A new book about XTC, titled What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book, is on its way from editor Mark Fisher.
What Do You Call That Noise? reunites XTC members Colin Moulding, Terry Chambers, Barry Andrews, Andy Partridge, Dave Gregory, and, as evocatively phrased in by a press release, “all previous XTC drummers” within it pages.
If you purchase and read this book, you will find it includes input from many famous musical people: Peter Gabriel, members of The Jam, Squeeze, The Bangles, Dr. Hook, New York Dolls, The Waitresses, Voice of the Beehive, Odds, Jellyfish, Future of the Left, and others provide their insights on XTC’s place in the pantheon.
As one other notable fan puts it from inside the book’s pages:
XTC’s music has always been there in my consciousness. I think about it a lot when I’m making records… They come across as an everyday group of people and that’s very much what Barenaked Ladies were about too – living as ordinary a life as you can in a bizarre lifestyle like rock’n’roll.
– Steven Page (Barenaked Ladies)
The book is actually Fisher’s second book about XTC — last year he published The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls, which collected and paid tribute to XTC’s long-running fanzine Limelight.
You can currently order BOTH books here, and you can watch a short YouTube trailer (thank god, no more reading!) for What Do You Call That Noise down below. It’s out March 4.
More about: Mark Fisher, XTC
