Swell Maps: The John Peel Sessions [MUTE]

Why you'll love it

All three sessions Swell Maps recorded for John Peel are here on one LP, from October 1978 through May 1979 to March 1980, including the Peel version of "Read About Seymour". The Birmingham DIY punks influenced a whole generation of post-punk and indie bands.

This edition

• All three John Peel sessions: 16/10/78, 15/5/79 and 18/3/80
• Thirteen tracks across two sides

About the album

Swell Maps were teenagers from Solihull, brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks with Jowe Head, Biggles Books, Phones Sportsman and John "Golden" Cockrill, who'd been making odd, home-taped music since 1972. Punk gave them a reason to go public, and their 1977 single "Read About Seymour" landed on the Guardian's list of 25 classic punk singles. They loved T. Rex and German krautrock in equal measure, and you can hear both.

John Peel had them in for the first time in October 1978, before they'd even made an album, and that session opens this record with "International Rescue" and "Read About Seymour". The 1979 and 1980 sessions take in "Midget Submarines", "Let's Buy A Bridge" and "Helicopter Spies", noisy, playful and wonderfully unbothered by convention. It's the band at their most direct. Peel had a nose for these things, and we're happy to follow it.

Tracklist

Listen

Out August 21, 2026 on Mute (cat# LMAPS4LP).