Andy Partridge

Andy Partridge
Partridge in Toronto's Music Hall, February 1980
Background information
Birth name	Andrew John Partridge
Also known as	Sir John Johns, Sandy Sandwich
Born	(1953-11-11) 11 November 1953 (age 70) Mtarfa, Malta
Origin	Swindon, Wiltshire, England
Occupations	Musician songwriter record producer
Instrument(s)	Vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica
Years active	1969–present
Labels	Virgin, CBS, Geffen, Cooking Vinyl, Idea, Ape House
Website	ape.uk.net

Andrew John Partridge (born 11 November 1953) is an English guitarist, singer-songwriter and record producer best known for co-founding the band XTC. He and Colin Moulding each acted as a songwriter and frontman for XTC, with Partridge writing and singing about two-thirds of the group's material. While XTC were a formative British new wave group, Partridge's songwriting drew heavily from 1960s pop and psychedelia and his style gradually shifted to more traditional pop, often with pastoral themes. The band's only UK top 10 hit, "Senses Working Overtime", was written by Partridge.

Partridge is sometimes regarded as the "godfather" of the 1990s Britpop movement.^[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. Beyond music, he is also an illustrator, toy soldier hobbyist and designer of board games.