{"id":248,"date":"2017-08-08T11:20:43","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T11:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesquirrel.org.uk\/?p=248"},"modified":"2026-01-02T12:18:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T12:18:05","slug":"white-music-january-1978-xtc-in-the-shires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/2017\/08\/08\/white-music-january-1978-xtc-in-the-shires\/","title":{"rendered":"White Music – January 1978 – XTC in the shires.."},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nWhite or Red Stripes? The out-takes from cover photo session for Virgin first album.
\nYou can see the cans of lager in these other photos. The record company airbrushed out on the actual cover below!<\/h6>\n

January 28th 1978 I am 19 years old and on my one year foundation course at Oxford Polytechnic just as PUNK was filtering into the shires….we were a year behind London \ud83d\ude42 I remember watching in awe the previous autumn as a guy on the course purchased the Buzzcocks first album complete with designer silver grey plastic bag and showed it off.<\/p>\n

I had a birthday in January 1978 and as money was so tight that was my first opportunity to buy a punk album. I only had three options in my little hometown of Didcot, Oxfordshire.<\/p>\n

The Lays Electrical shop where I had bought my glam rock 7 inches off the pegboard walls or W H Smith which was vinyl central then or Woolworths.<\/p>\n

It turned out Woolies was more PUNK….<\/p>\n

I remember to this day looking through the rack and seeing three or four options..The Damned, XTC, Iggy Pop’s The Idiot and the red compilation of ‘New Wave’. I plumped for the Iggy Pop album for some reason and took it home over-excited. This ended as I put it on the tiny dansette hidden in my parent’s old sideboard….it was warped so badly it didn’t play.<\/p>\n

So I took it back and had only two choices…the red compilation or this weird album by XTC called White Music…it looked punky and I had no idea they were down the road in Swindon.<\/p>\n

White Music it was…<\/p>\n

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I now listening to a digital version for first time in years..was way ahead of me then and still sounds exciting now. Not a bad choice and somehow over the years I lost my original copy…..will keep a look out for a replacement on vinyl for old times sake.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile here what I listening to in a sideboard on a mono dansette in January 1978 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

A dub version of All along the watchtower….FFS \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Swindon Boys and recorded at the Manor Oxford…..local post modernism \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Did it influence my art not much…but it was the soundtrack:-)<\/p>\n