Andy Partridge
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| Andy Partridge | |
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 Partridge with XTC playing Toronto's Music Hall, February 1980
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Andrew John Partridge |
| Also known as | Sir John Johns |
| Born | 11 November 1953 Mtarfa, Malta |
| Origin | Swindon, Wiltshire, England |
| Genres | New wave music, Pop |
| Occupations | Musician, Songwriter, Record producer |
| Instruments | Guitar, Vocals |
| Years active | 1972-present |
| Labels | Virgin, Idea, APE House |
| Associated acts | XTC, The Dukes of Stratosphear, Monstrance |
| Website | http://www.ape.uk.net |
| Notable instruments | |
| Ibanez Artist, Martin D-35 | |
Andrew John "Andy" Partridge is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist, born on 11 November 1953 in Mtarfa, Malta. He has been known as Sir John Johns and Melchior and rose to fame as a founding member, guitarist and chief songwriter of the pop/new wave band, XTC. He lives in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, where he was raised.
Partridge also serves as XTC's de facto art director. Except for its second album, Go 2, the band's album cover art has been based on his ideas. For example, the back cover of Rag and Bone Buffet: Rare Cuts and Leftovers took shape after Partridge requested "lots of rusty junk" and proceeded to create a mockup of the band members with it. XTC toured heavily throughout the late-1970s through to 1982. Partridge, suffering from the stresses of the road, and claiming severe stage fright, hit abrupt sobriety after his wife intervened and tossed out his doctor-prescribed Valium supply he had been physically dependent upon for over 13 years. This and other personal issues brought the band's tours to a standstill.
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[edit] Solo work and collaborations
In addition to his work with XTC, Partridge has released demos of his songs under his own name in the The Official Fuzzy Warbles Collector's Album and the "Fuzzy Warbles" album series on his APE House record label. Eight individual volumes of Fuzzy Warbles are now available, as well as the Fuzzy Warbles Collector's Album, which includes a bonus ninth disc Hinges. He has collaborated (as performer, writer or record producer) with numerous recording artists, including Martin Newell, with whom he recorded and produced an album in 1993 entitled The Greatest Living Englishman released in Japan as a duo album. He has additionally lent his experience and talents to artists that include Peter Blegvad, Harold Budd, Jamie Cullum, Stephen Duffy, Terry Hall, The Heads, Charlotte Hatherley, Robyn Hitchcock, The Residents, Thomas Dolby and David Yazbek.
[edit] Losses
Partridge also served initially as the producer for the English band Blur during the recording of Modern Life Is Rubbish. However, he was replaced by Stephen Street at the insistence of their record label, Food. Other collaborations that failed to bear fruit included unused writing contributions for Sophie Ellis Bextor and a proposed writing partnership with Brian Wilson, which never progressed past a telephone enquiry from Wilson's personal assistant. Partridge also wrote four songs for Disney's version of James and the Giant Peach, but was replaced by Randy Newman when he could not get Disney to offer him "an acceptable deal."
[edit] Approaching music differently
In 2004, Partridge contributed the song "I Wonder Why the Wonder Falls" as the theme music to the short-lived TV comedy Wonderfalls. In 2006, a song he and Robyn Hitchcock collaborated on, "Cause It's Love (Saint Parallelogram)," was released on the Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 album Olé! Tarantula. He has also released music as part of a trio known as Monstrance, made up of his guitar, Barry Andrews (an early member of XTC) on keyboards, and Martyn Barker on drums. The group has released an album of the same name, as well as a download-only EP known as Fine Wires Humming a New Song. All songs were completely improvised, without overdubbing and recorded live in the studio.
[edit] Radio and film
Partridge has enjoyed periodic popularity as a broadcaster, most notably in the mid-1980s, when he was a regular performer on BBC Radio 1. He has also had parts in acting roles, including a character named "Agony Andy," a spoof aunt on the Janice Long show, but he also contributed comedic sketches to Saturday Live and Studio B15, and was a regular panelist on both Roundtable and The Great Rock'n'Roll Trivia Quiz. He has also presented the pilot for an ITV children's quiz show, Matchmakers. Partridge made a one-off uncredited appearance in the animated sitcom Family Guy, in the episode titled, "One if by Clam, Two if by Sea" as a British cricket commentator.
[edit] Personal life
Partridge and his ex-wife Marianne have two children: daughter Holly, a guitarist, singer and songwriter for Britpop group The SheBeats, and son Harry Partridge, who is an internet animator, notable for winning a Newgrounds Tank Award for his movie 'Chuck's new Tux!' and also, popular movie Saturday Morning Watchmen. Partridge has now been in a long-term relationship with Erica Wexler — the daughter of well-known American screenwriter Norman Wexler (of Saturday Night Fever, and Serpico fame) — since his divorce.
[edit] Influence
Partridge has been cited as an influence by a number of guitarists, most notably by John Frusciante of The Red Hot Chili Peppers in the 2002 issue of Total Guitar magazine, who cited him as an influence on the sound of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' album By the Way.[1]
Recently, Partridge mixed recordings for the band Captains of Industry. In 2007 he collaborated with former XTC bandmate Barry Andrews on the Shriekback album Glory Bumps. In 2008, Partridge began working on a collaborative album with Robyn Hitchcock [2] and Mike Keneally, and various solo projects. He has been conducting an ongoing series of online interviews about his songs with writer Todd Bernhardt on the XTCfans pages of MySpace, and plans to release a book based on the interviews, featuring additional content and images, sometime in 2010.
[edit] Discography
[edit] References
- ^ http://rhcprock.free.fr/totalguitar_john.htm "John Frusciante interview in Total Guitar magazine" NME Accessed 2008-04-7
- ^ [http://www.nme.com/news/robyn-hitchcock/35034 "Post-punk legends team up for new album"] NME Accessed 2008-03-13
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Andy Partridge |
- APE House Records official site (needs Macromedia Flash)
- XTC official site (needs Macromedia Flash)
- Rundgren Radio online interview
- Audio interview (April 2009) at BBC Wiltshire
- Andy Partridge on RPM BBC West TV programme clips showing Partridge touring his hometown of Swindon, and talking about giving up playing live.
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