Swell Maps

SWELL MAPS

Sat 25th Apr 2026
Doors 8:00pm
Mono, Glasgow

In the mid-1970s, a collective of six English teenagers started creating musictogether in their suburban home-town of Solihull. This project evolved tobecome Swell Maps, around a core of three musicians: Jowe Head (bass,guitars & vocals), his school-friend the late Nikki Sudden (guitar & vocals),and Nikki's brother, the late Epic Soundtracks (drums & keyboards). Theyrecorded their debut single, "Read About Seymour" in 1977, and released iton their own label, Rather Records. Swell Maps were one of the first punk bands to set up an "independent" record label. They are also known as one of the pioneers of "Alternative Rock", mixing punk with experimental sounds.Swell Maps proceeded to release four singles and two albums in a brief buteventful career, in partnership with Rough Trade Records. They topped the UK independent charts, and influenced various bands such as Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Stereolab, and Blur. The original line-up split in 1980, but those two
original studio albums, "A Trip to Marineville" and "Jane From Occupied Europe", are still attracting a new generation of enthusiastic listeners.