The special guest in today’s episode of What Do You Call that Noise? The XTC Podcast is Steve Lillywhite who, in 1979, was the 24-year-old producer of Life Begins at the Hop, XTC’s first single featuring Dave Gregory, followed by Drums and Wires and then 1980’s Black Sea. All these years later, he still looks back at it as a charmed period of his life.

The six-time Grammy Award winner has also worked on the first three albums by U2, Peter Gabriel’s third solo album, Fairytale Of New York with The Pogues and the first and only album by The La’s.

Music from Ashley Smith.

What Do You Call that Noise? The XTC Podcast is sponsored by Burning Shed, the online home for all XTC CD, vinyl and official merchandise.

What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book available from www.xtclimelight.com

If you’ve enjoyed What Do You Call That Noise? The XTC Podcast, please show your support at https://www.patreon.com/markfisher

Thanks to the Pink Things, Humble Daisies and Knights in Shining Karma who’ve done the same.

Published on 16 July 2026, Record Collector presents… XTC is a whole magazine dedicated to Swindon’s finest. If features interviews with Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, Dave Gregory and Terry Chambers, as well as insights from Steve Lillywhite, John Leckie, Hugh Padgham, Nick Davis and Mike Batt.

To mark the occasion, this episode of What Do You Call That Noise? The XTC Podcast brings together editor Jeremy Allen and contributors Imogen Bebb, Huw Thomas and Mark Fisher to go behind the scenes on this special magazine.

Song courtesy of Paulcito.

Record Collector presents… XTC

Paulcito on Bandcamp

What Do You Call that Noise? The XTC Podcast is sponsored by Burning Shed, the online home for all XTC CD, vinyl and official merchandise.

What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book available from www.xtclimelight.com

If you’ve enjoyed What Do You Call That Noise? The XTC Podcast, please show your support at https://www.patreon.com/markfisher

Thanks to the Pink Things, Humble Daisies and Knights in Shining Karma who’ve done the same.

In this episode of What Do You Call That Noise? The XTC Podcast, author Jon Woolcott talks about The Tattooed Hills, his new book about the chalk figures of southern England, including the Uffington White Horse, cover star of XTC’s English Settlement. “It’s timeless, simple and classic,” Andy Partridge tells him in the final chapter of the book.

With fellow XTC fan Chris Badley, we talk about the culture of the countryside and the influence of the landscape on everything from Chalkhills and Children to The Wheel and the Maypole.

Music from Matthew Caleb Flamm

The Tattooed Hills

What Do You Call that Noise? The XTC Podcast is sponsored by Burning Shed, the online home for all XTC CD, vinyl and official merchandise.

What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book available from www.xtclimelight.com

If you’ve enjoyed What Do You Call That Noise? The XTC Podcast, please show your support at https://www.patreon.com/markfisher

Thanks to the Pink Things, Humble Daisies and Knights in Shining Karma who’ve done the same.