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XTC

LIVE BOOTS - Live At Emerald City 1981 (RSD26 EDITION)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).


New official XTC bootleg series titled ‘Live Boots’ planned from 2026.

Live Boots LPs exclusive to Record Store Day

First of the series kicks off with one of the band’s renowned gigs from Emerald City, New Jersey in April 1981

2LP set cut by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering and pressed on 200-gram audiophile vinyl

New notes from all four original band members – Partridge / Moulding / Gregory & Chambers

XTC – Live at Emerald City, Cherry Hill New Jersey, 17th April 1981



Listening to this electric performance from April 1981 – for all of its sonic imperfections seems to confirm that status,

making it even harder to accept that, within a year, XTC would play its final gigs.

XTC at that time was a performing machine capable of creating megawatts of excitement.

Andy Partridge comments that “we were tighter than a firefly's fundament that night, even more astounding was the

adrenaline-soaked speed we took every song at”.

Released exclusively via Record Store Day, this 200-gram heavyweight (double) LP is the first time the concert will be

officially available on vinyl and is also the first of a planned series of XTC official bootleg releases titled ‘Live Boots’

& drawn from the band’s archives with minimal audio restoration undertaken by cutting engineer Jason Mitchell working with Andy Partrdige.

XTC

Drums And Wires - 2025 Reissue

XTC’s groundbreaking 1979 album 'Drums and Wires' gets a stunning 2025 reissue with a fresh Dolby Atmos mix by Steven Wilson, revealing new sonic detail and depth.

One of the gems of the post-punk era, replete with the sort of musical diversity that would have been unimaginable two years earlier, Swindon’s finest, XTC, produced an early classic album with their third release, the Steve Lillywhite produced Drums and Wires. Andy Partridge recalls it as an optimistic time for the band. Dave Gregory’s arrival on guitar (replacing organist Barry Andrews who left following the release of Go2) marked a shift in style with the group now configured as a twin guitar/bass/drums line-up. Despite an endless touring schedule much time was spent honing new material.

Both Partridge & Colin Moulding were growing in confidence as songwriters – this album did much to further their reputation for peerless post-punk pop tunes. But it was also Steve Lillywhite & engineer Hugh Padgham’s ability to give appropriate studio support & recording expertise to the more expansive pieces such as “Roads Girdle The Globe” & “Complicated Game” that helped to bring a new level of maturity to the overall feel of the release. Issued at the start of September, Drums and Wires entered the UK Albums Chart where it remained for a total of seven weeks, accompanied by another first for the band, a Top 20 UK (& international) hit single in album lead track “Making Plans for Nigel”. The optimism of the recording sessions had proved justified. 


TRACK LISTING

1. Making Plans For Nigel
2. Helicopter
3. Day In Day Out
4. When You’re Near Me I Have Difficulty
5. Ten Feet Tall
6. Roads Girdle The Globe
7. Real By Reel
8. Millions
9. That Is The Way
10. Outside World
11. Scissor Man
12. Complicated Game

Not to be confused with Bradford's Unique 3, Awesome 3 hail from the Salford and Wythenshawe areas of Greater Manchester and were semi-prolific during acid house / rave's first wave around 1990.

"Fire-fly" was recorded in 2021 and sees the group adopt trance-like leanings into their hardcore breakbeat formula, especially given the track's soaring female vox. UK rave stalwart Mark XTC is on hand, gifting the track a stadium-crushing, main room arrangement, still plugging that breakbeat vibe rather than opt for his (more traditional) 4-to-the-floor smash-a-thons. There's also a tidy sub 4 min, radio friendly cut - handy given the plethora of online radio shows gracing our airwaves post COVID. 


STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Wythenshawe's piano house stars reunite with fellow rave stalwart Mark XTC on hand with extra energy.

TRACK LISTING

A Fire-Fly (Aberdeen Beach Ballroom Club Mix) 
B1 Fire-Fly (Mark XTC Mix)
B2 Fire-Fly (Manchester Radio Edit)

XTC

3D EP - 2025 Reissue

1977 was a classic year for singles, the year when ‘Punk’ mutated into New Wave producing a seemingly endless run of great 45s – from The Ramones to The Jam, Elvis Costello to Jonathan Richman, Sex Pistols to Richard Hell. With David Bowie (Heroes), Kraftwerk (Showroom Dummies) and Bob Marley (Jamming) also, releasing key singles – it was as if Marley’s Punky Reggae Party had plenty of wonderful music from the mainstream to broaden the 7” mix still further… but that’s only one side of the story…

Mainstream music buyers seemed oblivious to much of the above as - Elvis Presley (death), David Soul (TV, twice), Rod Stewart (preventing Sex Pistols from reaching No.1) and Mull of Kintyre (ending the year and the start of 1978), dominated the pole position in the singles charts. The major labels’ priorities remained little changed. CBS may have had The Clash but the attention was on Abba, Polydor had The Jam but Jean-Michel Jarre had the marketing spend, United Artists had Buzzcocks and The Stranglers, but the priority (& No. 1) single came from Kenny Rogers, in a country that, reputedly, dismissed Country music – even MOR Country.

But the speed of musical change underneath the mainstream was as fast as a shouted “1, 2, 3, 4” on any number of monochrome identi-punk singles in equally drab sleeves and it was into this febrile mix that XTC released its first 12” EP – 3D, at the end of September ’77 (a 7” version was withdrawn) and for all that it shared the freneticism of its punkier brethren, it also boasted – even across just three tracks - a variety, a colour and a pop sensibility that acted as a marker for the band’s future rapid development. Whisper it, but these guys could actually play… and write tunes, accessible ones that burrowed their way into your ears and brain…

An album wouldn’t appear until early 1978 (by which time “Post Punk” was emerging as marketing name of the month) but XTC had made their recorded entry in that magical year and not for the first or last time, shown they could compete with the best (and worst) that 1977 placed on vinyl.


TRACK LISTING

Side A
Science Friction

Side B
She’s So Square
Dance Band

XTC

Skylarking - 2024 Reissue

For many music fans, this is the XTC classic album, the one there is always the most demand for... The album has been mixed for Dolby Atmos Immersive Audio from the original multi-track studio master tapes by Steven Wilson and is fully approved by XTC.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
A1. Summer's Cauldron
A2. Grass
A3. The Meeting Place
A4. That's Really Super Supergirl
A5. Ballet For A Rainy Day
A6. 1000 Umbrellas
A7. Season Cycle

SIDE B
B1. Earn Enough For Us
B2. Big Day
B3. Another Satellite
B4. Mermaid Smiled
B5. The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul
B6. Dear God
B7. Dying
B8. Sacrificial Bonfire

XTC

Go 2

The 1978 classic album, newly cut from masters by Jason Mitchell at Loud mastering and approved by Andy Partridge. Available on vinyl for the first time in decades as a 2-disc set complete with the Go+ Dub EP.

XTC

White Music

Reissue of the classic debut album from 1978.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
Radios In Motion
X Wires
This Is Pop
Do What You Do
Statue Of Liberty
All Along The Watch Tower

Side 2:
Atom Age
Set Myself On Fire
I’m Bugged
New Town Animal
Spinning Top
Neon Shuffle

Low Life

From Squats To Lots: The Agony And XTC Of Low Life

Low Life are a rock band from Sydney, Australia.

THE RECORD: Low Life’s 3rd LP is called From Squats to Lots: The Agony and the XTC of Low Life.

NOTES ON HOW TO LISTEN TO AGONY AND XTC OF LOW LIFE:

1. Some records hit you with an instant impression of timeless brilliance, and Low Life’s Dogging is one of those records, what the wise call “an instant classic”.

2. From Squats to Lots: The Agony and the XTC of Low Life is more like their second album Downer Edn (read Edition), a little more withdrawn, a little more textured. Complex. Rich. Which is to say: you’re going to need some time with it.

3. Some show, some grow. Low Life have done both. This one is a grower. Spend some time with this one. It’s got that nuanced flavour. Don’t guzzle. Sip. Savour.

4. Sip it, and sense the recurring brilliance of Mitch Tolman’s lyrics, exploring the usual territory of gutter life, lad life, punk life, low life. The dirge. Disgust and shame in white Australia. Council housing, bills piled to the neck, substance abuse and rehabilitation, the fallen lads and lasses who stood too close to the flame, loss and loneliness, from squats to lots. Un-Australian gutter symphony.

5. There is a celebration of resilience and that’s a central theme of this record and a time like ours needs a record like Agony & XTC. Low times are coming through, but if you’re low they won’t get to you.

6. Iggy Pop’s Bowie produced studio rock masterpieces ‘The Idiot’ and ‘Lust For Life’ are important reference points to the 3rd album sounds of Low Life. Here comes success!

7. ‘The Agony and Ecstasy’ is a 1985 novel by Irving Stone about the life of Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo. Stone wrote another novel about the single eared painter Vincent Van Gogh called ‘Lust For Life’. This synchronicity hit me.

8. Iggy and the Stooges are a pretty safe reference for Low Life (and all good rock music). Iggy and the Stooges are a low life’s Michelangelo, but solo Iggy like Lust for Life is a better reference for this particular incarnation of Low Life, which is to say they are studio rock albums.

9. Bowie later referred to this period of his life as profoundly nihilistic. But Iggy looked at it as the period of his life that saved him from an early grave. This confrontation is Low life lore.

10. Let’s stick to this, because there’s something about this era of Bowie that makes sense with Low Life’s new album, particularly Low. One should never miss the Low in our new album from Low Life. Producer and studio boss Mickey Grossman has the ear for the Low, and he has carved out a little statue of David right here.

11. Mickey’s ears are recording, mixing and producing the best of Sydney, most notably the Oily Boys Cro Memory Grin. A great companion record to this one. Use Agony & XTC AFTER Oily Boys. Not on an empty stomach, and don’t try to operate heavy machinery (bobcat, bulldozer etc).

12. The relationship between Low Life and Sydney hardcore should not be understated, but it also shouldn’t guide how to listen to Agony & XTC. This is not austere, disciplined music.

13. Think, like, if Poison Idea were given the kind of studio time and budget as Happy Mondays. You wouldn’t play it to a teenager. It’s not for children. This is a mature flavour, one for the adults who have had to contend with failure and hardship, medical bills and disappointed family members, betrayed lovers and worrisome growths, police brutality and tooth decay, humiliating bowels and collapsed septums, detoxing and drying out, for those who have seen themselves as corrupted and putrid and unloveable, for those who endure all of this and aren’t willing to lie down and cop it sweet: Low Life are still here and they ain’t going nowhere

TRACK LISTING

1. Agony Intro
2. Agony & XTC
3. Collect Calls
4. Real Man
5. Still Here
6. CZA
7. Conversations
8. Hammer And The Fist
9. Epitaphs
10. Harmony
11. Moments
12. Agony Outro


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