that he had not eaten in days. The promoters and Virgin France demanded that they stay in the country and play another gig. Partridge agreed to play another show to placate them. He escaped the next day on a flight back to England. The band's eight-date English tour was postponed to the summer. He underwent hypnotherapy treatment wherein "the hypnotist would take me back through pretend gigs, and I had to try and live all of this anxiety out. And I just sat in my garden like a wreck. I just sat in my garden with an acoustic guitar strumming just gibberish." Believing that he had recovered from the episode, Partridge rejoined the group for their first tour of the US as a headlining act. The band played the first date at The California Theatre in San Diego on 3 April. Gregory said that they were "totally unrehearsed" during the performance because "we'd not played together for two weeks. ... It was obvious that he was ill, but exactly what it was, no-one knew." Partridge remembered feeling stomach pains again and played the entire performance on "auto-pilot". The next day, XTC were scheduled to play a sold-out show at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, Partridge woke up that morning, he said, and "couldn't get off the bed. My legs wouldn't function. Walked to Ben Frank's coffee shop, where we'd all agreed to meet, in slow motion like I had both legs in plaster, trying not to throw up. I got in there, they knew what I was going to say." The remaining 18 US dates were cancelled and XTC incurred a £20,000 debt. Discounting occasional appearances on radio and television, they never performed live again. "Complete mental and physical exhaustion" and the possibility of Partridge developing an ulcer were given as the reasons for the tour's cancellation. It was later reported in Creem that he was "seen acting weird earlier that day and 'questioning what he was doing with his life.' Good question, Andy!!" For a period afterward, it was rumoured among fans and industry insiders that the group stopped performing because Partridge had died, and some American bands put on XTC tribute shows in his remembrance. Critical reception Contemporary English Settlement received worldwide acclaim. Writing for Rolling Stone, Parke Puterbagh stated: "Once again, XTC has managed the difficult feat of sounding accessible even while moving into evermore abstruse