Various Artists - An Alternative Hendrix (1990)

I was listening to my New Fast Automatic Daffodils 'Peel Sessions' album the other day, and was reminded at just how great their take on 'Purple Haze' was, which in turn prompted memories of another couple of Hendrix covers by new wave/alternative bands that I'd always loved - 'All Along The Watchtower' by XTC and 'Foxy Lady' by The Cure. I wondered if there were any more punky versions of Hendrix's songs out there, and found that although there have been two tribute albums released, with 'Stone Free' in 1993 and 'If Six Was Nine' in 1990, they seemed to concentrate on more mainstream groups to contribute to them, and so I only had to borrow four songs from the latter to flesh out this collection of re-imaginings of Hendrix classics by some of my favourite new wave/alternative bands. 

Track listing

01 Purple Haze - New Fast Automatic Daffodils
02 Can You See Me - Thee Hypnotics
03 Stone Free - Supergrass
04 Are You Experienced - The Mock Turtles
05 Who Knows - Bevis Frond
06 Foxy Lady - The Cure
07 Love Or Confusion - The Screaming Trees
08 Hey Joe - Patti Smith
09 All Along The Watchtower - XTC
10 Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) - The Membranes
11 Crosstown Traffic - Richard Hell & The Voidoids

XTC - From The Drunktank (1981)

These drunken sessions from XTC happened after a visit to the local pub in Shipton-on-Cherwell, during the last days of mixing 'English Settlement' in November 1981. After mixing 'Punch and Judy', and only having 'No Thugs' left to do, the band retired to the pub to celebrate early. On their return to the studio they spotted that their instruments were still set up, and so in a somewhat boisterous mood they decided to make a noise, and Hugh Padgham opened up a couple of ambient mics in the room and recorded the whole thing direct to 2-track. It's just the band having a ball, doing irreverent cover versions of some of their favourite songs, and some stream-of-consciousness jamming, but even when drunk these guys make a great noise. 

Track listing

01 Shaving Brush Boogie 
02 Pupil Haze 
03 Community Worker Breakdown
04 Whole Lotta Age
05 Orange Dust
06 Orange Dust (Slight Return)
07 Silver Sewing Machine
08 Do The Dwarf

The Helium Kidz - Ecstasy (1974)

Andy Partridge started playing in bands in the early 70's, forming short-lived outfits with names such as Stiff Beach, Tongue, and Stray Blues, before he formed the ad-hoc Star Park, which was just anybody that he could get together for a gig. At the same time, Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers were introduced to each other, and they found that they got on pretty well, so would jam together with guitarist Steve Phillips. After agreeing that Phillips wasn't really up to it, Moulding recalled the guitarist that he'd played with in Star Park called Dave Cartner, who joined them to make a trio. They tried writing songs together, but of the three, only Moulding was producing anything substantial, so they drafted in Star Park's other member Andy Partridge, and after a school session he joined the newly christened The Helium Kidz. They played 3 to 4 minute pop songs in the glam style of The New York Dolls, wearing lots of make up and high heels, but Cartner spent increasingly less time in rehearsals after he got married, so the other three threw him out of the band. As a trio The Helium Kidz did a few gigs in London in 1972/1973, and in 1972 recorded demos of six of their songs, including an early version of 'Neon Shuffle'. Another half a dozen demos were recorded a couple of years later, but by 1975 the band's name had changed to XTC, and the rest, as they say, is history. Luckily those demos have survived, and show a very different sound to that which we would come to know and love, but you can still hear the spark of an emerging talent in these tracks, which are surprisingly professional for such a young band.   

Track listing 

01 Star Park
02 Yabber Yabber Yabber
03 Saturn Boy
04 Walking 'Cross The Ceiling
05 Neon Shuffle
06 Do You Really
07 Adrenalin
08 Private Eye
09 In Love With The Hurt
10 Shark In The Pool
11 Cafe
12 Saturn Boy II


For anyone who wants to burn this collection to a CD, SmithWorksGrafx has designed some groovy artwork for it. 

  

XTC - Us Being Us (1992)

For the fourth and final part of my trilogy of XTC posts we mop up all the tracks that didn't fit on the other three albums. The first three tracks are out-takes from 'The White Album', with 'Fireball XL5' being so tinny that I had to seriously boost the bass to make it listenable. The dub version was not as bad but also needed some editing, and I hope they now sound better than the other versions out there. 'Traffic Light Rock' from the 'Guillotine' sampler fitted better on here than on the 'Are You Receiving Us?' post, and slots in nicely before the two 'Go2' out-takes. The 'Drums And Wires' leftover 'Sleepyheads' is actually an early take of 'Looking For Footprints', but much longer than the flexi-disc version. In 1979 Colin Moulding wanted to release a solo single, and so with Andy Partridge's help he recorded 'Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen'/'I Need Protection', and released it the following year under the pseudonym of The Colonel. On the subject of pseudonyms, the band themselves released a Christmas single in 1983 under the name of The Three Wise Men, and both sides of that are here as well. In 1987 a Canadian cassette emerged featuring some of Partridge's demos, most of which later turned up on his 'Fuzzy Warbles' album, with just 'Glow' and 'Dripping Basin' not making the cut. 'Dripping Basin' was a not-that-great instrumental, but 'Glow' was much better so that is included here. We close with a few late period b-sides, a demo that was only released on a rare Japanese EP in 1992, and a classy out-take from the 'Nonsuch' album.     

Track listing

01 Let's Have Fun ('White Album' out-take 1977)
02 Fireball XL5 ('White Album' out-take 1977)
03 Fireball Dub ('White Album' out-take 1977)
04 Traffic Light Rock (from the 'Guillotine' 10" sampler album 1978)
05 Things Fall To Bits ('Go2' out-take 1978)
06 Us Being Us ('Go2' out-take 1978)
07 Sleepyheads ('Drums And Wires' out-take 1979) 
08 Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen (single by The Colonel (Colin Moulding) 1980)
09 I Need Protection (b-side of 'Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen')
10 Thanks For Christmas (single as The Three Wise Men 1983)
11 Countdown To Christmas Party Time (b-side of 'Thanks For Christmas')
12 Troubles (b-side of 'The Meeting Place' 12" 1986)
13 Glow (from the Canadian 'Jules Verne's Sketchbook' cassette 1987)
14 The World Is Full Of Angry Young Men (b-side of 'The Loving' 12" 1989)
15 Always Winter Never Christmas (b-side of 'The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead' 1992)
16 Rip Van Ruben (b-side of 'Wrapped In Grey' 1992)
17 Down A Peg (from the Japanese 'Demo Tracks' EP 1992)
18 Didn't Hurt A Bit ('Nonsuch' out-take 1992) 

XTC - Happy Families (1988)

The third volume of my XTC trilogy collects the b-sides of singles released between 1982 and 1988, a couple of songs from film soundtracks ('Take This Town' was also on the 'Times Square' soundtrack), and to round things off we have Partridge's hilarious 'History Of Rock 'n' Roll'. In 1986 the band released the stand-alone single 'Dear God' in preparation for their 'Skylarking' album, and when it was a surprise hit it was decided to add the song to future pressings, meaning that another song had to be sacrificed, and so 'Mermaid Smiled' was removed to make way. Depending on which pressing of 'Skylarking' you have you'll be missing one of these songs so I've included both of them here. You now also have the complete 'Homo Safari' series, comprising:
    'Homo Safari'
    'Bushman President (No. 2 in the Homo Safari series)'
    'Egyptian Solution (No. 3 in the Homo Safari series)'
    'Mantis On Parole' (No. 4 in the Homo Safari series)'
    'Frost Circus (No. 5 in the Homo Safari series)'
    'Procession Towards Learning Land (No. 6 in the Homo Safari series)'
XTC continued to release singles and albums throughout the 90's so I will be posting a fourth album in this trilogy to mop up all the songs that I couldn't fit on these three.      

Track listing

01 Over Rusty Water (b-side of 'No Thugs In Our House' 1982)
02 Jump (b-side of 'All You Pretty Girls' 1984)
03 Desert Island (b-side of 'Love On A Farmboy's Wages' 1983)
04 Toys (b-side of 'Love On A Farmboy's Wages' 1983)
05 Washaway (b-side of 'All You Pretty Girls' 1984)
06 Red Brick Dream (b-side of 'All You Pretty Girls' 12" single 1984)
07 Blue Overall (b-side of 'This World Over' 1984)
08 Take This Town (b-side of 'Wake Up' 1985)
09 Mantis On Parole (b-side of Wake Up' 1985)
10 Dear God (singe 1986)
11 Extrovert (b-side of 'Grass' 1986)
12 Mermaid Smiled (removed from 'Skylarking' second pressings)
13 Happy Families (from the soundtrack of 'She's Having A Baby' 1988)
14 History Of Rock 'n' Roll

   

XTC - The Good Things (2005)

Well, I thought having four albums in a trilogy was bad enough, but with invaluable help from martinf I've now got enough rare material to make a fifth volume. I had no idea that a lot of these tracks existed, apart from 'Ten Feet Tall' and 'Scissor Man' which are on my prized 'Rag And Bone Buffet' CD, but not realising the story behind them I omitted those two from my compilations. I had to be ruthless in what to include in order to keep the album to a reasonable length, so of the other tracks suggested for this album by martinf, I omitted the rejected version of 'Life Begins At The Hop' as the eventual 7" release was on the first in this series, the version of 'Happy Families' on the b-side of 'King For A Day' seems to be the same as the film soundtrack version, the Canadian version of 'Love At First Sight' is just a speeded-up take, as the Canadians thought it was a bit sluggish, and I didn't want to include multiple versions of the same song, so left off the various remixes of 'King For A Day'. I also omitted the Dukes Of Stratosphear track because.....well, just wait and see. So that leaves one final 48 minute album, which is where I'm going to call it a day. Considering all the demos, live tracks and alternate versions that there are out there, this series could go on forever, but I do think that I've included all of their best non-album recordings in these five posts, and so if anyone else wants to carry on the series then feel free. As there are stories behind a lot of these songs, here's an explanation of them from the extremely informative chalkhills.org site http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/

'Ten Feet Tall' is a more 'electrified' version that was recorded for release as a US single, and also given away on a free flexi-disc with 'Smash Hits' magazine. 
'Cherry In Your Tree' was recorded for the 'Carmen Santiago Out Of This World' tie-in album from the US kids TV show. 
'The Good Things' is a cover by XTC fanatics Terry And The Lovemen, which was included on the 'A Testimonial Dinner' tribute album. Not strictly speaking an XTC recording, but even Andy says they have the band off to a tee, and the only other recording of this song is a demo from the 'Mayor Of Simpleton' 12" single. 
'Dance With Me, Germany', 'Beat The Bible', 'A Dictionary Of Modern Marriage', 'Clap Clap Clap', and 'We Kill The Beast' are all from the 'Go+' 12" which came free with the 1978 'Go2' album, before being issued in its own right. These are all experimental dub versions of songs from 'Go2'
'Ella Guru' is a cover of the Captain Beefheart song, recorded for the 'Fast & Bulbous' tribute album in 1988.
'Blue Beret' was originally included on 1993's 'The Adventure Club Sessions' cassette, released only in the US.
'Wait Till Your Boat Goes Down' was a 1980 single, which was inexplicably missed when compiling my 'Strange Tales' album.  
'Scissor Man' is a 1979 recording of the 'Drums And Wires' track for the John Peel Show, which Andy actually thinks is better than the studio version.
'Spiral' / 'Try It' was a bonus 7" single included with the 2005 'Apple Vinyls' album.
'Strawberry Fields' is a Beatles cover put together by Dave Gregory, who played all the instruments himself, recording them directly onto a 4-track recorder, and he then asked Andy to sing over the top. It was later released as a single under the name of Colin's Hermits.
'Goodnight Sucker' was a hidden track on 1977's '3D-EP' 12", but blink and you'll miss it. 

Track listing

01 Ten Feet Tall
02 Cherry In Your Tree
03 The Good Things
04 Dance With Me, Germany 
05 Beat The Bible
06 A Dictionary Of Modern Marriage
07 Clap Clap Clap
08 We Kill The Beast
09 Ella Guru
10 Blue Beret
11 Wait Till Your Boat Goes Down
12 Scissor Man
13 Spiral
14 Try It
15 Strawberry Fields
16 Goodnight Sucker

And if you're wondering about the cover, yes you really can buy plastic models of the whole band here http://www.10ft.it/figure.html.

The Dukes Of Stratosphear - A Can Of Human Beans (1987)

As I hinted in the last XTC post, I'd deliberately omitted a rare Dukes Of Stratosphear track from the last XTC compilation as, when I came to look for it online, I found there were a number of other rare demos and out-takes available from the band - enough, in fact, to make up a Dukes album all of it's own. The first two tracks are acoustic demos of songs which never made it to either album, and these are followed by band demos of songs that eventually appeared on the '25 O'Clock' album, interspersed with a couple of out-takes in 'Open A Can Of Human Beans' and 'Tin Toy Clockwork Train', and the previously unheard radio session recording of 'Black Jewelled Serpent Of Sound'. The second half of the album is made up of demos of songs from 'Psonic Psunspot', as they didn't record any extra songs during the sessions for that album, and although you might not recognise the title of 'No One At Home', it is in fact an early version of 'Vanishing Girl'. While this isn't as impressive an album as I'd liked to post, it does have five brand new recordings, and the demos are generally very different from the finished versions, so fans of XTC and the Dukes will find much to enjoy.   

Track listing

01 Nicely Nicely Jane
02 Susan Revolving
03 25 O'Clock
04 My Love Explodes
05 Open A Can Of Human Beans
06 Bike Ride To The Moon
07 Tin Toy Clockwork Train
08 What In The World??...
09 Black Jewelled Serpent Of Sound
10 The Affiliated
11 Little Lighthouse
12 Shiny Cage
13 No One At Home
14 Brainiac's Daughter
15 Collideascope

For anyone who wants to burn this collection to a CD, SmithWorksGrafx has designed some groovy artwork for it. 

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XTC - Are You Receiving Us? (1980)

XTC are one of the best, and most prolific, of the UK post-punk bands that sprung up around 1977. Virgin Records saw the potential and snapped them up, and their first release was the '3D' EP, which has since gained legendary status and commands large sums online for an original copy. This was followed by a couple of singles to test the water, before their first album 'White Music' burst onto the scene. Every track was amazing, and as well as the brilliant original songs on there, it contained perhaps my second-ever favourite recording of 'All Along The Watchtower' - and depending on the mood I'm in it sometimes even surpasses Hendrix's definitive version. Singles and albums followed in quick succession, and they were writing so many new songs that almost all the singles had exclusive b-sides, and sometimes they'd issue an EP just for the hell of it. By looking through their discography I've managed to track down 40 songs that never appeared on a studio album - enough for a three volume collection of XTC rarities. In 1982 the 'Beeswax' album made a good attempt at mopping up some of these songs, but obviously missed off the non-album A-sides, and omitted a couple of flips as well. There's never really been a follow-up to that collection for the years after 1982, and so hopefully this trilogy of albums will do the job nicely.

Track listing

01 Science Friction (from the '3D' EP 1977)
02 She's So Square (from the '3D' EP 1977)
03 Dance Band (from the '3D' EP 1977)
04 Hang On To The Night (b-side of 'Statue Of Liberty' 1978)
05 Are You Receiving Me? (single 1978)
06 Instant Tunes (b-side of 'Are You Receiving Me?')
07 Heatwave (b-side of 'This Is Pop?' 1978)
08 Chain Of Command (from the free 7" single with 'Drums And Wires' 1979)
09 Limelight (from the free 7" single with 'Drums And Wires' 1979)
10 Bushman President (b-side of 'Making Plans For Nigel' 1979)
11 Pulsing Pulsing (b-side of 'Making Plans For Nigel' 1979)
12 The Somnabulist (b-side of 'Ten Feet Tall' 1979)
13 Life Begins At The Hop (single 1979)
14 Homo Safari (b-side of 'Life Begins At The Hop')
15 Don't Lose Your Temper (b-side of 'Generals And Majors' 1980)
16 Smokeless Zone (b-side of 'Generals And Majors' 1980)

XTC - Strange Tales (1983)

The next installment of the XTC rarities posts covers the years 1981 to 1983, and includes numerous b-sides, some more of the 'Homo Safari' series of instrumentals, and the rare Flexipop flexidisc of 'Looking For Footprints'. Not much else to say about this brilliant band, other than enjoy the music. 

  

Track listing

01 Strange Tales, Strange Tails (b-side of 'Respectable Street' 1981)
02 Officer Blue (b-side of 'Respectable Street' 1981)
03 Looking For Footprints (free Flexipop flexidisc 1982)
04 Blame The Weather (b-side of 'Senses Working Overtime' 1982)
05 Tissue Tigers (The Arguers) (b-side of 'Senses Working Overtime' 1982)
06 Egyptian Solution (b-side of 'Senses Working Overtime' 12" 1982)
07 Punch And Judy (b-side of 'Ball And Chain' 1982)
08 Heaven Is Paved With Broken Glass (b-side of 'Ball And Chain' 1982)
09 Cockpit Dance Mixture (b-side of 'Ball And Chain' 12" 1982)
10 Gold (b-side of 'Great Fire' 1983)
11 Frost Circus (b-side of 'Great Fire' 1983)
12 Procession Towards Learning Land (b-side of 'Great Fire' 1983)