How the drummer who quit when XTC stopped touring is keeping the music alive

Led by two of the era’s more distinctive songwriters (guitarist Andy Partridge and bassist Colin Moulding), XTC released a string of classic singles as the British rock scene shifted its attention from the punk years to a more experimental variation on the punk aesthetic, quickly labeled post-punk.

Partridge liked to scoff at such distinctions, as he did on one of XTC’s best early singles, “This is Pop.” But “Making Plans for Nigel,” “Generals and Majors,” “Towers of London” and “Sgt. Rock (is Going to Help Me)” offered listeners the perfect blend of post-punk eccentricity and disarmingly Beatlesque pop sensibilities.

XTC was coming off its highest-charting U.K. single yet, a Top 10 smash called “Senses Working Overtime,” and working on the follow-up to that song’s parent album, “English Settlement,” when drummer Terry Chambers quit the band.

He wasn’t wild about the music they were working on for “Mummer,” an album his bandmates would go on to finish without him and release in 1983. But the bigger issue may have been the band’s decision to stop touring and performing.

XTC’s last tour was 1982. But Chambers is back on the road with a new group he calls EXTC, treating XTC fans to a celebration of their catalog, including highlights of the albums they recorded after his departure.

That tour arrives at Walter Studios on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Here’s what Chambers has to say about it all.

How reconnecting with Colin Moulding paved the way for EXTC

It had been quite some time since you left XTC before you started doing this. What inspired you to reconnect with that material?

I came over for a wedding. My brother’s eldest daughter. I was living in Australia at the time and during that period of time, I reacquainted myself with Colin and Andy.

Colin at that point was doing a solo project. He was getting a little disillusioned working on his own and asked if I would like to get involved in some way. I thought “Well, this is an opportunity that I didn’t think would be coming and I’ve always been a bit of an opportunist.”

So we put this thing together. I played drums on it. I hadn’t played for some time. But it came out as an EP, and Colin decided he wanted to put a band together and see what this material might be like in the live situation with myself and him and a collection of other local musicians in the Swindon area. But after six shows, he decided he didn’t want to get on the merry-go-round of touring again.

I, on the other hand, felt that it was an enjoyable experience. So I tried to hold the remnants of that group together. We’ve had several member changes since, mainly due to the fact that the sort of touring schedule I had in mind didn’t suit some of the people. They had other jobs, marriages, mortgages, children and general normal lives and couldn’t afford the time.

So I’ve now ended up with Steve Hampton, Terry Lines and Karl Lornie. These guys can commit to the time. So it’s taken a while but it’s going very well.

What was it like working with Colin again?

It was like putting on an old pair of comfortable slippers, really, because we’d worked together for so long. You never really forget that connection. So it wasn’t like starting again, really. It was like you’d probably been asleep for a while and then woke up and things were back to normal.

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Terry Chambers reflects on his departure from XTC in 1982

Could you talk about why you left XTC when you did?

Mainly due to the fact that Andy Partridge decided he didn’t want to do live work anymore.

Playing live is what attracted me to joining a band in the first place. The fact that we ended up getting a recording contract was the icing on the cake. I never ever thought that would materialize. But I couldn’t see much future, to be fair, in a band that doesn’t tour, especially when you’ve got pressure from a record company expecting you to go out.

I mean, that was the norm — to make a record, go out and promote it. If you’re not prepared to promote your own product, can you expect anybody else to do so? To a degree, it was the beginning of the end of the relationship between XTC as a band and Virgin Records as a record company. I thought, “If I’m not playing live, I might as well get out.”

And the material that was being written at the time, which turned out to be the “Mummer” album, I didn’t think the songs were as strong as what they were on the previous couple of albums. I think maybe Andy Patridge needed a bit of a rest from everything to come up with some better material. But that’s just my thought line.

You were working on “Mummer” at that point, right?

We were. And I thought, “Well, it just doesn’t seem to have the same gusto as the others.” Not only was Partridge sort of fatigued by the touring side of things, I think mentally, he needed a bit of a rest, maybe 12 months off just to sort of recharge the batteries. But as I say, that’s my opinion.

Terry Chambers says he feels Andy Partridge just needed a rest

Have you ever wished you could’ve figured out a way to make it work back then?

I think it could’ve done had we had sympathetic management. We had management who their idea was while we were reasonably popular to maximize the opportunities we had and just keep the band working, because you never know when you’re going to become unpopular and people won’t bother to turn up and maybe you’re last year’s thing.

They didn’t really have a good grasp on the way this thing works, in as much as if you haven’t got good health — mental health and all the rest of it — you’re not functioning properly. Partridge, in particular, was flogged like a horse. He needed a rest. But they couldn’t see that. They felt if you don’t continue striving on the treadmill of the rock ‘n’ roll business, somebody else is gonna take your place.

So that was the situation, in retrospect, that could’ve been dealt with differently.

Do you talk to Andy much these days?

No. We exchange birthday greetings and Christmas greetings. That’s about it, really. He’s doing whatever he’s doing and I’m pretty much busy doing this. I haven’t spoken to him personally for a couple of years now.

What did you think of the music XTC did after you had left?

Well, I think there’s some damn good songs there. But Andy was a bit like a kid in a candy store when it came to the studio. There’s probably too much stuff on there at times. I think the whole thing got a little clouded with overdubs and such. A good song is a good song if it’s played on acoustic guitar and somebody’s singing it.

Sometimes you can throw too much stuff at it and the essence of the song can get a little bit drowned. But I’m not a songwriter. That’s just what I’m listening to and how I see it.

‘Drums and Wires’ through ‘English Settlement’ tour as XTC’s peak

Do you have a favorite era of the band?

Well, arguably, between “Drums and Wires” and the end of the “English Settlement” tour, really.

By the time we got to the “Drums and Wires” album, we started to know a little bit more about the recording process, having done two previous albums. We were playing a lot better as a live band. We knew our craft a little better. And we were young and stronger at that point in time. I think we were probably at our peak.

You started playing with Andy and Colin in a group called Star Park in 1972. What kind of music were you doing?

It was a lot of covers in order to get gigs in the early days, some Rolling Stones, the Turtles. But also some of Partridge’s early material. We actually changed the name because Partridge had another band called Star Park with a different drummer, bass player and guitar player.

So we ended up changing the name to the Helium Kids. We did do some shows under Star Park but we changed it pretty quickly.

Do you recall a point at which you through you’d found your voice as a band?

I guess it was really the “Drums and Wires” album. They were still sort of learning their songwriting craft. A lot of the pressure was put on the songwriters in particular for that album because “Drums and Wires” was our third album and we hadn’t had a hit single. It was all about hit singles and recording success, really, as far as the record company was concerned. So they were under a lot of pressure there.

And luckily for us, Colin came up with a thing called “Making Plans for Nigel,” which was reasonably successful. And it sort of saved our bacon, really. I think on that third album, Virgin Records were gonna dump us if we didn’t get a single out of that.

Chambers on XTC feeling they needed to connect with punk

Did you feel a connection to the punk scene going on in England at the time?

Well, it was something we felt that we needed to get connected with, really, in order to get the gigs, because most of the venues in London were obviously putting these sort of bands on, and in order to get gigs you had to sort of be somewhere in the ballpark with that type of thing, rather than playing Deep Purple or Black Sabbath, those sort of songs. So we got a little bit tangled with it.

And Partridge started writing some songs that were quite frenetic, I guess, in order to be associated with it. But we didn’t really want to go down the safety pin and all the frizzy hair sort of thing. We didn’t really have an image going on at all.

From a musical point of view, we weren’t too disassociated from it. But we all knew or had a pretty good idea anyway that this thing wouldn’t have the longevity. I think it only lasted five years, then people started to move on to something else. Because the old 1-2-3-4 thing got a bit tiresome.

What to explain when EXTC plays XTC on US tour

I understand you’re doing songs from the records after you left XTC as well on tour?

That’s right. We felt that it wouldn’t be doing the band justice, really, to sort of concentrate on the songs that I was on. Because a lot of people only discovered XTC after they finished playing live. There are some good songs there. And people enjoy listening to them.

So I only thought it was fair to do the songbook, not only the ones I played on but some of the arguably better songs off of those albums later on that we could do justice to and we felt would be good in a live situation without having to resort to getting a string section, what we could do as a three- or four-piece band. I thought it would be unfair not to play certain songs.

Are the arrangements fairly faithful?

I think so, yeah. I mean, we put our own twist on it but as soon as we strike up the chords or a drum pattern and begin the song whichever way the song starts, most people recognize it within a few chords. So we’re playing it somewhere near where it should be.

Was it hard to find musicians who could play this material?

Yeah, well, Steve Hampton’s been with me four years now. Terry Lines has been with us for two years and a bit. And Karl’s been with us for a few months now because it was a bit of a workload for Steve to do it on his own when we were a three-piece, singing and playing guitar and playing solos, all that sort of thing.

Karl’s come along with a guitar and keyboards, which is what Dick Gregory did, and he’s made a massive impact.

Chambers says XTC records ‘seem to stand up even today’

How would you like XTC to be remembered?

I’m pleasantly surprised that people are still talking about it even now. That alone is something that I’d never have thought would happen. And not that I listen to CDs much, but when I do, the records seem to stand up even today. The recordings were very good. And I’m not really embarrassed by them. You listen to some records and you think “That really does sound as if it was recorded back in the day.”

Do you think there could be an occasion where you guys could work together again?

It’s highly unlikely. I mean, you never know. But unlikely, certainly in a live situation. I don’t know. Maybe on our death bed or something like that. It’s not looking likely at the moment, but I wouldn’t rule it out totally.

What’s the best part of doing this band?

It’s great fun. At this age, I’m 70 now, to be able to have the opportunity to do this? It’s unimaginable really. And seeing the reaction of people who come to the shows, it’s quite touching. Some people get quite emotional, thinking that they’d never have the opportunity to listen to this stuff in the real world.

EXTC: XTC’s Terry Chambers & Friends

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Where: Walter Studios, 747 W. Roosevelt St., Phoenix.

Admission: $29.97 and up.

Details: 602-586-5906, walterstudios.com.

Ed has covered pop music for The Republic since 2007, reviewing festivals and concerts, interviewing legends, covering the local scene and more. He did the same in Pittsburgh for more than a decade. Follow him on X and Instagram @edmasley and on Facebook as Ed Masley. Email him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How XTC drummer Terry Chambers keeps band’s legacy alive with EXTC