Swansea Sound are heading out on the road this autumn with a new album, Twentieth Century.
The band comprises Hue Williams (The Pooh Sticks), Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey (both Talulah Gosh/Heavenly, The Catenary Wires), Bob Collins (The Dentists, The Treasures of Mexico), Ian Button, (Death in Vegas, with Louis Philippe, Pete Astor and Papernut Cambridge).
Formed during lockdown, Swansea Sound recorded three singles without actually meeting each other.
Corporate Indie Band appeared as a cassette on specialist label Lavender Sweep. It got a lot of airplay, and the next releases were on 7” vinyl, including Indies Of the World, which made it into the UK vinyl Top 10. A debut album, Live At The Rum Puncheon, was released in 2021 to considerable critical acclaim. But how did Swansea Sound come by their name?
“We took the name ‘Swansea Sound’ on the day that Swansea’s local radio station was taken over and re-branded as ‘Greatest Hits Radio’,” they explain.
“The Rum Puncheon was a pub in Swansea that was demolished in the 1980s. The first album is called ‘Live At The Rum Puncheon’ as a kind of tribute. At the time the album was recorded (during lockdown) Swansea Sound had never played live (and had never rehearsed). The whole thing was done remotely. We thought it would be fun to pretend it was recorded live in a pub that no longer exists.”
An album launch for Twentieth Century will kick off the band’s forthcoming tour at Rough Trade East, London on September 9. Wales dates include Cardiff’s Moon Club on September 15 and Cwrw in Carmarthen on September 16.