Happy new year everyone! Here's hoping 2011 brings lots of APE-activity and bundles of APE-related music and merch!

And a special happy new year to Andy and all the APE artists

Love and peace


We twa hae run about the braes,
and pu'd the gowans fine ;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,
sin auld lang syne.

Happy New Year to ALL

Happy New Year Jack, and to everyone!

To be honest by the law of averages some of us are going to have a rubbish 2011. So wishing everyone a happy new year seems a bit silly. It's a bit like wishing everyone good luck before the national lottery draw. Most people are going to have no luck at all. So what's the point?

Anyway, Happy New Year to you all.

Donavan, you big silly! I can still wish everyone a dumptruck load of happiness! Whether it comes to pass is another thing, I quite realize that!

Donavan.... Your year will be what you make of it !!!!

Now, who pissed in your corn flakes this morning Sweet Prince?

And like Mare, I do wish all of you a happy and healthy New Year !!!!! Even a dumptruck load of it

Donavan.... Your year will be what you make of it !!!!................non-thinking bullshit

Now, who pissed in your corn flakes this morning Sweet Prince?...........as above


See what I mean? Probably not..............



But have a good one anyway.

Shit on your friends trying to lift your spirits - way to go, numb nuts.

Let me give you what you want:
Have a fucking miserable New Year, Don.

Me? I'm gonna fire up the barbecue, put on a tri-tip, have a great family meal,
and then visit on line with my many friends from all around this beautiful world -
and we're gonna have a Great AND Happy New Year!

I love Don's posts. You can read them once, wait a little while, and then read them again for something new.

Happy New Year to those of you destined to have a good new year. The rest of you (don?), better luck next year.

A Happy New Year to everyone who posts here...

...even Don - you miserable git! At least you're consistent

Blumming XTCBackporchers

Can't you post anything without

1) antagonising people and

2) resorting to four-letter words?

Its a Happy New Year thread, for heaven's sake. If donavan thinks its a bit silly, then so what? I don't think it warrants the replies of asking if someone has pee'd on his cornflakes, and then being told to eff-off, and then being called a miserable git. Crikey, if he's had a bad new year (and christmas and new year are the times where the Samaritans are at their busiest) then those replies are going to make him feel a whole lot better, aren't they?

To me it seems like you XTCBP'rs delight in having little digs at people who don't have the exact same mindset as yourselves, and when they have a credible dig back, or try to open up a reasonable debate, you all run off giving the impression that you're group hug or whatever or stick your heads in the sand until the boogey-man goes away, when in reality you run off to the XTCbackporch (whether it be on Facebook or the other one), witter about the devil perpetrator of evil (whoever it may be, take your pick of one of three) and give them such a character assassination which if it happened in a social or work-type environment, would amount to bullying, especially given the amount of people who willingly jump in with a knife when these things happen.

And I know for a fact that there have been persons here who, when they've had the nerve to agree or 'play' with Duck Soup or myself, have been told in no uncertain terms not to, by PM.

Can you (XTCBackporchers) lot at least be a little more tolerant of people having differing views on this here forum in 2011?

You are becoming a total embarrassment to APE and the memory of XTC. Its about time you lot at the XTC backporch and the Facebook back porch cleaned your acts up. Maybe this could be your resolution for 2011?

Happy New Year again, whoever and wherever you are.

Oh, I didn't realize that this forum existed just to "play" with you two, or others who just want to stir the pot!

I mean, if that's what you want to do here, then feel free, but not everyone has fun with it. Tolerance goes both ways, and so do the four-letter words, from what I've seen!

And I hope everyone has a happy new year, whether or not they have any power to make it so.

It doesn't, and you know it. Another example of the sly, Backporch digging that goes on.

Happy new year to you, too.

Well Jack, you bring up a lot of interesting points,
particularly coming from the guy that posted THIS to Lenin McCarthy (who happens to be suffering from a terminally degenerative disease)
in the "Recorded Music Is dead" thread:
(For the record, LenMac is NOT a 'backporcher' - and donavan IS one.)

My points:

1) How much 'love and peace' is being expressed in the above post?

2) When did my response to donavan become about Honeycomb Jack?

3) If I (or any other 'backporcher') had asked anyone to not 'play' with you or Duck Soup. no one should have EVER posted in this thread, or ever responded positively to ANY of your posts, as MANY of my friends have. Let me name a few for you: blushift, miles aweigh, nightotter, mare, suzi, Andrew Swainson, favoritething…and that's just in THIS thread.

4) Donavan is a friend of mine. Friends often disagree. You are not a friend of mine, Jack. We often disagree, but I have treated you with nothing but respect and kid gloves as of late, and have intentionally avoided profanity.

5) If Andy Partridge did not want or allow profanity to be used here, that would be easily remedied. Andy Partridge uses profanity. Donavan uses profanity. I use profanity. Hell, even YOU use profanity (as in 'head up the arse') - you're just too chicken-shit to admit it.

My conclusions:

1) Get off your cross.

2) Physician, heal thyself.

3) It's NOT all about you, Jack. When you and Ducky were gone for awhile, even I missed you guys. (There - I admitted it. So sue me.) You're an intelligent and - very occasionally - even funny guy. (And for the record, so is Duck Soup.)

There's plenty of room on APE for all of us, and we CAN all get along. How 'bout we ALL make that our 2011 APE Forum New Years resolution?

Peace and Love are tough words to live by. Wanna give it a try?

Happy New Year - to EVERYBODY (donavan included) - and especially to you, Jack.

Thanks for playing!

From where I sit there's a dilemma... do you reply to HJ's post or just leave it?

Usually there's a lot to be said for staying quiet and ignoring it... be polite, don't make waves, move on... end of! But at the same time you've been successfully shouted down by "the loudest mouth"... if you were the hysterical or paranoid type you might think you were being bullied!!!

Conversely, you can take him to task on where you think he is totally off the mark. But he can use that to cry "intolerance" all the louder thus creating an even bigger stink where previously only "he who smelt it" was aware of it.

Kitchen scales at dawn... which way do you go?

Of course either way is a win for Jack - congratulations.

Forums maybe need a patent egg-shell-ometer™ to vet all remarks before posting.

Frankly it's all very, very tiresome... can we all have some new high hobby horses for 2011?

I am also suffering from a terminally degenerative disease. Will that change your opinion of me? Should we replace our signatures with information regarding the state of our health so that we can be patronised accordingly?

What are you then? A four-letter horseman of the APE-ocolyte

I think something would be seriously wrong if Don were actually happy each day of the new year. So more practically Don, I hope you get the right shoes on the right feet most mornings and have more sunny days than rain (if that's what you enjoy more).
Everyone else, I hope you win the lottery and have a great year !

You've got me down, Jack - I SAID you could be funny!

Can I count this as a reply to my post, or are you leaving it?

If its a reply then I'd like to say I take exception to being the "loudest mouth" shouting down the rest. I think "the rest" have a collective mouth which is used fairly frequently to shout down the minority.

I'd also like to take exception to the cry of "intolerance" creating a bigger stink where previously only "he who smelt it" was aware of it. I could equally state that you (or whoever) was caught with your hand in the cookie jar, and I was merely reporting it.

Now there's a dilemma...do I reply to Andrew Swainson's post, or just leave it

If you were nicer, it sure would.
And that certainly explains a lot.

I'm truly sorry about your condition, Jack.
I wouldn't wish death on my worst enemy - and you are NOT my enemy.

Are love and peace just words, Jack?
Do we keep going around trying to score points on each other, or can we take those words seriously - or try to, anyway?
I'm game. Are you?

There you go! Isn't that the biz!

Thanks hummingbird, I wish I could have been as succinct as you.

Happy New Year to all

Was it you who said earlier "Physician heal thyself"?

How's that work, then?

How 'bout we figure it out together?

Or should I take that as a 'no'?

I will do once I stop Andrew Swainson. I've just seen him galloping like crazy down our road on a horse with kitchen scales in one hand and an egg-shell-ommeter in the other, breaking wind like a man with wild bowels whilst screaming "Intolerance!" or "He Who Smelt It, Dealt It" whenever he catches his breath.

Be careful, Jack - that could be like messing with chemical weapons.

He's a horseman of the apoocalypse.

Donavan changing his avatar to 'Eeyore" could prevent future such misunderstandings.

I thought this might work but bloody hell, never this well . I really meant what I said in my first post on here and then stoked the flames a bit with my reply to Suzi. Sorry Sooz .

But it proves my point. We all say Happy New Year to each other because that's the done thing and then carry on just the same or even worse. It's a bit like passing an acquaintance on the street and saying, "Hiya, alright?" and then carrying on walking before you hear their reply. Seems it's OK to question the Christmas/Religious thang but not all the packaging that goes with it.

Never mind, it will be Easter soon and we can all sleepwalk our way to the next set of tired cliches.


Have a nice day.

Out there in the world some terrible things are happenning. And some good things. I guess thats how it works. Have a good one guys, recognising all our definitions of good are perhaps all slightly different. Anyway 2010 was pretty good, seeing jen Olive live twice, Meeting Stu Rowe and Mr P too. We got a new album from Andy and from jen Olive. I caught Pugwash live and met the talented Thomas. met up with a few forumers here and there and shared some beer. And I won £22m on the euro lottery.

Wow - COOL, Mr Tein!

So how were Jen's shows?
Stu seems like a great guy.
Is Andy as funny in person?
How about Thomas?
And how much is £22m in $?

Hey Don, I really DO care how things are with you.
Sorry Christmas was a bummer, man. I usually hate it, too.
Oh, by the way - how much IS £22m in $?

22.00 £ (GBP) = $ 34.1797 USD

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Thirty four bucks?
Man, that Euro sure wrecked your currency, eh?
That's like the Peso or Lira or something.
I was gonna try bumming some money off Mr Tein, but he'd better hold on to it - he might need cab fare.

Thanks for starting the thread, HJ, no matter how it turned out.

Here's to a happy, safe, and prosperous 2011 for those who think such a thing possible.

he said bumming.










Happy New Year everyone.

From a ten year-old, that post would be borderline profound. From a what, fifty year old? (give or take a couple of years, eh don?), it's the statement of a knob.

Happy new year, knobovan

I believe that would be knobavan, Jack.

Mr knobavan to you Jack, if you don't mind.

I wish everyone a reasonably decent 2011!

It would be really cool, but no obligation like, if everyone here at least gets through 2011 without major mishap. And just maybe even had some good moments. But no pressure - you know, whatever.

And a happy new year to you, Jack. Was this really your (and from where I sit, 100% imagined) fight to wade into? don and Suzi having a bit of non-malicious banter? I'm not quite sure why an exchange between two people (whether seriously antagonistic or not) who happen to post in both places casts a poor light on the whole Backporch. You do take things the wrong way sometimes Jack. Nothing to see here, move along, eh? And don is a miserable git. It's his chief, indeed only, charm.*

I have "played" with you and Duck several times in the past and no-one has ever PM'd me about it


In answer to your questions at the top of the post:

1) Yes

2) Yes








*He knows what I mean.

What, no requirements to be chipper and upbeat and clean-shaven and rich? No requirement that we show up with nary a hint of deviant or antisocial leanings? It's a miracle!

We're back in the game!

Cheers Bimble, nice to see you back.


Made me smile to see AP's post on Twitter wishing one and all a Merry Crassmas.

See it's not so much what you say but rather who says it.


And we need miserable gits to balance out all the inanely, ridiculously forever happy people.
Otherwise the world would tip over.

Anyone fancy a mince pie...?

I just received a PM from someone telling me to stop playing with myself...

*hug*