BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:adamgibbons/ics METHOD:PUBLISH X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VEVENT UID:28320@offbeat.amsterdam SUMMARY:SWELL MAPS (UK) DTSTAMP:20261006T221600Z DTSTART:20270312T193000Z DESCRIPTION:‘A LOT OF LATE 70S BANDS WORE GREY. BUT WE WERE DETERMINED TO H AVE FUN’: THE\nRETURN OF THE MEGA-INFLUENTIAL SWELL MAPS AFTER 46 YEARS\n\ nSWELL MAPS [UK]\n\nIn the mid-1970s\, a collective of six English teenage rs started creating music\ntogether in their suburban home-town of Solihul l. This project evolved into\nSwell Maps\, around a core of three musician s: Jowe Head\, his school friend the\nlate Nikki Sudden\, and Nikki’s brot her\, the late Epic Soundtracks. Their 1977\ndebut 7′′\, Read About Seymou r\, came out on their own Rather Records. One of the\nfirst punk bands to set up an “indie” label\, they were also pioneers of\n“alternative” music\ , mixing punk with experimental sounds Swell Maps released\nfour singles a nd two albums in a brief but eventful career\, in partnership with\nRough Trade\, topping UK indie charts and inf luencing acts including Sonic\nYou th\, Nirvana\, Stereolab\, and Blur?\n\nSWELL MAPS will be performing thro ughout 2026/2027 across the UK and Europe and\nare proud to present this s tellar document\, which maintains the group’s devotion\nto D-I-Y ideals an d impulses. The vinyl album covers were hand-screened and\nstamped by a fe minist cooperative in Valencia\, Spain and are offered in three\nvariants. \n\nhttps://swellmapsc21.bandcamp.com/album/c21\n[https://swellmapsc21.ban dcamp.com/album/c21]\n\nHalf a century ago a bunch of suburban school mate s from Solihull banded\ntogether to form one of the most DIY and lo-fi of groups ever in Swell Maps\n[https://swellmaps.org/]. With crazy names like Biggles Books and Phones B\nSportsmen they created songs with equally mad titles like Midget Submarines\,\nHelicopter Spies and Read About Seymour. The songs were submerged beneath a\nfuzzy din made up of hoovers\, wind u p toys and all sorts of paraphernalia and\nyet against all the odds the am azingly catchy tunes fought their way to the\nsurface. And how. Though Swe ll Maps’ flame flickered only briefly before\nsplitting in 1980 they devel oped instant cult status and influenced a whole\ngeneration of bands to fo llow from Thrilled Skinny to Sonic Youth and from\nStereolab to even Nirva na and Blur. And now they are back... Kind of...\n\nI think it is importan t to set the scene because this is a very hard act to\nfollow in the secon d incarnation of Swell Maps\, not just the passage of time but\nbecause tw o of the three main driving forces\, Nikki Sudden and his brother Epic\nSo undtracks\, are sadly no longer with us. But the moment Swell Maps’ origin al\nJowe Head and his all-star band of musicians roar into their first fuz zy\nmasterpiece\, A Morning Star\, any concerns are absolutely blown out o f the water.\nA succession of uplifting\, killer guitar riff after riff\, slam dunk into\nultra-hooky choruses\; you will soon find yourself Crow Cr ow-ing along.\n\nFoam Rubber Wedding\, Vertical Take-Off and Landing\, Sav ed By The Warts the\ntitles and themes are totally picking up from the C20 albums A Trip To\nMarineville and Jane From Occupied Europe. Some of the songs actually date back\nto that time but have never seen the light of da y before. It’s wonderful to hear\nEpic Soundtracks’ surprisingly moving ke yboard ballad Jelly Babies re-crafted in\nthe hands of Lucie Rejchrtova (C razy World of Arthur Brown). That all star cast\nincludes members of Wolfh ounds\, the Auteurs and Alternative TV and Television\nPersonalities. With the last two bands mentioned no wonder they perform a song\ncalled Tele V isions\, an instant classic by the way.\n\nThe most important comeback of the year. The spirit of a legend has been\nrespected and represented to an other generation. It doesn’t matter one jot if\nyou are too young to have been hooked first time around you absolutely need to\nsubmerge yourself in to a surreal state of Swell Maps’ C21. You can probably tell\nthat I am en ormously excited by this album. It is simply wondrous. >>\nhttps://narcmag azine.com/album-review-swell-maps-c21/\n[https://narcmagazine.com/album-re view-swell-maps-c21/]\n\nhttps://swellmaps.bandcamp.com/album/the-john-pee l-sessions\n[https://swellmaps.bandcamp.com/album/the-john-peel-sessions]\ n\nhttps://swellmaps.org/ [https://swellmaps.org/]\n\nTags\n#alternative # post-punk #London\n\nGOOD READ >>\n\nChampioned by the BBC’s John Peel and signed to Rough Trade\, the band were punk\nwhen that meant DIY\, psyched elia and prog as well as screaming chords. What’s\nmore\, they loved Pink Floyd ...\n\nSwell Maps were a punk band\, but only because that word mean t something\ndifferent when they started making records in 1977. It didn’t mean bands called\nKnuckleheadz or Gimp Fist\; it meant unfettered freedo m\, curiosity rather than\nrage. Theirs was a music that wandered off in u nexpected directions\, where songs\nbarely hung together before falling ap art\, punctuated by peculiar sounds made by\nwhatever happened to be aroun d. It was psychedelia and it was prog and it was\nkrautrock\, every bit as much as it was punk. Most of all\, it was DIY.\n\nhttps://www.theguardian .com/music/2026/mar/10/swell-maps-interview-jowe-head\n[https://www.thegua rdian.com/music/2026/mar/10/swell-maps-interview-jowe-head]\n\nJowe Head “ We polarise opinion: some people love our music\, some people cannot\nstan d it! It seems that Swell Maps continue to be an influence on many bands\n around the world. For example\, I was amused to see a character in a Goril laz\nvideo wearing a Swell Maps t-shirt!”\n\nThurston Moore (Sonic Youth) “As soon as that guitar comes slicing off that\ncrackling vinyl groove you know you’re gonna rock. It’s the best of both worlds:\nfist-in-the-heart guitar burnin’ rock and ahead-of-its-time songsmith awareness\n. . . The S well Maps had a lot to do with my upbringing.”\n\nTim Gane (McCarthy / Ste reolab) “When I first bought “A Trip to Marineville”\, I\nmust have played it a hundred times\, just to listen to every single second of\nit.”\n\nSc ott Kannberg (Pavement) “Swell Maps was a big influence on our early recor ds.\nThey had these songs they fucked up somehow to make sound really dirt y and low\nfrequency\, but they had these great songs underneath all this mess.”Alan McGee\n(Creation Records) “Swell Maps inspired a lot of bands t hat became the vanguard\nof the independent scene ten years later – Sonic Youth\, Pastels\, Mary Chain\,\nPavement\, to name a few. Classic band and great people too!”\n\nBen Ayres (Cornershop) “Let’s Build A Car” is one o f my favourite singles of all\ntime\, it’s like nothing else. So powerful and breaks all the rules\, yet it’s\nperfect\, with a great melody too. “A Trip To Marineville” was a really important\nalbum for me\, as was “Jane From Occupied Europe”!\n\nJohn Robb (The Membranes / journalist) “Swell Ma ps had an abrasive rawness that\nof course\, we loved\, but they had much more going on – they also had these\namazing sound collages that you could get lost in. They were mysterious and they\nhad an other-worldliness and that made you love them even more.”\n\nBrian Turner (NYC radio presenter a nd musician) “My Swell Maps discovery came\nfive seconds into the intro of “Midget Submarines” . . . avant-garage-\ngonzo-kraut-greatness\, ambient experiments all punctuated by these incredible\nanthems of another univers e that made complete sense and ignored everything else\n. . . this was a b and that invented something.”\n\nDavid Lance Callahan (Moonshake\, Wolfhou nds) “Swell Maps showed that people you\ncan relate to could produce music of ambition\, imagination and innovation. All\nof this was done with a li berating lack of inhibition and an overwhelming sense\nof fun – and music’ s not music without that!”\n\nPresale/door prices adjusted: our events are set up by volunteers in favour of\nsupporting DIY touring acts\, but it i s getting ever more risky to plan and book\nevents – please support the co mmunity and buy your tickets early! Presale closes\n18.00 on day of the sh ow. URL:https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/swell-maps-uk GEO:52.354338;4.8553367 LOCATION:OCCII - Amstelveenseweg 134\, 1075 XL Amsterdam STATUS:CONFIRMED CATEGORIES:alternative,amsterdam-zuid,books,community,diy,experimental,indi e,kraut,music,punk,rock,schinkelbuurt,slam,vinyl X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

‘A lot of late 70s bands wore grey. But we were determined to have fun’: the return of the mega-influential Swell Ma ps after 46 years

SWELL MAPS [UK]

In the m id-1970s, a collective of six English teenagers started creating music tog ether in their suburban home-town of Solihull. This project evolved into < strong>Swell Maps, around a core of three musicians: Jowe Head, his school friend the late Nikki Sudden, and Nikki’s brother, the late Epic Soundtracks. Their 197 7 debut 7′′, Read About Seymour, came out on their own Ra ther Records. One of the first punk bands to set up an “indie ” label, they were also pioneers of “alternative” music, mix ing punk with experimental sounds Swell Maps released fou r singles and two albums in a brief but eventful career, in partnership wi th Rough Trade, topping UK indie charts and inf luencing acts including Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Stereolab, and Blur?

SWELL MAPS will be performing t hroughout 2026/2027 across the UK and Europe and are proud to present this stellar document, which maintains the group’s devotion to D-I-Y ideals and impulses. The vinyl album covers were hand-screened and stamped by a feminist cooperative in Valencia, Spain and are offered in t hree variants.

https://swellmapsc21.bandcamp.com/album/c21

H alf a century ago a bunch of suburban school mates from Solihull banded to gether to form one of the most DIY and lo-fi of groups ev er in Swell Maps. Wit h crazy names like Biggles Books and Phones B Spo rtsmen they created songs with equally mad titles like Midget Submarines, Helicopter Spies and Read About Seymour. The songs were submerged beneath a fuzzy din made up of hoovers, wind u p toys and all sorts of paraphernalia and yet against all the odds the ama zingly catchy tunes fought their way to the surface. And how. Though Swell Maps’ flame flickered only briefly before splitting in 1 980 they developed instant cult status and influenced a whole generation o f bands to follow from Thrilled Skinny to Sonic Y outh and from Stereolab to even Nirvana< /strong> and Blur. And now they are back... Kind of...

I think it is important to set the scene because this is a very hard act to follow in the second incarnation of Swell Maps, no t just the passage of time but because two of the three main driving force s, Nikki Sudden and his brother Epic Soundtracks< /strong>, are sadly no longer with us. But the moment Swell Maps’ original Jowe Head and his all-star band of musi cians roar into their first fuzzy masterpiece, A Morning Star, an y concerns are absolutely blown out of the water. A succession of upliftin g, killer guitar riff after riff, slam dunk into ultra-hooky choruses; you will soon find yourself Crow Crow-ing along.

Foam Rubber Weddi ng, Vertical Take-Off and Landing, Saved By The Warts the titles and themes are totally picking up from the C20 albu ms A Trip To Marineville and Jane From Occupied Europe. Some of the songs actually date back to that time but have never seen the light of day before. It’s wonderful to hear Epic Soundtracks’ surprisingly moving keyboard ballad Jelly Babies re-crafted in the hands of Lucie Rejchrtova (Crazy World of Arthur Brown). That all star cast includes members of Wol fhounds, the Auteurs and Alternative TV< /strong> and Television Personalities. With the last two bands mentioned no wonder they perform a song called Tele Visions , an instant classic by the way.

The most important comeback of the year. The spirit of a legend has been respected and represented to anothe r generation. It doesn’t matter one jot if you are too young to have been hooked first time around you absolutely need to submerge yourself into a s urreal state of Swell Maps’ C21. You can probabl y tell that I am enormously excited by this album. It is simply wondrous. >> https://narcmagazine.com/album-review-swell-maps-c21/

https://swellmaps.bandcamp.com/album/the-john-peel-sessi ons

https://sw ellmaps.org/

Tags
#alternative #post-punk #London

GO OD READ >>

Championed by the BBC’s John Peel and signed to Rou gh Trade, the band were punk when that meant DIY, psychedelia and prog as well as screaming chords. What’s more, they loved Pink Floyd ...

Swell Maps were a punk band, but only because that word meant something di fferent when they started making records in 1977. It didn’t mean bands cal led Knuckleheadz or Gimp Fist; it meant unfettered freedom, curiosity rath er than rage. Theirs was a music that wandered off in unexpected direction s, where songs barely hung together before falling apart, punctuated by pe culiar sounds made by whatever happened to be around. It was psychedelia a nd it was prog and it was krautrock, every bit as much as it was punk. Mos t of all, it was DIY.

https://www. theguardian.com/music/2026/mar/10/swell-maps-interview-jowe-head

Jowe Head “We polarise opinion: some people love our m usic, some people cannot stand it! It seems that Swell Maps continue to be an influence on many bands around the world. For example, I was amused to see a character in a Gorillaz video wearing a Swell Maps t-shirt!”

Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) “As soon as that guitar com es slicing off that crackling vinyl groove you know you’re gonna rock. It’ s the best of both worlds: 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.”

Tim Gane (McCarthy / Stereolab) “ When I first bought “A Trip to Marineville”, I must have played it a hundr ed times, just to listen to every single second of it.”

Sco tt Kannberg (Pavement) “Swell Maps was a big influence on our ear ly records. They had these songs they fucked up somehow to make sound real ly dirty and low frequency, but they had these great songs underneath all this mess.”Alan McGee (Creation Records) “Swell Maps inspired a lot of ban ds that became the vanguard of the independent scene ten years later – Son ic Youth, Pastels, Mary Chain, Pavement, to name a few. Classic band and g reat people too!”

Ben Ayres (Cornershop) “Let’s Bu ild A Car” is one of my favourite singles of all time, it’s like nothing e lse. So powerful and breaks all the rules, yet it’s perfect, with a great melody too. “A Trip To Marineville” was a really important album for me, a s was “Jane From Occupied Europe”!

John Robb (The Membranes / journalist) “Swell Maps had an abrasive rawness that of course , we loved, but they had much more going on – they also had these amazing sound collages that you could get lost in. They were mysterious and they h ad an other-worldliness and that made you love them even more.”

Brian Turner (NYC radio presenter and musician) “My Swell Ma ps discovery came five seconds into the intro of “Midget Submarines” . . . avant-garage- gonzo-kraut-greatness, ambient experiments all punctuated b y these incredible anthems of another universe that made complete sense an d ignored everything else . . . this was a band that invented something.”< /p>

David Lance Callahan (Moonshake, Wolfhounds) “Swel l Maps showed that people you can relate to could produce music of ambitio n, imagination and innovation. All of this was done with a liberating lack of inhibition and an overwhelming sense of fun – and music’s not music wi thout that!”

Presale/door prices adjusted: our events are set up by volunteers in favour of supporting DIY touring acts, but it is g etting ever more risky to plan and book events – please support the commun ity and buy your tickets early! Presale closes 18.00 on day of the show.

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