U L B N X T C

Good news for fans of XTC - or "all right-thinking people", as they could be termed. Andy Partridge has pulled together a nine-disc rarity collection.

Nine discs.

"Working on this stuff took many years," Partridge tells Billboard.com. "I just kept writing -- who knows what's going to fall out? It was recorded in spare bedrooms, the kitchen, the attic and of course my now infamous garden shed. Pop songs, radio jingles, film and TV music, or just plain old goofing about."

Many of the bits were intended to become full XTC tracks which simply didn't make the grade, or were voted out in America's Next Top Model fashion. It's clear that a lot of stuff which wouldn't rise up alongside XTC's standard catalogue is probably sixteen thousand times better than a lot of things which bob up to the upper-reaches of the charts; the problem will be finding the time to sift through all the stuff.

It's called The Fuzzy Warbles Collectors Album, which reminds us of the sort of decision he sometimes makes and why, perhaps, there aren't statues of XTC raised across the nation.

music xtc andy partridge