In the second half of the Eighties, punk/New Wave misfits XTC briefly became another band dedicated to Sixties psychedelia, The Dukes Of Stratosphear.
I remember seeing XTC once or twice in 1977 at what is now my local ‘Spoons pub, The Rochester Castle. But I missed the moment in the mid-Eighties when they briefly became The Dukes Of Stratosphear.
Part parody, part hommage to the British psychedelic music scene of the Sixties, what began as a joke ended up outselling the members’ main band.
The Dukes were an uncannily accurate hommage, right down to their pseudonyms of Sir John Johns (Andy Partridge), The Red Curtain (Colin Moulding), Lord Cornelius Plum (Dave Gregory) and E.I.E.I. Owen (Dave’s brother Ian Gregory).
Producer John Leckie got in on the act too, the production credits listed as “John Leckie, Swami Anand Nagara and the Dukes” – Anand Nagara being Leckie’s sannyasin name when he was a follower of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
Even the record company played the game, Virgin Records initially marketing and publicising the group as a mysterious new act, releasing their debut album – 25 O’Clock – on April Fool’s Day 1985.
So far, so silly. But what did they sound like, I hear you ask. Well, you can click on the link to find out. But it’s a fact that their two albums – 25 O’Clock and Psonic Psunspot – outsold XTC’s official albums of the time, The Big Express and Skylarking.
Partridge and Gregory conceived the project in 1979, envisaging the Dukes being an amalgamation of “your favourite bands from 1967.”
He had spent his teens listening to psychedelic records like See Emily Play and My White Bicycle, regarding psychedelic music as a grown-up version of children’s novelty records: “They use exactly the same techniques – sped-up bits, slowed-down bits, too much echo, too much reverb, that bit that goes backwards.”
It would be another five years before they found time to record an album after Partridge and Leckie were fired by Mary Margaret O’Hara from producing her album Miss America in 1984 and found some unexpected spare time.
Gathering their bandmates Moulding and Gregory (a fellow fan of pschedelia) and, as they had no drummer at the time, Gregory’s brother on drums, they recorded the album while dressed in paisley outfits in a studio filled with scented candles.
The group set themselves three rules: songs must follow the conventions of 1967-68 psychedelia, vintage equipment must be used (wherever possible) and no more than three takes must be recorded of each song.
After reuniting for their second album, XTC broke up the band, telling interviewers the group had been killed in a “horrible sherbet accident.” Partridge said later: “We only did the Dukes as a joke and as a thank you to all of the bands that made our school days colourful.”
Several proposed sequels, including a mock rock opera (The Great Royal Jelly Scandal), a Merseybeat prequel and a Glam Rock album (The Stratosphear Gang) but never came to fruition.
In 1993 Partridge conceived a spiritual successor to the Dukes with what he described as a “heavily sexual” bubblegum album but Virgin rejected it and XTC responded by going on strike against the label for several years (while also reworking and releasing some of the unreleased album’s songs on later LPs).
Years later the Dukes made a comeback when Partridge recorded two tracks under their name as part of a commission for Eurostar.
In a final irony, what began as something of a spoof ended up being so popular that new bands including The Stone Roses, Kula Shaker and The Shamen later recruited Leckie based on his production work for the Dukes.