XTC Erics Liverpool 3rd June 1978

 

Now here's a band who are almost impossible to pin down musically. I think too that their influence was only really understood after their demise. Coming from a musical collaboration that started in 1972, the band that became XTC predated punk by a significant number of years. Whilst with the arrival of punk, XTC certainly would have benefitted from the availability of gigs etc, they never conformed to punk. Early XTC was I suppose some kind of artrock outfit, angular guitars and off the wall keyboards. It was the energy of their live performances that gained the respect and appreciation of the new punk audience.

As good as the early material it is, I think XTC really made their mark with later 1980's material that conveyed a quintisential Englishness. Their songs contained a gentle humour within their excellently crafted songs (in a similar vein to say Squeeze). They are one band that so many people would like to see produce something for the 2020s. Fans have been teased with the short lived TC&I (Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers) as well as EXTC (Terry Chambers), the latter coming to a concert hall near you soon in support of Hugh Cornwell, but a full blown reunion remains highly unlikely.

Thanks to the original uploader.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-u3RnjnpHn5

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-yBOC0XDrBp