Nor is the thickness of Lerner's description mere skylarking; in each of the proliferating niches where Adam looks for depth, we find instead the twinned signs of surfeit and hunger, of narrowing possibilities and compensatory aggression.
|
|
Chasing girls, a bit of skylarking, the obligatory chugalug at the bar.
|
|
Kate Mildenhall is an Australian author, best known for her 2016 debut novel Skylarking.
|
|
Skylarking refers to the aerial displays including song made by various species of birds, such as Cassin's sparrow (Peterson 1990). Many skylarking displays are in courtship. Some are referred to as territorial displays by the male. There are some instances in which birdwatchers claim that skylarking has been used by male birds to avoid predators; the objective being that the predator will mistake the prey for another type of bird and end the pursuit.
|
|
Lead single "Grass", backed with "Dear God" in the UK, was released in August 1986. Skylarking followed on 27 October 1986. It spent one week on the UK album charts, reaching No. 90 in November. In the US, radio stations were sent a promotional disc, Skylarking with Andy Partridge, which featured interviews with the group and Rundgren.
|
|
Skylarking producer Todd Rundgren added a tiple to the blend. Moulding originally sang the song with a deeper voice. He said Rundgren voiced concern that the effect was too close to "a molester", and so Moulding "did the Bowie thing and added an octave above it". On Skylarking, the track bookends "Summer's Cauldron" with a reprise of its "insect chorus".
|
|
Skylarking ultimately became XTC's best-known album and is generally regarded as their finest work. Partridge was reluctant to make another Dukes album, but to appease requests from his bandmates and Virgin Records, Psonic Psunspot (1987) was recorded. This time, 10 songs and a £10,000 budget was supplied, while John Leckie returned as producer. Once again, the Dukes' record outsold XTC's previous album in the UK (Skylarking in this case).
|
|
25 O'Clock was followed up in 1987 with the LP Psonic Psunspot, which contained the outtake "Have You Seen Jackie?". Another outtake, "Big Day", was reworked for XTC's 1986 album Skylarking.
|
|
Skylarking was originally issued without the track "Dear God". After 1987, "Mermaid Smiled" was removed and "Dear God" was inserted. After 2001, track listings included both "Dear God" and "Mermaid Smiled".
|
|
"Grass" is a song written by Colin Moulding of the English rock band XTC, released as the lead single from their 1986 album Skylarking. It reached number 100 on the UK Singles Chart.
|
|
In the US, the song became a college radio hit, causing US distributor Geffen Records to recall and repress Skylarking with the track included, and propelling the album to number 70. Following the song's growth in popularity, it was the subject of controversy in the US, inspiring many angry phone calls to radio stations and at least one bomb threat. Skylarking was later listed on "100 greatest albums of the 1980s" lists by Rolling Stone in 1989 and Pitchfork in 2002.
|
|
Working titles included All Day Life, Rite, Rite Things, Leftover Rites, Summer Good, and Pink Things Sing. They settled on Skylarking, a double entendre referring to a type of bird (skylark) and the Royal Navy term "skylarking", which means "fooling around". Partridge commented that the album espoused the feeling of "a playfully sexual hot summer ... It's just about summer and being out in the open and discovering sex in a stumbly, teenage way." Similar to 25 O'Clock, the music was heavily influenced by the 1960s psychedelic era.
|
|
His notable production credits include Badfinger's Straight Up (1971), Grand Funk Railroad's We're an American Band (1973), the New York Dolls' New York Dolls (1973), Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell (1977) and XTC's Skylarking (1986).
|
|
Skylarking is the ninth studio album by the English rock band XTC, released 27 October 1986 on Virgin Records. Produced by American musician Todd Rundgren, it is a loose concept album about a nonspecific cycle, such as a day, a year, the seasons, or life. The title was chosen as a double entendre, referring to a type of bird (skylark), as well as the Royal Navy term "skylarking", which means "fooling around". It became one of XTC's best-known albums and is generally regarded as their finest work.
|
|
"Dear God" is a song written by Andy Partridge of the English rock band XTC, first released as a non-album single with the A-side "Grass". It was inspired by a series of books with the same title, seen by Partridge as exploitation of children. The song was originally intended for the album Skylarking, but left off due to concerns from Partridge and Virgin Records. After college radio DJs across America picked up the song, US distributor Geffen Records recalled and re-pressed Skylarking with the track included.
|
|
"The Meeting Place" is a song written by Colin Moulding of the English rock band XTC, released on their 1986 album Skylarking. It was the second single issued from the album and reached number 100 on the UK Singles Chart.
|
|
She entices him in with fruit and a gold ring. Once he has sat down on a throne, she stabs him in the heart "like a sheep". There is much blood. When the boy fails to come home, his mother concludes that he is skylarking.
|
|
Territorial males sit in low bushes or grass, or on the ground to sing, but often give spectacular flight-songs. At the beginning of the breeding season, all song is from a stationary, exposed perch and often involves reciprocal proclamation of the primary song among males. Flight songs and skylarking are infrequent until later, in association with the presence of returning females.; In flight songs (or skylarking), the territorial male flies up from an exposed perch, such as a bush, to as much as 5 – 10 m in the air, then sings as he glides or flutters down in an arc to a nearby bush or the ground.
|
|
The rest is a blur, but ended in a contract with Black Inc". The novel centers around two best friends who are growing up together on an isolated Australian cape in the 1880s. The Courier-Mail, referring to the true story on which Skylarking is based, wrote "it's testament to Kate Mildenhall’s skill that you become so immersed in the lives of best friends Kate and Harriet you feel the dread, but hope it will not be so. The Sydney Morning Herald review noted "Skylarking seems a rather jaunty title for a story about (unrequited) love and loss, but before we arrive at the unexpectedly tragic swerve in the narrative there's a lot of joy in Kate Mildenhall's debut".
|
|
Nonetheless, the commercial success of "Dear God" propelled Skylarking to sell more than 250,000 units, and it raised the band's profile among American college youth. In the US, the album spent 29 weeks on the Billboard 200 album charts and reached its peak position of No. 70 in June 1987.
|
|
It was like, "'Shit! I'm married!" Wexler mailed Partridge fan letters, which caused tensions between him and his then-wife, whereas fellow band member Dave Gregory nicknamed her "Whacky Wex". She also inspired "You're the Wish You Are I Had" from The Big Express and "Another Satellite" from 1986's Skylarking.
|
|
A couple of Partridge's rejected Skylarking songs were offered for Oranges & Lemons, but were again rejected. He said: "Maybe it was fate that they wouldn't rise up. They are probably too weak and best left to die." "The Good Things", a Pet Sounds-influenced Moulding song demoed for Oranges & Lemons, was passed for inclusion.
|
|
The string section was intended to evoke "a sort of a Gershwin-y, blues-y, 'Summertime' feel." Skylarking producer Todd Rundgren suggested hiring a child to sing the first verse and closing line. He brought in eight-year-old Jasmine Veillette, the daughter of a friend of Rundgren. However, a boy lip-syncs her vocals in the music video .
|
|
Soon thereafter, however, Hoodoo hired two local attorneys and was released when the attorneys managed to prove that the officers had no legal authority for holding Brown. Neither he nor the widow were ever seen again. The Chicago Times soon reported that Brown and the widow have been "skylarking through some of the interior towns of Kansas ever since".
|
|
Skylarking became XTC's best-known album and generally regarded as their finest work. Dave Gregory recalled that two years after its release, he learned that XTC's recent work was "hugely influential" in the US. Music journalist Michael Azerrad wrote that with Skylarking, the band had become "deans of a group of artists who make what can only be described as unpopular pop music, placing a high premium on melody and solid if idiosyncratic songcraft." Mojos Ian Harrison wrote that regardless of the "businesslike-to- hostile rather than chummy" relationship between Rundgren and the band, "the results were sublime". PopMatterss Patrick Schabe cited it as the album where XTC "blossomed into full maturity", while Uncuts Joe Stannard called it "the album that tied up everything great about Swindon's finest into one big beautiful package of perfect pop".
|
|
"Dear God" is about a struggling agnostic who writes a letter to God while challenging his existence. The song was conceived in a skiffle style but while playing the Beatles' "Rocky Raccoon" (1968), Partridge was inspired to move "Dear God" closer to that song's direction. "Dear God" was not included on original pressings of Skylarking, but it was always intended to be on the album.
|
|
US distributor Geffen Records were then "bombarded with enquiries about a song of which they knew nothing, recalled the album and re-pressed it with Dear God reinstated." In June 1987, "Dear God" was reissued as an A-sided single in both markets, reaching number 99 in the UK and number 37 in the US. Its success propelled Skylarking to sell more than 250,000 units.
|
|
Moulding's "Grass" was chosen as lead single. It was issued exclusively in the UK with the B-side "Dear God", an outtake. "Dear God" became so popular with American college radio stations who imported the record that Geffen Records (XTC's US distributor) recalled and re-pressed Skylarking with the track included. Controversy also broke out over the song's anti-religious lyrics, which inspired some violent incidents.
|
|
He expressed resentment toward Rundgren's contributions when sessions concluded, but later softened his view and praised the end result. Rundgren said that in spite of all the difficulties, the album "ultimately ... sounds like we were having a great time doing it. And at times we were having a good time." Skylarking spent one week on the UK album charts, reaching number 90 in November 1986, two weeks after its release.
|
|
In 1962 Bill Franson went missing for several months. A radio could be heard playing music in his apartment but attempts to contact him proved futile. Franson had left for England by boat taking two Chamberlin 600 models with him (one of these eventually became the possession of Todd Rundgren's studio and appears on XTC's Skylarking album in 1986). Franson placed an ad asking for a company that could manufacture seventy standard playback heads.
|
|
Life is good for Ruben Guthrie (Patrick Brammall), who works as an advertisement executive and leads a lifestyle of a party boy and lives in a house on the water with his model fiancée. He's at the top of his game until Ruben lands at the bottom of his infinity pool from some drunken skylarking. Ruben's fiancée leaves him, but says she'll get back with him if he can go a year without drinking.
|
|
He graduated from Friends' Central School in Philadelphia in 1978. As a teen and young adult he formed a number of small ensembles such as the APO Jazz Trio, which performed around Philadelphia. He performed with jazz musicians such as Richie Cole and Lew Soloff, and recorded with Grover Washington Jr. on the 1979 Skylarking album. In 1984 graduated from Drexel University in Philadelphia, with a degree in Physics and Atmospheric Science.
|
|
Once again, the Dukes' record outsold XTC's previous album in the UK (Skylarking in this case). Partridge: "That was a bit upsetting to think that people preferred these pretend personalities to our own personalities… they’re trying to tell us something. But I don’t mind because we have turned into the Dukes slowly over the years." Moulding likewise felt that the "psychedelic element was being more ingratiated into the pie" since 25 O'Clock.
|
|
The sparrow's song sounds like titi- trrrrrrrrrrr, tyew tyew. Only the males sing and the males are known for flying in the air and gliding down while singing which is called "skylarking". Males of the species are one of only a few sparrows known to skylark. The book Heralds of Spring in Texas says that a clue that spring is coming in Midland County, Texas is "the high, sweet trills of Cassin's sparrows".
|
|
Their recording approaches differed in that Moulding sometimes preferred spontaneous or imperfect performances, whereas Partridge working method was to refine a song through repeated takes. The band occasionally took to the term "Andy-ness" to describe Partridge's studio indulgences. Despite this, they rarely found themselves encumbered by serious creative differences. In 1997, Moulding called one dispute over a Skylarking bass part the "only real argument" between him and Partridge in the band's history.
|
|
Andy Partridge in the studio, 1988 Since 1982's English Settlement, XTC had withdrawn from concert touring. Studio experimentation and 1960s influences increasingly showed in their records, culminating in the 1985 mini-album 25 O'Clock, which saw the band adopting retro-psychedelic personas as "the Dukes of Stratosphear". The trend continued into XTC's Skylarking (1986), becoming one of the best-selling records of their career. However, the group still "languished in relative obscurity" amid a growing cult following.
|
|
Its Yellow Submarine- inspired cover illustration was redrawn from a 1965 Milton Glaser pop poster. A working title for the album was Songs of Sixpence. Oranges & Lemons derives from the traditional English nursery rhyme of the same name, previously referenced in the opening lyric of "Ballet for a Rainy Day" from Skylarking. Partridge interpreted the nursery rhyme to be about financial debt and said that the title "sort of, in a bizarre way, describes California as well".
|
|
Rónán Ó Snodaigh at the "Craiceann Bodhrán Festival" 2015 Rónán Ó Snodaigh (born 1 January 1970 in Ireland) is a musician, poet and vocalist from Dublin, Ireland. He is the lead vocalist in the musical group Kíla. He has released four albums to date, Playdays, Tonnta Ró, Tip Toe and The Last Mile Home. He also worked with Mic Christopher on his album Skylarking and with Breton-based singer songwriter Dom Duff on the album Straed an Amann (Butter' Street).
|
|
Like XTC's previous Dukes of Stratosphear side project, Skylarking was heavily influenced by the music of the 1960s. Most of its recording was at Rundgren's Utopia Sound Studio in Woodstock, New York. Rundgren played a large role in the album's sound design and drum programming, providing the band with orchestral arrangements and an assortment of gear. However, the sessions were fraught with tension, especially between Rundgren and bandleader Andy Partridge, and numerous disagreements arose over drum patterns, song selections, and other details.
|
|
The Dukes of Stratosphear were an English rock band formed in 1984 by Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, Dave Gregory, and Ian Gregory. Modeled after psychedelic pop groups from the 1960s, the Dukes were initially publicised by Virgin Records as a mysterious new act, but were actually an XTC spin-off band. They recorded only two albums: 25 O'Clock (1985) and Psonic Psunspot (1987). In the UK, the records outsold XTC's then-current albums The Big Express (1984) and Skylarking (1986).
|
|
In a 2016 interview, Skylarking producer Todd Rundgren said he also took issue with the lack of dynamics on Big Express, which he believed came from Partridge's tendency to fill arrangements with as many ideas as possible. Music journalist Alexis Petridis referred to aborted tracks from Blur's Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993) as a disappointment for anyone "excited to hear [their] abandoned sessions with XTC's Andy Partridge ... they sound exactly as you would expect ... like the XTC of An Everyday Story of Smalltown".
|
|
Around this time, Partridge established himself as a producer of other artists. However, Virgin Records refused to allow XTC to act as their own producers, which sometimes caused tensions between Partridge and whoever was assigned to produce the band. According to Partridge, he generally got along with the band's producers, except for Todd Rundgren on Skylarking and Gus Dudgeon on 1992's Nonsuch. In the 1990s, Partridge became regarded as "godfather" to the nascent Britpop movement due to his earlier work with XTC.
|
|
Partridge was dissatisfied with "Dear God" as he felt the lyrics were not representative of his views on religion, which was partly the reason why it was left off Skylarking. The song's anti-religious message ultimately provoked some violent reactions. In the US, one radio station received a bomb threat, and in another incident, a student forced their school to play the song over its public-address system while holding a faculty member hostage. Partridge also received a plethora of hate mail.
|
|
The Cassin's sparrow is a fairly large, plain, grayish sparrow that lacks conspicuous markings. In flight, the long, roundish tail is obvious and the white tips of the tail feathers are sometimes apparent. This species is most easily identified by its distinctive song and dramatic skylarking behavior during the breeding season. Although often characterized in the literature as secretive and difficult to observe when not singing,; ; observed that Cassin's sparrows readily accommodated the presence of an observer, especially early in the breeding season.
|
|
" Brent Ainsworth of the Santa Cruz Sentinel felt the album was "abundant [with] luscious, flowing pop", with the "softer songs" being best. David Mark of the Asbury Park Press commented: "Following up Cake would be difficult, but I've Seen Everything is an equally interesting effort from a very good group. While Cake was a bouncy album, I've Seen Everything is a notch more somber. The work, always interesting musically and lyrically, is something of a cross between The Beatles' Rubber Soul and XTC's Skylarking.
|
|
Partridge: "That's the only one of our videos that I've liked, the only one I can watch ... every little [promo] film [from 1967] we could find, we put ideas from them in there." In England, 25 O'Clock sold twice as many copies as The Big Express, even before the Dukes' identity was made public. The album also achieved considerable sales in the US. On XTC's next album Skylarking (1986), the Dukes were mentioned in its liner notes, where they were thanked for the loan of their guitars.
|
|
In 2010, it was discovered that a wiring error made during the mastering process caused the album to have a "thin" sound. The problem was corrected on subsequent remasters. Upon release, Skylarking was met with indifference in the UK, rising in the album charts to number 90, while both of its lead singles "Grass" (backed with "Dear God") and "The Meeting Place" peaked at number 100. Early sales of the album were hampered by the omission of "Dear God" from the album's original pressings.
|
|
"Let's Make a Den", according to Partridge, is about "the idea that you play all these games and then do it in real life. First it's a den and then it's a real house. I had finally got my own home and didn't like the idea of losing it because England might get caught up in a war caused by Ronald Reagan's 'Star Wars' sabre rattling." The song was in Rundgren's original concept of Skylarking, but he wanted Partridge to change the time signature from to .
|
|
Moulding has dismissed "Ball and Chain" as "not much of a song", feeling that he went "off the boil" during this period until Skylarking. The song was first recorded at The Townhouse Studio and Air Studios in March 1981. Virgin had suggested the band record "Ball and Chain" and "Punch and Judy" with Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, the team who produced Madness, for release as a double A-side single. Early in recording sessions, Langer walked out, apparently feeling his contribution was not needed.
|
|
Copp's show business career was interrupted by World War II when he was shipped off to Europe in 1942. He commanded an intelligence unit for the Normandy Invasion. After the war he returned to work in New York, but grew tired of working the nightclub circuit, and so moved back to Los Angeles where he wrote and illustrated the society column "Skylarking with James Copp" for the Los Angeles Times. During the 1950s Copp reworked some of his nightclub routines for a younger audience and recorded them on a wire recorder.
|
|
Alex Otey (born 1959) is a singer-songwriter, music producer, pianist, and trumpeter. He has performed with jazz musicians such as Richie Cole and Lew Soloff, and recorded with Grover Washington Jr. on the 1979 Skylarking album. He has produced, arranged, and co-written five albums by children's singer- songwriter Miss Amy, and released the albums on his label Ionian Productions. The fifth of these albums, Fitness Rock & Roll, was nominated in the 54th Grammy Awards, and Healthy Food For Thought: Good Enough To Eat was nominated the year before.
|
|
The track "Grass", from XTC's album Skylarking was influenced when Andy Partridge let fellow band member Colin Moulding borrow his Barrett records. Robyn Hitchcock's career was dedicated to being Barrett-esque; he even played "Dominoes" for the 2001 BBC documentary The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story. Barrett also had an influence on alternative and punk music in general. According to critic John Harris: > To understand his place in modern music you probably have to first go back > to punk rock and its misguided attempt to kick aside what remained of the > psychedelic 1960s.
|
|
They continued to produce more progressive records, including the albums Skylarking (produced by Todd Rundgren, 1986), Oranges & Lemons (1989), Nonsuch (1992) and Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999). A spin-off group, the Dukes of Stratosphear, was invented as a one-off excursion into 1960s-style psychedelia, but as XTC's music evolved, the distinctions between the two bands lessened. Due to poor management, they never received a share of profits from record sales, of which there were millions, nor from touring revenue, forcing them into debt throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
|
|
All of the songs were written by guitarist Andy Partridge, except three by bassist Colin Moulding. The work projected brighter, more upbeat and aggressive moods than Skylarking, and the harsher effect returned the group closer to the sound of their earlier records. Lyrically, most of the songs focus on parent-child relationships and the state of world affairs. Partridge's ornate vision for the psychedelic opening track "Garden of Earthly Delights" exemplified the album's general aesthetic, which he described as songs that could be singles in a "bizarre perfect universe".
|
|
Harry Chamberlin died in 1986. In the 1980s Chamberlin recordings were minimal but producers Mitchell Froom (Crowded House) and Todd Rundgren (XTC's Skylarking in 1986) used the instrument. The Chamberlin experienced a revival in the 1990s with a new generation of musicians using them and appreciating the unique sounds produced by playing them in unorthodox ways. These included Michael Penn and his keyboardist Patrick Warren (March, Free-for-All, Resigned, MP4 as well as Penn's film scores for Boogie Nights in 1997), and singer/songwriter/producer Jon Brion on the soundtrack to the film I Heart Huckabees (2004).
|
|
There have been four #1 Beatport trance singles from BT's ninth artist album on the Beatport genre charts. The first single from the album, "Tomahawk", was released on October 31, 2011. "Must Be the Love" is the second album single, produced alongside Arty and Nadia Ali, and released on September 17, 2012. The official music video for the song premiered on February 22, 2013. The third single released from the album is "Skylarking", an instrumental track that appeared in Armin van Buuren's A State of Trance 2013 and came out on February 18, 2013, with its official music video being released on June 10, 2013.
|
|
Alexi Tamarov was Hibernia's third midshipman after Seafort and Holser. He played an important role in Midshipman's Hope as, were it not for the skylarking between him and Sandy Wilsky, it would have been he and not Lieutenant Lisa Dagalow who died in the accident that ultimately resulted in Seafort becoming Captain. Tamarov, only sixteen at the beginning of the series, was initially somewhat childish, but rapidly matured into an experienced and trustworthy officer. He was Hibernia's first midshipman from Holser's promotion to Lieutenant until the arrival of Philip Tyre, and following his own promotion to Lieutenant was put in charge of the wardroom to deal with Tyre.
|
|
Andy Partridge (pictured 1988) wrote and sang most of Skylarking In the 1980s, XTC underwent a gradual transition in their sound and image. Their albums became increasingly complex, and after frontman and songwriter Andy Partridge suffered a panic attack before a concert, the band ceased touring. In 1984, they released The Big Express, which sold poorly and attracted little critical notice. According to Partridge, the group's psychedelic influences had begun "leaking out" through the use of Mellotron, phasing, and "backwards so-and- so". They followed up with the British-only mini-album 25 O'Clock, released on April Fools' Day 1985 and credited under the pseudonym "the Dukes of Stratosphear".
|
|
The group ran into more problems once it was discovered that poor management led to them incurring hundreds of thousands in unpaid value-added taxes. Partridge said that he was eventually left with "about £300 in the bank, which is really heavy when you've got a family and everyone thinks you're 'Mr Rich and Famous'." In December 1984, Partridge formed the Dukes of Stratosphear, an XTC offshoot he envisioned as a simulacrum of "your favourite bands from 1967". They recorded only two albums: 25 O'Clock (1985) and Psonic Psunspot (1987), both of which outsold XTC's newest albums in the UK: The Big Express (1984) and Skylarking (1986).
|
|
In Florida, a radio station received a bomb threat, and in New York, a student forced their school to play the song over its public-address system by holding a faculty member at knife-point. Nonetheless, the commercial success of "Dear God" propelled Skylarking to sell more than 250,000 units, and it raised the band's profile among American college youth. In the US, the album spent 29 weeks on the Billboard 200 and reached its peak position of number 70 in June 1987. The music video for "Dear God" received the 1987 Billboard Best Video award and was also nominated for three categories at the MTV Video Music Awards.
|
|
The ill fate of the lighthouse affected the lighthouse staff and their families. In July 1887, Harriet Parker, daughter of the Assistant light keepers, was accidentally shot dead in 1887 by Kate Gibson, the Chief Keeper's daughter. The jury of the ensuing Coronial inquiry stated that Harriet had died "from a gunshot wound accidentally received, and that Kate Gibson was not to blame as they were skylarking ..." Harriet Parker's grave can be found in the nearby Greenpatch Camping Area. In an incredible coincidence, in the same year of 1887, another woman called Kate Gibson (married to Nils Gibson, the lighthouse keeper of Bustard Head in Queensland) was found with her throat slashed open from ear to ear.
|
|
Andy had a second Jamaican number one single in 1973 with "Children of Israel". Andy's most successful association with a producer, however, was with Bunny Lee in the middle part of the 1970s. This era produced a series of singles now regarded as classics such as a re-recorded "Skylarking", "Just Say Who", "Don't Try To Use Me", "You Are My Angel", "Zion Gate", "I've Got to Get Away", and a new version of "Something on My Mind". In 1977, Andy moved to Hartford, Connecticut, with his first wife, Claudette, where he recorded for Everton DaSilva, including the In The Light album and its associated dub album, and singles such as "Do You Love My Music" and "Government Land".
|
|
A music video set to "The Mole from the Ministry"—the first in which they were allowed total creative input—was produced for BBC West's RPM music programme. Partridge: "That's the only one of our videos that I've liked, the only one I can watch ... every little [promo] film [from 1967] we could find, we put ideas from them in there." In England, 25 O'Clock sold twice as many copies as The Big Express, even before the Dukes' identity was made public. The album also achieved considerable sales in the US. On XTC's next album Skylarking (1986), the Dukes were mentioned in its liner notes, where they were thanked for the loan of their guitars.
|
|
Salting nights were occasions for great celebration and were evidently notorious for their rowdiness. Simonds D'Ewes reported that at a Pembroke salting, "a great deal of beer, as at all such meetings, was drunk" and that after an evening of overindulgence, he "got but little rest during the night"; which had the salutary effect of making him cautious ever after, as he had never been before, "to avoid all nimiety of this kind."J.H. Marsden, College Life in the Time of James the First, As Illustrated by an Unpublished Diary of Sir Symonds D'Ewes, Baronet, and MP for Some Time a Fellow-Commoner of St. John's College, Cambridge (London, 1860), p. 15. Not surprisingly, this kind of skylarking provoked prohibitive reactions from the authorities.
|
|
By 1972 he had begun working with Augustus "Gussie" Clarke, a teenage producer whose rhythms and singers were more in tune with the vibes on the streets of Kingston, and "The Killer" (on a version of Horace Andy's "Skylarking" rhythm) became his first major Jamaican hit, soon followed by "Tippertone Rocking". Following this, he released the hugely successful "S-90 Skank", featuring a motorbike being revved in the studio, for Keith Hudson's Imbidmts label, versioning the producer's own "We Will Work It Out". This became his first Jamaican number one hit, and also featured in a television advert for the Honda motorcycle that inspired it. The first album to feature his vocals, Chi Chi Run was produced by Prince Buster in 1972.
|
|
Vancouver had given strict orders against romancing the natives, since such escapades had played a major role in the Mutiny on the Bounty; in addition, any captain was required to punish pilferage. Pitt was flogged again for unauthorised trade with Indians at Port Stewart and then again for breaking the binnacle glass while skylarking with another gentleman. Finally he was placed in irons for being found sleeping on watch, and served this sentence with common seamen. No-one on the expedition could have known that Pitt had become a member of the House of Lords after his father had died on 19 June 1793, but his subsequent conduct leaves no doubt that he resented being disciplined by the low-born Vancouver.
|
|
In a retrospective review, The Quietus Nick Reed notes: "Nearly every instrument is mixed to the forefront; it's too well-arranged to be cacophonous, but there's a degree of sensory overload, especially given the band's newfound tendency to blast synthesizers in our faces. ... whether or not this album holds up for you depends on how much you like the band's boisterous side." It became the highest album they had in the charts since 1982's English Settlement, rising to number 28 in the UK and number 44 in the US. Additionally, it combined with Skylarking for the group's best-selling albums to date. "Mayor of Simpleton" reached number 46 in the UK and number 72 in the US, making it their only American single to chart.
|
|
Gregory said that all of Moulding's proposed songs would be recorded to preserve democracy in the band, and "occasionally at the expense of some of Andy's often superior offerings. This didn't always go down well, either with Andy or the band, but Colin did have some killer melodies and a sweeter sound to his voice that made a welcome diversion when listening to an album as a whole." Partridge opined that Moulding's songs initially "came out as weird imitations of what I was doing", but by the time of Drums and Wires, "he really started to take off as a songwriter." He was more effused with Moulding's offerings for Skylarking, which included the highest ratio of Moulding songs for any XTC album.
|
|
Oranges & Lemons is the eleventh studio album and the second double album by the English band XTC, released 27 February 1989 on Virgin Records. It is the follow-up to 1986's Skylarking. The title (derived from the nursery rhyme of the same name) was chosen in reference to the band's poor financial standing at the time, while the music is characterised as a 1980s update of 1960s psychedelia. It received critical acclaim and became the band's highest- charting album since 1982's English Settlement, rising to number 28 in the UK and number 44 in the US. The album is primarily pop and rock, although a variety of other styles are plundered throughout, such as jazz, reggae, hard rock, Middle Eastern music and Zairean soukous.
|
|
Released on 27 February 1989 in the UK and one day later in the US, Oranges & Lemons became their highest-charting album since English Settlement, rising to number 28 in the UK and number 44 in the US. Additionally, it combined with Skylarking for the group's best-selling albums to date. Lead single "Mayor of Simpleton" reached number 46 in the UK and number 72 in the US, making it their only American single to chart. It was followed with "King for a Day" (backed with "Happy Families" along with home demo versions of "My Paint Heroes" and "Skeletons") and "The Loving", the latter of which failed to chart. The music video for "King for a Day" was directed by Tony Kaye.
|
|
Larkspur, a light chestnut horse with a white blaze, was bred in Ireland by Philip Love. His sire, the American-bred Derby winner Never Say Die, was a qualified success at stud, getting the double Classic winner Never Too Late and becoming Champion Sire in 1962, largely thanks to Larkspur's earnings. Apart from Larkspur, his dam Skylarking produced eight winners, the best being the 1965 Dante Stakes winner Ballymarais. Ballymarais ran in the 2000 Guineas and was nearest at finish at 33-1,and when the weights for the Dante were published he carried only 7.11 and was 1-4 on for the race, which he duly won, he was trained by Bill Gray, owned by Bill Stoker and ridden by Brian Connorton.
|
|
"Got To Be Sure", the song he had auditioned with, became his first release for Studio One. The following two years saw the release of further singles such as "See a Man's Face", "Night Owl", "Fever", and "Mr. Bassie". One of Andy's most enduring songs, "Skylarking", first appeared on Dodd's Jamaica Today compilation album, but after proving a sound system success, it was released as a single, going on to top the Jamaican chart. The next few years saw Andy regularly in the reggae charts with further singles for Dodd such as "Something on My Mind", "Love of a Woman", "Just Say Who", and "Every Tongue Shall Tell", as well as singles for other producers such as "Lonely Woman" (for Derrick Harriott), "Girl I Love You" (Ernest and Joseph Hoo Kim), "Love You to Want Me" and "Delilah" (Gussie Clarke), and "Get Wise", "Feel Good", and "Money Money" for Phil Pratt.
|
|
Skylarking producer Todd Rundgren, pictured in 1978 In January 1986, Partridge and Moulding mailed Rundgren a collection of more than 20 demo tapes they had stockpiled in advance of the album. Rundgren convinced the band that the songs they had written could form a concept album as a way to bridge what he described "Colin's 'pastoral' tunes and subject matter and Andy's 'pop anthems' and sly poetry." He also suggested a provisional title, Day Passes, and said that the album The chosen songs were of a gentler atmosphere and relations were drawn between tempo, key, and subject matter. Partridge thought well of the selections, but was annoyed that the tracks and running order were determined so early on in the process, remarking that "you hadn't spoken to the bloke for three minutes, and he'd already been hacking and throwing your work in the bin".
|
|
"I know it wasn't about killing myself so I'm a bit worried that it might be a premonition about a bullet hitting me in the head but not killing me."Chilling premonition in soldier's journal, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 June 2006 According to Private Ray Johnson, one of the two soldiers with Kovco at the time of the shooting, "Dreams" by The Cranberries was playing on an mp3 player and Kovco stood at his bunk bed typing on his laptop while the men laughed and mimicked the lead singer Dolores O'Riordan. But the 23-year- old private did not see Kovco place his gun, which had been hanging holstered from the bed, to his head. In a written statement, Johnson said: On 1 December 2006, Defence Chief Angus Houston announced that the board of inquiry had determined that Kovco died as a result of the inappropriate handling of his personal weapon while engaging in skylarking behaviour.
|
|
When Dudgeon arrived in the studio and Partridge saw his attire and expensive lifestyle, he felt "he was wrong [for the job], but by that time it was difficult to go back." The band nicknamed him Guff Dungeon "because he was so flatulent." Partridge reflected: "Gus is old school, full of blusters and bluff [mimicking Dudgeon] 'Elton gave me this Rolls-Royce and I said, 'Oh Elton darling...'" Dudgeon had heard of the tense relationship between Partridge and producer Todd Rundgren during the Skylarking sessions, and "had come in armed with a heavy supply for vitriol;" Partridge, meanwhile, started to compare his relationship with Dudgeon to Rundgren, especially after Dudgeon suggested removing one of Partridge's favourite songs on the album, "Rook", though the recording sessions were civil and the two regularly exchanged banter. Dudgeon reportedly kept a tape of him and Partridge joking in the sessions and played it to party guests.
|
|