A new version of XTC's Skylarking will be reissued on April 14th -- the special edition reissue corrects the polarity/audio issues found on the original version of the 1986 record. A few years ago, mastering engineer John Dent identified the reversed polarity issue, which is explained by the band:
"Somewhere, possibly in the transfer from the multi-channel tape to the stereo master, a polarity had been reversed. This is not the same thing as a reversed left/right channel which puts a stereo picture out of phase & makes the sound unlistenable, but a much more difficult to pin down event that can be triggered by something as simple as a badly wired plug in the overall system which, nonetheless, removes some of the punch & presence from a finished recording."
The special edition of Skylarking also restores the original tracklisting as well as the record's original artwork (posted above) which was suppressed by Virgin Records. The album is available to pre-order XTC's webstore and Amazon.
Meanwhile, Andy Partridge, who runs XTC's twitter, sent out a flurry of tweets over the past 24 hours. His tweets are a must read for fans -- Partridge sets the record straight with some very fun facts about XTC and more. Check out a few of his tweets below, and read them all here.
THE CORRECTOR-Led Zep's John Paul Jones was approached to produce NONSUCH,but was FAR TOO expensive,pity,could have been interesting
— XTC (@xtcfans) March 19, 2014
THE CORRECTOR-I was not prescribed valium because of my parents divorce,they never divorced,I was put on after my mothers mental home spells
— XTC (@xtcfans) March 19, 2014
THE CORRECTOR-Much is made of my 'stage fright',that was only one symptom of withdrawal,the memory loss and limb seizures were worse
— XTC (@xtcfans) March 19, 2014
THE CORRECTOR-The DUKES were born on the SETTLEMENT sessions,in impromptu jams,as FAT FRUIT,the name that an early manager wanted to call us
— XTC (@xtcfans) March 18, 2014
THE CORRECTOR-I gave Davis Byrne the title for the Heads album MORE SONGS ABOUT BUILDINGS AND FOOD in a sports hall in Groningen,Holland
— XTC (@xtcfans) March 18, 2014
More THE CORRECTOR soon folks,so much duff stuff on the net that needs...CORRECTION
— XTC (@xtcfans) March 18, 2014
Published on March 19th, 2014 @ 9:28 AM