I’ve been known to be a hardliner on the dreaded scourge of “tribute acts.” I’ve grown used to seeing the bulk of club and venue dates in my hometown become overrun by these tribute acts to the point where it feels some months like there are no active or new bands to play to gigs of songs they may have written! It actually makes my blood boil on a weekly basis. But there is a third way possible. Of late, acts that have a core member of a band with new recruits playing their old material are happening. Blurring the lines.
Peter Hook + The Light was one that I’ve had friends tell me that I need to see [memo to self: June 3rd in Asheville they are playing the Orange Peel]. Having actually seen the perfunctory event that was the original New Order on their “Technique” tour back in the day, I could not wrap my head around the notion of Peter Hook alone [in spite of his legendary bass …uh, technique] fronting something better, but that’s what I’ve beard from close, personal friends. Now another potential Monk-bait event is happening under similar conditions.
I’d heard that Terry Chambers, the original drummer of XTC had formed a band to play XTC material like it had not happened since 1982, when Andy Partridge had famously gone off playing live…forever. Partridge gave his blessings to Chambers and even named the band, so there’s that. I do know that there’s a vast untapped 35 year span of no XTC live performance by the band’s fans who would undoubtedly enjoy an evening of XTC songs with at least one of the original players onstage.
The bigger question was: would I care. I will be frank. While there remains a vast amount of XTC in the Record Cell to this day, I’ve not really had the urge to play it much in the last 25 or so years. I’ve got the album of theirs I’ve always disliked [“Nonsuch,” since you ask] on my huge cull pile currently. But the experience of reading two XTC books on the band, one of them official, put across the notion that Andy Partridge really acted like a spoiled child in his dominance of XTC. After reading the books I felt really bad for the behavior that the rest of the band had to grit their teeth and put up with to soldier through to the extent that they did. This had soured me on XTC in general, and the group, in spite of my ardor from 1980-2000, fell off my radar.
But Terry Chambers playing a gig in my town where I could attend without expenses? And my huge sticking point with the band, Andy Partridge himself, would be completely out of the picture. So last weekend, I called my old friend The RABH and told him that he could see a show full of XTC songs with original drummer Terry Chambers playing in Asheville. He and his spouse [who I’ve known almost as long] are coming over for the event and we are looking to have an enjoyable evening. Hopefully the show won’t be mixed aggressively loud. But how do ExTC sound?
MAKING PLANS FOR NIGEL
TOWERS OF LONDON
Well they sound like XTC…with different [but well competent] vocals. It should be probably more fun that I am expecting. As I’m late to the party, their US tour has been well-traveled already, but plenty more dates remain should you wish to pay their stage a visit. It’s nice to see an old-school tour with plenty of coverage even in adjacent markets! As if Ian Copeland himself was booking the tour! This band are definitely working hard. Tonight is Tampa’s turn.
EXTC US TOUR 2025
- May 22 | New World Brewery | Tampa, FL
- May 23 | Conduit | Orlando, FL
- May 24 | The Wormhole | Savannah, GA
- May 25 | The Radio Room | Greenville, SC
- May 27 | The Grey Eagle Music Hall | Asheville, NC
- May 28 | Snug Harbo | Charlotte, NC
- May 29 | Super Rad Arcade Bar | Lynchburg, VA
- May 30 | Lincoln Theater | Raleigh, NC
- June 1 | The Richmond Music Hall | Richmond, VA
- June 2 | Jammin Java | Vienna, VA
- June 3 | The Room at Cedar Grove | Lewes, DE
- June 4 | Elkton Music Hall | Elkton, MD
- June 6 | The Caz | Buffalo, NY
- June 7 | Horseshoe Tavern | Toronto, ON
- June 8 | The Rainbow Room | Ottawa, ON
- June 10 | Showcase Lounge at the Higher Ground | Burlington, VT
- June 11 | Daryl’s House | Pawling, NY
- June 12 | The (Le) Poisson Rouge | New York, NY
- June 13 | Randy Now’s Man Cave | Hightstown, NJ
- June 14 | Vinegar Hill Music Theatre | Arundel, ME
- June 15 | Tupelo Music Hall | Derry, NH
We’ll be seeing the show on Tuesday evening and of course we’ll report back with our findings! Join us next week for those [crosses fingers].
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Post-Punk Monk 
Looking forward to your verdict… the clips don’t sound particularly promising. Would love to know the titles of the books you mentioned!
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ubik1992 – Welcome to the comments! When you get to my age, you’ll become more forgiving! The books were:
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Originally, EXTC included a chappy named Steve Tilling, he the mastermind of excellent prog act Circu5 (and a Facebook friend of mine), but sadly an extended illness brought his participation to a conclusion several years back (he’s fine now, and just produced a stellar new Circu5 album).
EXTC sans-Steve appeared in my locality not so long ago, but sadly it was in a Big Mark-unfriendly venue — the dreaded “limited seating” scourge.
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Big Mark – What?! Do you mean you can’t stand up for half as long as you work during the day to see a gig??! Shocking!
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Not since the days of spinal injuries and arthritic knees!
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Big Mark – I might have been still in my thirties when I realized that going to a gig on a week night was an investment of time that would be possibly more than half as long as my working day! As I am in my sixties now it colors the whole relationship with live music.
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Weeknight gigs do require a whole extra level of commitment and much consideration. My recent Nick Lowe gig was definitely worth it, despite a less than optimum venue. The forthcoming Jonathan Richman gig is at a Big Mark-approved venue and so should prove relatively easy going on this old man.
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Big Mark – Jonathan Richman will never steer you wrong! He can only delight. You will never wait all night to see his set. And it will never be too loud!
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While I can understand your personal aversion to Andy Partridge (I well know your tolerance for overbearing types is near-to-nil), I personally have a great enough appreciation for his song writing, and adjacent performance and production strengths to overlook his manifest faults. I actually EXPECT genius (which I readily grant him within the scope of) to be more-or-less intolerable and o’erweening — Steve Gerber comes to mind as another obvious example — thus I’m instead pleasantly surprised when such folks end up instead being enjoyable in person.
The “no touring” restriction was, IIRC, not precisely his fault — my understanding is that his doctor had overprescribed anti-anxiety meds after a death in his family, leading to him becoming dependent on them for mood control (having been quite high strung since childhood). His (then-)wife took it upon herself to unilaterally THROW OUT all of his antidepressants IN THE MIDDLE OF AN INTERNATIONAL TOUR, rather than helping him taper off first. He ended up having a major episode, which prevented him from being able to go on stage, forced him to cancel the rest of the tour, and soured him completely on performing live in future. And (reasonably I think) soured him on his wife as well :-/
Anyhoo, looking forward to the show on Tues bigtime!
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The RAHB – You hit the mail on the head with your recounting. But genius without emotional intelligence to partner with it is an unbalanced thing. I’ll commit here and say that I think that genius is overrated.
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Another tribute band formed by an original drummer, interesting… this reminds me of In2thesound, a The Sound tribute band made up of their drummer Michael Dudley and members of Dutch/German darkwave band The Convent, who have a recording history with the deceased The Sound singer and guitar player Adrian Borland (as well as with Mark Burgess of The Chameleons). Michael Dudley unfortunately had to stop playing half a year ago. The Sound and other Adrian Borland bands and projects like Second Layer, Honolulu Mountain Daffodils, and The Outsiders, would be a perfect fit for this blog. Perhaps somebody mentioned this before?
In any case, I hope you enjoy the show – tribute acts aren’t always bad, as long as the source material isn’t Journey, Led Zep, or REO Speedwagon.
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Agree, they did a fantastic job of honoring the Sound’s legacy!
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I’ve seen EXTC in 2 guises – one with Steve Tilling (mentioned above) and one without. Whilst I think you will have a good time and will remember how good Andy/Colin’s songs were I think the Tilling version of the band was better…
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The clips are okay, though I’d have wised for a lead singer with a regional UK accent. Still, these are great songs and well worth seeing.
I am of course in the same age bracket as you, but I’m still up for concerts on the rare occasion a “chas-approved” act comes to my podunk (yet capital) city! Living in a very senior-dominated town has its perks, as I slowly become one of them — and two of them are:
1. The bigger venues have lots of seating for those who don’t care to be close to the stage (there are certainly some clubs that have “Limited/no” seating, but those are mostly dominated by hard rock/metal acts so who cares)
2. Prohibitions against excessively loud acts at the bigger venues. I’ve seen Suzanne Vega and Joe Jackson here, and neither is exactly known for raising the roof.
All that said, earplugs are a must for me if I am going to a concert that will be loud — I still have (mild) tinnitus from that Killing Joke concert that deafened us waaaay back when! Remember us leaving the venue and shouting “THAT WAS GREAT!” and “WOW THAT WAS LOUD” et al at each other on the way back to the car?
This was at Visage IIRC. The band apparently brought their stadium speakers to a tiny (but beloved) venue.
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Well I had a superb time at the Orlando show. I was dazzled by the level of virtuoso musicianship and how ambitious they were to take on some of these songs as a three piece. Some deep cuts along with everything you’d expect to hear. Don’t miss this show! And Terry and the fellows were friendly and generous with their time after the show as well.
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I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Peter Hook & The Light twice – once playing Unknown Pleasures in Sydney, Australia and the 2nd time at the legendary Fillmore in SF where they played both Joy Division & New Order’s Substance in full. The shows were incredible and Peter Hook gives the fans there money’s worth. The band sound great, the energy is off the charts and Peter truly appreciates the fans. He truly keeps the legacy of both JD & NO alive and plays songs NO never plays these days, having played every album in full through Get Ready to this point. Seeing them is a must and cannot be missed!
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RobC – Except I’m missing it RIGHT NOW. I’m cooking dinner and it’s got a while left. We’re taking a long weekend on Thursday [newsflash: no posts until next week after tomorrow…!] and I didn’t think it was the time to divert funds into a medium priced concert ticket with an out of town trip looming. Besides… I’m cooling on New Order.
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