When a fake XTC album outsold a real one
British art rockers XTC were in a strange place in the mid-1980s. The group had completed its evolution from punk origins to more boundary-pushing sounds, which included a heady slice of psychedelia. Frontman Andy Partridge had put a permanent end to the band’s touring days, making them a studio-only band as they were still on the ascent. The lack of traditional concerts meant that it was tricky for the band to find a general audience.
A frequently changing lineup didn’t help their stability either. By the time Partridge decided to stop touring, both keyboardist Barry Andrews and drummer Terry Chambers had left the group. No new permanent drummer was ever hired, with the band opting to use session players on drums instead. Guitarist Dave Gregory was brought in to complete what would be the band’s most successful lineup, although it took the group some time to find stability with their audience.
Hit singles like 1982’s ‘Senses Working Overtime’ helped keep the band in the public eye, but albums like 1983’s Mummer and 1984’s The Big Express were commercial disappointments. Partridge felt that the band should hit the reset button and shake out their more psychedelic tendencies, even going so far as to suggest that their next album not be released under the name “XTC”.
That’s how Patridge, Gregory, bassist Colin Moulding, and Gregory’s brother Ian recorded the 1985 mini-LP 25 O’Clock. The record was an XTC release in everything but name. Instead of their usual moniker, the band adopted a new guise as ‘The Dukes of Stratosphere’, a supposedly unearthed deep cut from the heyday of British psychedelia.
XTC expected the album to be nothing more than a joke, even releasing the mini-LP of April Fool’s Day. “I didn’t really have songs ready, just ideas. I knew I wanted to do something like Syd Barrett. Perhaps a Beatles-esque track,” Partridge told Bill Gibron in 2010. “I rung up the other guys and said, ‘Hey, let’s put on a show!’; you know, that kind of thing.”
“Dave Gregory took to the Dukes a bit too much. Elephant jumbo cord flares, big white belt, beads – we were a bit worried,” Patridge would tell Todd Bernhardt in 2009. “Colin was more of a heavy metal kid. He was more into Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep and people like that. So he didn’t really have much of a grasp on psychedelia.”
According to a 1989 interview with Chris Hunt, 25 O’Clock wound up selling twice as many copies in the UK as The Big Express. “That was a bit upsetting to think that people preferred these pretend personalities to our own personalities… they’re trying to tell us something,” Partridge claimed at the time. “But I don’t mind because we have turned into the Dukes slowly over the years… there won’t be any more Dukes records, we’ll just be the Dukes, we’ll come to an agreement.”
Indeed, when the band released their next proper XTC album, Skylarking, the following year, The Dukes of Stratosphere were thanked in the liner notes for loaning their guitars to the band. Check out ‘The Mole From The Ministry’ down below.
