Why did XTC suddenly stop touring in 1982?
A lot of people, when they go watch their favourite band play live, dream of nothing more than also being a popular musician on the road, while a lot of artists would disagree with these pining fans, such as Steely Dan, XTC, and Brian Wilson.
When you think of life on the road as a rockstar, you think of playing in front of huge crowds of people adoring every single word you say, and you also think of copious parties, large sums of money, and generally living like a rockstar, and that makes you wonder, who wouldn’t that appeal to?
While the glam life might be true for a period, touring is anything but a holiday, which you might feel it is for the first few weeks, but there is only so long people can keep up that kind of life, one that comes with a lot of pressure and that can also get in the way of an artist’s creativity.
Steely Dan opted to give up life on the road because they felt as though touring stopped them from fully and freely engaging with their creativity, wherein concerns beyond what made their art better would stop them from flexing their artistic muscles. They were worried about taking risks in the studio because they didn’t know how well they might be able to play those songs live, and as such, they opted to stop playing to a crowd altogether.
Guitarist for the band, Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter, decided to leave Steely Dan after they made this decision, noting, “I left Steely Dan because Mr [Walter] Becker and Mr [Donald] Fagen had decided they didn’t want to tour anymore, and I really enjoyed playing live. It’s a dichotomy: being a session rat and being a live performer. I was actually on tour with [The Doobie Brothers], in the band. At the time I was playing with three different bands: Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, and Linda Ronstadt, playing pedal steel [guitar].”
Brian Wilson also stopped touring so that he could focus more on making music for the Beach Boys; however, he was also struggling with life on the road and stopped touring for the sake of his mental health, and used his time off to focus predominantly on songwriting. A lot of those early, iconic and innovative Beach Boys songs wouldn’t have existed had Wilson stayed on the bus around the country.
The fact remains, different artists need to stop touring for different reasons, sometimes so they can pursue their craft more effectively, sometimes for personal reasons, and sometimes for a mixture of the two; hence, it begs the question, why did XTC suddenly stop touring in 1982?
Why did XTC stop touring in 1982?
XTC were at their peak when they went on tour in 1982, thanks to hit songs such as ‘Making Plans for Nigel’, but behind the success, guitarist and vocalist Andy Partridge was having a hard time. He had been prescribed valium when he was 12 years old and was attempting to get off it, which was proving to be quite a struggle.
“Over the next year, my brain melted,” said Partridge when he was talking about trying to kick the drug, noting problems with memory loss, mental health and his mobility. It all became too much to the point where he was having panic attacks onstage, and at one point, had to go to a hospital because they became so severe. “My dream had died,” he said when recalling the events.
The band never toured again, but XTC used their new lack of touring to their advantage and decided to become just a studio band: “My love of making records came to the fore,” he said, “once I knew they didn’t have to be built for reproduction”.
