the Red Cow in Hammersmith, The Nashville Rooms and Islington's Hope and Anchor. By this time, the punk rock movement had emerged, which opened an avenue for the group in terms of record label appeal, even though the band did not necessarily fit in the punk dogma. Partridge remembered hearing the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." (1976) and feeling underwhelmed by its similarity to the Monkees or the Ramones: "That sort of spurred me on – watching this stuff that I thought was rather average." Soon, John Peel saw the band perform at Upstairs at Ronnie Scott's and asked them to appear on his BBC Radio 1 block. Partridge credited him as "responsible for us getting a recording contract. ... As soon as we recorded that session for the BBC, suddenly three or four record labels wanted to sign us up." After declining CBS, Harvest and Island, they signed with Virgin Records. White Music and Go 2 In August 1977, XTC made their first commercially released studio recordings with producer John Leckie at Abbey Road, which appeared on their debut album 3D EP in October. Their first full-length record, White Music, was then recorded in less than two weeks, and released for January 1978. Partridge characterized the album as "Captain Beefheart meets the Archies" shrouded in 1950s-style retrofuturism. He reflected that the album was the sum of everything the band enjoyed, including the Beatles, Sun Ra, and Atomic Rooster, but dismissed the contents as premature songs "built around this electric wordplay stuff". White Music reached number 38 on the UK Albums Chart. Although the album was well received by the press (Melody Maker, NME, Sounds, and Record Mirror all gave positive reviews), none of its singles managed to chart. They rerecorded "This Is Pop" as a lead single. Its follow-up, "Statue of Liberty", was banned on BBC Radio due to the lyric "I sail beneath her skirt". With each member placed on a £25 weekly salary, the band toured for the next five years. The group also made appearances on the children's television shows Tiswas and Magpie, which meant they would occasionally play for under-16 crowds on these early tours. Partridge enjoyed these early shows, but would later resent touring as the band's audience numbers grew and the performing experience became more impersonal. By August 1978, XTC were prepared to record their next album. The band had contacted Brian