Rave reviews for XTC Bumper Book of Fun

The first reactions to The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls are in and they couldn't be better. I'm delighted.

Writing for Cent Magazine, Samantha Burke says:
XTC was one of the smartest British bands to emerge from the punk and new wave explosion of the late ’70s, by not fitting into the contemporary trend of music, the band earned a devoted cult following which spanned over two decades after their first albums. Back after 25 years, the classic 1980s fanzine about XTC is on sale again! The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls is a 256-page edition of Limelight. To be published on 2nd October, this special anthology edition is varied, surprising and fun

Better still, writing for Prog, Dom Lawson gives this rave:
It might be hard to appreciate exactly how rabid XTC’s global diehard fan base can be unless you subscribed to Mark Fisher’s Limelight fanzine in the early 80s. But those people are out there, and every one of them will be buying this. A sumptuous compendium of highlights from the zine, The XTC Bumper Book… could easily have been an inessential scrapbook, but thanks to the unique way that the prog pop titans’ fans pore over every last detail with joyous intensity, this is more of a treasure trove than a toilet book. With extensive interviews with all the key players and numerous revealing snapshots from important moments along the band’s early journey, not to mention a tricky crossword, this arguably amounts to the most comprehensive and incisive book about XTC yet published. And if you’re still wondering what all the fuss is about, the brilliant Kevin Eldon pops up in a fascinating feature about British comedians and their love for XTC and says this: “So many of their songs… have a sort of fountain ideas and feelings and imagery, thick and fast. It’s why you can listen to an XTC song for the 500th time and still hear something for the first time.” Nail/head, sir.


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