XTC Le Palace, Paris 18 March 1982 Last European Live Concert

Le Palace ,Paris,France 18 March 1982
Broadcast live on Les enfants du rock on Antenne 2 TV
Andy walks off the stage during the first number
"Respectble Street".The rest of the band soon stop playing and follow him. It's announced that Andy is not feeling well.
The incident was immortalised on a 17 minute documentary broadcast in France on a Saturday TV show Megahertz on TF1.
It's also included footage of the soundcheck and a interview with Andy at the theatre caretaker's office before the concert.

[@deegish]

I was at this show! I had seen them the night before in Lyon, France and got to meet them backstage. The next day I took the train to Paris with a friend to catch this Paris gig. Sadly it was just one song until Andy walked off. Future biographies on the band explain what happened.. Everyone was really disappointed and could not understand what had gone wrong. I was lucky to have seen a full English Settlement show the preceding night so my disappointment was lessened in Paris. Through the years that followed they produced their real masterpieces like Syklarking, Mummur, Oranges and Lemons and certainly Apple Venus Vol.1 which to me is the finest album they ever released. Their live performances were fabulous but their studio work largely compensated the lack thereof of their live act.... Roger from Switzerland

[@SonicVineyard]

Roger Salem agree totalement... The best one

[@BassByTheBay]

Nice to see another long-time fan who considers AV Vol. 1 their best. Seems like most of XTC's older fans prefer the early stuff.

[@deegish]

Cheers! @@BassByTheBay

[@michaelthomas366]

I saw XTC play with Oingo Boingo and The Police back in tbe early 80's and it was great! Still am a big fan.

[@101Volts]

That was probably October or November 1980.

[@MikeGervasi]

He was suffering. Forced withdrawal off YEARS of valium had to be a nightmare. All that anxiety he suppressed all those years just hit him. I would rather we have him as we have instead of not having him at all.

[@Mudge07]

Mike Gervasi agreed, due to the social climate the sharing of his actual condition wasn’t apparent and would remain hidden for a considerable period thereafter. It’s is only now there is a gradual widening of the understanding of these type of health concerns in the general population. Andy joins many survivors of mental health issues rather than being found in more dire circumstances. His healing continues and hopefully his music, bar live performance, is part of that ongoing process.

[@StevieBunch]

Agreed. Trying to come off Valium is horrendous believe me

[@simonrogerson1285]

What a clever guy Andy is. If he'd persisted in trying to play live, there is every chance he would have died young and we would have never seen the fulfilment of his early promise. He had the self-awareness to get out and stay out, despite all the pressure that must have been brought to bear on him by the label, the bandmates, the fans. But he had the perspective to make the smart move, the right move for him. So he got to be a happier man (hopefully), and we got to see XTC mature as a band into something very special indeed. He abhors cliche, and neatly avoided becoming one himself.

[@BlueRidgeParkway]

Wow! Only a hardcore XTC could dig that video...and I loved it! I had never seen the lead-up rehearsal to that show. Andy seemed so normal, happy prior to the show. It was kind of like watching a car wreck that you knew was coming--I was wincing the entire time waiting for the inevitable drop of the guitar :-0 I had thought they played most of the concert before he walked off. But he left during the first song? Man, he must have really been freaked out! Imagine how the rest of the guys felt...do we keep playing? Do a bunch of Colin songs? I guess they followed him shortly afterwards. Poor Andy! Thanks so much for sharing :-)

[@c.mckenna1234]

Yeah, they did follow him. Poor boy. I felt the same as well - it was looking fixedly at the screen waiting for the guitar to be dropped.

[@peterbadore1338]

And he looked happy at the very beginning of the show. It just all happened at once, suddenly.

[@gerardmccavana4905]

XTC were a brilliant band...and Andy was such a superb songsmith. Ending his and the band's live appearances only produced all those wonderful albums and songs that were to follow

[@101Volts]

0:06 Senses Working Overtime (plays until 2:30) 6:10 Melt the Guns (plays until 8:55) 14:28 Respectable Street (Andy stops vocals at 15:55)

[@axntdcy1124]

Touring can be an incredible, horrible and taxing pain in the ass. If you've not done it, you just don't know. Andy did what HE had to do. Stopping allowed him all the more time to write the masterpieces he has. I am grateful for it. Let us take stock, instead.

[@wishicouldshowmyname5815]

I've been in a band and I can not imagine surviving a single tour, let alone repeated ones with the same people. I still stand in awe of any band that remained intact after such suffering. I guess it tells how devoted they were to the music. I don't know the taxing pain in the ass of touring, but I can imagine and I hate to think how I would lose my dear friends because of it. True grace under pressure. I am very happy for all was they produced as well all the other bands. Still hate the record company (Virgin) who fleeced them of their just rewards.

[@youandwhosearmy6339]

Reminds me of Syd Barrett. LUCKILY Andy is still with us and of course went on to make great music. Powerful stuff

[@BritishSexComedy]

Aw Andy, that's the first time i've ever seen it and it was quite upsetting. We love you man xx

[@jawoody9745]

I told him as much ("we love you"), when he signed my copy of Apple Venus Vol. 1, inside the Virgin record store in San Francisco many years ago. Andy Partridge is a brilliant songwriter and performer.

[@BassByTheBay]

@@jawoody9745 Lucky!! I met him at Tower in SF when Nonsuch came out but didn't get a signed copy. Had a brief but nice chat. I asked him what music he was listening to, and he was excited about The La's.

[@tsopuaifa]

Andy is possibly one of the most clever guys in Pop/Rock history. Miss him making music.

[@tsopuaifa]

The ending is so great him just leaving like that thinking, I remember him saying: "I don't own a chair. Why don't I own a chair." Hahahahahaha!!! Brilliant!

[@monkeytrousers]

I've never seen this in colour before. Thanks!

[@TheTibmeister]

Oh God that was awful. Ive suffered from panic attacks since 1979. To have one in those circumstances is unimaginable. And he was trying to fight it so hard. In bad spells i listen to classical music. But if i have to see my therapist or any MH treatment i have to blast out my deons with really heavy rock, Led Zep is a favourite although i rarely listen to them otherwise. Ive been on valium for 30 years and now on a massive amounts of other MH drugs including high doses of Halperidol. Ive recently signed on at a local MH facility- for acting classes. That one really surprises the people who know me. My answer to that is that it gives me chance to be someone else and not my miserable bloody self. I’m so glad you never stopped recording Andy, you’ve given me years of pleasure. Ive noticed recently that the people I’m most drawn to and whilst researching them i’ve found out they’re all fuck ups like me.

[@javiercasaslentijo8701]

yes i have panic attack sometimes and is the WORST thing can happened,and sometimes is so so hard...nothing can help you and seems you are dying,it's horrible..i always have trakimazin in the case this happen but i try to control it if possible

[@DjElSemtex]

Wow, I had read about AP's fear of performing 'live' bringing an end to XTC's touring days.. And here in the comments I read more about his mental state at the time.. And still being able to give us the gift of his wonderful songwriting... And looking back I'm even more happy to have enjoyed what probably back in the day was MY last opportunity to see, hear and enjoy XTC live, at the Amsterdam Paradiso, during the 'English Settlement'tour..

[@pascalmouille1062]

J'étais vachement content de pouvoir voir les XTC en concert, le meilleur groupe de cette époque pour moi. Quel malheur, on n'a eu droit hélas qu'à 2 minutes 35 de bonheur comme l'a dit après un journalisre de Best ou Rock'n'Folk. Heureusement qu'ils nous ont servi des albums sublimes après. Ce document, hélas d'assez mauvaise qualité y compris les sous-titres souvent illisible est un collector!

[@destinopil_379]

The brightest, most spectacular meteors tend to be the shortest.. Thank your lucky stars if you were fortunate enough to have seen them blaze across the stage for those few short years. I knew it was something you wouldn't forget if you were paying attention..

[@grega.4556]

I love that Andy loves Bach, Handel, Philip Glass, Steve Reich. Brilliant.

[@stoppropaganda2573]

This shows how hard the music business really is. Fake it till you make it or so it goes. Andy was falling apart and the show must go on and then it just doesn't anymore. I love this band and as upsetting as this was, it probably saved his life and in return we got many more years of genius music. The video upsets me but look at the positives that came from it. Now we need to find out what happened to Colin ... just as much a genius as Andy!

[@javiercasaslentijo8701]

PANIC ATTACK IS THE MOST HORRIBLE FEELING A MAN CAN HAVE..I SUFFERED SOMETIMES AND WHEN I CAN'T CONTROL IT, FEELS LIKE I'M DYING....AND CAN'T ESCAPE..

[@rafaelallenblock]

Possibly the saddest 97 seconds in Rock and Roll history.

[@squareeyedgit]

Aw man... Melt The Guns live... this could have been such an amazing tour... such a shame. For all their accomplishments after as a studio-only band, this period is still my favourite. They didn't really sound like anyone else at this point.

[@fuckamericanidiot]

I'm not even a huge fan of that song and it sounds great here!!

[@goctagonrecovery3270]

It's really crazy to see Andy's demeanor change so quickly. He looks so excited and natural, in his element, then all of a sudden he looks as if he's about to pass out. It's almost hard to watch.

[@unknownkingdom]

He is faking it

[@lunekitten]

@@unknownkingdomYO MAMAS FAKING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@phaedo1384]

Wow! Andy looked and sounded terrible here. I never fully understood until recently the troubles he was having at the time. Good thing he got himself better. XTC had much, much, more great music to create and share with the world. We are all lucky for that.

[@101Volts]

+Phaedo13 Andy didn't even want to answer the door when someone rung or knocked back in 1982-1983 after their touring days. Do you suppose he would've died like 28+ years ago if he kept on going? Maybe, I don't know. Then his kids wouldn't have been born.

[@ChrisHardyWorld]

wow, the interview answers explain a lot! sad video...

[@WarrenCromartie2]

I've so much respect for Andy P. Great musician and songwriter, and a wonderful interviewee. Had his coming off valium been managed better, the outcome could have been more positive. With slow withdrawel and talking therapy, he could of stayed in the game, but this was 1982. Attitudes and approaches to mental health were different then.

[@johnmccann8319]

Andy is a genius!God bless you and all in XTC.💚

[@ConglomerationCat]

"Dear Madam Barnum" captures this very moment.

[@Lisa-zr2su]

Andy is one of a kind!

[@HonkifriedCoyote]

too painful to watch... but as Andy recently tweeted: XTC played live longer than the beatles did

[@scottandrewbrass1931]

Which is absolute crap if he actually bothered to do the research.XTC never did at least two shows a day (for 6 full years )or gruelling 8 hour sets in some sweaty club in Hamburg. Try again Andy.

[@Hygienist-]

@@scottandrewbrass1931waaaaahhhhh

[@scottandrewbrass1931]

@@Hygienist- Very adult response. Well done.🥱🥱🥱

[@BassByTheBay]

Nice that Andy was able to get time off his librarian gig to do this show.

[@mjedgerley]

My gosh. Hearing Melt was great but to see Andy end it there was difficult to watch. Thankfully for him it was the best move. Sure love these guys, fantastic band great great albums. Wished I had seen them.

[@tacomadc]

Better him stopping touring than being dead in a hotel room somewhere. I so wish I had gotten a chance to see this band live though. If they did a tour it would be absolutely huge. Simple Minds toured last year and they played the NBA basketball stadium here! I was shocked. Shows how many people still love these great 80s bands.

[@davidstobie2751]

Every song is like a little journey through a Grimms fairy tale

[@jawoody9745]

Dammit!!! I had tickets for the Kabuki Theater in San Francisco in 1982 for the English Settlement tour, when the entire tour was cancelled by the time they got to San Diego, 3 days before, when Andy had his complete breakdown/meltdown!!

[@voitmusic]

It is painful to watch that last concert footage. As a suffer of panic attacks with benzo and alcohol addiction that feeling of dieing and dread is so overwhelming. You just want to get away but even that won't stop the panic attack. Poor guy. I love Andy and the band❤ The guys kept it going for a bit. It must have been pretty shocking for them to be left standing up there. What do you do? Does anyone know if they continued the concert playing Colin's tunes?

[@unknownkingdom]

Well its a known fact now that he was faking the whole thing. He just was angry that the band wasn't getting paid and didn't enjoy touring so he did this as a stunt to get out of it ad it worked. Look it up, the info is out there

[@budrowconye4928]

I know said look it up but multiple sources say Valium addiction, you have a source?

[@peterwoodhouse4314]

"I missed Capt. Beefheart by a few drinks!" Poor Andy. Great band.

[@telsutton]

Fantastic, Egidio.

[@sirramshacklemakeshift2782]

Very very nice material. For hardcore fans only. ;-)

[@RichardBelgium]

For me, the full final show was in Brussels, and what a show !

[@mightyV444]

Oh wow! Something within him just switched from one moment to the next! 😳 That must've been quite scary to himself, too!

[@blacktanks8962]

Amazing,worth it for 'Melt The Guns' alone!

[@krollpeter]

I agree that's a great rendition. For me it is amazing how much their playing improved within just 2 years. If they had limited their life gigs to certain venues and certain places ... but what do I say. Somehow i can not get rid of that feeling they could have been as big as the Beatles.

[@absolving]

exactly 36 years ago today!

[@arcrs40]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE XTC

[@rosievela9909]

Greatest Band Ever

[@ohdear2001]

Said no one ever

[@robsan52]

Saw them in Seattle 81"? We left the Police early and walked to our car. We were behind the Paramount and there they were hanging out in the door of their bus....what nice guys, had a nice talk. Having suffered from panic attack anxiety in my early 20's I can understand how he felt...WHY did his wife through his benzodiazepines away!! My feeling is he wasn't feeling the anxiety from the normal biochemical process, he was having full on withdrawels in front of an audience. Abruptly stopping benzodiazepines has been known to kill people....I know, she was trying to take care of the man she loved.

[@_BirdOfGoodOmen]

People just didnt know what could happen back then. Just watched the newish XTC doc and he said himself it was a case of two young and dumb people. His then wife says "you dont need this junk anymore" andy goes "y'know, you're right! I've been talking it since I was a kid and it doesnt do anything for me." And then the rest is history. He says he hated touring anyway but honestly it wouldn't surprise me if its post hoc rationalization. Not casting judgment. But the mind'll try to warp what it experiences and "I hated touring anyway so I figured to hell with it" sounds a heck of a lot better than "I had panic attacks and severe drug withdrawal." AP was forgetting how to play the freaking guitar it was that bad. People just didnt know at the time that you cant just quit cold turkey from valium.

[@Zepster77]

god they sound amazing before he stops... : (

[@101Volts]

To me, It sounds as if Andy wasn't very interested in performing before he walked off in this partial-concert.

[@dummytree]

They always sounded amazing live. What a band! Difficult to really know what happened in his head. Poor Andy!

[@greatunz67]

Are you kidding? it sounded like sloppy shit, like a high school band playing at their first talent show.

[@luizguilhermemoreirasales1548]

OH MERCI HELLO I FROM BRASIL THIS NICE 😎🇧🇷👌

[@Edward1312]

Partridge was excentric anyway so that's why I guess the rest of the band didnt really see the nervous breakdown coming but you can see its clearly on the cards here by watching the soundcheck. Reminds me of when Lennon was cracking up on stage (and writing songs like Help) and doing his imbecilic gestures. At least at the end Partridge had the good sense to try and protect his guitar before he dropped it! You can tell from that, he will be a guitarist to the v end.

[@musicbybackinnyc1]

awesome

[@101Volts]

This isn't the last concert they ever did, though. They performed one last time in early April (April fourth?) 1982 and that's the last one they did, Although they appeared on TV a bit after this including for an actual live (not mimed) performance on David Letterman's show.

[@DanimalistBoot]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/r6CQe3-IrLWipas

[@101Volts]

Thanks but the live performance of Books are Burning doesn't count as a "Concert" by the definition I meant; that performance was for TV and the April 1982 show was for a live audience but (so far as I know) wasn't recorded for TV.

[@donsheffler]

Yep. After this show in Paris, they went home, tried to restore, and then two weeks later packed up and flew to the U.S. The first show on the U.S. Tour was San Diego California on April 3 1982. I was there. The intermission was oddly long, like, really long. Looking back on it I am guessing Andy didn't want to finish the show. They did come back on and do a complete show, which was honestly really awesome. The next day they went up to Los Angeles for a show at the Hollywood Palladium, but Andy couldn't get on stage. They flew home and never toured live again.

[@duncan-rmi]

yikes.... didn't know he'd had it that bad, poor sod. what a shame. :-(

[@thepollyannasociety]

It hurts to watch this.

[@cquilty1]

thepollyannasociety Agreed. It's very bad. The singer is like a cross between kiddy fiddler jonathan king and harry potter. Tragic.

[@thepollyannasociety]

@@cquilty1 "kiddy fiddler"? Rich, with a name like yours.

[@cquilty1]

@@thepollyannasociety Ha! That's pretty good. And we all know your real name is Humbert Humbert...:) And you must admit - partridge the dullard does indeed look like jonathan king and harry potter.

[@thepollyannasociety]

Why do you dislike him?

[@cquilty1]

@@thepollyannasociety I don't dislike him per se and never said as much. Just find him and xtc mind numbingly dull/mediocre and nerdy, and simply do not get the under the radar adulation they garner. Him and the band are simply geeky, middle class, suburban, mummy's boy art students types with zero swagger, charisma or stage presence. And yes - I know they were good musicians, but you need more than technical merit to impress. Overcoming stage fright would be a start. A frontman with stage fright is like a rubber crutch. Fucking useless.

[@thielees]

Terry Chambers? I did not know that.

[@BeesWaxMinder]

GAH!! Live Gigs... I mean -Will we even have them any more post Covid?! I have to say my favourite sound checks (and the only ones that are ever useful IMO!) are when they simply sound check the entire band playing actual songs -like in this Vid! AND whenever I am the sound guy I always mix and monitor with the band actually playing and if a band insists on whacking their snare drum exactly as hard as they’ll NEVER hit it in the actual gig 30 times on its own followed by the same sort of nonsense with the kick drum 30 times on its own and yelling into a microphone by themselves I always say to them something along the lines of “what you feel the need to do in your psychiatric workshop is your own business but this gig is going to be all about actual music getting into the ears of a paying audience!“ (Needless to say only the audience ever appreciates me and I don’t often get asked back if I’m not playing!)🤣

[@twistedspanner]

Has Andy ever written an autobiography documenting his panic attacks. I couldn't believe it when I heard the story that his missus flushed his valium down the toilet mid tour. It must have been frightening for him for having been on them for so long. I suffer from panic attacks and have not done a gig for 20 years.

[@WarrenCromartie2]

Yeah, you can't just stop taking valium suddenly after having taken it for so long. I'm sure his wife meant well, but sadly she was clueless, as I guess many folks were back then when it came to this sort of thing.

[@bojackhorseman5367]

@@WarrenCromartie2 Yeah, an actual doctor advised her to do it. Really. Even medical professionals didn't know better.

[@SonicVineyard]

Fuck they were good!!!!

[@cosmicdrifter287]

i`m in xtc!

[@namph72]

wow I'm amazed this is out there such a shame for Andy and a shame for XTC that they never toured again c'mon ANDY an XTC performance one last time would be so good

[@Anglovox]

It HURTS me to see Andy in those DREADFUL "Mark David Chapman" specs...WTF?!

[@BrianSquiers]

Anyone know what the rest of the band said to the crowd after Andy walked off?

[@thenintendokid4750]

Brian Squiers They said that he was not feeling well.

[@intlangsol]

Brian Squiers I was there with a group of friends, I'd been a huge fan since White Music, had never seen the band live and this was, like, hey my band, playing in Paris during my student year abroad. Seriously pissed off when Andy disappeared. We all slow handclapped, said stuff like "too much speed", "drug casualty" etc... We weren't aware of his problems obviously. Did get refunded though :-) What a mercenary bastard I can be....

[@SonicVineyard]

Andy looks tired throughout the whole thing...no funnies or anything... Maybe because funny might not be so in French, possibly, but he definitely doesn't seem the self we all know and love...uncharacteristically quiet in fact

[@vcp93]

" ...could we have a bit more le Cow Bell?"

[@cheap25]

Cara...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

[@twitchygiraffe4636]

There is that myth that Andy suffered from stage fright, but personally I think he was pissed off with the band not getting much money from touring! He probably worked it out that the band would be better off just being a studio outfit that puts out a good album when the creativity was good, as the songwriting royalties would have been substantially more than the pathetic touring cash and I can't say I blame him if xtc were getting that badly ripped off by their management! I hope he and the band later sued the bastards for every penny they could get and finally got some management that was more honest and valued their efforts more!!!!

[@vincevirtua]

twitchygiraffe stage fright not so much a myth when Andy himself has said exactly that, repeatedly so!

[@tomallen5837]

Melt the Guns. Not that I'm knocking King Crimson (love 'em), but this song is just as good as anything they've done, technically.

[@101Volts]

The introit to "Melt The Guns" Souds as if it's in reference to Native Americans.

[@martingale7748]

Etre interviewer par Jackie Berroyer , il y a de quoi devenir dépressif

[@loontil]

poo sound