XTC - BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert (1980)

This is a notable recording for a couple reasons. One, it's awesome. The band tears through a set comprised of material from their earliest albums, the XTC era that I'm most fond of, and they sound great doing it. Second, since these guys swore off live performances (aside from some very occasional one-off radio and television appearances) in 1982, the simple fact that this exists at all makes it an important historical document. Supposedly, Andy Partridge suffers from extreme stage fright, a condition that effectively put an end to the live XTC experience. It doesn't seem to have been an issue here, however. He's in terrific form throughout. My humble opinion is that this LP is just as essential as most of their studio work, and the listenability might even exceed some of it. (Please note that the preview below is taken from a different BBC recording. No luck finding one from this release.)

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