The Dukes of Stratosphear - Biography
Long before Beyonce claimed I Am...Sasha Fierce, before Green Day became the Foxboro Hot Tubs, or Garth Brooks pretended his name was Chris Gaines and that he had hair, an English band called XTC recorded a couple of albums under the pseudonym The Dukes of Stratosphear. What makes a perfectly successful band like XTC want to be an entirely different band? In 1985, when they adopted the pseudonym and recorded 25 O’clock (Virgin), Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding had been playing music together for nearly two decades. Terry Chambers had been with them since 1978. It would have made more sense for them to form side projects that were separate from XTC, giving themselves an opportunity to continue experiencing the joy of making music without the pressure that comes with being in a band of that stature. It would have made sense for them to want to get away from one another. However, it seems that XTC simply had an affinity for playing musical dress-up as much as they had an affinity for playing music together. During the holiday season of 1983, they recorded the Christmas single “Thanks For Christmas” as The Three Wise Men. Two years later, when the band felt the need to record some material that hearkened back to the days when psychedelic rock was at its peak, The Dukes of Stratosphear were born.
Things were going poorly for XTC in 1982. During a gig, the stage-phobic Andy Partridge collapsed mid-set due to nervous exhaustion and withdrawals from the Valium he'd been taking since his teenage years. Reportedly, his then-wife Marianne had flushed his supply down a toilet, leading to his attempt at quitting cold turkey. He collapsed once more in under one month's time because of a stomach ulcer. XTC canceled the rest of their tour. Drummer and founding member Terry Chambers quit the group after these incidents and the band made a vow that they would never again tour, or even play a live show. From then on, they would be a studio band.
XTC set to work right away and released Mummer (Virgin) in 1983. The Three Wise Men single followed that December. In 1984, they released The Big Express (Virgin), an album whose chart success was at least better than Mummer; chart success isn't an easily gotten thing if you're a non-touring band whose name isn't the Beatles. The Dukes of Stratosphear immerged out of all the free time XTC had since they weren’t touring. The idea was to record a one-off EP that celebrated (or parodied) the kaleidoscopic, psychedelic rock of the ‘60s, when the Beatles became Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967 Parlophone) and Jefferson Airplane made Surrealistic Pillow (1967 RCA). Along with the cheekily abstract band name (which was actually XTC's first choice for a band name years before) came individual pseudonyms that were just as ridiculous. Guitarist Andy Partridge became Sir John Johns. Bassist Colin Moulding became the Red Curtain (a variation on “Curtains,” the name his bandmates had given him long ago for his once-lengthy locks). David Gregory became Lord Cornelius Plum. They found a temporary drummer in Gregory's brother, Ian Gregory, who took the name E.I.E.I. Owen.
Tellingly released on April Fool's Day of 1985, 25 O'Clock (Virgin) was promoted not as the work of yet another paisley underground band, but as an authentic collection of found recordings from a never-noticed ‘60's psych-pop band. Whether it was the gimmick that worked or the strength of the songs themselves (and the songs are often fantastic), the six-tracked 25 O'Clock managed to do even better on the UK charts than Mummer or The Big Express. XTC had outsold themselves under a different alias. The tracks on the EP are faithful to the psych-pop genre, which is no surprise considering this was the exact kind of music that Partridge and Moulding loved and played as teenagers. The production credit went to John Leckie, the producer of XTC's first two records, as well as George Harrison's All Things Must Pass (1970 Apple/EMI). The greatest thing about The Dukes' EP is that even if the joke XTC was playing had been stripped away and it had been made in earnest, the songs would still hold their own. The band maintained the ruse well after the EP hit the shelves, denying that they had anything to do with it.
After 25 O'Clock, it was back to business as usual for XTC. They had another album to make under their main moniker and the situation would prove more stressful than they'd anticipated. Working with producer Todd Rundgren was a point of major frustration for Partridge, who wasn't used to being bossed around. The band voiced their dissatisfaction with their new material and all but denounced the album. Still, the band was able to come away from that experience with one of their greatest and most well-reviewed albums, Skylarking (Virgin), released in 1986.
Still neglecting to go on tour, the band decided to have some more fun and record another set as The Dukes of Stratosphear. In 1987, they released the full-length Psonic Psunspot (Virgin), which sounds more like an XTC album than an expansion on 25 O'Clock. The only real downside of that was that the band's anonymity was now in jeopardy. Other than that, it is a fine album, brimming with psychedelic overtones. Shortly after its release, XTC began admitting in interviews that they were in fact The Dukes of Stratosphear. It didn't come as much of a shock, given that Partridge made little attempt to disguise his voice as Sir John Johns. By the end of 1987, Psonic Psunspot and 25 O'Clock were fused into one reissued release called Chips From the Chocolate Fireball (1987 Virgin). Two years later, XTC recorded some songs that combined XTC's quirky nature with the psychedelia of The Dukes. The resulting LP, Oranges and Lemons (1989 Virgin), broke the Top 50 on both sides of the Atlantic.