XTC co-founder Colin Moulding releases his new three-track EP, “Want It Bad (The Pep Talks and Playing Fields of Old England)”, on CD via Burning Shed on September 18. The release lands 47 years to the week after XTC’s “Making Plans for Nigel,” the Moulding-written single that gave the band its first UK Top 20 hit in 1979.

Presented in a four-panel digisleeve and available exclusively through Burning Shed, “Want It Bad” is a physical-only release; digital files are provided to press for review and airplay purposes only. The title track is joined by “Something About The Boy (James Bond Demo for Female Voice)” and a stripped-down “Want It Bad (Demo).”

“Making Plans for Nigel,” written and sung by Moulding, was released in 1979 as the lead single from XTC’s third album, “Drums and Wires.” It became XTC’s first UK Top 20 hit and remains one of the band’s best-known recordings.

The title track began, in Moulding’s words, as something closer to a sports talk than a song. “Although this song started life as a sporting pep talk, it was clear that it could easily be thought of as a mantra for one’s own life ambitions, whatever they may be. If you want something in this life you have to really want it. And if you really want it, you’ll get it — that was my mantra,” he says.

The cover artwork, by Andrew Swainson, and the accompanying video, directed by Thomas Walsh, both draw on “Les Coureurs” by French painter Robert Delaunay. Moulding explains how the image came about: “I was scouting around for a cover that would signify human endeavour. I had written ‘Want It Bad’, which basically amounted to a pep talk by a sporting coach to his team. Football perhaps… something made me think of the runners on the beach in the film Chariots of Fire. After many permutations, Andrew, my artwork designer, said ‘What about Delaunay and his runners?’ and when he showed me, there was no doubt.”

The second track, “Something About The Boy (James Bond Demo for Female Voice),” traces back to a long-held ambition to write a Bond theme. “I was a big James Bond fan. My father had taken me to see the first three – ‘Dr No’, ‘From Russia with Love’, and ‘Goldfinger’… in the 1960s. I had secretly nursed an ambition that one day John Barry and I would work on a theme together,” Moulding says. “So here then was my idea to put to John Barry. Only trouble was I had to sing it myself to demonstrate the female lead.”

The closing “Want It Bad (Demo)” documents the song’s earliest stage. “Quite simply, it’s my working demo knocked out in about an hour with a hand-held 57 microphone, different lyrics, and no bass. This is something for the musos, I guess,” he notes.

The EP was written and produced by Moulding, mixed by Stuart Rowe, and mastered by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering. Cover artwork is by Andrew Swainson, the video by Thomas Walsh, and press photos by Geoff Winn.

“Want It Bad” is Moulding’s second solo EP, following 2021’s “The Hardest Battle,” both released via Burning Shed, where his catalogue with XTC and TC&I is also available.

About Colin Moulding

Colin Ivor Moulding was born on 17 August 1955 in Swindon, England. He took up bass guitar as a teenager after hearing Free’s “All Right Now,” and in 1972 began jamming with local musician Andy Partridge. Their band went through several names, including Star Park and the Helium Kidz, before settling on XTC in 1975, with Terry Chambers on drums.

Moulding wrote several of XTC’s earliest hits: “Life Begins at the Hop” (1979) became the band’s first chart entry, “Making Plans for Nigel” (1979), from the album “Drums and Wires,” gave XTC its first UK Top 20 placing, and “Generals and Majors” (1980), from “Black Sea,” became their first US chart single. In 1980 he also released a solo single, “Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen,” under the pseudonym “The Colonel.” In 1984, Moulding co-founded the Dukes of Stratosphear, XTC’s psychedelic alter ego project, whose recordings anticipated the 1980s Paisley Underground revival.

XTC released 14 studio albums before disbanding in 2006, with Moulding contributing songs and bass throughout, including “Wonderland” from “Mummer” (1983), “Grass” and “Dying” from “Skylarking” (1986), and “King for a Day” from “Oranges and Lemons” (1989). Outside XTC, he contributed bass and vocals to recordings by artists including Sam Phillips, Anton Barbeau and Days Between Stations, and appeared on Billy Sherwood-produced tribute projects covering Pink Floyd and Supertramp.

In 2017, Moulding reunited with original XTC drummer Terry Chambers as TC&I, releasing the “Great Aspirations” EP. The pair, joined by a full band including Moulding’s son Lee, played a series of shows at the Swindon Arts Centre in 2018, drawing on Moulding’s XTC-era songs; highlights were released in 2019 as “Naked Flames: Live at Swindon Arts Centre.” Moulding released his solo debut EP, “The Hardest Battle,” in 2021. “Want It Bad” is his second solo EP, arriving as XTC’s “Making Plans for Nigel” marks its 47th anniversary.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com