Negli stessi giorni in cui è prevista la ripubblicazione in versione estesa in cd e Blu-ray di uno degli album più belli - ma meno fortunati - degli XTC, The Big Express (1984), Andy Partridge dà alle stampe Popartery, un prezioso volume che raccoglie una cinquantina di suoi acquerelli realizzati per accompagnare e illustrare brani tratti dal repertorio storico del gruppo. Lo distribuisce Burning Shed, in tiratura limitata.
“The Big Express is the closest we ever came to recording a 'concept' album. It’s full of Swindon and deep seams of life there, that run through myself, Colin, and Dave, (Terry too of course). It's populated by members of our families, our hopes and dreams. The things we wished for, or feared, a stew of memories.” (Andy Partridge)
Just as music gets under your skin, art can leave a lasting impression. As for arteries, there’s that connection to the heart, the indelible imprint that a great tune, a keenly observed lyric, a striking image all share. The front cover image of Popartery sums it up appropriately. It’s one of a series of 56 watercolours that Andy Partridge painted as the individual centerpieces of dustjackets for an extremely limited run of hardcover books some years back. With the exception of a couple posted on the internet, the original paintings were only seen by the recipients. Fortunately, Andy had each of them scanned and preserved by his longtime art associate Andrew Swainson. Andrew had redrawn three of the paintings for a limited series of prints but the idea of bringing all of them together became a frequent point of discussion until the idea of a book featuring the complete set emerged. Each of the 56 paintings is also accompanied by a note from Andy discussing, variously, the origins of the songs, the visual imagery used and other pointers of interest.
https://burningshed.com/xtc_the-big-express
https://burningshed.com/andy-partridge_popartery