EXTC: This is (Still) Pop

EXTC Retools XTC’s Music for 21^st Century Audiences

The music of one of the most creative bands of the rock era is back. The band itself is not, but a new project brings the music of XTC to the stage for the first time in 43 years. Led by the band’s original drummer, EXTC (note the unique name) has the blessing of Andy Partridge, the old band’s primary songwriter and de facto leader.

Swindon, England’s XTC was one of the brightest lights on the new wave music scene. Launched several years earlier as Helium Kidz, the group featured guitarist Andy Partridge, bassist-songwriter Colin Moulding, keyboardist Barry Andrews and drummer Terry Chambers. Signed to Richard Branson’s Virgin Records, XTC started out making nervy, art-rock-flavored punk. Idiosyncratic vocals, angular rhythms and bracing keyboard runs coupled with the group’s quirky and uptempo music set the band apart from its contemporaries.

Early XTC albums (White Music and Go 2, both 1978) earned critical praise but sold modestly. 1979’s Drums and Wires brought a measure of success to the group, fueled by a Moulding-penned hit single, a sardonic look at British privilege in the Thatcher era, “Making Plans for Nigel.” The band’s fourth LP, 1980’s Black Sea finally cracked the U.S. market, reaching #41 on the Billboard album chart.

Yet with fame came difficulties. On tour in 1982, Partridge suffered a nervous breakdown onstage in Paris; soon thereafter XTC ceased public performance. Save for occasional in-stores and radio appearances, the group’s era as a live unit was over.

The music, however, only improved. With versatile guitarist Dave Gregory, XTC continued as a studio project, crafting better and more intricate albums with each passing release. Their studio-rat working methods had no place for a permanent drummer, so in 1982 Chambers left the band, eventually relocating to Australia.

Even in the absence of public appearances, XTC flourished creatively, moving in more baroque, art-rock and even progressive directions while crafting memorable pop melodies. The group scored hits with “Senses Working Overtime,” the controversial “Dear God” and 1989’s “Mayor of Simpleton.” Always at loggerheads with their label and sometimes forced to take on odd jobs to make ends meet, the members of XTC grew apart, and the band ceased operations in 2006. But the group’s body of work – sometimes even drawing comparisons with that of The Beatles – has exerted influence on countless artists in their wake.

Many bands of the rock era have mustered reunions or kept things going long after their music’s sell-by date. Not XTC: even beyond Partridge’s distaste for touring, the prickly nature of relationships among the band’s former members make a reunion exceedingly unlikely.

Yet interest in XTC’s music endures, and help has come from a most unlikely quarter. In 2017, drummer Chambers teamed up with bassist Moulding as TC&I, crafting a well-received album that bore some of their old band’s spirit. Moulding wasn’t interested in touring either, but over a few beers with Partridge, the drummer received his former band mate’s blessing for a new project that would celebrate XTC’s music.

“Nobody’s more surprised than me, to be fair,” Chambers says, explaining how it all went down. “I said, ‘Look, Andy, I’d like to go out and continue with this.’ And he said, ‘Yes, and I think you should call it EXTC.’” Not only would the name clearly reference – yet distinguish itself from – the old band, but it included Terry Chambers’ initials. “That was good enough for me,” he says.

EXTC premiered in 2019, but almost as soon as the group began, COVID-19 put things on hiatus. The trio resumed in 2021, playing across the UK (including a high profile set at the Isle of Wight Festival) and Europe to great acclaim.

EXTC makes effective use of the power trio format. Guitarist Steve Hampton and bassist Terry Lines both sing, and the trio bends songs like “Life Begins at the Hop,” the oddball love paean “Statue of Liberty” and “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead” into the streamlined setup.

The substantial musical backgrounds of the three musicians equip them well to tackle the tricky (and deceptively straightforward-sounding) tunes from XTC albums like Oranges and Lemons, Nonsuch, English Settlement and the Todd Rundgren-produced quasi-concept album Skylarking.

A veteran of the touring lineups of other ‘80s sensations like The Vapors and Joe Jackson’s band, Hampton has been with the group since 2019. “Steve came up to Swindon and said, ‘I’ll give you a run and help out for a short time,’” Chambers says with a laugh. “He’s been with me ever since.”

When the group’s original bassist had to bow out due to EXTC’s packed concert schedule, Hampton brought in Lines. Chambers says that the bassist is a longtime fan of XTC’s music. “Steve, however, wasn’t originally a fan. But once we got going, he thought, ‘Well, yeah. It’s not too bad a thing!’”

The chemistry among the three players has brought forth some unexpected benefits. “Once we get some time off the road, we’ve got some stuff of our own that we can throw into the arena,” Chambers teases. Plans are being made to record some of that original EXTC material, but concertgoers shouldn’t expect to hear any of it on the current tour. “People are here to listen to XTC songs,” Chambers emphasizes. “And even with two hours, we’re still having to leave quite a few great ones out.”