For the XTC album SKYLARKING in 1986, PARTRIDGE and MOULDING wrote over thirty songs, which were submitted to producer TODD RUNDGREN in demo form on cassette. RUNDGREN immediately formed a powerfully cohesive song cycle using 14 of their songs.

His choices reflected the vision that XTC would find greater favor with American audiences (the record company's new target for them) if they dropped some of the more off-putting elements of their songwriting, like ANDY's highly political lyrics and the band's frequent jagged midsong time signature changes. This left a large handful of the songs in the great reject pile PARTRIDGE had already amassed. Of the discarded gems, four were released officially on the b-side of "The Meeting Place." All four are rife with the elements RUNDGREN sought to avoid on SKYLARKING.

Beginning with the highly political "Terrorism," with its cynical, faux-Indian music bed and its lyrics about the evils of religious terrorism (which was very popular in the mid-late 1980s). "Let's Make A Den" is a weirdly uptempo love song with latently political lyrics. COLIN MOULDING's "Find The Fox" is a drumless indictment of the sport of fox hunting. "The Troubles" is a skittery uptempo faux Bo Diddley number with lyrics that call for an end to the political strife in Northern Ireland. Among the songs not selected for official release was "Gangway For Electric Guitar," an unusually rockin' number for the decidedly un-metallic PARTRIDGE. Great lyrics objectifying the electric guitar as sex object, tool and best friend.

After the success in America of SKYLARKING and in particular the video for the song "Dear God," a clearly reinvigorated PARTRIDGE returned to his home studio to craft the next big-ass batch of songs. Aside from the 15 tracks on the 1989 XTC album ORANGES AND LEMONS there were many that remained in four-track form. Four were released as b-sides to the "Mayor Of Simpleton" and "King For A Day" singles. Those include the lifechangingly good and heartwrenching and magnificent "Living In A Haunted Heart," which truly qualifies as the anthem for anything with a broken heart. The mournful swing and the painful melancholy of the perfect lyrics combine to create one of PARTRIDGE's greatest songs. Another "Mayor" b-side is the note-perfect cover of CAPTAIN BEEFHEART's "Ella Guru," recorded on four tracks by ANDY and COLIN. ANDY was later quoted saying "MIKE KENNEALLY (former ZAPPA guitarist) says it sounds like a quantized version of the original." I agree.

Also left off the citric mass of ORANGES AND LEMONS were two pivotal PARTRIDGE tracks: "Everything" and "This Is The End." "Everything" is a wounded second cousin to "Living In A Haunted Heart," with what must be the second-most painfully affecting lyric PARTRIDGE had written to date. "has there been a thief in your storehouse, stealing all the memories?" "This Is The End" would've made a great closing track on ORANGES AND LEMONS were that slot not already spoken for. It's just a hint of the big-time melancholia PARTRIDGE would later explore. "I don't wanna hear you've been crying, I don't wanna hear you've been trying to revive it, let it go, let it lay down, and if it won't stay down that's the surest sign that something new's beginning..."

Around 1990, with the attic threatening to collapse on his house, PARTRIDGE moved the recording gear out to his shed. Every man must have a shed to keep him sane, just ask COLIN MOULDING. The PARTRIDGE Shed has since taken on vast mythic proportions for such an architecturally small building. Hordes of artists eager to collaborate with PARTRIDGE have made pilgrimages to The Shed. MARTIN NEWELL's album THE GREATEST LIVING ENGLISHMAN was recorded there. The seeds of the collaboration album with HAROLD BUDD were sown there. Several songs were written for and with CATHY DENNIS (yeah baby), NICKY HOPKIN, and TERRY HALL among others. Among the first things recorded in the Shed were demos for the next album, NONSUCH.Due to an unexpectedly long gestation period, copies of the demos had plenty of time to circulate before the album's release.

In 1991, a full six months before NONSUCH appeared, THE LITTLE EXPRESS released its second cassette of XTC demos, WINDOW BOX which was available for one day only at a fan convention in Ontario. "Always Winter Never Christmas" seemed like the perfect song to open an album with, uptempo and energetic, with music that is at odds with the less-than-chipper tone of the lyrics. "Rip Van Ruben" is in the fine tradition of the DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR's beerhall singalongs. It was later released on flexi disc in 1992 in the magazine FLEXI. PARTRIDGE's embarrassment over the lyrics incorrectly crediting THE WIZARD OF OZ to FRANK L RICHARDS may have prevented it from being pursued for the album. But then again, who can be sure?!? COLIN's "Bungalow" had all of the interestingness beaten out of it when it was recorded for NONSUCH. "It's Snowing Angels" sounds like a perverted LEON REDBONE. On WINDOW BOX, the track is credited to the DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR, but it was also credited to CHOC CIGAR CHIEF CHAMPION when it was slated to appear on a flexi disc for STRANGE THINGS ARE HAPPENING magazine. The magazine went belly up before the flexi was released.

Of the 26 songs circulating in 1991, 17 appeared on NONSUCH. I choose to blame producer GUS DUDGEON for rather insanely leaving off such perfect pop masterpieces as "Goosey Goosey"(a massive, childlike singalong with a chorus only slightly less catchy than cholera), "Goodbye Humanosaurus," (great lyric about the evils of man "we treat the earth like it was dirt") "I'm The Man Who Murdered Love" and the previously mentioned "Rip Van Ruben" in favor of relative dreck like "Holly Up On Poppy." Not to mention the confused take on "Then She Appeared." (Are we the DUKES or are we XTC?) And COLIN MOULDING just got screwed, his best songs weren't even recorded for the album. Can someone explain to me in a rational tone why "Where Did The Ordinary People Go" wasn't pursued? Easily COLIN's most massive hit ever. And his "Car Out Of Control" mined the same melancholy vein usually tended to by PARTRIDGE. Sigh.