The Dukes of Stratosphear were an English psychedelic rock group formed in 1984 by Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, Dave Gregory, and Ian Gregory, all members of XTC, who adopted pseudonyms Sir John Johns, The Red Curtain, Lord Cornelius Plum, and E.I.E.I. Owen. The band’s breakthrough came with the 1985 mini‑album 25 O'Clock, which sold twice as many copies as XTC’s The Big Express and entered the UK charts. In 1987, they released Psonic Psunspot, which again outsold XTC’s Skylarking in the UK; the two albums were later combined on the CD Chips from the Chocolate Fireball. The Dukes reunited briefly in 2003 for a charity single and in 2008 for a Eurostar promo, and their catalogue was remastered and reissued in 2019 as Psurroundabout Ride. Their work is noted for its faithful recreation of 1960s psychedelia and for influencing later neo‑psychedelic acts.
