Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)

Recorded at Idea Studios, Wiltshire, England (6/11/2001)...

...and at Chipping Norton, where Dave again plays his Fano (Feb. 1998)

Wasp Star was produced by XTC and Nick Davis, and was engineered by: Alan Douglas, Barry Hammond, & Haydn Bendall at Chipping Norton Studios, Oxfordshire, England, between April and December 1999. The album was mixed by Nick Davis at:

Rockfield Studios

Click on image above to visit the Rockfield website.

Wasp Star was first released on May 22, 2000 in the U.K. where it reached number 6 on the Indie album charts (the equivelent of "alternative" charts in the U.S. and Canada where it climbed to 2 and 22 respectively).

Partsy plays his somewhat brown guitar at Idea Studios (6/11/2001)

The band was then comprised of:

Andy Partridge - vocals and guitar.
Colin Moulding - vocals and bass.

Additional Musicians:

Chuck Sabo - drums.
Prairie Prince - drums.
Matt Vaughn - programming.
Nick Davis - the more complicated keyboard parts.
Kate St. John - oboe.
Simon Gardner - flugelhorn.
Gavin Wright - violin.
Patrick Kiernan - 2nd violin.
Peter Lale - viola.
Caroline Dale - cello.
Holly Partridge (yes, Andy's daughter)- backing vocals.

The Treble Chef hard at work at Idea Studios (6/11/2001)

The album featured these classic XTC tracks:

1. Playground
2. Stupidly Happy
3. In Another Life
4. My Brown Guitar
5. Boarded Up
6. I'm The Man Who Murdered Love
7. We're All Light
8. Standing In For Joe
9. Wounded Horse
10. You And The Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful
11. Church of Women
12. The Wheel and The Maypole

Much thanks to Mitch Friedman and Dennis and Meridith Fano for the use of these images.