Peterborough's Sudden Sway were something very special, some highly ingenious ideas - a band totally in control of their output and unfortunately very often misunderstood. Early singles were very much in the post-punk ilk, simple keyboards, guitar riffs, one string bass lines, sad lyrics etc - you know the script.
Their classic 4 track 12" EP To You With Regards showed a subtle change, post-punk dance beats were sneaking in, with elements of This Heat, A Certain Ratio and early Shriekback. Song titles were becoming stranger and stranger, the lyrics indicating a new twist, a new fascination with culture, consumerism and mass marketing. The Traffic Tax Scheme EP told us much more was afoot with sing-a-long backing singers, a catchy pop chorus and toytown melodies (much like Stockholm Monsters' Soft Babies).
Peel sessions were inevitable, and the duo used them to take experimentation to its limits. Anybody tuning in to the tracks mid-song would have been confused beyond belief. The Darwinian post-funk narrative of Let's Evolve has to be an all-time classic. The 1983 session was actually the first issue in the BBC/Strange Fruit Peel Session 12" series. The second session introduced us to the wonderful world of Hypno-Stroll, the wonderful marketing concept of mind data compression, which would have baffled even Edward DeBono and "deliberate thinking method" problem solving buddies. (both sessions are included here for your total confusion and for completion)
Sudden Sway were then signed to Warner's off-shoot Blanco Y Negro for a shot at the big time. The first release, 8 versions on 8 singles of Sing-Song is featured in depth elsewhere on these pages. The band then took marketing tools (and surely Warners' patience) to the limit with the fantastic Spacemate. Imagine a 18"x12" cereal box filled with two 12" mini-albums, meaningless wall charts, manuals, leaflets, stickers and brochures - that was Spacemate. From memory every single box was crushed or damaged as Warners distribution staff had no clue how to handle it and record shops didn't have the rack space for it! The four sides were labelled, The Past (Sudden Sway in early post-punk garage mode), The Present (Sing-song era sequencer dance pop), Somewhere Else (outlandish pop psychedelia) and The Future (disposable & catchy electro-pop melodies). In all, 21 tracks of pure genius/madness - you decide!
Sudden Sway were then, unsurprisingly dropped by Warners!
Subsequent releases were on Rough Trade, the first of which Autumn Cutback Job Lot Offer was a 7" single featuring 8 individual minute long advertising ditties. The songs were imaginary jingles for bizarre (and quiet silly) unusable products. Inside the sleeve were red fold-out leaflets describing each product. Sudden Sway were clearly not going for the big time.
The band's first proper album was quite something. 76 Kids Forever was an imaginary soundtrack to a pretend West End musical, set in '70's Britain depicting the adventures of a group of youngsters of the day. Clearly a totally silly concept, but musically it did work, with 13 well crafted, catchy pop songs dedicated to the naff old '70s. A single, Barmy Army, was released but never sold - dedicated to gangs on the street, shoplifting in Woolies on a quick pick'n'mix slaughter and fighting on the streets of Nottingham. The album was no West Side Story but when listened to as a whole, it works really well - and musically, is likely their finest work.
The band's final release was the Ko-Opera album, a dance-techno, mish-mash of glossy pop which would have served the band well if it had been their chosen direction on Warners some 5 years previous. But then, they wouldn't have been Sudden Sway if they were that predictable.
Discography & Radio Sessions : Re:Upped
The Eight Sing-Song singles : Here
