XTC's Black Sea at 40 with Hugh Padgham and Dave Gregory
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- čas přidán 2. 09. 2020
- To celebrate the 40th anniversary of XTC's Black Sea on 12 September 2020, Hugh Padgham joins guitarist Dave Gregory for a special 90-minute edition of What Do You Call That Noise? The XTC Podcast. They talk about the clanking anvils of Towers of London, the one-note solo of Love at First Sight and the slow-build tension of No Language in Our Lungs. "We were always thinking progressively and pushing ourselves," says Gregory.
"I still think XTC are one of the best bands ever," says Hugh Padgham - and he should know: he's worked with everyone from David Bowie to Brian Wilson, Kate Bush and The Police. Having enjoyed his earliest successes as sound engineer on Drums and Wires and Black Sea, and co-producer on English Settlement, he says XTC continue to hold a special place in his heart.
Questions about this landmark album come from Mark Fisher, David White and Mark Reed, with additional commentary from David Yazbek.
Further reading in The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls and What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book available from www.xtclimelight.com
Subscribe to What Do You Call That Noise? The XTC Podcast here: whatdoyoucallthatnoise.transi...
If you've enjoyed the XTC Podcast, please show your support at / markfisher - Hudba
this album did it for me. so strong.
Mortified this only NOW shows up in my FEED?!! 😳
Better late … 🙏
YESSSS!!!!!!
Curse that algorithm! Welcome just the same.
Their best album for sure
Dave's guitar solo on No
Language in our Lungs - WOW! It's absolutely fantastic. Hairs on the back of my neck stand up, every time I here it!
Looking forward to listening to this
Brilliant,Black Sea my favourite XTC album and it was even released on my Birthday,couldn't agree more with the comments about No Language In Our Lungs what a song ,How XTC found time to write i don't know.I knew about Tudor Studios and i can't believe i lived 3 mins walk away while they rehearsed there .
Thanks, Gaz. Yeah, I bet you were so close to them so many times without realising
@@XTCsLimelight 😡 they also rehearsed at The Mechanics which really was across the road from me but maybe i had moved out by then,think i only ever saw Andy Colin once around Swindon i didn't have the courage to say hello.I finally got to speak to Colin in 1987 when he walked into Comet where i worked i certainly was star strucked but he was so nice and as i mentioned i never received a hoodie from the XTC merchandise ( think the company went bust ) Colin bought in some XTC vinyl for me 🙂 really nice of Colin ,let me know if u need any help with any future podcasts
Loved XTC at the time especially their singles and it's amazing how much of their output sounds great now, sometimes even better than when I first listened to it. I am a bit saddened though when conversations take a "it's not as good as it was in my day" turn . I still love XTC but I've equally loved Hip Hop, Techno, Jungle, Grime, UK Drill and Mailian guitar music over the years. The best sounding format for music has always been the format it's designed for, which is why Drill and Trap can sound great both on your phone as well a USB stick driven sound system. Believe me the young Drill/Grime fans I work with will be complaining in the same way about how great music sounded on their phones in 30 years time and won''t be mentioning vinyl, just as the guys here aren't complaining about the demise of the wind-up gramophone.
Very good point
In case you wonder about the impact of early XTC on the US audience. I can tell you that in as far off an obscure town as Maryville Tennessee they had quite an impact on me and other rockers I knew at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville back in the day. I even heard black sea being blasted from a dorm room in the mid-80s on Maryville College campus the oldest college in the south. I remember thinking I can’t believe someone else knows about XTC! I brought in drums and wires recorded from LP onto cassette tape and me and my buddy used to listen to it sitting in the basketball arena during pep rally‘s. Looking at each other as our minds were blown! We are lifelong musicians in part because of it for sure. We were only about 14 years old after all. Add my younger brother who went on to be a pro guitarist credits the guitar solo from Reel by Reel for spurring his obsession with the guitar. Of course at the time he was not playing the guitar. He was three years younger than me by the way. He went on to be a big Eddie Van Halen freak.Oh the damage that you have done ha ha.
Good to hear. Ever since I did the XTC fanzine, Limelight, in the 1980s, I've heard people saying they didn't know anyone else who knew about the band, so your story rings true. There are only two options: either you've never heard of them or you're obsessed.
@@XTCsLimelight true that. And for me they made sense as I got into my twenties in the mid 80s.,...going from thrash and hardcore to a more sophisticated sound....the intricacy of the guitar...
And Dave was the absolute secret weapon....hes a one man army of skill....
It's so lovely hearing Dave and Hugh extol the beauty of analogue recording. What Dave says about the harshness of CDs I've been banging on about for over thirty years. Yes, vinyl is imperfect, but it's so much better than the harshness of a CD.
Actually, it's lovely to hear Dave and Hugh just chatting about anything. XTC are my absolute musical heroes, I've spent more time listening to them than any other band and the fact that they come across as being such lovely people is so good to hear. I've listened to so many interviews with Dave and Andy (Colin and Terry seem less into be interviewed) and I always go away with a big smile on my face and joy in my heart.
How fantastic to hear Hugh say what a lyrical genius Andy is, I think there's no-one to touch him in the world of pop.
Thak you so much for all these podcasts, Mark.
Black Sea is end to end brilliance. XTC were an amazing band who usually hit the spot, but if I had to choose a favourite it would probably be Black Sea.
Brilliant interview! Dave is forthcoming and informative as per usual. I could listen to Dave and Hugh chat for days. Great job as always Mark!
Thanks!
Fantastic album. Has such a pleasing continuity of sound, and of course is crammed with fabulous tracks. Great pop songs such as Sgt Rock and Generals and Majors to the profound No Language in Our Lungs. As always, XTC went way beyond what was expected of pop and rock. Fantastic to hear Dave and Hugh's memories from the album.
Agreed! Thanks for listening.
Dave Gregory has no cynicism, no bitterness, no deep seated resentment about XTC's travails in the music business; he sounds as excited and enthusiastic about music as ever. Great to hear Hugh Padgham & Dave discuss the pros and cons of analog and digital. And, "Ed Sheeran is absolute rubbish." Aye! This is a gem for the archives. Black Sea Ahoy! CHEERS
In-cred-i-ble.
Thank you!!!
Very interesting, thank you.
Black Sea and English Settlement are two major albums, and Hugh P. was the PERFECT sound ingeneer and producer for those masterpieces.
Sometime spirits meets.
Like Eddie Offord in Yes Close to the edge, or Teo Macero with Miles, etc.
An historic partnership.
As a xtc fan of the first hour, those are my favorite albums.
Thanks for listening
Our bass player Adam turned me onto this album and it became an important moment for me
Love this! Thank you so much
Loved the arguments that Dave and Hugh made about digital remasterings of older analog albums. So many albums have had the original charm strangled out of them via modern digital production techniques, and then sometimes these new bad mixes are used to repress the vinyl so the original album sound is lost forever.
OMG! Take This Town is such an amazing song!! The first XTC song I ever heard.
Have you heard the Steven Wilson remix? Take This Town sounds especially good on that.
"I want maximum bass at all frequencies!" 😂 This is such a wonderful conversation. Thank you.
Thanks - stay tuned for a return run to mark the 40th anniversary of English Settlement. Out on 4 Feb.
This is absolutely golden! Thank you so much to all concerned, and especially Hugh and Dave. Couldn't agree more regarding original mixes, original equipment, and the horrors and pitfalls of digital sound and modern recording sensibilities.
Thanks!
This is just the most amazing interview / recollection I ever heard. It is a melancholy moment, it is so rich, and so much lost time. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Phil. It was a joy to do, as you can imagine.
A great insight to an brilliant album, up there with the likes of: Wish You Were Here, A night at the Opera, Beggars Banquet & Radio City. Still sounds fresh! Many thanks for posting!
Thanks, Phil. It was a joy to do.
Absolutely awesome! Black Sea in my Top 5 of all time. The other 4 are XTX :)) Very insightful podcast...
Thanks!
This is probably my favourite XTC album and 1980 was the first time I saw them live even though I'd been a fan from the first album. Just another note on how prolific their output was - I'm pretty sure 1980 was also the year that Andy played on Ryuichi Sakamoto's B-2Unit album which is another all time favourite of mine.
Wow, this is wonderful. Thank you all Marks who were involved! Never knew Dave was into Steely Dan! I loved the discussions on autotune and 5.1. Fabulous stuff.
Thanks, Toby. A great one to do.
Really good interview. Well done!
Thanks, Keith - it was a joy to do
drums and wires=rubber soul black sea=revolver english settlement=sgt pepper oranges and lemons = abbey road
Drums= Revolver, Black Sea= Pepper, Settlement= White Album.
It's so gratifying to hear Dave Gregory and Hugh Padgham are on the same wavelength as me regarding audio. They go from trashing the blanket process of tuning correction, to copy and paste editing to remastering and 5.1 mixes....well done lads!! Yessssss. And here I was thinking they were simply going to talk about Black Sea. :)
The XTC Podcast: catering to all your needs
@@XTCsLimelight Well.....not ALL my needs surely? :)
Still have it in it's green sleeve, bought it on the day of release in a shitty little town in rural South Australia.
Me too - I mean, I didn't buy it in a shitty little town in rural South Australia, but I did buy it on the day of release. First XTC album I waited for.
@@XTCsLimelight
Same, first XTC album I waited for as I got into XTC via a local band that played Nigel...
I bought Police, Zenyatta Mondatta on the day of release, walked out of my plastics lesson in time for the record shop to open. Got back the teacher didn't know or didn't care I was gone.
Brilliant interview, with the ‘Two Virgin’s’ agreed with all their points, whole heartedly.
Thanks! It was a joy to do.
My favourite from this album is Generals and Majors.
One of my favourites. On the surround sound series I have all the releases but haven't been able to listen to the 5.1 mixes!
Here's my review of the Steven Wilson Black Sea remix www.xtclimelight.com/2017/11/23/xtc-black-sea-steven-wilson-remix-review/
My band the Units, opened for XTC at My Father’s Place in Long Island. Dave was very gracious to us.
I'd like to hear more about that. Could you email me? Contact address at xtclimelight.com Thanks!
Very good interview and what an album! The 5.1 mixes are awesome, by the way. Drums and wires really benefits from 5.1. but all the 5.1 mixes sound great, including Black sea.
Agreed. I reviewed the Black Sea 5.1 here: www.xtclimelight.com/2017/11/23/xtc-black-sea-steven-wilson-remix-review/
I have them all too... Wilson did an incredible job on Black Sea (despite not finding all the masters) and particularly 'Psurroundabout Ride' (replacing the lost effects loops). Clearly Steve loved the band and gave the mixes extra special attention. On my Onkyo system they sounded tremendous... until it blew up about an hour before New Year's Eve 2021. Thankfully no guests or party that year due to covid, just me crying over my amp.
@@telsutton More from Wilson here czcams.com/video/mKNec19O14o/video.html
Having watched the session many times, it's interesting that they chose not to Fairlight that anvil.... (as Grandpa Simpson says, 'It was the style at the time')... backbreaking work!
I've still got the green paper bag.
Me too (although I lost it for a while after I'd put it in a "safe place")
a patron since nigel. went backward then everything after. yeah
I have a proper well set up 5.1 and Black Sea sounds great...it sounds like you have headphones on without the phones...you also get the instrumentals on this package...karaoke anyone?
I've only heard it once on 5.1 and it did sound great - here's what I wrote about it www.xtclimelight.com/2017/11/23/xtc-black-sea-steven-wilson-remix-review/
Blasted Towers Of London in the motor on Sunday and we nearly had bloody liftoff. 🎸 🎤 🥁 🚘 🚀
Ha-ha!
I radio’d in, “Houston, we do NOT have a problem.”
Does anyone know how to contact Hugh - he's one of my favourite Producers and Engineers and i've always wanted to reach out to him.
If you email me via www.xtclimelight.com I'll forward it to him, Andrew
@@XTCsLimelight thanks :)
I've never heard an LP sound better than a CD. Gone are the pops and warps every time. Maybe I never had a good record player?
Always hated vinyl purely from a care, longevity perspective. At the time I spent extra money on plastic inner sleeves or PVC external covers but nothing prevent scratches,jumps and stuck grooves.
I recorded most of my favourite vinyl albums soon after purchase to cassette to both preserve the record and give a more portable form of music. So many of my albums are still close to new out of the sleeve condition but they'll all have discernable damage.
I will only listen to Black Sea on vinyl. Sorry folks! I think being there at the time, hearing it a certain way on record when it came out, I've always just enjoyed that sound for that album and many many others. I know I'm in a minority amongst my age group and I certainly wouldn't expect someone born in 1984 (or any year onwards) to agree. Nevertheless it's nice to hear multi-awardwinning producer and engineer Hugh Padgham on my wavelength.
Each to their own.
You're probably too young too have listened to vinyls before the same albums were released on cd.
You probably don't know the différence between ''ferro'', ''chrome'', or ''metal'' C90 cassettes.
Another lost treasure of that era..
Don't get the swearing? Great band, bought Sgt. Rock and surprised the band don't like it, great single. Funny how so many bands hate some of their popular songs. Supergrass hate We're Alright.
You know you're an old fart when
1. You pine for the days of analog tape
2. You really believe that vinyl is inherently sonically superior to 16-bit 44.1 kHz PCM
3. You complain about Antares Auto-Tune