EXTC March 20th at the Rickshaw!

Terry Chambers by Lou Dommett Young

March 20th - a Sunday two weeks hence, as I write this - will be the first time that Terry Chambers has played in Vancouver since the band's gig at the PNE Bowl on October 27th, 1980 - a concert which is remembered fondly by many. 

The press release that the Rickshaw sent around has some great stories in it, but I don't want to just copy the whole thing, lazily ruining it for other writers who might want to excerpt from it. As a writer, I've had the weird experience of having had a large chunk of a press release I wrote make it verbatim into a newspaper under some other writer's name, like all they did was cut and paste my writing without adding a sentence of their own or even ACKNOWLEDGING it was all snipped from a fuckin' press release. No one has ever sat me down to explain the actual rules of using press releases, but that seemed a bit much, so this is gonna be my writing, for the most part. But first, I have a question...

...Those who have seen the XTC documentary, XTC: This is Pop - which is pert-near mandatory viewing if you haven't already caught it - will have heard Andy tell the story about how - as the child of a mother with mental health struggles - he ended up on prescription Valium, developing a decade-plus long dependency on it... so much so that it was like any other drug one becomes dependent on, where you take it to maintain a feeling of normalcy, not even noticing the effects it is having until you STOP TAKING IT. Those of you who have been smokers will know this phenomenon well - you smoke not because you notice the effects, but to keep yourself at a baseline, which you will find yourself thrown far from if you go too long without a cigarette. You really only notice the narcotizing effects of the drug if you go back ON it after you've been off for a bit, and suddenly you realize just how strong it is; otherwise, you're just taking it to feel normal. Likeweise, if you've never had Valium before, and take one, you'll notice it, but if you've been taking it every day since you were a child, it's not going to feel like it's doing much for you - as long as you maintain the dosage and don't skip a day....

...so as the story in the film goes, when Andy's girlfriend  decided that he didn't need the Valium anymore, Andy, not having felt the effects of the drug for years, not thinking it was actually doing anything for him, thought it wouldn't be a problem to just stop. Both of them were clearly painfully naive when it came to matters of chemical dependency, so he doesn't seem to bear her any grudge; he went cold turkey... and had a breakdown. 

What's weird about that is that almost no press that I've read about how Andy came to quit touring mentions this story! I've read references to "crippling stage fright" or sometimes a "nervous breakdown," but for reasons I don't understand, the key factor - Valium withdrawal, which I understand is pretty damn nasty - is completely absent. But why? Have people not seen the film? Is the story considered the property of the filmmakers? Did Andy have regrets about making it public? Is the stigma around drug dependency so strong that people feel like they'd better not mention it? 

I have no idea, but in any event, XTC stopped touring in 1982. Shortly before their final show, the current press release notes, Andy had a panic attack when performing in Paris, after which he was talked into finishing a US tour, which began with a concert in San Diego. "The show went well," Terry Chambers remembers. "Everyone seemed in good spirits. It was the start of our first US headlining tour playing decent-sized venues, and the future looked good. We had no idea that Andy was in such bad shape."   

And here we lift a whole paragraph from the press release:

The next night, a packed crowd at the Palladium in Hollywood thrummed expectantly for XTC to hit the stage. But the band never reached the venue: "We were holed up in a local hotel. Our tour manager summoned everyone, except Andy, to the foyer. He told us Andy was too ill to perform, and that the entire tour was cancelled. Andy flew back to the UK. I hung around LA for a couple of days, then flew to Australia to be with my future wife."

The San Diego gig remained their final show, but XTC remained active as a studio band for decades thereafter, making richer and richer albums once they were freed from the necessity of having to be able to replicate the music live. It is made vividly clear in the doc that Partridge himself prefers the later stuff, saying - I paraphrase - that they started out as a pretty good band who got much better after they stopped touring. Personally, I am most familiar with their early stuff - which makes up the bulk of the EXTC setlist -  but part of that is that, without the motivation of seeing a live show, I had no incentive to catch up with the band's catalogue, mostly just listening to my favourite album of theirs (Black Sea; we presume "Living Through Another Cuba" will make it onto the setlist, given current events). 

Terry Chambers also seems to be more attuned to that early catalogue - for good reason. After English Settlement, Terry - himself not clear how that band would succeed without playing concerts - left XTC and moved to Australia, where he remained for 30 years. 

Press release: 

In 2016, Terry visited the UK and met up with his old XTC bandmate, Colin Moulding. With XTC no more, Terry and Colin decided to collaborate on a new project called TC&I: "We played six sold-out shows at Swindon's Art Centre. It was a fantastic experience. But it was also short-lived."

In fact, it was all over in a quick phone call. Colin Moulding rang Terry on Boxing Day, 2018. His goal achieved and satisfied with performing his songs live, Colin proclaimed he wouldn't pursue previously discussed plans for occasional short tours and shows – and laid TC&I to rest.

That was that. Terry, having returned to the UK from his 30-plus-year life in Australia and dedicating himself to TC&I, found himself holding an unwanted Christmas gift with no receipt: an end to his new musical career and no outlet for his rekindled passion. It felt like 1982 all over again.

TC&I's guitarist was a fellow Swindon resident, Steve Tilling. Growing up in Swindon seems to be the Vancouver equivalent of growing up in Maple Ridge (or worse); I would hazard a guess that the Lou Reed/ John Cale song about growing up in a small town - written about Andy Warhol - has resonance for these guys, and that musicians from Swindon are all very well aware of each other... and very aware of XTC. Tilling told me that as a Swindonian, he "was always aware of the band. I was 11 when they stopped touring in 1982, so never got the chance to see them live. [But] I’d liked the hits I’d heard on the radio and seen on Top of The Pops..." 

After TC&I folded, Tilling and Chambers met to see if  anything could be salvaged. This led to the creation of EXTC. 

Now Terry and EXTC (also featuring Steve Hampton and Matt Hughes) will bring a full set of classic XTC songs to North American audiences. The band also plans to release and perform new material that honors XTC's legacy while forging an exciting musical future.

“It's strange that I'm back playing in North America where, almost 40 years ago to the day, XTC stopped touring," said Terry. "The other XTC members won't tour, so we're out there as EXTC, giving it our all. And we're loving every minute. Because that's where we want to be – on the road giving people the best night out we can. What better way to spend the rest of our days?"

   

EXTC by Lou Dommett Young

Tickets for all shows are available on the EXTC website at www.extc.co.uk - or visit the Rickshaw page for more information, here. Note: contrary to "something I thought I read somewhere," Mo tells me that there will be no opening act, but two one hour sets from EXTC!