Post by Jeff Truzzi on May 14, 2016 16:48:39 GMT
People may (or may not) remember these detailed answers to an unnamed APE poster's defense of Colin & Dave in the XTC dispute.
(Stumbled across this in my docs and thought it should live here.)
First line is the poster's point, numbered line below is AP's rebuttal.
Dave wasn't ever keen in being told exactly what to play;
1-Dave was not told what to play generally,ONLY when a part that he had brought up was considered not as good as the writers idea.This went for Colin's songs too. The song was king.If somebody brought up an idea that made the song better,in it went. If it made it worse then out it went.
Neither was Colin;
2-Same applied to Colin AND myself in Colin's songs.
Neither was Dave Mattacks; ["when he picked up the sticks to show me how to play a rhythm, I was about ready to hit him!"]
3-Mattacks,phenomenal drummer,but by his own admittance there are some rhythms that he can't do.A shuffle is one of them.He struggled a little with OMNIBUS too.Generally brilliant though.I had specific rhythms I wanted from him,easier to show him.
Colin didn't ever seem happy about only getting a handful of songs per album;
4-Colin only got a handful of songs on each album because thats all he wrote.He actually got a higher percentage of his songs on any album than I did, per songs written by any one writer,if you get me.IE: I might write 25 and get 9 on,he might write 4 and get 3 on.
Dave wanted to contribute to the writing a bit;
5-Dave only came up with one idea for a song,during D+W. It was such a pale rip off of Steely Dan that the other three of us voted no! He never brought up another song despite being encouraged to for every album.
Colin wasn't really into releasing demos, etc, as you were;
6-Colin WAS into releasing demos,I even spent nearly every day of six weeks dumping them into computer,cleaning them up and re-mixing them.Only to have him change his mind,I'm still not sure why.
Only you thought it was sensible to record two albums at once, (The brilliant Apple Venus project) but you still got your way;
7-Colin too thought that AV as a double was a good idea.Dave was upset on spending the advance on an orchestra,so he elected to record only the guitarish ones{basically what became WS} ,where he would naturally also play a bigger role.AV wasn't a double at the insistence of those bastards at TVT as they held the purse.
Apparently there was a democratic vote to choose songs for the brilliant Apple Venus project, but you objected to the results, and insisted on changes;
8-I only insisted on changes when they'd voted out some great tracks and voted in some not so great ones,but we have a history of this as you know.Look, any other band "leader" would say you're playing these fucking songs and liking it. At least we voted for each album.
Dave wasn't even getting to do the orchestrations for Apple Venus - he was left with nothing to do;
9-Dave...orchestrations,the answer is in no.7. Plus right to the 11th hour he hadn't done any as a protest at renting the orchestra,thus we had to be baled out by Mike Batt.
Barry Andrews submitted loads of material for GO 2, most of which wasn't used;
10-Most of Barry's material was not used on GO2 at my request,and Colin's,and Terry's,and Virgin's and our then manager,and our producer John.Nobody liked the band being hijacked into a sharp curve with a totally different song style for the second album,{especially Colin and myself}.
You didn't want Thomas Dolby in the band because you didn't want another songwriter in the band;
11-I didn't want Tom Dolby in the band as he would have been seen by all as Barry 2,a wacky balding keys player. I wanted to move on from that,I liked his songs a lot,which is why I produced his early stuff and played on it.He even asked me to play on his latest recently but I was busy.
You had a bad working relationship with Gus Dudgeon;
12-Gus had read an interview with Rundgren where I was painted as trouble,so Gus assumed,before we even met,that I had to be kept "in my place". His school master attitude was very unhelpful at times and he did say some very stupid things.Such as when ROOK wasn't sounding right he suggested we just 'bin" the track rather than work on it,or that I wasn't allowed at the mix etc etc.
You had a bad working relationship with Todd Rundgren;
13-The bad relationship with Rundgren...EVERYBODY had a bad working relationship with Rundgren. Just ask Sparks,Badfinger,the Psychedelic Furs,the Tubes,Meatloaf....the list is endless man.
maybe Steve Nye as well;
14-Steve Nye,great engineer but also the grumpiest person we'd ever been in the studio with. Ask any other XTC.
You fell out with Scott Thunes;
15-THE WHOLE WORLD FELL OUT WITH SCOTT THUNES,the entire Zappa band refused to work with him,Mike Kenneally still wont.
You fell out with Robert Schneider from the Apples In Stereo;
16-Schneider is a dope head who couldn't or wouldn't get his shit together,he wasted a lot of my time.You'd be angry too.
You fell out with Pete Plegvad;
17-I fell out with Peter Blegvad for several reasons,I never got paid for the productions I did for KING STRUT album,other producer got...what...£12K or so. He also took more than 50% of our co-write songs together for which he has apologised and rectified.
You seem to have fallen out with Dave Gregory;
18-Yes,Dave and I have a lot of history.I don't want to drag our dirty linen out here.
You seem to have fallen out with Colin Moulding;
19-Yes,Colin and I have a lot of history.Ditto.
You don't seem too happy that Dave is playing XTC material - you should tell him;
20-It's fine that Dave is playing old XTC songs if he enjoys them,it's just a shame that a player of Dave's calibre is not playing new material.
To quote one review of the 'Chalkhills & Children' book, "It seems like the only thing worse than being trapped in a lift with Andy Partridge, would be to be stuck in a band with him'"
21-Would you perhaps remind me who said that charming quote,then I can perhaps tell you why,in my view.
(Stumbled across this in my docs and thought it should live here.)
First line is the poster's point, numbered line below is AP's rebuttal.
Dave wasn't ever keen in being told exactly what to play;
1-Dave was not told what to play generally,ONLY when a part that he had brought up was considered not as good as the writers idea.This went for Colin's songs too. The song was king.If somebody brought up an idea that made the song better,in it went. If it made it worse then out it went.
Neither was Colin;
2-Same applied to Colin AND myself in Colin's songs.
Neither was Dave Mattacks; ["when he picked up the sticks to show me how to play a rhythm, I was about ready to hit him!"]
3-Mattacks,phenomenal drummer,but by his own admittance there are some rhythms that he can't do.A shuffle is one of them.He struggled a little with OMNIBUS too.Generally brilliant though.I had specific rhythms I wanted from him,easier to show him.
Colin didn't ever seem happy about only getting a handful of songs per album;
4-Colin only got a handful of songs on each album because thats all he wrote.He actually got a higher percentage of his songs on any album than I did, per songs written by any one writer,if you get me.IE: I might write 25 and get 9 on,he might write 4 and get 3 on.
Dave wanted to contribute to the writing a bit;
5-Dave only came up with one idea for a song,during D+W. It was such a pale rip off of Steely Dan that the other three of us voted no! He never brought up another song despite being encouraged to for every album.
Colin wasn't really into releasing demos, etc, as you were;
6-Colin WAS into releasing demos,I even spent nearly every day of six weeks dumping them into computer,cleaning them up and re-mixing them.Only to have him change his mind,I'm still not sure why.
Only you thought it was sensible to record two albums at once, (The brilliant Apple Venus project) but you still got your way;
7-Colin too thought that AV as a double was a good idea.Dave was upset on spending the advance on an orchestra,so he elected to record only the guitarish ones{basically what became WS} ,where he would naturally also play a bigger role.AV wasn't a double at the insistence of those bastards at TVT as they held the purse.
Apparently there was a democratic vote to choose songs for the brilliant Apple Venus project, but you objected to the results, and insisted on changes;
8-I only insisted on changes when they'd voted out some great tracks and voted in some not so great ones,but we have a history of this as you know.Look, any other band "leader" would say you're playing these fucking songs and liking it. At least we voted for each album.
Dave wasn't even getting to do the orchestrations for Apple Venus - he was left with nothing to do;
9-Dave...orchestrations,the answer is in no.7. Plus right to the 11th hour he hadn't done any as a protest at renting the orchestra,thus we had to be baled out by Mike Batt.
Barry Andrews submitted loads of material for GO 2, most of which wasn't used;
10-Most of Barry's material was not used on GO2 at my request,and Colin's,and Terry's,and Virgin's and our then manager,and our producer John.Nobody liked the band being hijacked into a sharp curve with a totally different song style for the second album,{especially Colin and myself}.
You didn't want Thomas Dolby in the band because you didn't want another songwriter in the band;
11-I didn't want Tom Dolby in the band as he would have been seen by all as Barry 2,a wacky balding keys player. I wanted to move on from that,I liked his songs a lot,which is why I produced his early stuff and played on it.He even asked me to play on his latest recently but I was busy.
You had a bad working relationship with Gus Dudgeon;
12-Gus had read an interview with Rundgren where I was painted as trouble,so Gus assumed,before we even met,that I had to be kept "in my place". His school master attitude was very unhelpful at times and he did say some very stupid things.Such as when ROOK wasn't sounding right he suggested we just 'bin" the track rather than work on it,or that I wasn't allowed at the mix etc etc.
You had a bad working relationship with Todd Rundgren;
13-The bad relationship with Rundgren...EVERYBODY had a bad working relationship with Rundgren. Just ask Sparks,Badfinger,the Psychedelic Furs,the Tubes,Meatloaf....the list is endless man.
maybe Steve Nye as well;
14-Steve Nye,great engineer but also the grumpiest person we'd ever been in the studio with. Ask any other XTC.
You fell out with Scott Thunes;
15-THE WHOLE WORLD FELL OUT WITH SCOTT THUNES,the entire Zappa band refused to work with him,Mike Kenneally still wont.
You fell out with Robert Schneider from the Apples In Stereo;
16-Schneider is a dope head who couldn't or wouldn't get his shit together,he wasted a lot of my time.You'd be angry too.
You fell out with Pete Plegvad;
17-I fell out with Peter Blegvad for several reasons,I never got paid for the productions I did for KING STRUT album,other producer got...what...£12K or so. He also took more than 50% of our co-write songs together for which he has apologised and rectified.
You seem to have fallen out with Dave Gregory;
18-Yes,Dave and I have a lot of history.I don't want to drag our dirty linen out here.
You seem to have fallen out with Colin Moulding;
19-Yes,Colin and I have a lot of history.Ditto.
You don't seem too happy that Dave is playing XTC material - you should tell him;
20-It's fine that Dave is playing old XTC songs if he enjoys them,it's just a shame that a player of Dave's calibre is not playing new material.
To quote one review of the 'Chalkhills & Children' book, "It seems like the only thing worse than being trapped in a lift with Andy Partridge, would be to be stuck in a band with him'"
21-Would you perhaps remind me who said that charming quote,then I can perhaps tell you why,in my view.