Blam! Near enough wet myself when I found this - afterall, it's only the first Swell Maps Peel session innit? I've always been a bit dubious as to the viability of das Maps as a live act - there are virtually NO field recordings out there for perusal & the scant few mins of live stuff I have heard have either been wilfully shambolic or so shoddily recorded that their actual performance was difficult to decipher - but this session'd appear to offer some evidence to the contrary. Captured on tape with few (if any) posthumous embellishments, this terrific post finds 'em ripping through their legendary debut 45, some Marineville-era highlights & the hard-to-find "International Rescue" with a couple of brief interjections from Our Lord Ravenscroft to boot. I do wish more folk would include Peel's twixt song banter when uploading his sessions to the 'net - half the enjoyment of listening to these tasty little time capsules is hearing His Holiness fumbling his mispronounciation of the bass player's surname or (almost inevitably) cueing the track up at the wrong speed isn't it? Anyway, for the record, this debut session was recorded on 16th October 1978 with the classic Nikki, Epic, Jowe & Biggles line-up & respect is due to Nuzz Prowling Wolf for sharing it.
Incidently, another Maps' Peel session (their second) was included on Rough Trade's posthumous Whatever Happens Next, a 2xLP comp of outtakes, rehearsal tapes, live inserts & other ephemera which Mute unfathomably overlooked when they remastered the band's back catalogue for The Grey Area in 1999 ("I Am The Greatest Plumbing" & "Sheep Dip" are both particular favs of mine). Fortunately, you can grab yourself a copy here c/o Wilfully Obscure. Their third, final Peel set continues to elude me, cue much gnashing of teeth, etc. God knows why somebody hasn't stepped in & compiled all three onto a handy CD - people are gagging to hear this stuff afterall..
GETall via
... if you are a new one to Swell Maps I highly recommend their release Jane From Occupied Europe as a starter. Get it from Zoltar's Revenge here.
Peel sessions, as always, for the already addicted ones.
Blam! Near enough wet myself when I found this - afterall, it's only the first Swell Maps Peel session innit? I've always been a bit dubious as to the viability of das Maps as a live act - there are virtually NO field recordings out there for perusal & the scant few mins of live stuff I have heard have either been wilfully shambolic or so shoddily recorded that their actual performance was difficult to decipher - but this session'd appear to offer some evidence to the contrary. Captured on tape with few (if any) posthumous embellishments, this terrific post finds 'em ripping through their legendary debut 45, some Marineville-era highlights & the hard-to-find "International Rescue" with a couple of brief interjections from Our Lord Ravenscroft to boot. I do wish more folk would include Peel's twixt song banter when uploading his sessions to the 'net - half the enjoyment of listening to these tasty little time capsules is hearing His Holiness fumbling his mispronounciation of the bass player's surname or (almost inevitably) cueing the track up at the wrong speed isn't it? Anyway, for the record, this debut session was recorded on 16th October 1978 with the classic Nikki, Epic, Jowe & Biggles line-up & respect is due to Nuzz Prowling Wolf for sharing it.
Incidently, another Maps' Peel session (their second) was included on Rough Trade's posthumous Whatever Happens Next, a 2xLP comp of outtakes, rehearsal tapes, live inserts & other ephemera which Mute unfathomably overlooked when they remastered the band's back catalogue for The Grey Area in 1999 ("I Am The Greatest Plumbing" & "Sheep Dip" are both particular favs of mine). Fortunately, you can grab yourself a copy here c/o Wilfully Obscure. Their third, final Peel set continues to elude me, cue much gnashing of teeth, etc. God knows why somebody hasn't stepped in & compiled all three onto a handy CD - people are gagging to hear this stuff afterall..
GET
all via
... if you are a new one to Swell Maps I highly recommend their release Jane From Occupied Europe as a starter. Get it from Zoltar's Revenge here.
Peel sessions, as always, for the already addicted ones.
