XTC and Religion – from Dear God to Scatter Me

by Mark Fisher | Posted on March 3, 2023February 24, 2023

What happens when a Christian, a Humanist and a Buddhist congregate to talk about the songs of XTC? Will they give praise? Or will they be torn asunder?

In this month’s episode of What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Podcast, David White, Belinda Blanchard and Ash Jñānagarbha share a pew with Mark Fisher to discuss Dear God, Dying, The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead, Easter Theatre, The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul, Scatter Me and Senses Working Overtime.

Music by Christopher Underwood and 5 Guys Named Lars

Ash Jñānagarbha

Belinda Blanchard in Dear God

David White’s S.C.R.A.P.E.S

What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book available from the Limelight Shop

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About the author

MARK FISHER is a freelance theatre critic and feature writer based in Edinburgh and has written about theatre in Scotland since the late-1980s. He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a frequent contributor to the Scotsman and other publications. He is the co-editor of the play anthology Made in Scotland (1995), and the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide (2012) and How to Write About Theatre (2015) – all Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. While at school, he set up the XTC fanzine Limelight, which he republished as The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls (2017). He followed that with What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book (2019). In 2020, he launched What Do You Call That Noise? The XTC Podcast.