THE WEATHER! THE LEATHER! PT. 2

(Belated) tribute to Nikki Sudden (1956-2006)

Just like I knew I was gonna like punk even before I'd really heard any, I was a Swell Maps fan before I'd heard any of their music. An article I'd read around 1982 described their "anything goes"-estethics, disregard for conventional song lengths and proper recording techniques, absurdist lyrics (the phrase "Got a space between my eyes, never knew about it" was embedded in my skull - between my eyes - years before I heard the song) and weird fascination with childhood stuff like Thunderbirds and Biggles. Just reading about it made me want to "do it myself"; weeks later my first self-recorded tape was on the market (circulation: a whopping 30).When I got around to hearing the Swell Maps' music it didn't disappoint; if anything, they were even punkier than I'd imagined them to be.
(Allow me to sidetrack for a minute: what's with this punk-versus-postpunk shit? I always considered all cool D.I.Y. stuff from the 1977-1982 era "punk", especially the Swell Maps!)
I loved debut single "Read About Seymour" (which I got on the great early punk comp Burning Ambitions), hardly 1.30 minutes long and that included a chaotic freak-out at the end. Then I found a second-hand copy of their posthumous Whatever Happens Next 2LP, which has all the different Swell Maps "flavours" you need; practice recordings, piano solos, jams involving "drums and plumming" or various kitchen utensils, and last but not least a blistering Peel session from 1979, featuring labelmate Lora Logic on sax! As this is the only Maps record that's never rereleased (Mute has their other LP's out on CD), I've posted 3 tracks from this Peel session below.
Cult Figures consisted of 2 friends some members of Swell Maps went to art school with; they had a couple of songs but no proper band yet, so what you hear on the "Zip Nolan" single (out on the Maps' own Rather Records, 1978) is actually the Swell Maps playing (which should be clear from the first bars of furious drumming!).

Swell Maps - Vertical Slum/ Forest Fire
Swell Maps - Bandits One Five (from Peel Session, 1979)
Cult Figures - Zip Nolan