The Dukes Of Stratosphear had everything the adenoidal herberts from Swindon's Sausage City lacked - color, fun, and imagination. Also, great album sleeves. They delivered where XTC checked boxes. But after two perfect albums, they decided to pack it all in and leave XTC to do the heavy lifting.
Sir John Johns (real name Wayne Phlegm) lead guitarist [left - Ed.], puts it this way: "we were enjoying being the Dukes too much. The first album sold better than any XTC album, and people loved it. It transcended pastiche to become the real thing, real psych-pop that stood alongside anything out of the sixties. So in a way it kind of negated all the pseudo-punk art-pop XTC were doggedly churning out for their miserablist fans. XTC had a stab at the genre with Oranges And Lemons, but it wasn't in the same league. So we burned our kaftans."It was the world's loss.
Yeah, yeah ... XTC ... ZZZ, you ax me.
The first album gots xtry trx, the second ain't. I'll upload as soon as someone tells me a joke as good as this:
ReplyDeleteOld lady standing in the road with a length of rope, looking puzzled. I sez, "What's the problem, Grandma?", and she sez, "Don't know if I found some rope or lost a cow."
I don't always tell dad jokes, but when I do he usually laughs...
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