Cult Figures ‎– "Live At The Cedar Club 1980" plus Singles" (1979-80)

Cult Figures were,fashionably ,for 1979,and without family names: Martin - bass, Jon - gtr & vocs, Jock - drms & vocs, Gary - vocs & gtr.
Although sometimes assumed to be Swell Maps under a different name, in fact Cult Figures were a separate entity. The fact that they sounded a bit like the Maps, had various Maps playing on their records, were on the same label as the Maps and often played on the same bills as the Maps (where you could actually see that they were not Swell Maps!?), probably led to the confusion - but they obviously weren't the Swell Maps!......but then again?.....Nah!

Here's their complete discography up to 1980, so make up your own mind.

Tracklist:

"Live At The Cedar Club 1980":

1 Silent Majority
2 Clambake
3 Painting By Numbers
4 24 Hour TV
5 Reactions Nil
6 Submerged Cutlery
7 War On Fun
8 Battleship Grey
9 I Remember
10 Martin's Holiday
11 The Religion
12 Zip Nolan

"Zip Nolan 7"" (Rather Records ‎– gear four, Rough Trade ‎– RT 020) 1979:

Tracklist:

A Zip Nolan
B1 P.W.T.
B2 Zip Dub

"In Love" (7")  (Rather Records ‎– gear eight) 1980:

Tracklist:

I Remember 2:52
Laura Kate 2:12
Almost A Love Song 1:40

DOWNLOAD all this cult material HERE!

Steve Treatment ‎– "25 "A" Sides + Your Friends Are In The News" (Hyped To Death ‎– Messthetics #202-203) 2003

One of the shiniest failures from East Midlands also-ran City, Derby (pronounced Darby for you americans!),was the legend in his own lunchtime himself, Steve Treatment.More famed as playing Amyl Nitrate in Derek Jarmans' artsy fartsy 'Punk' movie, "Jubilee". 
Every shit town has someone who struts around as if they were a 'star', in this case Steve strutted around Derby thinking he was Marc Bolan. Ironically his career started the year Marc's ended as his Mini slammed into a tree and killed our curly topped chum instantly.
Maybe his soul transported itself into young Steven?
Not shy at donning some glossy lipstick and a cape, Steve ran away to London, buddied up with fellow midlands refugees, Swell Maps, and started to churn out lots of DIY Glam pop songs to a very disinterested capital city.
Steve said that all of his songs were 'A'-sides. He wasn't far off in that claim, they were at least B-side material, maybe even 'C'-side standard. As it turned out most of his recordings never got the chance to be on any side of a record, never mind the 'A' or 'B' side of anything.
He managed to produce three chirpy 7" singles, one on Swell Maps' 'Rather Records', who played back-up on his early recordings.
Lots of chung-a-chung-a guitar work, meandering echo-laden  council estate T-Rex-isms a plenty, but, there is a certain charm about the late Mr Treatment's fortitude in his belief that he was obviously a star, no matter what anybody else says......as the great beast  Aliester Crowley once said...."Every Man Every woman Is a Star".....I can't argue with that.

140+ minutes of unglamorous  DIY'n'roll including all of Steve's singles (1977-1979), plus later highlights of his incredibly colorful career, including almost all of the songs that were headed for Steve's never to be released LP. 

RIP ST.

Tracklist:

25 "A" Sides

1-1 Danger Zone 1:41
1-2 Taste Your Own Medicine 2:27
1-3 Negative Nights 2:19
1-4 The Hippie Posed Engrossment 1:37
1-5 Hooked On A Trend 1:27
1-6 Step Inside A Worn-Out Shoe 3:21
1-7 Heaven Knows (Juvenile Wrecks) 2:11
1-8 Change Of Plan 2:35
1-9 Head Of A Raven 2:23
1-10 Chosen To Go 1:46
1-11 Tempest Fashion Baby 2:00
1-12 Cry In Alphabet Sharp 2:17
1-13 Carve My Name Upon My Back 7:15
1-14 Temperature Change (The World Is A Slag) 4:29
1-15 Ingrowing Toenail 2:48
1-16 You're Going To Receive Treatment 2:52
1-17 Disillusioned Writer On The Basement Floor Of Love 6:08
1-18 New Youth Society Generator 5:58
1-19 Yeah Yeah 2:23
1-20 Boy Of 14 0:47
1-21 The Hippie Posed Engrossment II 1:41
1-22 Hooked On A Trend II 1:19
1-23 Negative Nights II 2:10
1-24 Danger Zone II 2:13
1-25 All Dressed For Tomorrow 3:09

DOWNLOAD and get the A-sides HERE!

Your Friends Are In The News

2-26 Wild And Sparkle 4:05
2-27 Ignorant Eyes 3:24
2-28 New Youth Society Generator 3:27
2-29 Your Friends Are In The News 2:09
2-30 Hangman 4:35
2-31 All Dressed For Tomorrow 6:06
2-32 It Was Good While It Lasted 7:09
2-33 Pavement Stones 93 3:57
2-34 Carve My Name Upon Your Back 3:20
2-35 Cabinet Of Disciples 8:30
2-36 Calendar Karmi 4:35
2-37 The World Is Blue 5:03
2-38 Seven Day Psalm 1:56
2-39 It Was Good While It Lasted 7:08
2-40 I Hate Reunions 3:23
2-41 Echo In The Backstreet 4:14
2-42 Sparkle Introduction

DOWNLOAD and get something besides the a-sides HERE!

Swell Maps - "Outtakes, Rehearsals, and Lots of Live Stuff" (1977-1980)

Now that we've scraped a large hole in the bottom of the barrel of the Swell Maps home recordings répertoire.....er...there's more?
Here we've got another version of 'Harmony In Your Bathroom',some early rehearsal tapes, some farting about in WRMS studios during the Marineville sessions,a complete live set from a gig in Aylesbury and the obligatory bedroom recording.

Track Listing:

1. 14th Floor (2:43)
2. Forest Fire (2:59)
3. Harmony In Your Bathroom (Alt Take) (3:47)
4. Live In Aylesbury Sept 1979 (40:16)
5. Marineville Outtakes 1 (5:14)
6. Marineville Outtakes 2 (6:32)
7. Marineville Outtakes 3 (3:55)
8. Marineville Outtakes 4 (8:58)
9. Rehearsal  July 1977  (14:55)

DOWNLOAD before the barrel is emptied HERE!

Also for the sake of complete and utter overkill, here's a couple of Swell Maps gigs from back in the day.....what more do you want?

Live in Italy June 1980

Live Aklam Hall,London 20/10/1978

Enjoy?

Swell Maps ‎– "Train Out Of It" (Antar ‎– ANTAR 4) 1987

The growing cult of Swell Maps in America required the Godfrey brothers (Epic and Nikki), to go back into the Maps archives and produce another album of out-takes, demo's and alternative takes.
They won't be doing this again because they are both dead!?....fucking hell is no-one excluded from this mortal paradox?....what?....I'm gonna die too????....you're having a laugh aren't you?.....SHIT!
I suppose this is a rock'n'roll version of Schrödinger's cat?
In the world of Rock'n'Roll Quantum mechanics they're both alive while dead at the same time; as long as you don't look. So listen to this, and we're all gonna live for ever.Even when we're dead.....as long as nobody checks.
Even better, in the quantum world it will always be both 1979 and 2018 at the same time,depending on no-one being stupid enough to tell us it isn't.
Another problem is that 1979 and 2018 are the musical equivalent of Matter and Anti-matter;so if they ever came in contact with each other they would annihilate themselves!!?...so be careful upon exposing the primordial brilliance that is/was/will be Swell Maps to the polluted air of the modern world, where even the slightest exposure to modern pop music could cause a very real and actual death of your brain......annihilation! 

Track 1: recorded at W.M.R.S. - June 1979.
Track 2: recorded at W.M.R.S. - April 1979.
Track 3: recorded at Spaceward - December 1977.
Track 4: recorded at W.M.R.S. - December 1978.
Track 5: recorded at W.M.R.S. - June 1979.
Track 6: recorded at W.S.R.S. - August 1984.
Track 7: recorded at home - June 1981.
Track 8: recorded at W.S.R.S. - December 1981.
Track 9: recorded at W.M.R.S. - July 1981.
Track 10: recorded at W.S.R.S. - August 1984.
Track 11: recorded at Alvic Sound Studio - May 1981.
Track 12: recorded at home - July 1977.
Track 13: recorded at home - March 1980/June 1981.
Track 14: recorded at home - 1973-1984.
Track 15: recorded at W.M.R.S. - Dec. 1978/June 1980.
Track 16: recorded at W.M.R.S. - December 1978.
Track 17: recorded at Spaceward - September 1977.
Track 18: recorded at W.M.R.S. - December 1978.
Track 19: recorded at home - February 1975.
Track 20: recorded at home - July 1977.
Track 21: recorded at W.S.R.S. - August 1984/May 1986.
Track 22: recorded at home - September 1975/March 1980.
Track 23: recorded at W.S.R.S. - October 1981.
Track 24: recorded at home/Alvic Sound Studio Aug 1980/May 1981.
Track 25: recorded at W.S.R.S. - September 1981.
Track 26: recorded at home/W.S.R.S. - June/September 1981.

Tracklisting:

01 Let's Build A Car 2:58
02 Real Shocks 2:16
03 Read About Seymour 1:27
04 Full Moon 1:18
05 Big Maz In The Country 3:30
06 St. Saviour's Road 1:30
07 Doomette 1:00
08 The Graveyard Shift 3:40
09 ...Then Poland (Pts. 1 & 2) 1:05
10 Blues No. 2: Beatle Bonfire 1:46
11 A Three Acre Floor 3:00
12 C.R.S. 5:04
13 Clear The Floor 2:15
14 The Cave Dwellers 0:48
15 Dresden Style 2:20
16 Ammunition Train 3:29
17 Black Velvet 1:57
18 Doctor At C. 2:06
19 Elephant Flowers 0:58
20 Stitch 2:35
21 Rundown Tube 2:50
22 Texas 1:45
23 Blues No. 1: Garden Of Medals 1:35
24 Pop In Packets 1:43
25 Tokyo Airport 2:07
26 Bridge/Ghost Train 8:10

DOWNLOAD and get out of it HERE!

Swell Maps - "Wastrels And Whippersnappers" - (Overground Records ‎– OVER108VPCD) 2006

What did young men do in their bedrooms in the pre-punk seventies?

No X-Box back then, no free internet porn, and there was only one TV in the house, in the lounge, with three channels only.

The answer lies right here, on this posthumous scraping of the seemingly bottomless barrel of archive Swell Maps recordings.

I can't hear enough versions of "Harmony In Your Bathroom" can you?

But where the hell is Dorridge?.....just googled it....I knew they were posh!It's virtually in the Cotswolds. Was always suspicious of their lack of a Brummie accent, and easy access to recording equipment, drum kits,amps and electric guitars.They were even heard referring to the 'Barth-room' rather than 'bathroom' like us normal midlanders did.There was one kid in my school who ecspectorated  the rounded vowel sounds of 'Grahss' for 'Grass', and 'Barth' for 'bath', and he went on to become a Tory candidate for the House of Fools (commons);which I'm almost certain Swell Maps never stooped to.

"All tracks recorded at various garages, bedrooms and lounges in Solihull and Dorridge, West Midlands, between 1974-1977." 

Tracklisting:

Intro / Sweet And Sour Part 2 0:12
Dresden Style 2:18
Pets' Corner 2:20
Shubunkin 1:07
Sahara 2:09
Full Moon-Blam-Full Moon 4:16
Instronaut 2:00
Televisions 2:52
Wireless 4:00
Harmony In Your Bathroom 4:21
Camoflage Attack 2:17
Gramofonica 1:40
Harvist 1:28
Johnny Seven 1:27
Sweet And Sour (Parts 2, 3 & 4) 3:24
Sheep Police / Septipede 3:34
Improv Number One 1:53
Platinum Blind 1:00
God Save The Queen 0:30
Ratbag And Goblin ('Batman' Theme) 1:28
Vertical Slumber (Prototype Take 1) 1:42
Below Number One 3:37
Organism 1:25

DOWNLOAD to your barthroom HERE!

Swell Maps ‎– "Whatever Happens Next..." (Rough Trade ‎– ROUGH 21, Rather Records ‎– ROUGH 21) 1981

We've been to Nuneaton, then Coventry, so logic dictates the next destination must be Birmingham. Once compared to an empty rugby players bath.....nothing in the centre with a ring of scum around the outside.
Rather harsh,but was once very true. Britains second city was an example of urban planning gone wrong. A nightmarish vision of damp concrete built on a minuscule budget.Skirted by the crumbling M6 motorway,and home to the silliest highway interchange in europe, nick-named 'Spaghetti Junction'.
Basically it was shit.
Despite this depressing environment, Birmingham is responsible for some of the most influential names in classic rock, namely Black Sabbath,Judas Priest,Napalm Death and most of Led Zeppelin. Not to mention such greats as Slade, The Move, Moody Blues, ELO, The Nightingales,....erm....Duran Duran!??.....and Swell Maps.
Swell Maps were DIY before DIY,with cassette recordings stretching back to 1974. So after their premature demise in 1980, it was inevitable that Rough Trade would release some of them , which they prompotly did on this double album from 1981.
If, by some chance you have lived in a closet for the last 40 years, you can hear Swell Maps official releases and peel sessions by clicking this handy link HERE!

"The majority of these recordings were made on various (mono & stereo) cassette machines at home. They are all in their original forms, apart from some editing, except 'Midget Submarines (Sd. 1) on which we added some piano and extra voices."

A1, A2 rec. April 77
A3 rec. April 75
A4, A5 rec. June 77
A6 rec. Dec 78
A7 rec. Jan 79
A8 rec. live at the Titan Club, Rome in March 1980
B1 rec. July 77
B2 to B4 rec. August 77
C1 rec. Dec 75 / June 77
C2 rec. May 77
C3 rec. June 74
C4 rec. July 77 / Dec 77
D1 rec. April 74
D2 rec. at the start of sessions for 'Jane From Occupied Europe' at WMRS, Leamington Spa., June 79
D3 to D7 rec. at Swell Maps' 2nd John Peel Session, May 79
Tracklist:

A1 Read About Seymour
A2 Fashion Cult
A3 Armadillo
A4 (I Am) The Greatest Plumming! / Radio Ten
A5 Here's The Cupboard (Thrash)
A6 Terribly Insect
A7 Midget Submarines
A8 Whatever Happens Next...
B1 Clearasil Record (Stuck)
B2 BLAM!!
B3 Down With Tractors
B4 Amphibious Landing Craft
C1 Paul's Dead (click here for this missing track from the file!)
C2 Sheep Dip
C3 Havoc All Ended
C4 The Himalayas
D1 You & The Night & The Music
D2 The Stairs Are Like An Avalanche
D3 Vertical Slum
D4 Forest Fire
D5 Midget Submarines (II)
D6 Armadillo (II)
D7 Bandits One Five

DOWNLOAD and see what happens HERE!

Swell Maps -" The complete Swell Maps " incl. "A Trip To Marineville ", Jane From Occupied Europe" plus all the singles and Peel sessions 1978-80.

I never really recovered from the moment i first saw a picture of NIkki Sudden, in the 80's i think. He looked like he was in the rolling stones or some naff yank rock band.How could this be??? The Swell Maps sounded like perfect non-rock music, a sound brought to its zenith on the monolithic single "Lets Build a Car". I bought this album blind in 1979 on the strength that it was on Rough Trade, and ,as normal, loved it. Falling down rock montage, with a vocalist that sounded like he couldn't be bothered to finish every line he droned. And i never saw any pictures of them, which is essential for any myth.Download the album and non-album singles below, and enjoy these DIY classics.(now also including allll the peel sessions!)

DOWNLOAD "A Trip to Marineville" HERE!

Track Listing: 

1. h.s. art
2. Another Song
3. Vertical Slum
4. Spitfire Parade
5. Harmony in your Bathroom
6. Don't Throw Ashtrays at Me
7. Midget Submarine
8. Bridge Head
9. Full Moon in my Pocket
10. Blam!!
11. Full Moon
12. Gunboats
13. Adventuring into Basketry
14. My Lil' Shoppes 'Round the Corner

Tracklist:

1 Robot Factory
2 Let's Buy A Bridge
3 Border Country
4 Cake Shop Girl
5 The Helicopter Spies
6 Big Maz In The Desert From The Trolley
7 Big Empty Field
8 Mining Villages
9 Collision With A Frogman
10 Vs. The Mangrove Delta Plan
11 Secret Island
12 Whatever Happens Next...
13 Blenheim Shots
14 A Raincoat's Room 

Bonus Tracks

15 The Stairs Are Like An Avalanche
16 New York

 DOWNLOAD and get occupied with european jane (i.e. hairy armpits) HERE!

 Swell Maps Singles Collection:

1-Read about Seymour (Rather records 1977)2-Ripped and Torn3-Black Velvet4-Dresden Style (Rough Trade 1978)5-Ammunition Train6-Full Moon7-Real Shocks (Rough Trade 1979)8- Lets Build a Car (Rough trade 1979)9-Big Maz In The Country10-.....and then Poland.

DOWNLOAD all these swell singles HERE! 

The complete Peel sessions 1978-80:

BONUS!!!! DOWNLOAD The complete Swell Maps Peel Sessions HERE!