Andy Partridge

OF ALL THE bands thrown up by the Punk insurgency of 1977 (30 years ago today, folks! Get your Sergeant Leper facemasks here!), XTC were always one of the most intriguing. It wasn't simply the fact that they were older than much of the herd... the bulk of the Stranglers, Wire and the Vibrators, to name but three, were at least the same age... nor that they'd been around in one form or another since 1971, when Andy Partridge was guitaring in a freeform jazz band called Tongue.