The Compact XTC

But that was sprung on me very quickly. I didn't really have much of a grasp of what compact discs were when they did The Compact XTC. I don't even know if I had a compact disc player. ~ Andy Partridge

WL: What can you tell me about the character on the front of The Compact XTC, the singles CD?

AP: Again it was a case of I'd sketch something and send it to Dave Dragon [Design Clinic] and he would then finish it off. But that was sprung on me very quickly. I didn't really have much of a grasp of what compact discs were when they did The Compact XTC. I don't even know if I had a compact disc player.

WL: Was that the first XTC stuff released on CD?

AP: I think it was. Virgin just basically rang me up and said, "Look, we're going to put out a compact disc of the singles. And what do you want to call it?" [Andy jokingly stammers here - as if he were ever at a loss for words or ideas] "You know, thanks for giving me some notice fellas!" [laughter] I basically rang back about ten minutes later and said, "I don't know, The Compact XTC? Because it sounds kind of squashed and reduced, we'll have

a very colorful sort of looking toy character." I mean literally, the first thing that sprang into my head on the word "compact" was a jack-in-the-box harlequin type figure compressed in a box, ready to spring out. And I sketched some stuff and posted it off to Dave Dragon and he painted that up; tidied up the sketch and did it properly. And that sort of turned-round version became the other side and so on. But that was done so quickly, that was almost instantaneous. I would have liked some more time to have designed that.

WL: It came out great.

AP: It quite served its purpose.

WL: Oh, it's classic XTC.