Steel also gathered four Sheffield employees named Nigel to discuss job satisfaction for the trade publication Steel News. The LP sold particularly well in Canada, Europe and Australia. In Canada, the record hit number 2 and went gold, selling over 50,000 copies. The band still felt that they were not "fashionable" in England. In their homeland, sales were at a minimal improvement from their previous records. Virgin requested Lillywhite to remix "Real by Reel", "When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty", "Helicopter" and "Outside World" as potential follow-up singles, but the new mixes were rejected by the group. Instead, the band recorded "Wait Till Your Boat Goes Down", a reggae-influenced Partridge song with production by Phil Wainman of Bay City Rollers fame. It was their lowest-selling single to date. They also rerecorded "Ten Feet Tall" to have electric guitar in its arrangement. It was released as their first US single to coincide with their first tour there, which lasted from 14 January to 14 March. Most of the gigs were small club dates, with three East Coast dates supporting the Police, and were not particularly significant. Exceptions included a house record-breaking six consecutive sold-out shows at the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood, California. In Canada, XTC played to theatres and universities before larger crowds. Critical reception Contemporary Drums and Wires received favourable reviews, and according to biographer Chris Twomey, was "widely acknowledged in the music business". NME Paul Morley decreed that XTC were "doing all sorts of they've never done before and never hinted they would. ... They have moved many steps forward to making a rock classic." In Billboard, the album was deemed "an interesting package from a label that's beginning to make headway in the U.S. It's fresh rock 'n' roll in a new wave vein with a dash of '60s English melody. Of particular note is the inventive mix as instruments sparkle in both left and right channels." The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote: "My reservations about this tuneful but willfully eccentric pop are ideological. ... Partridge and Colin Moulding are moving toward a great art-pop mean that will set standards for the genre. Catchy, funny, interesting—and it rocks." Rolling Stones Jon Pareles called the album XTC's "least-dissonant" and identified the band's "current obsession" as "Philip Glass Steve Reich-style static harmony, and their favorite complicated game is to stalemate pop progressions with immobile arrangements."