Apple Box is a box set by XTC

XTC

XTC were a New Wave band from Swindon, England, active between 1976 and 2005. The band enjoyed some chart success, including the UK and Canadian hits "Making Plans for Nigel" and "Senses Working Overtime" , but are perhaps even better known for their long-standing critical success.- Early years:...

 compiling Apple Venus Volume 1

Apple Venus Volume 1

Apple Venus Volume 1 is the twelfth studio album by British band XTC, released in 1999. It was the first on the band's own Idea Records through Cooking Vinyl and distributed in the United States by TVT Records. It reached #42 in the UK...

and Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)

Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)

Wasp Star is the thirteenth and last studio album by XTC, released on Cooking Vinyl/Idea Records on 23 May 2000. It is the second volume of the Apple Venus set....

along with their respective demo

Demo (music)

A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...

 albums Homespun

Homespun

Homespun is a demo album by XTC released by Cooking Vinyl and Idea Records. A companion to Apple Venus Volume 1, it has the same running order as its parent album...

and Homegrown

Homegrown (XTC album)

Homegrown is a demo album by XTC, released a year after its parent album Wasp Star on Idea Records and TVT Records. It was reissued in 2005 as part of the Apple Box.- CD: IDEACD 004 :...

. 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

Coat of Many Cupboards is a box set by XTC released in 2002. It acts as an anthology of their fifteen years on Virgin Records. It is their first compilation of any kind to include tracks by their alter-ego, The Dukes of Stratosphear.-Disc one:...

, released by Idea Records

Idea Records

Idea Records is a British independent record label. It was established in the late 1990s by Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding, the two main members of the British rock band XTC, and was set up to release the band's own recordings...

.

UK CD: IDEACD 007

All songs written by Andy Partridge

Andy Partridge

Andrew John "Andy" Partridge is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has been known as Sir John Johns and Melchior and rose to fame as a founding member, guitarist and chief songwriter of the pop/new wave band, XTC. He lives in Swindon, Wiltshire, where he was raised.Partridge also...

, except where noted.

Apple Venus Volume 1

1. "River of Orchids" – 5:53
2. "I'd Like That" – 3:50
3. "Easter Theatre" – 4:37
4. "Knights in Shining Karma" – 3:39
5. "Frivolous Tonight (Colin Moulding
   Colin Moulding
   Colin Ivor Moulding is a bassist, songwriter and vocalist. He is a founding member of the band XTC. Though less prolific than bandmate Andy Partridge, Moulding wrote many of the group's most popular songs, including their first three UK hit singles: "Life Begins At The Hop", "Making Plans For...
   
   ) – 3:09
6. "Greenman" – 6:17
7. "Your Dictionary" – 3:14
8. "Fruit Nut" (Moulding) – 3:01
9. "I Can't Own Her" – 5:26
10. "Harvest Festival" – 4:15
11. "The Last Balloon" – 6:39

Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)

1. "Playground" – 4:17
2. "Stupidly Happy" – 4:13
3. "In Another Life" (Moulding) – 3:35
4. "My Brown Guitar" – 3:51
5. "Boarded Up" (Moulding) – 3:23
6. "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love" – 3:44
7. "We're All Light" – 4:39
8. "Standing in for Joe" (Moulding) – 3:42
9. "Wounded Horse" – 4:11
10. "You and the Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful" – 4:18
11. "Church of Women" – 5:06
12. "The Wheel and the Maypole" – 5:55

Homespun

1. "River of Orchids" – 4:10
2. "I'd Like That" – 4:47
3. "Easter Theatre" – 4:52
4. "Knights in Shining Karma" – 3:38
5. "Frivolous Tonight (Moulding) – 3:06
6. "Greenman" – 6:01
7. "Your Dictionary" – 3:14
8. "Fruit Nut" (Moulding) – 2:44
9. "I Can't Own Her" – 5:06
10. "Harvest Festival" – 5:17
11. "The Last Balloon" – 5:17

Homegrown

1. "Playground" – 4:25
2. "Stupidly Happy" – 3:45
3. "In Another Life" (Excerpt of original demo) (Colin Moulding
   Colin Moulding
   Colin Ivor Moulding is a bassist, songwriter and vocalist. He is a founding member of the band XTC. Though less prolific than bandmate Andy Partridge, Moulding wrote many of the group's most popular songs, including their first three UK hit singles: "Life Begins At The Hop", "Making Plans For...
   
   ) – 2:02
4. "In Another Life" (Jug band
   Jug band
   A Jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of traditional and home-made instruments. These home-made instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making of sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, stovepipe and comb & tissue paper...
   
    version) (Moulding) – 3:44
5. "Some Lovely" – 3:57
6. "Boarded Up" (Moulding) – 2:56
7. "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love" (Early 'other song' cassette idea) – 2:36
8. "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love" (Tamla version excerpt) – 0:39
9. "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love" – 3:33
10. "We're All Light" (Early cassette idea) – 1:14
11. "We're All Light" – 4:32
12. "Standing in for Joe" (Lounge
    Lounge music
    Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
    
     version) (Moulding) – 2:41
13. "Standing in for Joe" (Moulding) – 3:34
14. "Wounded Horse" – 4:22
15. "You and the Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful" – 3:46
16. "Lie for a Lie" (Cassette demo) – 1:43
17. "Church of Women" – 4:36
18. "The Pot Won't Hold Our Love" (Early cassette idea) – 1:38
19. "Everything Decays" (Early cassette idea) – 2:26
20. "The Wheel and the Maypole" – 5:33

purchase of the box set also provides instructions for downloading two non-album XTC tracks:

1. Spiral (Partridge)
2. Say It (Moulding)

Personnel

• Pete Ashworth – photography
• Ian Cooper – mastering
  Audio mastering
  Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
  
  
• Steve Gullick – photography
• Valerie Phillips
  Valerie Phillips
  Valerie Phillips is a New York born fashion photographer, based in London.-Biography:Valerie's biggest influences remain the things she loved as a kid: outer space, gymnastics, skateboarding and the paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti....
  
   – photography
• Andrew Swainson – design

Apple Venus Volume 1

XTC

• Dave Gregory – piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  , keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  , keyboard programming
  Programming (music)
  Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock...
  
  , guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  s, backing vocals
  Backing vocalist
  A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
  
   (Gregory left the band during recording)
• Colin Moulding
  Colin Moulding
  Colin Ivor Moulding is a bassist, songwriter and vocalist. He is a founding member of the band XTC. Though less prolific than bandmate Andy Partridge, Moulding wrote many of the group's most popular songs, including their first three UK hit singles: "Life Begins At The Hop", "Making Plans For...
  
   – vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  , bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Andy Partridge
  Andy Partridge
  Andrew John "Andy" Partridge is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has been known as Sir John Johns and Melchior and rose to fame as a founding member, guitarist and chief songwriter of the pop/new wave band, XTC. He lives in Swindon, Wiltshire, where he was raised.Partridge also...
  
   – vocals, guitars

Additional musicians

• Mike Batt
  Mike Batt
  Michael Philip "Mike" Batt is a British songwriter, musician, producer and Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry...
  
   – orchestra
  Orchestra
  An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
  
  l arrangement
  Arrangement
  The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
  
  s for "Greenman" and "I Can't Own Her"
• Haydn Bendall
  Haydn Bendall
  Haydn Bendall is a British music record producer, 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 Engineer in 2009.-Career:...
  
   – keyboards
• Guy Barker
  Guy Barker
  Guy Barker is an English jazz trumpeter and composer. 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 had joined the National Youth Jazz Orchestra...
  
   – trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
   and flugelhorn
  Flugelhorn
  The flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...
  
   solo on "The Last Balloon"
• Nick Davis – keyboards
• Prairie Prince
  Prairie Prince
  Prairie Prince is a rock drummer. He was a member of The Tubes and a founding member of Journey...
  
   – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  , percussion
  Percussion instrument
  A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
  
  
• Steve Sidwell
  Steve Sidwell (musician)
  Steve Sidwell is a conductor, composer, and instrumentalist specialising in swing music. Renowned as an arranger and composer, Steve, has featured on numerous albums, television shows, advertising campaigns and films with his distinctive and innovative orchestrations and compositions.He is also a...
  
   – trumpet solo on "Easter Theatre"
• All arrangements played by The London Sessions Orchestra under their leader Gavin Wright

Production

• Haydn Bendall – original production
  Record producer
  A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
  
  , engineering
  Audio engineering
  An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
  
  
• Nick Davis – additional production, engineering, mix
  Audio mixing (recorded music)
  In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
  
  
• Simon Dawson – mix assistance
• Alan Douglas – recording engineer
• Barry Hammond – recording engineer
• Tim Young – mastering
  Audio mastering
  Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
  
  

Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)

XTC

• Colin Moulding
  Colin Moulding
  Colin Ivor Moulding is a bassist, songwriter and vocalist. He is a founding member of the band XTC. Though less prolific than bandmate Andy Partridge, Moulding wrote many of the group's most popular songs, including their first three UK hit singles: "Life Begins At The Hop", "Making Plans For...
  
   – vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  , bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Andy Partridge
  Andy Partridge
  Andrew John "Andy" Partridge is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has been known as Sir John Johns and Melchior and rose to fame as a founding member, guitarist and chief songwriter of the pop/new wave band, XTC. He lives in Swindon, Wiltshire, where he was raised.Partridge also...
  
   – vocals, guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  

Additional musicians

• Caroline Dale
  Caroline Dale
  Caroline Dale is a widely-recorded British cellist who has performed music for numerous films, including Truly, Madly, Deeply, Hilary and Jackie, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, as well as the 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and 2007's Academy Award winner Atonement...
  
   – cello
  Cello
  The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
  
  
• Nick Davis – keyboards
  Electronic keyboard
  An electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
  
  
• Simon Gardner – flugelhorn
  Flugelhorn
  The flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...
  
  
• Patrick Kiernan – violin
  Violin
  The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
  
  
• Peter Lale – viola
  Viola
  The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
  
  
• Holly Partridge – backing vocals
  Backing vocalist
  A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
  
   on "Playground"
• Prairie Prince
  Prairie Prince
  Prairie Prince is a rock drummer. He was a member of The Tubes and a founding member of Journey...
  
   – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
   (2, 3, 4, 12)
• Chuck Sabo – drums (1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
• Kate St. John – oboe
  Oboe
  The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
  
  
• Matt Vaughn – programming
  Programming (music)
  Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock...
  
  
• Gavin Wright
  Gavin Wright
  Gavin Wright is an economic historian and the William Robertson Coe Professor of American Economic History at Stanford University.Most of Wright's research has focused on the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement.- Works :...
  
   – violin

Production

• Haydn Bendall – recording engineering
  Audio engineering
  An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
  
  
• Nick Davis – producer
  Record producer
  A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
  
  , mixing
  Audio mixing (recorded music)
  In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
  
  , recording engineering
• Simon Dawson – mix engineer
• Alan Douglas – recording engineering
• Barry Hammond – recording engineering
• Bob Ludwig
  Bob Ludwig
  Bob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer.He is a well known and respected figure within the music industry. His name is credited on the covers of albums released across the world, and he has won numerous awards....
  
   – mastering
  Audio mastering
  Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...