The band may be over but the music lives on, and clearly many people would enjoy to hear it played live: they include Dave Gregory, who currently plays a number of XTC tunes with his band Tin Spirits. So the question arises: given that there will always be one or two bands somewhere in the world performing XTC's songs, who would we rather hear doing it:

1. A line-up of non-XTC members.

2. A line up of whichever original XTC members fancied doing it plus deputies for those that didn't.

Two suggestions for deps: Jakko Jakszyk (Schizoid Band): excellent guitarist / vocalist and Ricky Wilson (Kaiser Chiefs) vocals.

If you think that's way off the mark, please suggest alternatives! Thanks.

I'm all for seeing Dave & Colin live, but they probably wouldn't play the US would they? Sigh.

If ex-members wanna play live then great, but for me it would be better if it was their own new music. I think XTc stuff especially the older stuff should be put to one side. I was lucky enough to see Xtc live many times and to see some of their earlier stuff reproduced now in a lacklustre way is a bit embarrassing to be honest. Just my opinion but nothing lasts forever.

I take your point. Nobody wants to hear a pale copy . . . I just have a strong feeling that there's something about this music that sets it aside from most other pop repertoire - it needs to be kept alive and celebrated, not just by endlessly playing old records and reliving memories of the band's heyday. Though the group has dissolved, the music could still be performed to a high standard and have a new, 21st century life.

Furthermore, I think Andy Partridge would be given an enormous and much-needed shot in the arm by seeing first hand how deeply his listeners love his songs, which is why any XTC live revival would have to be left open to him changing his mind at the last minute and joining in (as he did, incidentally, on one of his songs being covered live by Aimee Mann in 1993 - check out the link:

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.) That looks like a smile to me!

Well, there isn't much else I can say. I'd love to see Colin put out a solo album, possibly featuring Dave, but who knows. Then, of course, I'd love Colin to do a supporting tour and at least play a few dates in the US (NYC even though it's 8 hours from me I would be there every night!). I have no problem with them playing some XTC songs, I've a huge fan of Colin's tunes anyway!