People often think that the measure of a band or artist’s talents lay within the albums they release. Not true, in my opinion. It is within their live performance. That is where you can tell if an artist is true to their art. The beauty of the nuances and the skills of the musicians get a chance to soar in a live setting. And that is no more evident than on TC&I’s new live track titled ‘Wonderland’, from their upcoming live album titled ‘Naked Flames: Live at Swindon Arts Centre’. Added to the interest is the fact that this is a live adaptation of Colin Moulding and Terry Chamber’s previous band, XTC’s song of the same name (original video HERE). While, obviously, there is more of a live vibe with this rendition, there is also a more organic feel with a more solid beat that really lets the pseudo-jazz feeling of the music shine through and gives the track more intimacy in a live setting than had the original keyboards and electro beats had been allowed to reign in the remake.
‘Naked Flames: Live at Swindon Arts Centre’ will be released on Friday, August 16, 2019, and can be ordered on CD exclusively via Burning Shed. A bundle order is also available, including two CDs from TC&I – the ‘Naked Flames’ album and their debut ‘Great Aspirations’ EP. Both options Include signed postcards (while stocks last).
About TC&I & Naked Flames: Live at Swindon Arts Centre
XTC co-frontman Colin Moulding and original XTC drummer Terry Chambers have announced their new TC&I album ‘Naked Flames: Live at Swindon Arts Centre’, which will be released on CD via Burning Shed. This follows up their debut ‘Great Aspirations’ EP, released in late 2017.
Naked Flames collects the best from TC&I’s six momentous and stupendous shows at the Swindon Arts Centre in October and November 2018. These were the first live shows together for Moulding and Chambers in 36 years.
They played a selection of the songs from the XTC catalog written by Colin, many of which had never been played live as the band stopped touring in 1982, not long before Chambers’ departure. They also played material from TC&I’s debut EP, where Moulding andy Chambers offer some truly original music. ‘Scatter Me’ and the other three resulting recordings showcase Colin’s English pop vision – the first new material from Moulding in many years, featuring XTC’s trademark qualities of melody, rhythm, variety, and idiosyncratic subject matter, mixed in with nostalgia-fuelled by understated political anger.
“I’d never heard a lot of these tunes in any concert hall and I felt I deserved a chance to put that right….yes a bit of TC&I too, but my songs have been stuck in the closet too long, and I wanted to dry clean them and give them an evening out, or six,” says Colin Moulding.
“I was as excited about these gigs as I was in 1973 playing our first gig at the Arts Centre Swindon as a 17 year Helium Kid, and the first time to be playing with Colin together on stage since San Diego,” says Terry Chambers.
For this mini-residency in Swindon, XTC’s long-standing rhythm section was joined by music veterans Steve Tilling on guitar and Gary Bamford on keyboards and guitar.
Who knows whether there’s more to come… these artists do not even know… Here TC&I intend to release a memento of last autumn’s live shows in Swindon. For the fans who went… and for those who wished they had gone, this is a time capsule for all concerned…..enjoy this total eclipse.
2018 marked the 40-year anniversary of XTC’s first studio album ‘White Music’. Founded in 1972, XTC only had their first UK charting single in 1979. Moulding wrote the first three charting singles (‘Life Begins at the Hop’, ‘Making Plans for Nigel’, and ‘Generals and Majors’). Chambers left XTC in the 1980s, while Moulding continued with frontman Andy Partridge through the group’s dissolution in 2006.
There is new fervor over XTC, in part due to the eye-opening documentary ‘This Is Pop’ about the band’s legacy, exploring their journey from mercurial pop outsiders to full-blown national treasures and one of Britain’s most influential yet unsung bands.
Live photos & featured image by Simon Hogg.
“One of the more unexpected and pleasant surprises in the music world this year was the announcement of a new EP recorded by former XTC members Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers… the four-song release nestles in comfortably with the many songs that Moulding contributed to XTC over the years”
– Billboard“What Colin and Terry have created here is something tasteful, deftly wrought, restrained and wonderfully English, West Country…. lyrically funny, emotive and poignant and falls into a sort of alternative pop territory that seems to be done so well in this country. Triumph and hopefully merely the first chapter of a new musical novel”
– Dancing About Architecture“Formidable rhythm section… ‘Great Aspirations’ harkens a bit back to the early glory days of XTC, but how could it not with this pedigree… the EP is a delight to listen to… includes adult themes about things like conservation and happily facing mortality”
– Blurt Magazine
CREDITS
- Colin Moulding – Bass guitar and lead vocals
- Terry Chambers – Drums
- Gary Bamford – Keyboards, guitar, and vocals
- Steve Tilling – Lead Guitar and vocals
- Lee Moulding – Percussion and vocals
- Susannah Bevington – Soprano voice on Scatter Me
All songs were written by Colin Moulding except ‘Statue of Liberty’ (written by Andy Partridge)
Recorded by Stuart Rowe and Paul Ballimore. Assisted by Evan Costello.
Mixed by Stuart Rowe. Assisted by Terry Chambers.
Mastered by Jason Mitchell at LOUD Mastering
Design by Andrew Swainson from a concept by TC&I
Cover photography by Geoff Winn
Inner sleeve photography by Lou Dommett Young
Naked Flames: Live at Swindon Arts Centre Tracklist
- Say It
- Ten Feet Tall
- Scatter Me
- Wonderland
- Grass
- The Meeting Place
- Bungalow
- Big Day
- Standing In For Joe
- Generals and Majors
- Making Plans For Nigel
- Statue Of Liberty
- Life Begins At The Hop
LINKS:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeyKX6mvA6dFdIx39a3S89g/videos
https://www.facebook.com/tcandimusic
https://www.facebook.com/groups/433386610411385
https://soundcloud.com/user-316294301
https://burningshed.com/tcandi_great-aspirations_cd?filter_name=colin%20moulding&filter_sub_category=true
