XTC At The Manor - BBC2 TV 8 October 1980 - Full Documentary-
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- Опубликовано: 23 авг 2024
- Friday 22- Sunday 24 August 1980
The Manor, Shipton-on-Cherwell , Oxfordshire.
Filming of BBC2 TV's XTC at The Manor an hour-long special mockumentary on the
process of recording"Towers of London".Interviews with each member of the band are also
included.Also appering are producer Steve Lillywhite,engineer Richard Manwaring and
Richard Branson. Direct by Roy Chapman.Produced and narrated by Tony Staveacre.
Transmitted on 8 October 1980.
Wow takes me back xtc where the best group ever. Probably because I live in Swindon really good music.
Memories from a fabulous time to be alive. I remember watching this on TV and going out the next day to buy the album. It seems like yesterday. God, I wish it was tomorrow!
Just go trans and get on Richard’s plane….
I'm Reading, UK, born and bred and Swindon is just down the M4 motorway from where I grew up, so it's great to hear the guys' West Country accents. I first saw XTC (Barry Andrews still on keyboards) in a pub in Reading in 1977. It was such a great time for music that lasted well into the 80s. Something different happening in music, fashion, youth movements, magazines, the whole shebang. We'll never see the like of that time again.
I quite liked Shriekback too. Barry Andrews’ band after XTC. Very different thing of course. But that early Shriekback stuff is dark and funky and gloriously weird. Their album Oil and Gold was a masterpiece imo.
I am so happy I grew up in the 80`s with XTC music... Death can take me anytime with a smile on my face...
16:06 - XTC would have been a completely different band with anyone else on drums. Terry Chambers was as central to XTC’s sound as Stewart Copeland was to the Police’s. Brilliant.
Not to knock Terry Chambers, but Stewart Copeland is one of the best drummers of all time and the best musician in the Police.
@@fuckamericanidiot SC brought a reggae sensibility to popular music. A first. But TC actually wrote parts for each song. (In this regard, he really hit his stride on Black Sea and English Settlement.) I've been a drummer for 45 years. SC and TC are like salt and pepper to me. I adore SC's playing. I've studied it to death. I couldn't live without either one of these guys.
I don't know if you know this, but he quit the band during Mummer and all subsequent albums had different drummers.
Anyone else find this during quarantine? So psyched. Andy's vocals at 38.34 are astounding, he has a voice like no other.
...and here we are 40 years later, and that song is as good and as fresh as ever. I know every square inch of that recording, and it's such a treat seeing it being made.
@@ptsteinbach I love the great sweeping landscape songs as well, and never tire of discovering a note I missed the first thousand times. Easter Theatre, Green Man, River of Orchids...
@@ptsteinbach Just a mock-up, of course. They actually recorded Towers at the Townhouse in the Black Sea sessions.
Fascinating video. I've never seen this before. Recording a hit. XTC should have been massive! A damned sight better than most 80"s pap!
9 tracks for drums...always greived me when I only had 8 tracks on my Fostex m80
This tv programme got me into probably the greatest band to come out of the 70s new wave era. Saw them live which was amazing Unable to see again due to mr partridge getting severe stage fright after 1982. Dear god. Mr pumpkin head. Wrapped in grey to name but a few of their awesome tracks. The greatest underrated band of all time.
I think if they had kept touring they would have had greater success. Andy developed stage fright and they dropped their appearance at the US festival in California in the mid 80’s and never toured again. I think videos and recordings just didn’t day do enough to propel their profile. Sad.
That's why they weren't huge. They were too good for mainstream acceptance; too intellectual and difficult to pigeonhole and classify. Bands like this always end up with 'cult followings' which is of course no bad thing. Like Talk Talk or Rush, slightly 'awkward' bands who don't fit neatly into one genre. That confuses causal listeners and followers of chart music. Anyone remember It Bites?
@@troynixdorf778 Andy was dependent on Valium. He was started on it a month before turning 13, he was taking handfuls of them at once, then his wife tossed it all out in November 1979 without any medical advice (not that it might have been much different at that time.) Andy didn't know what Valium _dependency_ was (he thought "what do I need this for?") and I suppose not many people did know about chemical dependency. He ended up having muscle spasms, and even amnesia from the withdrawals. He forgot how to play guitar at least once or maybe a few more times, and he forgot who he was at least once, when they were near Detroit in early February 1980.
There couldn’t be a nicer bunch of ordinary fellas making extraordinary music.
Great video 👍
I spent a week there with a band in the early 90' and it was an amazing place, so relaxing and the food was incredible!
My room was overlooking the lake and the ensuite had a whirlpool bath that I spent more time in than I probably should have.. fantastic memories.
I can remember watching this at the time (aged 7) nearly 39 years later, I'm re-watching this, blast from the past.
They are an amazing band and somewhat under rated, a band that everyone should discover
and eight years later It Bites recorded the sublime Once Around The World album there. Amazing place.
I still contend Terry was a great loss to this band. A very inventive drummer.
I think Terry completed the classic line up. They were always great, but it was a bit like Zep without Bonham after he went. Thankfully Colin & Andy were consistently great song writers.
I could never get into XTC post-Terry. I seem to be a minority opinion in that regard. D&W, Black Sea, English Settlement.. those are perfect albums. Brilliant from start to finish. Very rare. The only other artist I've found who did that was Elliott Smith. Every album, every officially released (and most unofficially) song is great. Inventive chord progressions and melodies, meaningful lyrics. Andy and Elliott both have "guitar magazine" video interviews where they talk about songwriting. Their approaches to guitar chords and creativity are extremely similar.
Terry was and is a powerhouse. As a bassist, you hear it in your gut...it sucks Andy had stage fright, but it is what it is.
In the end, everyone was a great loss, and only Andy remained. It seems he doesn't play well with others long term.
To bloody right..
Masterpiece. Period. Awesome Songs, Awesome Producer. Awesome Album.
They were so excellent live. I was lucky enough to see them twice. And I saw eXTC last year and it was a very fun show. Don’t miss them if the opportunity arises.
"Songs always go a long way, they always have done" it's 2015 and a thirteen year old girl is obsessed over a legendary band that never had enough recognition :3
Lizzie Jayne ... good. Very good. Now focus ALL of that passion NRG exactly in the direction that YOU want to go, and don't look back until you are on top of the mountain...
17
I’m 19 now haha, I forgot I’d even commented this! I still love them just as much now 🥺
@@pereraddison932 This is so kind, I’ll remember this, thank you
@Donna Anderson I'm 51 now, and back in the day I didn't know a single girl who liked them. I've no idea why. They seemed to be admired more by prog rock fans than new wave or punk fans, even though years later they were cited as major influence on the UK indie/BritPop scene. They are an excellent an unique band, who are difficult to categorize, and that may explain their relative lack of commercial success. Many young listeners want to be sure they are listening to the 'right' kind of music. That was true then as it is now. I appreciate that is a bit of a generalisation, but an observable one, I think.
Ah superb! Saw this when it was first aired in the days before most of us had video recorders. Brilliant to see it again. XTC were one of the UK's finest yet strangely underrated bands. Still time to reform chaps, what say you??
Colin’s most recent single was beautiful.
This is pure gold! Thanks for posting.
Thanks for posting all this great XTC content, fans. Seeing this complete for the first time. fantastic
Excellent.. thanks for posting this gem.
I wish I had the prescience in the late 70's to have somehow gotten to see XTC live. Mind you, I was a little high school kid without the wherewithal to hop on a plane and get a hotel in England. But, oh! To have pushed to the front of the audience and stand below Andy Partridge performing live would have been life changing, indeed.
I'll have to comfort myself with the memories of witnessing the Talking Heads playing a free gig on the UC Berkeley campus (on the day Harvey Milk was assassinated). And seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers play in tiny clubs in SF at the start of their career.
November of 1979 the local tech college station played the song "Complicated Game" from the Drums & Wires album. After that, I was hooked on XTC!
Thank you for uploading this!
Fantastic - even the wobbly transfer from analogue tape seems to go in time to the music, though I felt at times as if I was watching the whole through a layer of Jello...
Yes, it can be argued that they evolved into the best pop band since the Beatles. It could also be argued that English Settlement was their Sgt. Pepper. Of course, many may feel that is an outrageous claim. But it is very close.
The only difference being you can listen to English Settlement all the way through without wanting to skip any tracks!
The only Beatles LP I can listen to all the way through and feel that comfortable about is Rubber Soul.
@@michaelmorris5288 I think the same can be said for _drums and wires_ and _black sea_. It's hard make one album like that let alone three. I think the music suffered when they became a studio band and Terry Chambers left. Andy's still a master of interesting chord progressions.
@@chucku.farley For me, Black Sea remains their best album overall, although the run of albums from D&W through to ES is sublime. Later albums are more patchy, although I still think Oranges & Lemons is superb.
The fact that everyone compares all music to the Beatles , speaks volumes .
It is an outrageous claim. ES is much better than Sgt Pepper ;-) which I don't think is the best Beatles album. Rubber Soul and Revolver are much better IMO. As for XTC, I would say Skylarking is closer to Sgt Pepper in style, although its really just a blend of all the best elements of late 60's psych rock, with bits of everything from The Kinks to The Moody Blues.
Lillywhite in interviews said XTC really got screwed by their Virgin Record's contract. That they made little on album sales and touring was the only real dependable income. That all vanished once Andy could no longer tour. Sir Richard is a cad.
True. Branson don't care about music at all, he just OWNS Virgin Records, like he owns Virgin Airlines or Virgin Telecom or Virgin whatever.
Hé made a fortune in the 80's, not paying the groups.
Never seen this. Thanks Egidio!
Thanks for uploading this gem!
One of 2 bands I never got to see live that I wanted too..the other was The Talking Heads...and I think they toured together in '78..i musta been at Anfield watching Liverpool...!!!!
Actually, I wish I had the prescience in the late 70's to have somehow gotten to see XTC live. Mind you, I was a little high school kid without the wherewithal to hop on a plane and get a hotel in England. But, oh! To have pushed to the front of the audience and stand below Andy Partridge performing live would have been life changing, indeed.
I'll have to comfort myself with the memories of witnessing the Talking Heads playing a free gig on the UC Berkeley campus (on the day Harvey Milk was assassinated). And seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers play in tiny clubs in SF at the start of their career.
I am savouring all their albums of late, and appreciating each one's place in their timeline. Even Barry Andrew's contributions have their own place in it all.
Thanks for posting this, it was my 10th birthday when it was shown on TV so missed it.
Andy is one of my absolute favourites along side Lennon, Joni, Dave Matthews, Nino Ramsby, Freddie and of course mr Lynott. Brilliant people who make life worth living.
+Mister Pumpkinhead (Mr Pumpkinhead) Dave Mathews? hahaha Good God man.
+Mister Pumpkinhead (Mr Pumpkinhead) Dave Mathews? hahaha Good God man.
So excited about the recent Andy Partridge/ Robyn Hitchcock collaboration, Planet England 🇬🇧
Agree, not enough love for Freddie and the Dreamers 👍
@@Nigelxman yeah.... fuck that guy
Fascinating documentary into the recording process. What few would have noticed was just how much engineer Richard Manwaring contributed to the whole process, but Steve was no slouch. Great viewing
Wow, what a ripping version of Respectable Street at the end there. Sounds almost exactly like the live version from Urgh from a show in France, which was performed a mere 4 days later if I remember correctly.
The single had already been recorded and this was to show how it was done. We also recorded the promo for Generals and Majors - total chaos - nothing planned - it was just 'what would look good'!
Andrew Mead Don’t suppose you have the HD masters, then? 😉 Very watchable doc- great work!
I read an interview with Colin about the shoot for the Generals and Majors video. In short, they _had_ to have _something_ as a video or the song wouldn't get airplay somewhere or other _and_ they were scheduled to go to Australia the next day.
Austin Lucas ... and they met Nigel, who had invested in a boo-king agency called Nucleus, and desperately wanted to make a "British deal"... didn't happen, ha!...
So, this is kind of a fake doc, then. Still interesting, but all the pressure's off which obviously affects the proceedings-they can just muck about.
This is also the estate where they filmed the video for 'Generals and majors'.
Same programme - Branson actually trod on my head when I gave him a leg up over the wall - b*gger.
They really were the closest we got to an 80's Beatles, two great songwriters also. Did anyone spot Brian Setzer with a huge plate of buffet and Eugene and Faye Fife on the go karts? Brilliant documentary that I think was on a Thursday night and we all discussed it in art class the next day, us would be beatniks!!
Beatnicks ? Wrong decade lol
4:00
Look at the talent here.
Steve Lillywhite seated next to Hugh Padham getting that legendary Lillywhite drum sound.
Before digital, all of the money in recording was to get drums to sound good.
You did that, and the rest was easy.
Fantastic. I love this band. Btw, I am a jazz-fusion guitarist.
Steve Lillywhite is impressive. So young, so confident. Comes across as getting the job done with a minimum of nonsense.
So excellent a group!
Towers of London has always been one of my favorite XTC songs and it’s great to see it being built in the studio.
Set up for the cameras. It had already been recorded elsewhere.
Loved finding this again. I remember watching it when originally shown. I really enjoy documentaries that feature something being created almost from scratch. Ideally I would have liked to have seen the song being conceived in Andy's mind, the lyrics forming etc and then the band working it through. But that's just my perfect world! XTC were a great band and Mr Partridge a creative genius.
Funny at 24:04 Dave Gregory repeats an obscure reference Eric Clapton made "God, it's God I see God" on a Frank Zappa album "Were Only in it for the Money."Nice to know we're all cut from the same (counter)cultural stock.
+ChasBeauregarde
I noticed the same thing! My family has often used that Clapton quote for any absurdly unusual experience that we encounter. So nice to hear it magnified by another exquisitely creative team member in his efforts.
Dave Gregory is always eleven ninths (or more) of the music he contributes to.
I remember this programme...
I was at that party 2 of the groups that played were Aswad and The Stray Cats
good fun for a 19 year old
Never had the luck to be at the beginning of such a great thing! Good for you. Not dead yet so maybe a chance for me. Probably not. Great memories are great though, aren't they?
Me too.
Everyone had such baby faces !
There remind me of hyperactive 6th formers particularly Partridge and the chain smoking Lillywhite!
The magic roundabout, Diana Dors, railway works, the Whitehouse way bridge, Billie etc...............and XTC.
coffee delivered straight to your bed? total class!!
Was wondering if it was perhaps a mug of tea, given the venue.
@@juanitacarrollyoung2979 Tea is XTC!
The only band that was ever compared to the Beatles, and no one complained!
You’ve got to be kidding lol
@@brianfergus839 Nope. I was told this by one of the top studio musicians in Los Angeles many years ago. Their Nonsuch album was one of the most anticipated albums ever, especially by other musicians. One music store in San Francisco had a huge sign behind the counter counting down the days until its release.
@@garrybowlds4960 LOL - you obviously weren’t alive in the ‘60s, when EVERY pop band was compared to the Beatles. I don’t doubt your story, though. It’s just that your initial post is far from the truth.
@@brianfergus839 Yes, "EVERY pop band was compared to the Beatles" and is to this day, but when I said everybody, I'm speaking about what the musicians in LA and SF music scene were saying about the music they created in their post-pop phase and the evolution of their music throughout their career. The anticipation for the Nonsuch album was a major topic of conversation for months amongst the musicians I knew in California. PS: I was born in 1956.
@@garrybowlds4960 - Interesting and well put.
:-)
What I was most surprised by was a young Steve Lillywhite at the boards. Only 25 at the time, he had already produced Joan Armatrading and would go on to produce for everyone by the end of the 80's
He had recently or was still working on "BOY" by U2
I love XTC, I love this song and I love this video! Has it ever been restored?
The track which was released, as a single and on Black Sea, was recorded at the Townhouse studios, London. This is just for TV.
Too much info! lol
"Can you imagine a very very successful business trout having 500 Richard Bransons in a little tank?" LOL
Deep drugs.
Terry Chambers is a fantastic drummer
Real rock has been murdered. Those days we’ll never see them kind again.
They were lucky to catch a young Steve Lilywhite. Right after this Steve produced Peter Gabriel, helped give Phil Collins his signature drum sound and then went with U2, the Stones, Abba, Rush, straight to the top of record biz.
Only that he never actually did collaborate with Rush! He was originally meant to produce their album 'Grace Under Pressure' (1984), but then he pulled out last minute.
Terry is an awesome drummer.
24 track recording studios had only been commonplace for 8 years in Oct 1980.
Either I’m having acid flashbacks or the BBC had some very groovy camera effects in 1980. Black Sea is my favorite album from XTC’s early stuff. So cool to be a fly on the wall at this session!
Drums and Wires is such a staple in my collection
It would be amazing if a better quality copy of this would surface!
This was 43 years ago today - if you went back 43 years in 1980, you landed in 1937...😬
It all looks like fun but there's all sorts of tensions and frustrations during these sorts of sessions. Bloody bands. SO much better when you haven't got the whole flipping lot there jostling to be heard and appreciated. Or larking about putting tape on thrir head while you're trying to do a take. I always liked it when most would clear off and it would be just me and the engineer....and maybe one other person, reading in the corner, occasionally saying 'sounds great'.
Meanwhile....what a treat to hear Gregory's strumming in isolation. So clean and crisp and full.
22:21 "Now do classical gas" - Steve Lillywhite...and Lenny to Lisa Simpson
Black Sea was my junior high soundtrack.
Loving the use of a fire extinguisher. Used in mr blue sky by elo also
and by Madness on Baggy Trousers, earlier in 1980.
Reminds me of Mal Evans playing the anvil on "Maxwell's silver hammer"!!
Steve lillywhite..there's a name for ya...damn he was young
Cat Stevens owes much to his dedication - the first three Island records...
And had Steve Lillywhite started shaving when they filmed this? He did great work with U2, Simple Minds and many others during this time. Black Sea has a huge - almost brutal - live sound which is in no small measure to Steve getting that big drum thing down.
brilliant!
How is the overall quality on this worse that a 1940's b& w film?
Only now seeing how they were the link between the Kinks and Blur.
brilliant
can't believe i caught dave gregory's zappa/mothers reference.
Same here!!!
I hear you've been having trouble with pigs and ponies.....
Although I have heard of Steve Lilywbite since the early 80s, I had never seen what he looks like. He was just kid! I.pictured someone much older.
A touch of foreshadowing the way they end on 'Respectable Street'. :(
Rik Lee For a moment I thought Branson actually blew up the trout.
"It'll take them the best part of 3 days to record 4 minutes of music....Terry Chambers wanted to be a footballer, now he plays drums" Nice pass-agg voiceover!
3 days to record 4 minutes of music...... Not so unusual in those days especially if the budget was generous. XTC took their music seriously and took their time to get it right. Many bands would take months in the studio to create an albums worth of high quality material.
Towers of London
When they had built you
Did you watch over the men who fell
Towers of London
When they had built you
Victoria's gem found in somebody's hell
Hey, even in the States we liked XTC and trout fishing.bought Black Sea when it first came out. It had a strange paper cover over the album sleeve., Not sure of the reasoning.
Look at that photo they must 've pissed themselves,so they gave you the option to miss that each time you played the album
What a nice bloke Steve Lillywhite is. He seems to have oiled the wheels perfectly.
The essence of a great producer. Someone who enables the band to get the best, without getting in the way. To be a good record producer, you need talent, good ears, technical mastery, and at least a degree in diplomacy!
Marvellous stuff. I'm getting strong Tap vibes.
spinal tap you mean
I wonder what was found in Gregory's room for the tea lady to exclaim "Oh Gawd"
They were big here in Australia.Charted well.Nonesuch is a great album.Full of contrast.Those were the days.
I love Chambers drumming
That's 21 year-old Brian Setzer at 54:52, as the just-before-they-had-been-signed-or-released-a-record Stray Cats played at the Virgin Records party alluded to earlier in the show. Their debut Dave Edmunds-produced album was released on Arista about six months from when this was shot.
Fairy dust is a in joke on the Troggs tapes lol
I always think of Wish by The Cure when I think of this place.
Anyone catch Brian Setzer at the end while Branson is talking over G&M?
and so?
Two Rezillos on the Go Karts!!!
My sense of the situation is that XTC has strong rep in England, but is pretty close to unknown here in the states. Is that it? Given their productivity, eclecticism, quality control, etc I'm stunned how little they are known here.
They weren't known much in the States because they didn't tour. Can't remember if it was before or after ENGLISH SETTLEMENT but Andy Partridge just couldn't perform on stage. Because he would just freeze up. Because he developed debilitating stage fright. For some reason.
🙄🙄🙄
I say this as a big fan of XTC but the main--maybe even only reason--XTC never became as big as they could've is because Partridge is a whining little tw*t.
I read the book XTC: SONG STORIES and learned quite a bit about him. The more I read/learned, the less of a fan I became.
And again--I'm a huge fan of this band.
@@finnsterling6514 Thanks for your reply. For me, XTC's productivity, eclecticism, quality control, etc is so remarkable that I'm surprised that they aren't better known in the US-- despite the case that they didn't tour. But I take it that that is the leading explanation.
Fortunately I've been spared Andy's whining persona. Yes, he does bitch about Todd, but Todd bitches back so that seems like a discrete juvenile spat. My biggest complaint with him came when he couldn't decide who was the better songwriter, Ray Davies, or Paul & John. What?!
That must be the "stone room" that I heard Partridge mention in interviews here. Apparently the choice of a live room was contrary to a trend of using very dead isolation rooms and having the main source of reverb be an effect added later.
Believe that was at the Townhouse in London. "Making Plans.." (which was recorded at Townhouse, as was the single in this doc) had an early take on gated reverb drum sound which was fully developed on Phil Collins etc. a few years later.
England's Glory. " A striking match"
Andy wearing a suit jacket and tie to a recording session...
B L A C K S E A. What a great stomper of a record. Their best up to that point by miles.
(shame about the FLIPPING stabiliser on this video....what proper Charlie decided that was a good idea?)
Black Sea is my fav XTC album other than English Settlement
Anyone recognise known faces among the party-goers at the end? I thought that perhaps Banshee Steve Severin appears briefly at 59:15 - but I'd be surprised if he was Chez Branson in 1980........
" Excellent Documentary " With The " Rigours Of The Recording Process " Infused With " Great Slabs Of Humour By The Band Throughout " !!! From Adrian Browne 1965
7:41 nice Benny Hill moment! :)
What's the song at the very beginning? I forget and I'm not ready to skim every album to locate it.
+Gritnom "The Somnambulist"
***** Thank you.
one of them became very obsessive with the fairlight keyboard
Cuppa tea at ten O clock?
Rock n Rrrrrrrrrl!
15:00-15:30 treading on dodgy ground, you'd know it was a couple of generations ago LOL ;)