Time & Perspective Quote by Andy Partridge

Panic and pleasure sit shoulder-to-shoulder in Andy Partridge's memory of XTC's early gigs, and that pairing is the point. "Pretty panicky - and great, sweaty fun" turns stage fright into propulsion: fear becomes a kind of voltage that jumps the gap between band and crowd. The dash does real work here, splicing vulnerability to euphoria the way live music often does, where the body (sweat) is proof you were actually there, not just consuming a product.

The deeper flex is in the audience description. "We were brand new to most people" isn't just humble-brag origin myth; it's an observation about cultural appetite. Partridge frames novelty as a scarce resource: people "were willing to take anything brand new, for the first time in years". That last clause suggests a scene calcified by repetition - the same headliners, the same sounds, the same gatekeeping - until a new act can feel like oxygen. It's not that XTC were instantly understood; it's that the moment was primed for disruption, and the crowd's openness was as important as the band's chops.

There's also a sly comment on risk. Early on, audiences will forgive rough edges because discovery flatters them; later, expectation hardens. Partridge is capturing that brief window when being unformed is an advantage, when the lack of a fixed identity lets a band and its listeners invent the experience together in real time.