Another casualty of the band’s lengthy hiatus was the line-up itself, when Dave Gregory decided to leave the band. Ironically, Wasp Star, the band’s next and final album (to date), employed far more of the intricately arranged, guitar driven, XTC sound which Gregory had helped to develop from his point of arrival with 1979’s Drums and Wires. While not as strikingly different as Apple Venus Volume I, it was intended as the ‘other part’ of that album and writing sessions and was subtitled Apple Venus Volume 2. The song-writing had matured immeasurably from the band’s 1977 White Music debut, but the early promise of an innovative, fresh, approach to the possibilities of pop song-writing and recording inherent in that debut had been carried through every album of the band’s career with Wasp Star merely the latest, possibly last, instalment.
