Editing XTC (section)

===British reception===
Despite their "Englishness", the group's fanbase has been more concentrated in the US than the UK.<ref name="Harris2010"/><ref name="Staunton92">{{cite magazine|title=XTC: ''Nonsuch'' |magazine=[[NME]] |date=16 May 1992 |last=Staunton |first=Terry}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|As early as 1983, the vast majority of their fanmail was from the US.<ref name="George83"/>}} They refused to conform to punk's simplicity, a point that the British press initially criticised. Partridge believed "we were trying to push music into a new area. And so we had to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous name calling because we refused to just play stupid."<ref name="Filter2007" /> He recalled that when he played at a jam session with punk bands in the late 1970s, the drummer from [[X-Ray Spex]] shouted "Oh, you can fucking ''play'', can you? Oh, listen to ''him'', he can ''play''."<ref name="spex">{{cite web |last1=Nelson |first1=Sean |title=Failure Is Your Best Friend: Part Two of a Serialized Interview with Andy Partridge of XTC |url=https://www.thestranger.com/music/2016/04/20/23979872/failure-is-your-best-friend-part-two-of-a-serialized-interview-with-andy-partridge-of-xtc |website=The Stranger |access-date=16 November 2018 |date=20 April 2016}}</ref> In 1988, writer Chris Hunt observed that "XTC have largely not found favour in their homeland. To a nation that judges success in terms of tabloid coverage and appearances on ''[[Top of the Pops]]'', the retiring bards of [[Merry England|rural olde England]] didn't really strike too loud a chord with the record buying public. XTC had just become 'too weird' for their own good."<ref name="HuntPhaze" /> Musician and journalist [[Dominique Leone]] argued that they "deserved more than they ever got. From the press, the public, their label, and various managers, XTC have been a tragically under-appreciated band in every sense."<ref name="LeoneCoat"/>

Swindon did not have a respected music scene as other places in Britain.{{sfn|Farmer|1998|p=6}} Partridge cited the group's origins as the main reason for their ill-repute: "if we came from a big city like London or [[Manchester]], we would have probably have been heralded as more godlike."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Nelson|first1=Sean|title=Artistic Crap: Part One of a Serialized Interview with Andy Partridge of XTC|url=https://www.thestranger.com/music/2016/04/13/23950754/artistic-crap-part-one-of-a-serialized-interview-with-andy-partridge-of-xtc|website=The Stranger|date=13 April 2016|access-date=20 September 2017}}</ref> In another interview, he suggested that both their small-town origins and the [[Social class in the United Kingdom|British class system]] were reasons for a lack of appreciation in their native country: "XTC were clever and came from Swindon, so therefore we were crap ... I was always jealous of bands like [[Talking Heads]], who were doing similar things to us but were from New York, and therefore cool. But the English don't like normal people doing intelligent things."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/apr/02/xtc|title=Above average Andy |last=Hodgkinson |first=Will|author-link=Will Hodgkinson |date=2 April 2004 |website=[[The Guardian]]|location=London|access-date=31 October 2018}}</ref> He remembered the group being advised by their early management to change their accents and deny their Swindon origins, but "we thought it was a badge of honour, coming from the comedy town."<ref name="teamrock16"/>