Hello XTC friends. I posted a scan of a letter on the Andy Partridge of XTC page earlier with a link to the other letters I received from Andy in the late 70s and early 80s. Not sure if the link worked so here is the full set. As I explained earlier, I wrote to Virgin Records requesting information about the band and whether there was a fan club. I was pretty gobsmacked and delighted that Andy replied in person! I sent several letters over the next 2 years or so and Andy replied when he could. He also phoned my house as I had put my phone number on my letter, rather optimistically. He spoke to my mum briefly who handed the phone to me: Its Andy Partridge!. Rather than clam up as this 15-year-old was prone to doing on the phone, I was racing away with my questions and opinions for what I recall now as being at least 10-15 minutes. He began one of his letters Dear Mick (and his Mum) with reference to this conversation. A while later I would point him out to her when he appeared on the TV on Top of the Pops and other programmes. I did not copy any of my letters or note down any of the phone conversation, I later wished I could have recorded these. The letters stopped after the Paris incident, just as well for his sake that he reduced his workload. I later felt mildly guilty that I may have in some way contributed to his overload by insisting he reply to my letters! I was very grateful that he would take to time to reply personally to his fans and still think him a great bloke. Im sorry Andy if I had the audacity to write anything negative or critical in those naïve teenage letters (reading the subtext), please excuse the folly of a young (old) Hampshire boy.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 13:43:34 +0000