What is it about Solihull that produces such odd music? At some point between the emergence of Genesis P Orridge and grindcore pioneers Napalm Death, there was a brief explosion of punk which included schoolfriends and labelmates Swell Maps and Cult Figures. Having just reunited on a Birmingham stage for the first time in nearly 50 years, we thought we’d get the co-founder of each band together for a chat.
Stephen Bird was rechristened Jowe Head (slang for ‘weirdo’) by his schoolfriend Nikki Sudden. The two of them and a gang of mates spent a good part of their adolescence experimenting with music and sound in various spare bedrooms and church halls. When punk arrived it gave them the opportunity to record these experiments and play them live for an audience. Swell Maps broke up after a couple of albums, and since then Jowe has worked on a dizzying array of projects including Television Personalities, Palookas, Olive’s Hairy Custard and (since the pandemic) Swell Maps C21. He is also a prolific visual artist.
The Maps started their own label, Rather Records, and on it they released Zip Nolan, the debut single by their friends Cult Figures. The group only survived a couple of EPs, and then guitarist Jonathan Hodgson went off to the Royal College of Art to study animation. He has since built a career as a filmmaker with short films including the BAFTA-winning The Man with the Beautiful Eyes and Roughhouse… but the punk urge never entirely left him, and in 2015 he and singer Gary Jones put the band back together.
How do the things that consume us at the age of 17 go on to shape our whole lives? Jowe and Jon will talk us through this winding tale of love, loss and DIY creativity, with the aid of some old photos and films.
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