Swell Maps

History

Influenced by the disparate likes of T. Rex and the German krautrock outfit Can, they created a new soundscape that would be heavily mined by others in the post-punk era. Despite existing in various forms since 1972, Swell Maps only really came together as a musical entity after the birth of British punk.

Consisting of brothers Epic Soundtracks (real name Kevin Paul Godfrey) and Nikki Sudden (real name Adrian Nicholas Godfrey) two Solihull based teenagers, plus Biggles Books (Richard Earl), Phones Sportsman (David Barrington), John "Golden" Cockrill and Jowe Head (Stephen Bird), the band cut the single "Read About Seymour" as their debut in 1977, soon after the brothers left Solihull School. It is widely considered one of the classic punk era singles, and is name-checked in the song "Part Time Punks" by Television Personalities.

After recording their first John Peel session Swell Maps went into WMRS studio to record their first album A Trip to Marineville, which was released in 1979. It featured hard rocking punk numbers like "H.S. Art" interspersed with ambient instrumentals and other experimental interludes like "Gunboats". The album went No. 1 on the new Independent chart.

The band cut one more album, The Swell Maps in 'Jane From Occupied Europe', in 1980: it featured a variety of genres, from industrial surf instrumentals like the opener "Robot Factory" to ballads like "Cake Shop Girl".

The next year, the band released compilation Whatever Happens Next... before splitting up.

Side Projects

An EP of experimental tracks was released under the name of the Phones Sportsman Band in 1980. This was played on radio by John Peel and Anne Nightingale, although "Get down & get with it" was later considered by ShitFi as one of the "worst" covers of all time.

Post split

Individual members of the band (especially Nikki Sudden, Epic Soundtracks and Jowe Head) went on to solo careers. The band's catalogue has been remastered and reissued, and several compilations of archive recordings released. Epic Soundtracks died of unknown causes at the age of 38 in 1997, and Nikki Sudden died at the age of 49 in March 2006, in a hotel room in NYC.

Influence

Swell Maps have been cited as an influence by bands including The Tea Set Dinosaur Jr., R.E.M. and Pavement. Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth acknowledged the influence of the Swell Maps in 1981, writing "As soon as that Nikki Sudden guitar comes slicing slabbing and all out fuzzifying off that crackling vinyl groove you know you’re gonna rock. It’s the best of both whirls: fist-in-the-heart guitar burnin’ rock and ahead-of-its-time songsmith awareness ... The Swell Maps had a lot to do with my upbringing". Scott Kannberg of Pavement acknowledged "Swell Maps was a big influence on our early records ... they had these songs they fucked up somehow to make sound really dirty and low frequency, but they had these great songs underneath all this mess". Tim Gane of Stereolab recalled "When I first bought A Trip to Marineville I must have played it a hundred times or more, just to listen to every single second of it".

Studio Albums

Compilations

Singles