XTC’s Colin Moulding And Terry Chambers Announce First Live Gigs Since 1982
With their new band TC&I, the pair have announced a series of shows in their native Swindon.
Former XTC rhythm section, bassist/vocalist Colin Moulding and drummer Terry Chambers (first and second left in the above photo) have announced they will be setting foot onstage together for the first time in 36 years. The duo last played live together on XTC’s curtailed English Settlement tour in 1982, but with their new project, TC&I, they have announced an exclusive mini-residency at the Wvyern Theatre & Arts Centre in their native Swindon, Wiltshire.
TC&I, who released their debut Great Aspirations EP towards the end of 2017, will play at the Wyvern Theater on 29, 30 and 31 October and again on 1 November. Further dates are also expected to be announced in the next few weeks.
“These dates are probably commensurate with our output thus far. We’re not going to do the usual promoters’ circuit. Besides it’s kind of special this way. Like a stationary West End show or something,” Colin Moulding said of TC&I’s live shows.
“Exciting times. 18 months ago, I couldn’t see this happening – I’m as excited about these gigs as I was in 1973 playing our first gig at the Arts Centre Swindon as a 17-year Helium Kid, and the first time to be playing with Colin together on stage since [XTC’s last gig in] San Diego,” Terry Chambers adds.
XTC’s long-standing rhythm section will be joined by music veterans Steve Tilling on guitar and Gary Bamford on keyboards and guitar. This is not the first XTC encounter for multi-instrumentalist and session musician Tilling, the man behind Circu5, whose debut album The Amazing Monstrous Grady featured a guest appearance from XTC guitarist Dave Gregory.
In addition to their new material as TC&I, Moulding and Chambers plan to play a selection of the songs from the XTC catalogue written by Moulding several of which have never been played live due to the fact that the band stopped touring due to Moulding’s co-frontman Andy Partridge’s acute stage fright in 1982, not long before Chambers’ departure.
2018 marks the 40-year anniversary of XTC’s first studio album White Music. While XTC was founded in 1972, it wasn’t until 1979 that XTC had their first UK charting single. Moulding had written the first three charting singles, ‘Life Begins At The Hop’, ‘Making Plans For Nigel’, and ‘Generals And Majors’. Chambers left the line-up in 1983, while Moulding continued his partnership with frontman Andy Partridge through the group’s dissolution in 2006.
Partridge also announced the shows via Twitter where he said: “Well I never, CM and TC playing live. They should have done it years ago.”
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