"The Meeting Place" is a song by Colin Moulding. It appeared on and was released as a single for the 1986 album Skylarking.
A live in-studio version, for The Sunday Show, appeared on the 1998 Transistor Blast box set.
The home demo appeared on the 2002 Coat of Many Cupboards box set.
A promo video was filmed for TV show The Tube.
Single tracklisting[]
7" single[]
- A-side: "The Meeting Place"
- B-side: "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" (Andy Partridge)
12" single[]
- A-side 1: "The Meeting Place"
- A-side 2: "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul"
- B-sides: XTC Home Demos
Quotes[]
Andy (on the promo video): “The rhythm track is taken from a soundtrack of industrial sound effects.” Dave: “It starts with the sound of a local factory hooter in Swindon. They were closing factories down, and I thought it might be a nice tribute to the old town.”
Andy (on the single): “The four tracks that make up the B side of this record are demos of songs that were never recorded in the studio for various reasons. Producers preference, group preference, no time, lyrics not quite rght, etc, whatever. They were recorded at the respective writers homes on four track cassette machines and later, cleaned and ‘tarted up a bit’ at Crescent Studios, Bath, for pressing to vinyl. We thought that you might be interested to hear them as normally, nobody outside of the group or record company would ever be exposed to these ‘rough sketches’.”
Colin: “Everyone knows that odd time of day that we call lunchbreak. Odd because of the feeling one gets at about half past one, when one teeters on the brink of deciding whether to go back to work or not. Maybe you're enjoying the company you're with, perhaps a girl you're fond of. Or is it the sheer devilment of being out of bounds after hours? You first come across this feeling when you're a schoolboy and the bell has gone for afternoon lessons. It was such a feeling that prompted this song. The sauciness came later when the song needed to build, but it has a basis in reality. I used to meet a girl for lunch once upon a time, who was mad on The Stones and funnily enough the track she used to play quite often was called ‘Factory Girl’, a song which I believe contains the same feeling I've been describing. I think I'd better stop there.”
Andy (on the home demo): “I must say I'm quietly stunned. In listening to this odds and ends, kitchen drawer of a collection, I've come to the conclusion that there's so much Swindon in so many of these songs, it's scary. The cosseting ‘Listen with Mother’ cadence of the guitar fondly doffs its broken old hat just enough at Syd Barrett's ‘Scarecrow’ to evoke both, but copy neither. The epicentre of this illicit teenage love bomb is still the Penhill council estate. Marooned atop a gentle mound at the north of Swindon, but washed on all sides by lush farmland, throwing its pebbledash and abandoned car greyness into even sharper relief.”
Lyrics[]
Meet you in the secret place
Scuffling in the dirt I wait
Whistle will blow, whistle will blow,
Share a joke the laugh's on me
But when I get you on your own we'll see
Someone might hear, someone might hear
You're a working girl now
You've got money of your own
Hmmm The meeting place
Hmmm The meeting place
Strolling under grimey skies
Machines that make you kiss in time
Smoke on your breath, smoke on your breath
Chimney never looked so good
Never looked the way it should
From lying in the bracken wood
Coat on the ground, coat on the ground
Take a walk down the lane
We'll be late back again
Hmmm The meeting place
Hmmm The meeting place
Videos[]
The Tube[]
Promo video for "The Meeting Place" on The Tube. Uploaded by YouTube user "lokrume04."