the early, experimental XTC of Go 2 merged with the end-of-life XTC of Apple Venus and you’re getting close. Andy’s mates on this one are multi-instrumentalist Stu Rowe of The Lighterthief and singer/guitarist Jen Olive, who does the bulk of the singing. (Andy supplies supporting and backing vocals, among the various instruments he plays.)
Right from the start there’s a dreamy vibe to The 3 Clubmen, as evidenced on opening track “Aviatrix” (is that like a dominatrix-slash-flight attendant?), with its sing-songy verses and chorus of “Straight into the sun you shoot me like a gun/I’m flyyyyying, flyyyying, I’m coming undone.” Track 2, “Racecar,” has a definite Go 2 thing going on – I can hear hints of “Battery Brides” and its off-kilter, kooky time signature throughout. (Traces of the guitar slashes of latter day XTC “Wake Up” are also detected.) Following track “Green Green Grasshopper” sounds like it could almost be a Dukes of Stratosphear outtake, as if the Dukes were trying to tame their psychedelic tendencies and make them safe for the world of 2023. 
“Look at Those Stars” is a showcase for Olive’s mod, affected vocals, which border on being twee but with a decidedly more adult sound. The song’s message is a good one (things aren’t so good in my life “but, hey, would you look at those stars?”).
Don’t know if we’ll ever get another XTC album but at least Andy’s keeping busy with his “solo” releases. Something from him is better than nothing, and anything is at least something. Something/anything? Yes, The 3 Clubmen is really something. – Marsh Gooch
3/5 (Lighterthief TAB001, 2023; available via Burning Shed)
As if I don’t cover ROBYN HITCHCOCK & ANDY PARTRIDGE enough already, they go and put out a record together. I didn’t see that coming. Planet England is the name of their nascent collaboration, a 4-song 10″ and CD EP featuring the two elder statesmen of new wave/post punk playing a style of rock that’s a mixture of the typical sounds they’re known for, with a splatter of psychedelia thrown on top.
Fans of both Hitchcock and Partridge will be drawn to Planet England. It’s not different enough from either’s catalogs to turn off their fans, nor is it different enough to lure new recruits to the cause. That being said, if anything, it’s a great teaser for the rumored Beatles cover album they’re doing. I may not have seen this pairing coming, but now that I’ve witnessed it I’ll be sure to keep my eyes ’n’ ears open for their next outing.
Here’s a couple of brand new cover songs by ANDY PARTRIDGE, he the main man of XTC and the Dukes of Stratosphear. Undertaken to ring in the completion of his new home studio, the two homages – to Pink Floyd and The Bonzo Dog Band – are played entirely by one human(oid).
Many fans of Mr. Partridge are probably expecting something that sounds like the Dukes of Stratosphear, XTC’s doppelganger in the psych rock world. But neither cover really enters that land, even though they’re both from the era the Dukes mined for their two celebrated records. And though I would be prone to favor either song, being a big fan of both early Pink Floyd and The Bonzos, I’m going with “Humanoid Boogie” – by a sliver – as my pick from this limited edition 10″ record. Rumor has it that it’s already sold out (they only pressed 1396 copies, for an arcane reason that Andy Partridge explains 
Late Christmas gift or early birthday present to myself? Who cares. It finally arrived, just seven weeks after they shipped it from the UK… and I’ve been listening to it practically non-stop ever since. XTC’s Black Sea is the 1980 album by these British heroes of the new wave, and it was an amazing slab of wax: muscular power pop, thinking man’s rock, whatever you wanted to call it, it was an album like no other in their catalogue, past or present.
Those songs still excite me — I never get tired of ’em! — but the side enders “Language” and “Travels” are pure pummel now, with both their lyrics and their gargantuan grooves coming through loud and clear!
Before the internet, “fanzines” were just about the only way us hardcore fans (“fan” + “[maga]zine” = fanzine) could stay on top of the latest info on our favorite bands. Limelight was an XTC fanzine edited and written by Mark Fisher. The self-published ’zine ran for over a decade, spanning nine issues and the metamorphosis from typewriter/rub-on letter layouts to more professional, early word processor (computer) layouts.
There’s a lot of interesting – if a bit lightweight – content here, with its word jumbles (“Complicated Games,” taking its name from an XTC song title), fan letters and most of all the gossipy stories on the band’s studio activities. Fisher must have gotten at least some of his info from the band or its management, as both Limelight and The Little Express were always noted in the credits of XTC’s albums. The fact that they are once again willing participants in the publication’s pages shows that Mark Fisher must have had the band’s approval both then and now.
Released early this year, I was finally able to get a copy of Complicated Game: Inside the Songs of XTC and naturally devoured it immediately. Being a huge fan of XTC and its two songwriters, ANDY PARTRIDGE and Colin Moulding, this book has been on my radar since before it was announced. I’ve been an XTC devotee since I first discovered their 1980 album Black Sea, and haven’t deviated from that devotion since. XTC is a band that has really matured over the decades and their songwriting is at the forefront of that growth. I fully expected this book to illuminate Partridge’s songwriting and it completely lived up to its subtitle.
If there’s anything that could be improved, it would be the release of a second volume. Partridge has written so many great songs that this one volume (nearly 400 pages) misses many of his best songs. The only other nitpick I have–and this is primarily because of the book’s subtitle–is that it does not include Partridge’s partner in XTC songwriting, Colin Moulding. He may not have written as many of the band’s songs, but Moulding has written some of the band’s best. Witness “Making Plans for Nigel,” “Ball and Chain,” and “King for a Day.” That being said, there’s a way to remedy that. They could come out with a second volume that includes more of Partridge’s songs and some of Moulding’s. Done and done.
NuDisc 