Album · XTC
Drums and Wires by XTC
Drums and Wires is an album by XTC, released in 1979. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 45 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Making Plans For Nigel”, on 43 lists with a best position of #29.
Drums and Wires, XTC's third album, came out on Virgin on 17 August 1979, and the Swindon band has swapped the twitchy jitters of Go 2 for tunes you can actually hum. Bassist Colin Moulding was sick of the "quirky" tag, so they aimed for accessible, and the new man, guitarist Dave Gregory in for keyboardist Barry Andrews, gave Andy Partridge a second guitar to lock horns with. Wires for the guitars, drums for Terry Chambers' huge, booming kit: the title says it all.
It was cut in four weeks at the brand-new Town House in London, with Steve Lillywhite producing and Hugh Padgham engineering, and the pair were just starting to play with that gated drum sound; you hear it crack wide open on "Making Plans for Nigel", the opener and the band's breakthrough single. The songs poke at the lures of modern living and at people giving in to forces bigger than themselves, and Partridge even conceived the cover, the band logo shaped into a face.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Drums and Wires on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Making Plans For Nigel | 43 | #29 | – | 1988–2024 | |
| 2 | Ten Feet Tall | 2 | #1824 | – | 2002–2003 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.