Rather like one of their albums, this "rockumentary" as Andy Partridge disses it, is suitably bright and quirky but with an undertone of bathos nonetheless. Hailing from darkest Swindon, the group's two main men, songwriters Partridge and Colin Moulding and fellow members some short-lived, some longer term, especially guitarist Dave Gregory, charted an irregular passage across the English landscape and beyond. Whilst they never achieved any great lasting commercial success, they flirted with the charts here and across the black sea in America fairly frequently although as one of their admirers here admits, their devoted fan-base probably never wanted their secret to get out to too many.I don't know all their music but adore their "Skylarking" album and possess this and their superb singles compilation "Fossil Fuel" in my collection.I liked the graphics interspersing the piece of toy-town models running around the countryside on some big express train, a metaphor not only for their nondescript small town roots but also their circular journey through the pop landscape arriving here and there at nowhere in particular.Group leader Andy Partridge dominates the narrative, he has the most to say for sure and whilst coming across occasionally like a self-important pain-in-the-proverbial, his passion for his (white) music and "his" band shines through. Colin Moulding, who probably ended up writing more chart hits for the group, along with long-time guitarist Gregory and drummer Terry Chambers, seem more down-to-earth and less flighty than Mr Partridge.There aren't that many actual significant events in the group's history the director can really go 2 for dramatic effect. Apart from the group's early inclusion in the punk / new wave movement, Partridge's psychosomatic illness which forced the group off the road, the furore in America of Partridge's bleak atheistic "Dear God", it's really just a tale of musical skylarking from first to last especially after the group stopped touring to concentrate on drums and wires studio work. Of course this is the road the Beatles took in the 60's and Partridge cheekily equates his group to the Fab Four's progress near the end of the film. Their fans and friends here include Stewart Copeland of the Police, Clem Burke of Blondie and a bunch of modern musicians I admit I didn't recognise, plus there's a neat rock-doc in-joke as Rick Wakeman makes his omnipresent drop-in appearance. So while I may be The Mayor Of Simpleton, I know one thing and that's that I liked this documentary.

If they had been more consistent XTC could had been up there with Madness as the sound of the 80s with the schoolkids of that era. Both bands were influenced by the Kinks.XTC came out with some quirky songs but they were catchy. Senses working overtime, Making plans for Nigel, Sgt Rock. Then they disappeared. Although they still made albums, were still the darling of the critics, they really did not bother the pop charts much at all.It also did not help that Andy Partridge suffered from stage fright as well as longstanding addiction to Valium.This tries to be an anti-rockumentary, Andy Partridge, now older and balder tells us so. He also bans Rick Wakeman from appearing in it.Despite this it tells a story of a band coming together, hitting the big time, some members falling out, getting ripped off by management as they made little from their live performances and then the decline.It is a must see if you are a XTC fan.