Synopsis

XTC perform "Respectable Street" as a formally dressed chamber ensemble, turning the song's attack on middle-class suburban hypocrisy into a deliberately stiff and theatrical spectacle. Their restrained presentation contrasts with a punk-styled elderly couple, who react angrily to the noise by banging on the wall. Andy Partridge adds an especially incongruous touch by playing violin, while the video repeatedly emphasizes the clash between respectable appearances and unruly behavior.

Factoids & Trivia

• The promo uses the 1981 single version of "Respectable Street," a shorter remix of the album track from 1980's *Black Sea*.

• Andy Partridge based the song on Bowood Road in Swindon, opposite the flat where he was living. Its lyrics target the hypocrisy, gossip and rigid appearances of a supposedly respectable neighborhood.

• The BBC banned the song from radio play. Partridge later explained that the clean re-recording still failed to satisfy the broadcaster, apparently because of the reference to a "Sony Entertainment Centre."

• Partridge's violin performance is one of the video's most memorable visual jokes, placing an eccentric classical image against XTC's jagged post-punk arrangement.

• The video was included in *Look Look*, the XTC home-video compilation that assembled the band's early promotional films.

• "Respectable Street" was among the last songs XTC performed live before Andy Partridge's stage fright brought the band's touring career to an end.