After keeping XTC's 'This Is Pop' documentary on repeat over the course of Showtime's recent "free weekend", I was inspired to rekindle my love for the band's English Settlement, which I regard as not so much their high mark as a commercial entity, but as an artistic entity.
Tothese ears, it is a work of genius as stark and iconic to the ears as Warhol's soup can is to the eyes.
Sadly, everything the band did thereafter smacks of commerce, like guns were being held to heads.
While far too brief at 75 minutes to accomplish anything else, 'This Is Pop' exists only to confirm this fact without really ripping the scab off and letting the chips fall where they may. Typical Brits.
The absence of any Barry Andrews interview footage is unforgivable. I know he refused for personal reasons and remains on amicable terms with the rest of the band, but come on.
As I dove headlong into the band's catalog to fill in some of the blanks, I also had flashbacks of two previous documentaries on the band that, in the pre-internet age, had taken some effort to obtain and had been viewed only on the grainiest, most haphazardly-dubbed VHS tape available.
Now, thanks to YouTube, both documentaries are available with the click of a mouse, each in their entirety.
"XTC At The Manor", filmed at Virgin Records honcho Richard Branson's recording studio in 1980, shows three days in the life of being XTC as they record "Towers Of London" with none other than Steve Lillywhite - a baby-faced and chain-smoking Steve Lillywhite at that.
By the time the session takes place, Dave Gregory has been with the band a full year, but, in a weird way, seems like he was always there. Barry who?
If you want to truly know how a band ticks, watch them in the studio. How they interact in that situation tells you everything you need to know about a band. Here, we see that it is still very much Andy's show even though Colin's "Making Plans For Nigel" has Andy on his heels.
For those of us who relish actual nuts-and-bolts footage of a great band grinding it out in the recording studio with real drums, real amps, and consoles that are larger than a Manhattan studio apartment, this is a pure joy to watch.
All of those rooms and equipment have been reduced to digital plug-ins but this doc captures the largesse of the music business right even before the "new wave" had hit yet.
Hence, there's s certain charm to seeing Andy Partridge taking the piss out of a shirtless Richard Branson at breakfast that could be otherwise lost to the ethers of time if not for a kind soul who not only taped it when it aired, but saved it long enough to finally upload it to YouTube for all of us to enjoy, bless their heart.
As for band members being served tea in bed, let's see Pro Tools do that.
Finally, let us all gaze in awe at all the talent assembled in one room just to get a drum sound!
It is 1984's BBC documentary "Play At Home" that is first to show a band in turmoil, feeling the pressure to continue delivering hits despite a one-sided deal with the aforementioned Branson that makes it almost pointless to be successful and a singer who refuses to tour.
You almost get the feeling the band is resigned to that tenuous middle ground between failure and fame where some bands make ends meet and some don't. Watching it now, you marvel that this band has already accomplished so much, yet "Dear God" is still two years away.
The way the band interacts with one another during the interview is captivating to anyone who thought Partridge would dominate the conversation and shows a band that was putting a fuckload of thought into their craft, and, yes, that is the legal terminology.
So why is it that 'This Is Pop' felt so incomplete, as if hearing a story third-hand from someone who'd only been half-listening?
Well, for starters, a documentary on ANY band should be longer than 75 minutes.
Sorry, but the fans deserve at least 90 solid minutes of raw live footage, interviews of people who were there, and, only in dire emergencies do you even think about interviewing Dave Grohl.
Thankfully, this doc did not go the Grohl route, but it also didn't seem interested in digging too far beneath the surface, knowing full well that the main demographic for this documentary (die-hard XTC fans who know their shit and, to a lesser degree, music nerds who devour music documentaries and, thus, also know their shit) wants more.
Unless there are other chapters coming, this is kind of a travesty.
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