Tracklisting is on the site...9 Discs.

Holy crap. Sounds cool, but expensive.

Doubt I'll shell out for this anytime soon since I still haven't gotten several of their albums.

Andy's gone all Pollard on us.

That motherfucker. I've bought every one of these things except the two that are coming out soon, and now he's going to sell this box with all of them and an exclusive disc only available in the box?! What a fucking asshole. This might just terminate my interest in XTC right here - that's a fucking piece of shit thing to do to all the people who bought all these EXPENSIVE import discs for the past few years.

Why don't you sell them before everyone else finds out about the box and then use the money to buy it when it comes out

Are they ever going to release a new album?



<---- was just listening to English Settlement recently.

I love them so much and have everything, but I am not interested in wading in the Fuzzy Warbles grab bag. I just know I would listen once for the curiosity and then never again.

He's also releasing the Apple Venus stuff with Instrumental Versions and full demo versions.

Come on. Write ten songs and sell them online. Is he just a lazy wanker? First no playing live - and now, not even moving ahead and writing new material? Bullshit.

So this is an official U.S. release of the Fuzzy Warbles discs? That is good for me because I neglected buying them since they were imports and expensive. With all the anger from the people who have the Fuzzy Warbles albums about the ninth disc, perhaps when I buy the set I could use one of those big-file-sending-sites to allow their ears the pleasure of hearing that stuff. Just a thought...

Usually, that's what I say about demos, too, but these are excellent - some are completely different versions than what you know, and are of such high quality that they sound like finished verions.


For the third time. First they were released as separate discs (Homespun and Homegrown) and then online "exclusively" as the Apple Box with Apple Venus and Wasp Star with "exclusive" access to two new songs, a shirt, lyrics, and some other crap. And then it came out a short while ago in stores, if they bothered to carry it, so the "exclusivity" was rather short-lived, no?

But here's where I'll steer you clear of the demos - I bought Homespun and Homegrown thinking they'd be like the bootlegs of demos I'd gotten from other fans through the years, but they weren't - they were boring, nearly identical to the album versions. Stay away, no need to go there unless you really, really want everything.

I suppose I'll end up buying the last two volumes of Fuzzy Warbles and just miss out on that separate disc, but that didn't stop me from sending off a strongly worded email from their site's contact page. I really don't know how they thought this deal could possibly have pleased anyone - most of the fans who would have bought the box have already bought the Warbles, so they're just screwing over the very people they want the money from. Dumb move for someone who probably needs the money - because Virgin's still screwing them over for their backcatalog, from what I read.

Yeah, I got these back as the single discs. They are pretty amazing testiments to Andy's skills at home recording and creating gorgeous, fully flesh-out arrangements (especially with his rudimentary musical knowledge), but really one listen is enough. "Hey, he did a good job!" Then back to the real studio versions.

I'm probably alone here, but I find it slightly unseemly to so thoroughly mine your demos, also-rans, and odds-and-sods in this manner. I mean, nine discs! Dude's got a right to earn a living, but it seems like picking the bones of the past while refusing to write new songs.

And I pretty much never get around to mail ordering anything. I knew he'd do a box one day.

Given the number of times he's released and re-released the Apple Venus/Wasp Star cash-ins, I'm sure that exclusive bonus disc won't remain exclusive for long.

Well, I do see your point, but the fans love this stuff - really shitty versions have been going around for years and they decided to release good versions and make back some of the money they lost fighting Virgin for a decade (plus the money they'll never see from Virgin) and I don't blame him for that. If the fans want this stuff, why not sell it to them? I really enjoy them - they're really fun to listen to when I feel burned out on the album material, and there are some real unreleased gems mixed in there. But I think he's getting greedy and desperate now - this is a really nasty move. Hopefully other fans will do as I did and speak their mind about doing this by contacting them.

But they are writing new songs. There are 5 or 6 new songs available on the site somewhere that you can buy and download. I'm holding out, I'm sure they'll be on the new album, whenever that appears.

Just read on the XTC forum on the official site that there is going to be a deal for those of us who have bought all of the discs so far to get this box and the disc. Real snotty little asshole running their official shop, too, who responded with this:


I actually got an individual email from this guy that was even snottier, said something to the effect of "oh dear you're an unhappy little bunny, aren't you?" Gee, I don't know - you announce a box with exclusive material and no plans to help out the fans who've invested in the previous 6 discs and you act like you're surprised we're upset? Sounds to me like they had no plans to offer anything to the previous buyers until they saw the "vitriolic comments." It's easy to point fingers at "lemmings" after the fact, isn't it? Maybe they might want to question why everyone jumped to conclusions in the first place - there's usually a precedence.

Much to my pleasant surprise, Ryko is doing a domestic distribution of the Fuzzy Warbles set.

Walked into Borders last night with a 30% off coupon, not knowing what I was going to buy, and walked out $56 poorer but much happier.

out of hand and uncalled for marketing bullshit.
and i love xtc.

The resurrection of a thread called "XTC fans" with the content about refried demos and assorted warbles = cock tease.

Yeah--"XTC Freaks" or "XTC Zealots" would have let the plain old fans know not to get too excited.