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Best known as the primary singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the beloved British art pop band
XTC,
Andy Partridge has made a career out of creating music that's deliciously melodic but also idiosyncratic, maturing from energetic and angular new wave (1979's
Drums and Wires and 1980's
Black Sea) to brilliantly crafted pop classicism (1986's
Skylarking and 1992's
Nonsuch). While
Partridge made his solo debut in 1980 with a collection of
XTC remixes, the significant majority of his solo work arrived after
XTC became inactive, as he released an extensive series of archival recordings under the Fuzzy Warbles banner and collaborated with
Peter Blegvad,
Robyn Hitchcock, and
Barry Andrews, among others. 2010's Powers was an collection of instrumental pieces inspired by the artwork of sci-fi illustrator Richard M. Powers, 2012's Gonwards was a fusion of song and spoken word
Partridge created in tandem with
Peter Blegvad, and 2021's My Failed Songwriting Career, Vol. 1 unearthed unheard tunes he penned for other artists.
Andy Partridge was born December 11, 1953 on the island of Malta and raised in Swindon, England. In 1976, he teamed with bassist
Colin Moulding and drummer
Terry Chambers to form Star Park, later re-christened the Helium Kidz; upon adding keyboardist
Barry Andrews and signing to Virgin Records, the group adopted the name
XTC, issuing its debut 3D EP in the fall of 1977. Despite the band's punk-era origins,
Partridge's early songs also drew enormous influence from the British Invasion period, resulting in a taut, angular pop sound quite distinct from their contemporaries;
XTC's debut album
White Music even cracked the U.K. Top 40. Following
Andrews' exit, the group recruited guitarist/keyboardist David Gregory before recording their first chart hit, "Life Begins at the Hop"; with the 1979 album
Drums & Wires,
Partridge's songs turned even more toward traditional pop, and a year later he issued his debut solo LP, Take Away/The Lure of Salvage (credited to
Mr. Partridge), in which he created dub-style remixes of
XTC tracks.
1980's
Black Sea was the first
XTC album to crack the American Top 50, while 1982's
English Settlement yielded their first British Top Ten hit, "Senses Working Overtime." However, during a resulting tour of the States,
Partridge suffered a nervous breakdown brought on by his debilitating stage fright, spending the next year in almost total isolation and announcing the band would never again appear live. When
XTC resurfaced in 1984 with the stunning
Mummer,
Partridge's songs evoked a new pastoral beauty. Its follow-up,
The Big Express, boasted even richer production, while in 1985 the group adopted the pseudonym
the Dukes of Stratosphear to record 25 O'Clock, a tongue-in-cheek (albeit note-perfect) homage to psychedelia.
XTC achieved their greatest commercial and creative success with 1986's
Skylarking, a lush, majestic song cycle produced (much to the group's initial frustration) by
Todd Rundgren; "Dear God," originally left off the album, became a left-field hit, and the album appeared on countless year-end lists.
Oranges & Lemons followed in 1989, generating the minor hit "The Mayor of Simpleton." The next year,
Partridge -- who previously produced records for
Slapp Happy guitarist
Peter Blegvad and
the Woodentops -- helmed sessions for
the Lilac Time and
the Mission UK.
XTC's
Nonsuch appeared in 1992, but would be the band's last new album for seven years; internal difficulties and label battles kept the group from releasing any new material prior to the 1999 release of the much-acclaimed Apple Venus, Pt. 1. In the interim,
Partridge collaborated with celebrated ambient composer
Harold Budd on 1994's
Through the Hill. That same year, he teamed with fellow British pop eccentric
Martin Newell for
The Greatest Living Englishman. He also composed a number of songs for the 1996 Disney animated feature
James and the Giant Peach, which the studio rejected in favor of music by
Randy Newman.
In 2000,
XTC released Wasp Star (Apple Venus, Pt. 2), which would prove to be the band's last album thanks to growing tensions between
Partridge and his bandmates, though they never officially disbanded. In 2002,
Partridge launched his own Ape House label to release Fuzzy Warbles, Vol. 1, a collection of rarities, songwriting demos, and oddities from
Partridge's archives.
Partridge would issue eight Fuzzy Warbles volumes between 2002 and 2006, with a collector's box set of the eight discs released in September 2006, accompanied by an exclusive ninth disc titled Hinges. In 2003,
Partridge collaborated with
Peter Blegvad for a project called Orpheus the Lowdown, a collection of spoken word pieces and experimental compositions. In 2006,
Partridge began writing songs with celebrated pop/psych tunesmith
Robyn Hitchcock, with their tune "Cause It's Love (Saint Parallelogram)" appearing on
Hitchcock's album
Ole! Tarantula in 2008,
Partridge and
Hitchcock revealed they were working on an album together with
Mike Keneally, but
Hitchcock's busy touring schedule sidelined the project.
2007 saw the debut of Monstrance, a trio featuring
Partridge on guitar, former
XTC member
Barry Andrews on keyboards, and
Martyn Barker on drums. The trio released a self-titled debut album that year, as well as a digital EP, Fine Wires Humming a New Song.
Partridge also guested on
Glory Bumps, a 2008 album by
Andrews' group
Shriekback. In 2012,
Partridge issued a solo album, Powers, a set of instrumental pieces inspired by the work of science fiction artist Richard M. Powers; the album was reissued by Ape House in 2017. Another project with
Blegvad, Gonwards, arrived in 2012, and that same year,
Partridge co-wrote eight songs for
Mike Keneally's album Wing Beat Fantastic.
Partridge had cited
the Monkees as one of his early inspirations, and he wrote a song, "You Bring the Summer," for the Pre-Fab Four's 2016 album
Good Times! After refurbishing his home studio,
Partridge celebrated in 2018 by releasing a single featuring covers of two of his favorite songs from the U.K. psychedelic era,
Pink Floyd's "Apples and Oranges" and
the Bonzo Dog Band's "Humanoid Boogie."
Partridge's long-gestating collaboration with
Robyn Hitchcock finally bore fruit with a four song EP, Planet England, issued in September 2019. 2021's My Failed Songwriting Career, Vol. 1, was the first in a projected series of EPs in which
Partridge would present previously unreleased songs written for other artists who, for a variety of reasons, turned them down. ~ Jason Ankeny & Mark Deming