XTC Wiki

GO 2 was XTC's second album. It released in 1978, less than a year after their previous album, White Music. The album made it into the top 30, peaking at #21.

It was reissued by Geffen Records in 1991


Track Listing[]

All songs written by Andy Partridge, except where noted.
  1. "Meccanik Dancing (Oh We Go!)"
  2. "Battery Brides (Andy Paints Brian)"
  3. "Buzzcity Talking" (Colin Moulding)
  4. "Crowded Room" (Moulding)
  5. "The Rhythm" (Moulding)
  6. "Red"
  7. "Beatown"
  8. "Life Is Good In The Greenhouse"
  9. "Jumping In Gomorrah"
  10. "My Weapon" (Barry Andrews)
  11. "Super-Tuff" (Andrews)
  12. "I Am The Audience" (Moulding)
  13. "Are You Receiving Me?*"
*Bonus Track in some countries, included in most re-releases.

Info[]

The Album was recorded in Abbey road studios London During September and August of 1978.

It was produced and engineered by John Leckie with assistant engineers Haydn Bendall and Pete James with Andy Llewlyn and Jess Sutcliffe at Matrix.

Go 2 was originally released on October 13 1978 in the U.K.. It reached number 21 on the U.K. album chart.

It is the only studio album of XTC's to feature songs written by Barry Andrews, though most of his contributions were scrapped and released later on Coat of Many Cupboards with only two remaining in Go 2. Barry also played a lot of instruments on this album, including the Crumer group 49 cheesy organ, the Farfisa Organ, a Lawrence electric piano, a Wurlitzer E-piano, a Mini-Moog, a Clavnet, and a Steinway grand piano. The album was originally going to be titled Strong And Silent and XTC Go 2.

Album Cover[]

The cover was very different from XTC's other covers. Instead of having a picture on the front, it had words, with the back cover containing more, plus a photograph of the band.

The essay reads:

"This is a [place album format here in all capitals] COVER. This writing is the DESIGN upon the [place album format here] cover. The DESIGN is to help SELL the [place album format here]. We hope to draw your attention to it and encourage you to pick it up. When you have done that maybe you'll be persuaded to listen to the music - in this case XTC's Go 2 album. Then we want you to BUY it. The idea being that the more of you that buy this [place album format here] the more money [place record company here], the manager Ian Reid and XTC themselves will make. To the aforementioned this is known as PLEASURE. A good cover DESIGN is one that attracts more buyers and gives more pleasure. This writing is trying to pull you in much like an eye-catching picture. It is designed to get you to READ IT. This is called luring the VICTIM, and you are the VICTIM. But if you have a free mind you should STOP READING NOW! because all we are attempting to do is to get you to read on. Yet this is a DOUBLE BIND because if you indeed stop you'll be doing what we tell you, and if you read on you'll be doing what we've wanted all along. And the more you read on the more you're falling for this simple device of telling you exactly how a good commercial design works. They're TRICKS and this is the worst TRICK of all since it's describing the TRICK whilst trying to TRICK you, and if you've read this far then you're TRICKED but you wouldn't have known this unless you'd read this far. At least we're telling you directly instead of seducing you with a beautiful or haunting visual that may never tell you. We're letting you know that you ought to buy this [place album format here] because in essence it's a PRODUCT and PRODUCTS are to be consumed and you are a consumer and this is a good PRODUCT. We could have written the band's name in special lettering so that it stood out and you'd see it before you'd read any of this writing and possibly have bought it anyway. What we are really suggesting is that you are FOOLISH to buy or not buy an album merely as a consequence of the design on its cover. This is a con because if you agree then you'll probably like this writing - which is the cover design - and hence the album inside. But we've just warned you against that. The con is a con. A good cover design could be considered as one that gets you to buy the [place album format here], but that never actually happens to YOU because YOU know it's just a design for the cover. And this is the [place album format here in all capitals] COVER."

On the actual cover artwork the labeling of the album's formats is used in place of the words "[place album format here in all capitals]" in its display of the essay on the album's various formats. The display of the essay on the LP started and ended with the words "This is a RECORD COVER", the display of the essay on the cassette started and ended with the words "This is a CASSETTE COVER" and the display of the essay on the CD started and ended with the words "This is a COMPACT DISC COVER".

On some editions of the album, some of the words are missing and appear only on a poster included inside the album. The poster must be aligned correctly with the cover to read the complete text. The poster featured a very unflattering group portrait, plus contributions from each of the group: a paean to his parents' kitchen by Andy Partridge, a series of 'roots' photographs by Barry Andrews, a smashed cardboard box used as a drum by Terry Chambers, and 'Colin Moulding's Street Plan of SWINDON' a map which noted various events in the bass player's life, including his loss of virginity (indicated by a golf flag with a '1')

Go +[]

Main Article, Go +.

Early pressings of the album included a bonus disc entitled Go+ which contained dub versions of 5 songs from Go 2.

Track Listing[]

  1. "Dance With Me, Germany" (Meccanik Dancing (Oh We Go))
  2. "Beat the Bible" (Jumping in Gomorrah)
  3. "A Dictionary of Modern Marriage" (Battery Brides (Andy Paints Brian)
  4. "Clap Clap Clap" (I Am the Audience)
  5. "We Kill the Beast" (The Rhythm)