Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Jackafello he left home

What can I say about Sudden Sway? Not a lot because I don't know very much. But I can pretty much bet you've never heard anything like this - unless you've heard this.

And yes, Meesta Maelstrom, the computer data was appended to the Traffic Tax Scheme.

Sudden Sway - To You With ReGard (1981)

01 - Alleluia! The Psychic Sons
02 - Pretty People Again
03 - Dance Of Joy
04 - Tales Of Talking Town

Sudden Sway - The Traffic Tax Scheme (1982)

01 - Sir Savoir Her Valoir (humhear)
02 - Me Says Conscience (humsing)

http://rapidshare.com/files/8111075/Sudden_Sway.zip

12 Comments:

Blogger Emil Thompson said...

I haven't listened yet, but is this the one with a track of streaming digital data tacked onto the end ? Never did find out which computer it was for...probably a spectrum or C64 or somesuch.

9:31 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

well, sudden sway are just great! not easy to dig up information about them on the i'net but they have a yahoo group devoted to them, which might be worth checking out in case you're interested.
recommended listening: everything :-)

9:19 am  
Blogger Flackwellian said...

I have this on vinyl somewhere. Takes me back to listening to John Peel in the early 80's. He played 'Talking Town' a fair bit I recall. 'trrific.

11:16 am  
Blogger Unknown said...

Sudden Sway are one of my all time favourite bands, and I've been looking for a copy of Traffic tax Scheme for ages - so thank you. They went on to release a superb ridiculously lavishly packaged album which you will never find anywhere called Spacemate on WEA. If you would some mp3's of this nice person that runs this blog, please let me know. They then released eight different versions of the resulting single - sing song. By eight different versions, I mean seperately recorded with different words and choruses etc. They went to Rough Trade for a few albums. Their second album '76 Kids Forever is avilable on Cherry Red and well worth tracking down.

Cheers, Ned - makemedotsmile@gmail.com

1:39 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nobody would happen to have a copy Ko Opera by Sudden Sway in a digital format would they?

1:14 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello there from the Netherlands! Really great to be able to pick up these singles as mp3s. They remain stunning even after all these years. As the Joycean (James) treats they are, these songs brought SS the admiration of no-one less than the late Anthony Burgess. Thanks!

11:37 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sudden Sway are one of my all time favourite bands, and I've been looking for a copy of Traffic tax Scheme for ages - so thank you.

Took the words right out of my fingers. I taped SS,HV from Peel & played it to death. But I taped over it, on the grounds that I'd be buying the single as soon as I could find it - then never found it. Only 25 years later...

10:53 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I first heard Sudden Sway via John Peel. Their first single, "Jane's Third Party" was interesting. The release of To You With Regard absolutely blew me away. This remains one of my all time favourite singles, which I still play regularly. I was lucky enough to catch their 'installation' at the ICA in 1986 or 1987. I'm astonished that Spacemate hasn't been released on CD, but then again whenever I mention Sudden Sway, people always haven't a clue what I'm talking about.
Such a shame. One of the truly great undiscovered bands.

7:19 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've got pretty much everything they've ever released (I think!)
On vinyl: Jane's Third Party, Traffic Tax Scheme, Evolution, To You with Regard, Spacemate, all 8 versions of Sing Song, Autumn Job Lot Cutback Offer, Ko-Opera, 76 Kids Forever, Saturday Morning Episode.
In digital form, I only have Ko-Opera and 76 Kids Forever (which is still available on play.com for £8.99).
Did anyone get to see the installation at the ICA, where they played by request in a small partitioned compartment? There were also various arcade-type machines where you were invited to take a drive around the fictional new town of Heavenly Springs, and disspensing machines delivering free key rings and otehr trinkets.
As soon as I have converted the vinyl to digital format, I'll be quite happy to send them a copy FOC. I'll keep you posted.

5:55 pm  
Blogger iambic said...

Thank you so much for this. My vinyl copy's about had it now through overplay as an enthusiastic teenager. Anyone else remember the all-nighter at The Key Theatre in Peterborough with Sudden Sway and Ersatz? I've seen one hell of a lot of bands perform since then, but that gig does stick in my mind as being ahead of its time.

2:43 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fantastic blog! So much great stuff!
Many many thanks for sharing.

I know I have some Sudden Sway vinyls somewhere and as luck would have I had been searching for To You With Regard for ages, in fact ever since I recently found a small A5 booklet among some of my "junk" and remembered that it was the booklet (A4 folder and stapled in the middle) that came with my copy of "To You With Regard".

I'm sitting here looking at it - a strange concoction of words - just what you would expect.

If you're interested I can take pictures of each page and try and post them.

Once again many thanks for allowing me to hear something I haven't heard for a long time and brought back memories.

1:34 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Addendum to my previous comment - I just did some searching and came across the following Sudden Sway links - complete with some tracks tht you can listen to online.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=152172166

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=317511406

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=317517213

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=317521678

Keep following the links in the above URLs and you'll get more!

Enjoy.

1:38 am  

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