Andrew John Partridge (born 11 November 1953) is an English guitarist, singer-songwriter and record producer best known for co-founding the band XTC.

[1] Since the 1980s, he has worked, written with or produced for many other recording artists, including collaborative albums with Peter Blegvad, Harold Budd and Robyn Hitchcock.

From 2002 to 2006, Partridge's APE House record label released several volumes of his demos and songs as part of the Fuzzy Warbles series.

When Partridge entered adolescence, it was discovered that his father was having an extramarital affair, and his mother consequently had a nervous breakdown, leading to her being institutionalised.

He recalled watching local guitarist Dave Gregory performing Jimi Hendrix-style songs at churches and youth clubs: "Sort of acid-skiffle.

[9] Partridge eventually dropped out of school and formed the first of several "loud and horrid" rock bands with the purpose of meeting girls.

[2] By then, he had found a job at a record shop[4] and was engrossed with bands such as the Stooges, the New York Dolls, Alice Cooper, and Pink Fairies.

Partridge wrote the majority of XTC's songs, was the band's frontman and de facto leader, and in Moulding's view, typically acted as an "executive producer" for their albums.

[12] His early XTC songs were marked by his distinct singing style, something he jokingly described as a "walrus" or "seal bark", but otherwise an amalgamation of Buddy Holly's "hiccup", Elvis Presley's vibrato, and "the howled mannerisms of Steve Harley.

[14] While XTC were a formative punk group, Partridge's music drew heavily from British Invasion songwriters, and his style gradually shifted to more traditional pop, often with pastoral themes.

[15] Music critic John Harris said that Partridge exemplified "a very English genre: rock music uprooted from the glamour and dazzle of the city, and recast as the soundtrack to life in suburbs, small towns, and the kind of places – like Swindon – that may be more sizeable, but are still held up as bywords for broken hopes and limited horizons.

[9] For a period afterward, it was rumoured among fans and industry insiders that the group had stopped performing because Partridge had died, and some American bands put on XTC tribute shows in his remembrance.

[17] The group ran into more problems once it was discovered that poor management led to them incurring hundreds of thousands in unpaid value-added taxes.

"[18] In December 1984, Partridge formed the Dukes of Stratosphear, a neo-psychedelic XTC offshoot that he envisioned as a pastiche of "your favourite bands from 1967".

[19] They recorded the mini-album 25 O'Clock (1985) and the LP Psonic Psunspot (1987), both of which outsold XTC's concurrent studio albums (The Big Express and Skylarking) in the UK.

[24] Since XTC's breakup, Partridge has acted as curator to the band's legacy, overseeing reissues and remasters, and maintaining a web presence.

[25] The official XTC Twitter account @xtcfans (now defunct) was originally managed by writer Todd Bernhardt, but Partridge later "sort of took it over, because [he] thought it was weird that there was another person in the way.

[26] Since the 1980s, Partridge has worked, written with, or produced many other musicians and bands, including Peter Blegvad, the Lilac Time, the Nines, Miles Kane, David Yazbek, Voice of the Beehive, the Woodentops, the Wallflowers, Perennial Divide, the Raiders, and Charlotte Hatherley.

"[39] From 2002 to 2006, Partridge released demos of his songs under his own name as part of the Fuzzy Warbles album series on his APE House record label.

[40] In 2007, Partridge released music as part of a trio known as Monstrance, along with Barry Andrews (an early member of XTC) on keyboards, and Martyn Barker on drums.

[43] He became involved with the reunion project through the band's manager, a former journalist who sought to repay Partridge for an interview conducted decades earlier.

[13] He remembered having an intense interest in comic books and the cover illustrations of science fiction novels as a child, particularly those drawn by Richard M.

[52] Until the late 1970s, he owned a large American comic book collection that he had to sell off due to a mouse infestation at his home.

He has had acting roles, including a character named "Agony Andy", a spoof aunt on the Janice Long show, and he was a regular panelist on Roundtable.

Partridge had met Wexler in the early 1980s; they began dating shortly after she split from artist Roy Lichtenstein in 1994, and she has lived with him in Swindon since then.

[49][57][58] The subject matter of Partridge's songs frequently touch upon politics, religion, his hometown of Swindon, social class, factory work, insects, comic book characters, seafaring, war, and ancient rituals.

[13] Partridge did not become interested in politics until the 1979 United Kingdom general election, in which he voted for Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party "purely because she was a woman.

[20] In 1992, Partridge had an ear infection that left him temporarily deaf,[9] and in 2006, during one of the sessions for Monstrance, some of his hearing was destroyed following a studio mishap which caused him to develop severe tinnitus.