Black Sea

Recorded at the TownHouse Studios, London, England, June-July 1980.

Converted from film studios in 1978 by the Virgin Group, the award-winning Town House Studio complex is conveniently situated in West London approximately 30 minutes from Heathrow and 20 minutes from Marble Arch. Within its walls lie some of the most comprehensive facilities available, with three state-of-the-art Recording Studios, including 5.1 Surround Sound; full Post Production facilities for the recording and film industries, including four Mastering Suites (one with 5.1 Surround Sound) and Town House Vision (for film, television and video gaming); and Programming Rooms; comfortable accommodation and a dedicated staff on hand to help you achieve your goals. (from TownHouse website)

Click on image above to go to the TownHouse Studios website.

Olympic and The TownHouse: The EMI-Virgin Group in West London. Comprising one division of the EMI Studio Group -- the other being the multiroom complex at Abbey Road -- The TownHouse and Olympic Studios are located in, respectively, the Shepherd's Bush and Barnes suburbs of West London. Richard Branson's Virgin Studios Group opened TownHouse in 1978 (as an urban companion to The Manor in Oxfordshire), and purchased Olympic a decade later. In 1993, the entire operation was purchased from Virgin by Thorn/EMI. "Our primary clients are bands and artists producing live music," says operations director Ian Davidson, responsible for overseeing both facilities "They like our large, spacious tracking areas. But we also have a great selection of outboards when it comes time to mix."

Celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year, The TownHouse comprises three SSL-equipped music-recording rooms, plus a quartet of mastering suites, located within a former film studio. Studio 1 houses a 72-channel SL-4000 G-Plus, Studio 2 a 72-channel SL- 9000 J-Series, and Studio 4 a 72-channel SL-4000 E-Series with G-Series automation. (Studio 3 used to be the former Ramport Studios in nearby Battersea, which was purchased from The Who in the Eighties but since closed.)

Four mastering suites and copy rooms are available, the former equipped with a trio of Sonic Solution editors and a Fairlight FAME system. "Between 25 and 30% of our capacity is for EMI Music," Davidson reports, "The remainder is booked by outside clients. We also plan to upgrade the Sonic units to 96 kHz/24-bit operation. And we are considering converting the FAME room to handle sound-for-picture, which would be a better use of that system." (from TownHouse website)

The album was produced by Steve Lillywhite and engineered by Hugh Padgham. Black Sea was released in September of 1980 in the UK and climbed to 16 in the UK charts and cracked the top 50 in the US. You've heard of folks being "big in Japan," right? Well, XTC were "big in New Zealand," where Black Sea hit number one in their album charts.

The band was then comprised of:

Andy Partridge - on guitar and electric seal (vocals)
Colin Moulding - on bass (vocals)
Terry Chambers - just keeps on 'ittin the drums
Dave Gregory - bags of barmy guitar and keys

In Andy's words (from the Nonsuch promotional item)

The album featured these classic XTC tracks:

1. Respectable Street
2. Generals and Majors
3. Living Through Another Cuba
4. Love at First Sight
5. Rocket From a Bottle
6. No Language in Our Lungs
7. Towers of London
8. Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins)
9. Burning With Optimism's Flames
10. Sgt. Rock (is Going to Help Me)
11. Travels in Nihilon

In the neighborhood?