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Was the name of the band pronounced ‘ecstasy’ - like the state of being, or was it ‘ex-tee-see’ like the three letters?
Help me solve the mystery.
Yes. Hth.
ex-tee-see
ex-tee-see
Dear God! XTC as in the lemon and the lime but pronounced like the letters so as not to be banned by those silly fools at the Beeb.
Dear God! XTC as in the lemon and the lime
I've read this a few times. Are you suggesting ecstacy is like acid?
Ex tee cee to me
They predate ecstasy the drug becoming part of popular culture by decades
Well they do sound quite interesting when you are feeling "refreshed", but I never thought there was any drug reference there.
Well they do sound quite interesting when you are feeling “refreshed”
Yes, they do leave your senses working overtime.
XTC preceded ecstasy and were around in ‘77. Signed to Stiff. I remember them playing on Magpie 🤪
White music, their first album, was one of my first records. Bought it off a brother of a classmate. Great version of all along the watchtower.
Definitely ex tee cee.
Ex tee cee to me
They predate ecstasy the drug becoming part of popular culture by decades
Thanks, I was just about to post exactly that.
I met Dave Gregory at a pub just outside of town many years ago, playing in a local band by the name of Dean Gabber and the Gabardines, lovely bloke, seemed a bit overwhelmed as me and my mates were enthusing about his playing.
Next thing we know, he’s with XTC!
And these days, he’s working with a Prog band called Big Big Train, nominally a duo, but with a regular crew making up a full band, including Dave.
Glad to know he’s still gainfully employed in the music biz.
And sadly, Dave is the only part of XTC who I’ve ever seen play live, XTC will never play again.
They predate ecstasy the drug
And ecstasy predates the drug by unfathomable epochs!
Love XTC. Always heard them pronounced ex tee cee
Anecdote, STWXTC: Back when I first registered on this forum I’d recently rediscovered XTC. Had recently received both Drums and Wires and Black Sea CD’s for a birthday and played them back to back. There is so much music in their music! So many sides and edges to the lyrics. Both albums are epic in their different ways. I didn’t know what to expect, as had only heard their few hits on the radio back in the days, and once had a vinyl 45 of ‘Mayor Of Simpleton’ (the B side is even better IMO).
Anyway...when I first heard ‘Respectable Street’ the lyrics for some reason made me think of STW chat!
Not so much now, but when a newbie I was hit by first impressions! Probably some degree of projection involved bcause I’m a proper curtain twitcher, especially the older I get. I muttered at neighbours today as I was clearing the snow. I could see them, peeking from behind their blinds and stuff.
(From pogo to twitch in 30 short years? Christ...)
XTC though. Ace. And their other incarnation as a throwback (60s) acid psych band!
So when Debbie Harry sang "I'm on E" what was she on? And people were on all sorts of pills in West Wales in 1979, of that I'm certain.
From the Guardian:
The title, by the way, has nothing to do with ecstasy, which was then years away from being adopted as a recreational drug. “It wasn’t written about ecstasy, that’s for sure,” according to Harry. “I guess it was E for England, E for energy, E for empty.”
I never realised Debbie Harry was from west Wales -Aberystwyth?
Aberystwyth?
Where else?
Topical:
My absolute favourite XTC album is Apple Venus, I sort of get the feeling Andy Partridge gave up on XTC after that, ‘cos it was about as good as they were ever going to get.
A bit like Talk Talk and Laughing Stock, Mark Hollis felt he’d achieved all he set out to do, and stopped, apart from his solo album, which is so sparse it’s uncomfortable to listen to.