Andy Partridge

Best known as the primary singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the beloved British art pop band XTC, Andy Partridge has made a career out of creating music that's deliciously melodic but also idiosyncratic, maturing from energetic and angular new wave (1979's Drums and Wires and 1980's Black Sea) to brilliantly crafted pop classicism (1986's Skylarking and 1992's Nonsuch). While Partridge made his solo debut in 1980 with a collection of XTC remixes, the significant majority of his solo work arrived after XTC became inactive, as he released an extensive series of archival recordings under the Fuzzy Warbles banner and collaborated with Peter Blegvad, Robyn Hitchcock, and Barry Andrews, among others. 2010's Powers was a collection of instrumental pieces inspired by the artwork of sci-fi illustrator Richard M. Powers, 2012's Gonwards was a fusion of song and spoken word Partridge created in tandem with Peter Blegvad, and 2021's My Failed Songwriting Career, Vol. 1 unearthed unheard tunes he penned for other artists. A long-gestating studio project with Stu Rowe and Jen Olive surfaced in 2023 on the EP The Three Clubmen. Andy Partridge was born December 11, 1953 on the island of Malta and raised in Swindon, England. In 1976, he teamed with bassist Colin Moulding and drummer Terry Chambers to form Star Park, later re-christened the Helium Kidz; upon adding keyboardist Barry Andrews and signing to Virgin Records, the group adopted the name XTC, issuing its debut 3D EP in the fall of 1977. Despite the band's punk-era origins, Partridge's early songs also drew enormous influence from the British Invasion period, resulting in a taut, angular pop sound quite distinct from their contemporaries; XTC's debut album White Music even cracked the U.K. Top 40. Following Andrews' exit, the group recruited guitarist/keyboardist David Gregory before recording their first chart hit, "Life Begins at the Hop"; with the 1979 album Drums & Wires, Partridge's songs turned even more toward traditional pop, and a year later he issued his debut solo LP, Take Away/The Lure of Salvage (credited to Mr. Partridge), in which he created dub-style remixes of XTC tracks. 1980's Black Sea was the first XTC album to crack the American Top 50, while 1982's English Settlement yielded their first British Top Ten hit, "Senses Working Overtime." However, during a resulting tour of the States, Partridge suffered a nervous breakdown brought on by his debilitating stage fright, spending the next year in almost total isolation and announcing the band would never again appear live. When XTC resurfaced in 1984 with the stunning Mummer, Partridge's songs evoked a new pastoral beauty. Its follow-up, The Big Express, boasted even richer production, while in 1985 the group adopted the pseudonym the Dukes of Stratosphear to record 25 O'Clock, a tongue-in-cheek (albeit note-perfect) homage to psychedelia. XTC achieved their greatest commercial and creative success with 1986's Skylarking, a lush, majestic song cycle produced (much to the group's initial frustration) by Todd Rundgren; "Dear God," originally left off the album, became a left-field hit, and the album appeared on countless year-end lists. Oranges & Lemons followed in 1989, generating the minor hit "The Mayor of Simpleton." The next year, Partridge -- who previously produced records for Slapp Happy guitarist Peter Blegvad and the Woodentops -- helmed sessions for the Lilac Time and the Mission UK. XTC's Nonsuch appeared in 1992, but would be the band's last new album for seven years; internal difficulties and label battles kept the group from releasing any new material prior to the 1999 release of the much-acclaimed Apple Venus, Pt. 1. In the interim, Partridge collaborated with celebrated ambient composer Harold Budd on 1994's Through the Hill. That same year, he teamed with fellow British pop eccentric Martin Newell for The Greatest Living Englishman. He also composed a number of songs for the 1996 Disney animated feature James and the Giant Peach, which the studio rejected in favor of music by Randy Newman. In 2000, XTC released Wasp Star (Apple Venus, Pt. 2), which would prove to be the band's last album thanks to growing tensions between Partridge and his bandmates, though they never officially disbanded. In 2002, Partridge launched his own Ape House label to release Fuzzy Warbles, Vol. 1, a collection of rarities, songwriting demos, and oddities from Partridge's archives. Partridge would issue eight Fuzzy Warbles volumes between 2002 and 2006, with a collector's box set of the eight discs released in September 2006, accompanied by an exclusive ninth disc titled Hinges. In 2003, Partridge collaborated with Peter Blegvad for a project called Orpheus the Lowdown, a collection of spoken word pieces and experimental compositions. In 2006, Partridge began writing songs with celebrated pop/psych tunesmith Robyn Hitchcock, with their tune "Cause It's Love (Saint Parallelogram)" appearing on Hitchcock's album Ole! Tarantula in 2008, Partridge and Hitchcock revealed they were working on an album together with Mike Keneally, but Hitchcock's busy touring schedule sidelined the project. 2007 saw the debut of Monstrance, a trio featuring Partridge on guitar, former XTC member Barry Andrews on keyboards, and Martyn Barker on drums. The trio released a self-titled debut album that year, as well as a digital EP, Fine Wires Humming a New Song. Partridge also guested on Glory Bumps, a 2008 album by Andrews' group Shriekback. In 2012, Partridge issued a solo album, Powers, a set of instrumental pieces inspired by the work of science fiction artist Richard M. Powers; the album was reissued by Ape House in 2017. Another project with Blegvad, Gonwards, arrived in 2012, and that same year, Partridge co-wrote eight songs for Mike Keneally's album Wing Beat Fantastic. Partridge had cited the Monkees as one of his early inspirations, and he wrote a song, "You Bring the Summer," for the Pre-Fab Four's 2016 album Good Times! After refurbishing his home studio, Partridge celebrated in 2018 by releasing a single featuring covers of two of his favorite songs from the U.K. psychedelic era, Pink Floyd's "Apples and Oranges" and the Bonzo Dog Band's "Humanoid Boogie." Partridge's long-gestating collaboration with Robyn Hitchcock finally bore fruit with a four-song EP, Planet England, issued in September 2019. 2021's My Failed Songwriting Career, Vol. 1, was the first in a projected series of EPs in which Partridge would present previously unreleased songs written for other artists who, for a variety of reasons, turned them down. A second volume appeared in 2022. While working on the Monstrance project in 2007, Partridge met guitarist Stu Rowe, whose credits ranged from Future Sounds of London and Shriekback to Paul Weller and Peter Blegvad. Partridge and Rowe began meeting regularly at Rowe's studio to exchange musical ideas, and after accumulating a backlog of rough recordings, Jen Olive, a singer and songwriter from America who was signed to Partridge's Ape House label, began adding contributions of her own during visits to the U.K. After years of sitting on the shelf, Rowe was inspired to revisit the material during downtime imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. With additional input from Partridge and Olive, four songs were completed from the piecemeal sessions and released in 2023 under the group name the Three Clubmen.
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