''Apple Box'' is a

box set A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists and bands ...

by XTC compiling ''

Apple Venus Volume 1 ''Apple Venus Volume 1'' is the thirteenth studio album by the English rock band XTC, released in February 1999. It was the first on the band's own Idea Records label through Cooking Vinyl and distributed in the United States by TVT Records. T ...

'' and ''

Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) ''Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)'' is the fourteenth studio album by the English rock band XTC, released 23 May 2000 on Cooking Vinyl/ Idea Records. Defined by bandmember Andy Partridge as the "eclectric" counterpart to 1999's ''Apple V ...

'' along with their respective

demo Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to: Music and film * Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release * ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes * ''Demo'' (Deafhe ...

albums ''

Homespun Home spun literally refers to hand spinning, see spinning (textiles). Homespun may refer to: * Homespun fabric, especially that worn by American colonists who were boycotting British goods * "Homespun", pseudonym of Benjamin Franklin in '' The H ...

'' and ''

Homegrown Homegrown may refer to any plants grown in a domestic setting. It may also refer to: Music *Home Grown, an American rock band formed in 1994 * ''Home Grown'' (Geri Allen album), 1985 * ''Homegrown'' (Dodgy album), 1995 * ''Home Grown'' (Blue Mou ...

''. It is the third box set of their career following '' Transistor Blast: The Best of the BBC Sessions'' and ''

Coat of Many Cupboards ''Coat of Many Cupboards'' is a box set by English rock band XTC, released in 2002. It acts as an anthology of their 15 years on Virgin Records. It is their first compilation of any kind to include tracks by their alter-ego, the Dukes of Strat ...

'', released by

Idea Records XTC released 12 original albums and over 30 singles for Virgin Records, between 1977 and 1992. They signed to Cooking Vinyl for their final two albums in 1999 and 2000. Albums Studio albums Live albums Compilation albums Other albums ...

Track listing

UK CD: IDEACD 007

All songs written by

Andy Partridge Andrew John Partridge (born 11 November 1953) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer who founded the rock band XTC. He and Colin Moulding each acted as a songwriter and frontman for XTC, with Partridge writing and singi ...

, except where noted. ;''Apple Venus Volume 1'' #"River of Orchids" – 5:53 #"I'd Like That" – 3:50 #"Easter Theatre" – 4:37 #"Knights in Shining Karma" – 3:39 #"Frivolous Tonight (

Colin Moulding Colin Ivor Moulding (born 17 August 1955) is an English bassist, singer, and songwriter who was one of the core members of the rock band XTC. Though he was less prolific a songwriter than his bandmate Andy Partridge, Moulding wrote their first ...

) – 3:09 #"Greenman" – 6:17 #"Your Dictionary" – 3:14 #"Fruit Nut" (Moulding) – 3:01 #"I Can't Own Her" – 5:26 #"Harvest Festival" – 4:15 #"The Last Balloon" – 6:39 ;''Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)'' #"Playground" – 4:17 #"Stupidly Happy" – 4:13 #"In Another Life" (Moulding) – 3:35 #"My Brown Guitar" – 3:51 #"Boarded Up" (Moulding) – 3:23 #"I'm the Man Who Murdered Love" – 3:44 #"We're All Light" – 4:39 #"Standing in for Joe" (Moulding) – 3:42 #"Wounded Horse" – 4:11 #"You and the Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful" – 4:18 #"Church of Women" – 5:06 #"The Wheel and the Maypole" – 5:55 ;''Homespun'' #"River of Orchids" – 4:10 #"I'd Like That" – 4:47 #"Easter Theatre" – 4:52 #"Knights in Shining Karma" – 3:38 #"Frivolous Tonight (Moulding) – 3:06 #"Greenman" – 6:01 #"Your Dictionary" – 3:14 #"Fruit Nut" (Moulding) – 2:44 #"I Can't Own Her" – 5:06 #"Harvest Festival" – 5:17 #"The Last Balloon" – 5:17 ;''Homegrown'' #"Playground" – 4:25 #"Stupidly Happy" – 3:45 #"In Another Life" (Excerpt of original demo) (

) – 2:02 #"In Another Life" (

Jug band A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovep ...

version) (Moulding) – 3:44 #"Some Lovely" – 3:57 #"Boarded Up" (Moulding) – 2:56 #"I'm the Man Who Murdered Love" (Early 'other song' cassette idea) – 2:36 #"I'm the Man Who Murdered Love" (

Tamla Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''mot ...

version excerpt) – 0:39 #"I'm the Man Who Murdered Love" – 3:33 #"We're All Light" (Early cassette idea) – 1:14 #"We're All Light" – 4:32 #"Standing in for Joe" (

Lounge Lounge may refer to: Architecture * Lounge, the living room of a dwelling * Lounge, a public waiting area in a hotel's lobby * Lounge, a style of commercial alcohol-bar * Airport lounge, or train lounge (e.g., AMTRAK's Acela Lounge), a premium ...

version) (Moulding) – 2:41 #"Standing in for Joe" (Moulding) – 3:34 #"Wounded Horse" – 4:22 #"You and the Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful" – 3:46 #"Lie for a Lie" (Cassette demo) – 1:43 #"Church of Women" – 4:36 #"The Pot Won't Hold Our Love" (Early cassette idea) – 1:38 #"Everything Decays" (Early cassette idea) – 2:26 #"The Wheel and the Maypole" – 5:33 Purchase of the box set also provides instructions for downloading two non-album XTC tracks: #"Spiral" (Partridge) #"Say It" (Moulding)

Personnel

Peter Ashworth Peter Ashworth is an English photographer. Ashworth initially specialized in music photography, between 1979 and 2000. In the 1980s, he worked with many UK artists including The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, Soft Cell, Jimmy Page and ...

– photography *Ian Cooper – mastering *Steve Gullick – photography *

Valerie Phillips Valerie Phillips is a New York City-born fashion photographer, based in London. Biography Valerie's biggest influences are things she loved as a child: outer space, gymnastics, skateboarding and the paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. She grew u ...

– photography *Andrew Swainson – design

''Apple Venus Volume 1''

;XTC * Dave Gregory –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, keyboard programming,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

(Gregory left the band during recording) *

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

– vocals, guitars ;Additional musicians *

Mike Batt Michael Philip Batt, LVO (born 6 February 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, record producer, director and conductor. He was formerly the Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry. Having achieved substantia ...

–

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

s for "Greenman" and "I Can't Own Her" *

Haydn Bendall Haydn Bendall (born 13 April 1951, Essex, England) is an English record producer, audio engineer and mixer. He was Chief Engineer at Abbey Road Studios for ten years and was awarded the Audio Pro Industry Excellence Award for Best Studio Engine ...

– keyboards *

Guy Barker Guy Jeffrey Barker, (born 26 December 1957) is an English jazz trumpeter and composer. Early life Barker was born in Chiswick, London, the son of an actress and a stuntman. He started playing the trumpet at the age of twelve, and within a year ...

–

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...

and

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

solo on "The Last Balloon" * Nick Davis – keyboards *

Prairie Prince Charles Lempriere "Prairie" Prince (born May 7, 1950) is an American drummer and graphic artist. He came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the San Francisco–based rock group The Tubes, was a member of Jefferson Starship from 1992 to ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Steve Sidwell Steven James Sidwell (born 14 December 1982) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Sidwell was a product of the Arsenal academy, and after winning two FA Youth Cups, he had constructive loan spells at Brentfo ...

– trumpet solo on "Easter Theatre" *All arrangements played by The London Sessions Orchestra under their leader Gavin Wright ;Production *Haydn Bendall – original

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

*Nick Davis – additional production, engineering,

mix Mix, mixes or mixing may refer to: Persons & places * Mix (surname) ** Tom Mix (1880-1940), American film star * nickname of Mix Diskerud (born Mikkel, 1990), Norwegian-American soccer player * Mix camp, an informal settlement in Namibia * ...

*Simon Dawson – mix assistance *Alan Douglas – recording engineer *Barry Hammond – recording engineer *Tim Young – mastering

''Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)''

;XTC *

–

– vocals,

;Additional musicians *

Caroline Dale Caroline Dale (born 1965) is a widely recorded British cellist who currently plays principal cello for the English Chamber Orchestra and London Metropolitan Orchestra. She has also performed music for numerous films and played with a wide range o ...

–

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

* Nick Davis –

*Simon Gardner –

*Patrick Kiernan –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

*Peter Lale –

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

Holly Partridge ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family (biology), family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The speci ...

–

on "Playground" *

–

(2, 3, 4, 12) *

Chuck Sabo Chuck Sabo is an American drummer, musical director, songwriter, and producer who has performed and recorded with prominent artists including XTC, Natalie Imbruglia, Elton John, Tom Jones, Chaka Khan, Bryan Adams, Cher, Tina Turner, Pet Shop B ...

– drums (1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11) *

Kate St. John Kate St John (born October 2, 1957) is an English composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist. Classically trained on oboe, she gained a music degree at City University London. Her first band was The Ravishing Beauties with Virginia As ...

–

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

*Matt Vaughn – programming *

Gavin Wright Gavin Wright (born 1943) is an economic historian and the William Robertson Coe Professor of American economic history at Stanford University. He received his B.A from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. with distinction from Yale University. He ...

– violin ;Production *Haydn Bendall – recording engineering *Nick Davis – producer, mixing, recording engineering *Simon Dawson – mix engineer *Alan Douglas – recording engineering *Barry Hammond – recording engineering *

Bob Ludwig Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Quee ...

– mastering

''Homespun'' and ''Homegrown''

References

{{XTC Albums produced by Nick Davis (record producer) Idea Records albums XTC compilation albums 2005 compilation albums