ANDY himself has been known to assemble cassettes of his latest demos for record company people, potential producers, journalists and even fans and friends. Who can resist the lure of sharing the wealth with a friend? Thanks to the Internet and the classified ads in the back of THE LITTLE EXPRESS, these demos are always available to anyone with something worth trading for. Early PARTRIDGE bands such as HELIUM KIDZ, STAR PARK and early XTC recorded demos in pro recording studios in the early-to-mid 1970s. XTC continued to demo their album material in professional studios through 1982.

In the early 1980s, PARTRIDGE acquired what must've been one of the first four track Portastudios of the modern age. He set up his the studio in his attic, where he recorded many of the tracks that got the ball rolling for ANDY PARTRIDGE THE HOMETAPER. Recording songs that were clearly not earmarked for XTC, using guitars, bass, drum machines, keyboards and whatever percussion instruments were available. Songs from this period include the jangly "Jacob's Ladder" (also known as "Now We're All Dead"), the silly "Peck The Ground Like Chickens" and the sillier "Don't You Ever Dare Call Me Chickenhead." Many other recordings from this period comprise JULES VERNE'S SKETCHBOOK, an official cassette released in the mid 1980s by the Canadian XTC fan magazine THE LITTLE EXPRESS.

JULES VERNE'S SKETCHBOOK is a blueprint for all hometapers to work from. The songs are inventive and unique, and are delivered with undeniable verve. The liner notes say: "These songs were recorded on a four track cassette machine in the spare bedroom or attic using guitars, keyboards, drum machines and voices, with the odd tambourine or saxophone thrown in." And using, by today's standards, very limited instrumentation and recording equipment, PARTRIDGE traversed very diverse and stunning sonic terrain. The melodies and the tones all congeal in a fashion that is neither BEATLEY nor old-fashioned. One is struck by how the compositions still sound oddly futuristic, even after 10+ years. An eternity in the music instrument + technology biz. "Young Cleopatra" is the first track and it was also rehearsed for the XTC album MUMMER. It's an uptempo "rock and roll adoration of a young girl" with several middle-eastern sounding motifs running through it. Like a hyperactive cousin to "Garden Of Earthly Delights" from the 1989 XTC album ORANGES AND LEMONS. "Happy Families" later appeared on the soundtrack to the 1980s John Hughes film "SHE'S HAVING A BABY." "Work" is an amazing, enduring pop gem. The lyrics are PARTRIDGE's paranoid fantasy of having to grow up and get a real job "look at me smile, look at me doing their work, you see me shovel in the dirt, my how I sweat, but I don't mind 'cause it's work, you got me rolling up my shirt..." "Obscene Procession" is more in line with PARTRIDGE's current material, a mutant version of an orchestra. In this case though it's more of a morbid parade of everything that's wrong with humans, a theme he continued to explore at greater length on a number of later songs. "When We Get To England" is a touching folk song, just acoustic guitar and singing. "Disque Bleu" is an insanely touching ballady folk song that PARTRIDGE calls "nearly the soppiest thing I've ever written." Instant classic. And, like the majority of the tracks on JVS, it never appeared on an XTC album.