As punk band The Stranglers sang in 1977: “no more heroes any more”. The Beatles’ last album, Let It Be, came out in 1970. But I never rated that as a proper Beatles album and they’d already called it a day after the triumphant Abbey Road in 1969. After the disappointment of Let It Be, they were gone and no longer in my consciousness. In fact, no longer my heroes, when I think back on it. But there was plenty of other great music around, at least until the mid-70s. Looking through my albums from around 1975, there wasn’t much to get excited about. Steely Dan of course, but one sunny day doesn’t make a summer.
After moving to Sweden and before my first trip back to London, in the spring of 1978, I had already heard some new music (on the one pop radio programme per week) and read loads about punk and new wave in the NME. I had also received a cassette of Radio London from my brother, of DJ Kenny Everett playing current hits, including Elvis Costello. So, that spring I bought a handful of albums by the likes of Costello (This Year’s Model), Ian Dury’s 12” single Sex and Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Tom Robinson Band, Todd Rundgren (The Hermit of Mink Hollow) and yes, I admit it, Cheap Trick (Heaven Tonight). Though neither punk nor new wave, those last two were good albums anyway. Elvis Costello became a hero, but in 1979 an even more lasting hero showed up: Andy Partridge from the band XTC. But while Costello became a household name, playing at the White House and doing duets with Tony Bennett, Emmylou Harris and other musical icons, Andy remained hidden away and virtually unknown except to his die-hard fans. In Swindon, a small town in the West of England.
Andy has written, played and sung some of the most stunning music and lyrics I’ve ever heard and though well-respected, for some reason he has never been popular with the masses. Despite several hits with XTC. But Andy and partner Colin Moulding in that band managed to create a catalogue of songs which, for me, surpasses just about everybody else’s, except maybe the Beatles’. And Andy was a Beatles fan too.
I’ve never met Andy Partridge or even seen him, as they stopped playing live in the early 80s, but I had brief twitter contact with him a few years ago after I posted a question on a fan site: “Are the last two XTC albums ever going to be uploaded to Spotify?” I thought that was a reasonable question and not particularly controversial. I even have both albums on CD and was simply hoping for easier access. But I was quickly shot down in flames by another Andy-fan who seemed to consider my question the most stupid question ever posed in the history of stupid questions. We very nearly came to words, as I was quite pissed off at being put down so harshly. But that’s how some people address other people online. Consequences and feelings are ignored.
Andy also came online a day later and commented reasonably that Spotify pay so little that the income on the sale of a single XTC CD was worth more than many thousands of plays on Spotify. Probably true. XTC own the rights to those last two albums and quite rightly do what they want with them. Andy also has a very well-thought out strategy for his releases and does something quite special. Not that he needs my approval. For me personally, though, streaming sites are good. I listen to almost anything I like (except the last two XTC albums), wherever I like and most importantly I can even make my own music available to both of my fans. Which was not even possible a decade or so ago. If there’s a negative side to streaming, it’s that music no longer seems to have any value, as it’s “freely” available wherever you look. That, however, is a much bigger question to be considered at another time. After that exchange I stopped visiting the Andy fan site as it just didn’t feel like much fun anymore. On the other hand, I don’t need heroes anymore either.