This week’s new releases include expanded reissues of Peter Gabriel’s ‘So’ and Heaven 17’s ‘The Luxury Gap,’ plus a new live CD/DVD set from The Mission, the previously unreleased original demo tape from Rites of Spring, a new album from XTC’s Andy Partridge and Peter Blegvad, and vinyl release from The B-52s and Ultravox.

XTC’s Andy Partridge has re-teamed with singer-songwriter Peter Blegvad for a follow-up to the duo’s 2004 album ‘Orpheus: The Lowdown,’ and are previewing the record — titled ‘Gonwards’ — with a video for the track “Sacred Objects.” The song features lyrics and vocals from Blegvard set to music by Partridge and Stu Rowe.

For this week’s installment of Vintage Video, we bring you another classic performance filmed for the German TV show ‘Rockpalast’ — this time a full 70-minute concert by XTC filmed in 1982, just two months before the band would play its last-ever tour date before retiring as a live act due to Andy Partridge’s stage fright.

This week’s link round-up includes celeb chef Jamie Oliver finding old Joy Division and New Order master tapes in a Manchester basement, plus XTC’s Andy Partridge on ‘English Settlement,’ Jerry Harrison pining for a Talking Heads reunion and a Kickstarter campaign to fund a second volume of Smiths-inspired comics.

The classic third album from XTC — 1979’s ‘Drums and Wires’ — appears to be next in line to receive an audiophile vinyl pressing following last year’s ‘Skylarking’ reissue, which was ‘corrected’ and re-released ‘as it was intended to sound, but never has.’

This week’s new CDs include a huge new box set from Orange Juice, plus reissues from XTC, Nine Inch Nails, Heaven 17, Robyn Hitchcock and The Fall, as well as the U.S. release of Killing Joke’s new album and a special U2 EP tied to Record Store Day.

To commemorate XTC frontman Andy Partridge’s 57th birthday today, we present this three-song live session — recorded May 16, 1989, at MTV in New York — that finds the rarely touring trio playing two songs off the just-released ‘Oranges & Lemons,’ plus “Blue Beret,” a then-unreleased outtake.

Andy Partridge this week unveiled the restored cover art — featuring close-up photos of men’s and women’s flower-adorned pubic hair — planned for the forthcoming double-vinyl reissue of XTC’s 1986 album ‘Skylarking.’

This afternoon, the Andy Partridge-run Ape House Records offered an update on the forthcoming double-vinyl reissue of XTC’s 1986 album ‘Skylarking,’ declaring the new corrected edition of the album ‘is about 30 percent better sounding than any previously heard.’

Former XTC figurehead Andy Partridge this week releases ‘Powers,’ a 12-track, limited-edition album featuring ‘aural sculptures’ inspired by the late sci-fi book-jacket artist Richard M. Powers. Hear audio samples from the album.

XTC’s Andy Partridge today announced the band will reissue 1986’s ‘Skylarking’ on double vinyl ‘as it was intended to sound, but never has due to human error.’ No release date has been announced, nor plans for another CD reissue.

With XTC now firmly behind him, Andy Partridge continues to dabble in varied projects, the latest of which is a super-limited album of ‘aural sculptures’ inspired by the late sci-fi book-jacket artist Richard M. Powers.

Andy Partridge is asking fans what he should include on Bric-a-Brac Breakfast, a forthcoming companion to XTC’s 1990 odds-and-sods collection Rag & Bone Buffet: Rare Cuts & Leftovers, which itself is being prepped for a reissue this year on the bandleader’s Ape House Records.