Editing XTC (section)

===''Mummer'' and faltered popularity===
[[File:Andy Partridge comic book.jpg|thumb|Partridge in the studio, 1988. His refusal to tour caused long-standing tensions with the label.<ref name="XTCAMbio"/>]]

During the middle months of 1982, Partridge spent his time in convalescence and writing songs.<ref name="Mojo1999"/> He later surmised that relinquishing Valium inadvertently gave him a new sense of creative direction: "I was thinking clearer and wanted to know stuff. Life's big questions."<ref name="MagnetSkylarking">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2016/03/28/magnet-classics-xtcs-skylarking/ |title=The Making of XTC's "Skylarking" |last=Amorosi |first=A.D. |date=28 March 2016 |magazine=[[Magnet (magazine)|Magnet]]|access-date=13 March 2017}}</ref> In the interim, Chambers moved to Australia and started a family. Feeling dismayed by Partridge's decision not to tour, he had to be persuaded to return to Swindon for the next album's rehearsals in September. At one rehearsal, Partridge recalled asking Chambers for "tiny, cyclical, nattering clay pots", which he replied sounded "a bit fucking nancified".<ref name="Mojo1999"/> The newly-wed Chambers soon left the band to be with his wife in Australia.<ref name="Mojo1999"/>

Drummer [[Pete Phipps]], formerly of [[the Glitter Band]], was quickly hired as a session musician to continue the recording sessions—XTC would never again employ a permanent drummer after Chambers' departure. In the meantime, Virgin released a greatest hits compilation, ''[[Waxworks: Some Singles 1977–1982]]'', to underwhelming sales. The group's new material was rejected by Virgin executive Jeremy Lascelles, who suggested that they write something more commercial. Partridge remembered, "He asked me to write something a bit more like The Police, with more international flavour, more basic appeal."<ref name="Mojo1999"/> Lascelles said that he had actually named [[Talking Heads]], not the Police: "Andy likes to portray us as the strict, stern schoolmasters, but we never wanted him to compromise at anything we thought he was good at. Here were very talented songwriters – surely, surely, surely they can come up with that elusive thing that is a hit single. That was our psyche."<ref name="Mojo1999"/>

After some remixing and additional songs at Virgin's behest, ''[[Mummer (album)|Mummer]]'', the first product of the studio-bound XTC, appeared in August 1983.<ref name="Mojo1999"/> Virgin did little to promote the album and delayed its release by several months.<ref name="Mojo1999"/> At number 58, it was their lowest-charting album to date.<ref name="OCC" /> The one single that did chart, "[[Love on a Farmboy's Wages]]", did find significant airplay on BBC Radio 1.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Stafford |first1=Bob |title=Oranges & Lemons |magazine=[[Melody Maker]] |date=1989 }}</ref> It was the first of a handful of XTC songs written over the years that reflected their poor financial state.<ref name="Dom2000" />

Virtually every contemporary review of ''Mummer'' accused the band of falling out of touch with the contemporary music climate.{{sfn|Twomey|1992|p=134}} Journalist Serene Dominic retrospectively wrote that the album was seen as "something of a disappointment at the time of release ... [It was] devoid of silly songs like 'Sgt. Rock' that had heretofore been the band's stock-in-trade and didn't rock out until the last song, 'Funk Pop a Roll.' ... ''Mummer'' signaled a strange rebirth for XTC."<ref name="Dom2000" /> Moulding thought that "when we came back from America after our aborted tour of 1982 ... people like [[Spandau Ballet]] had moved onto the scene; new groups were coming up and there was no place for us."<ref name="RB2002"/>{{refn|group=nb|When asked for a favourite song by Spandau Ballet, Partridge responded: "I used to see them on TV and I wanted to kick in the set. How dare the TV force such crap on me?! They had appalling lyrics! Appalling music! Least favorite band in the history of foreverness! They were a bunch of bankers, for God's sake!"<ref name="Lexicon99">{{cite magazine |title=XTC: Take Another Bite... |magazine=Lexicon |date=1999 |issue=11}}</ref>}} ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]'' journalist Chris Ingham summed up the period: "In 18 months, XTC had gone from Top 10 hits and critical superlatives to being ignorable, arcane eccentrics. Partridge later said "Your average English person probably thinks we split up in 1982".<ref name="Mojo1999"/>