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The pair got back together when Chambers who had been domiciled for 34 years in Australia literally turned up on Moulding’s doorstep.<\/p>\n
A trip to the pub ensued, during which Moulding casually mentioned he’d been working on some songs and within days the pair had decamped to the bassist’s garage to begin recording the\u00a0Great Aspirations\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>EP.<\/p>\n Now the duo are actively considering the possibility of live dates – quite a prospect, when you consider that XTC famously quit touring way back in 1982.<\/p>\n In a wide-ranging interview, Moulding – the man dubbed “the handsomest man in Swindon” – tells\u00a0Matt Catchpole <\/strong>what inspired the new songs and why his “scorched” relationship with\u00a0Andy Partridge <\/strong>makes a full XTC reunion unlikely.<\/p>\n Moulding wrote all four songs on\u00a0Great Aspirations<\/em>, but credits Chambers with providing the impetus to get them recorded.<\/p>\n “They never took on solid purpose until Terry arrived,” Moulding says affably. “I was thinking what the hell am I going to do with these things?\u00a0Since the band\u2019s demise in 2006, I kind of fell off the radar a little bit. I did some sessions for some people in America for a good few years. They kept coming back and saying do you want to do this, do you want to do that? But I was kind of looking for something and Terry Chambers turned up at my door.”<\/p>\n Moulding admits it was “a bit weird” playing with Chambers after such a long time, but it didn’t take long for the old chemistry to kick in.<\/p>\n “He was only in the country a week and I had him in a recording studio, so it was a bit forboding for him really. But he took to it like a duck to water,” Moulding says. “It was probably something to do with being born in the same town, within a mile of each other and within a month of each other. There was something in the water I think.”<\/p>\n Chambers’ enthusiasm and work ethic, honed from more than three decades in the construction industry Down Under, encouraged Moulding to up his own game.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s a strange thing what personalities can do and the make-up of bands, it triggers things,” Moulding says.<\/p>\n All four songs were written fairly recently, so Moulding felt no pressure to make them sound different to XTC.<\/p>\n “There’s been such a passage of time since the band dissolved,” he explains. “My mind was in a different kind of place.”<\/p>\n Kenny<\/strong><\/em>,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>the only song on the EP composed on guitar, takes aim at Academy School projects, which result in the loss of playing fields.<\/p>\n “I was school caretaker\u2019s son, see, so I had this enormous playing field at my disposal and it really nurtured my imagination,” Moulding reveals. “I think a lot of the problems with young kids now is that they don\u2019t get into things, they just hang about on street corners.”<\/p>\n Moulding argues that parents are seduced by the idea of schools becoming academies, but they are being sold a false prospectus.<\/p>\n “People think they must be getting something bigger and better, but an Academy is just a school, and if you\u2019ve lost a playing field and you\u2019ve lost all that beauty and nurturing kind of atmosphere. I think it\u2019s an unfair exchange.”<\/p>\n Moulding says the song was partly inspired by\u00a0Philip Larkin<\/strong>‘s poem\u00a0The Whitsun Weddings<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n “There\u2019s a line in there about somebody coming up to bowl. You see the playing field from the train and that\u2019s kind of what prompted it. I got this guitar riff that sounds very much like the motion of a train and then one thing led to another \u2013 a chain of thought.”<\/p>\n Comrades of Pop<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>was also written with youth in mind, but from a very different perspective.<\/p>\n Misinterpreted by some as a dig at Partridge, Moulding says it’s actually a warning to young bands about the dangers of the record business.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m towards the end of my career now, so I wanted to touch base with all the young popsters coming into the industry and say what you mustn\u2019t do is get mixed up with the money men, otherwise they\u2019re gonna really cause you some grief,” Moulding says with feeling.<\/p>\n “The people who say they\u2019re on your side are not necessarily on your side, especially if there\u2019s a paymaster involved in respect of a record company.”<\/p>\n Moulding argues that record companies will do anything to keep a band making records, including loaning them cash to pay off their debts.<\/p>\n But, the flip side is the band simply find those debts transferred to the record company, which gets its pound of flesh in the shape of low royalty payments.<\/p>\n “That\u2019s what happened with us really,” Moulding says ruefully. “We had to fund a court case against our ex-manager and Virgin were the paymaster because they could keep paying the legal bill.<\/p>\n “We started to wonder if they were really on our side because we kept getting these enormous bills and we never seemed to be getting anywhere. You\u2019ve got to be very careful.\u201d<\/p>\n Moulding is referring to the fallout from XTC’s court tase against ex-manager\u00a0Ian Reid<\/strong>, which eventually led to the band downing tools and going on strike in a bid to extricate themselves from a deal with\u00a0Virgin Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In return for helping to fund the case against Reid, Virgin had taken a huge slice of royalty rates from the sales of the band’s records, meaning that XTC struggled to make any profit, despite estimating that they’d earned Virgin around \u00a330m.<\/p>\n The final straw came in 1992, when outraged at Virgin’s rapid withdrawal of the Wrapped In Grey<\/strong><\/em> single – likened by Partridge to a baby being stifled in its cot –\u00a0the band withdrew their labour for six years, until Virgin finally terminated their contract.<\/p>\n In the song\u00a0Greatness<\/strong><\/em>, Moulding pays tribute to huge talents he admires, including\u00a0Paul<\/strong> McCartney<\/strong>,\u00a0Alfred<\/strong> Hitchcock<\/strong>, Steven Spielberg <\/strong>and George Gershwin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n But there’s a sting in the tail, as Moulding laments that it’s now “old fashion{ed} to aspire<\/em> and proclaims “I won’t wallow in the mire<\/em>“.<\/p>\n In a heartbeat the song turns into a critique of mediocrity; of art which doesn’t strive for well, greatness.<\/p>\n “I think we live in a country where everyone gets a prize now, you know,” Moulding says. “I think it wouldn\u2019t hurt if we had a few hard knocks. It toughens you up for the task in hand.”<\/p>\n He’s quick to point out that many other artists could have featured in the lyrics, if only they fitted the music.<\/p>\n “I could have probably named a hundred others, but it just wouldn\u2019t have had the scansion.\u00a0I wanted to put David Lean<\/strong> in, for example, but it wouldn\u2019t fit.<\/p>\n “You’ll notice I made the second verse American, the first English,” he laughs. “I thought I\u2019d better put a balance in, so I had my commercial head on even as I was writing it.”<\/p>\n I take the opportunity to ask what artists in the current music scene he admires and he’s temporarily lost for words.<\/p>\n “Somebody asked me this the other day and there wasn\u2019t a record that I could really say that I was really impressed with,” he explains. “If you hear something good it\u2019s generally on the fringes of the industry.”<\/p>\n After a pause he comes up with The La\u2019s album from 1988, before going on to recommend Allyson Seconds<\/strong>‘\u00a0Little World <\/strong><\/em>from 2016.<\/p>\n Moulding is equally underwhelmed by dominant chart performers like\u00a0Ed\u00a0<\/strong>Sheeran<\/b> and\u00a0<\/em>Adele<\/strong>.<\/p>\n “Generally there\u2019s nothing to get your teeth into. It\u2019s miserable crying in your beer stuff about relationships, there\u2019s too much angst and misery for my liking. I like optimism, if you can put it into a song, even if it\u2019s about death!”<\/p>\n Which brings us neatly to\u00a0Scatter Me<\/strong><\/em> (see video below) in which he directly confronts his own mortality.<\/p>\n Moulding says the song was stirred by walks he regularly takes along The Downs between Wantage and Swindon.<\/p>\n “When you\u2019re walking you\u2019ll come across a little shrine, a little cross put into the ground, with some flowers around it and a photograph and you think, well, somebody\u2019s ashes have been scattered there,” Moulding explains.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Colin-M-photo-1-med-res.jpg?resize=640%2C360&ssl=1\")
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