A tribute to Nikki Sudden, Epic Soundtracks & Dave Kusworth

by Mark Mulholland, Joe Armstrong & Stéphane Doucerain

Ports Of Call Music CD/LP/DL

Release date 6 November 2026

The seminal West Midlands post-punk band Swell Maps was founded in the mid-1970s by brothers Adrian Nicholas Godfrey and Kevin Paul Godfrey, alias Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks. Championed by John Peel, they have since been cited as an influence by many, including the likes of REM, Sonic Youth, Pavement, Blur, Stereolab and Dinosaur Jr. Beginning with 1977’s ‘Read About Seymour’, they released a string of highly original singles and a brace of albums, A Trip To Marineville and Jane From Occupied Europe, drawn on a melting pot of influences from glam to krautrock and fully locking into punk’s DIY aesthetic.

Splitting in 1980, Nikki and Epic would team up with guitarist and songwriter Dave Kusworth of semi-legendary Birmingham bands TV Eye and The Subterranean Hawks to create The Jacobites. All three would go on to enjoy solo careers and various other bands and projects: Epic with Crime and The City Solution and These Immortal Souls, Dave with The Bounty Hunters and the Dogs D’Amour, while Nikki collaborated with members of REM, The Birthday Party, the Faces, the Stones and The Waterboys. Epic died in London, aged 38, in 1997, and Nikki in New York at the age of 49 in March 2006, while Dave passed away in Birmingham, aged 60, in 2020.

Down Silver Streets is a collection of songs by Nikki, Dave and Epic recorded by three musicians who played extensively with Nikki and Dave in the 90s and 2000s: Scottish singer-songwriters Mark Mulholland and Joe Armstrong and French drummer Stéphane Doucerain, with guitars that jangle and chime, sublime vocal harmonies, lush organ and keys, melodic and rhythmic bass, held together by supple and inventive drums.

As a whole, the album provides a fresh take on familiar material, a possible entry point for newcomers and, above all, a reflective, heartfelt tribute to the three amigos.

Release show: 2 October – Gibney’s, Berlin

“In a previous incarnation, the bar was called Dezibel, which was a bar and concert venue that I was involved in creating with a bunch of friends in 1998,” Mark explains. “The first gig we put on there was Nikki – I remember him carrying in his gear while we were still screwing in plasterboard above the stage door – and he and Dave were regularly on the bill thereafter, so it seems like a suitable place for a release gig for the tribute album to them.”

Track Listing

Side 1

1. Midget Submarines (Nikki Sudden)

2. Silver Street (Nikki Sudden/Dave Kusworth)

3. When Angels Die (Nikki Sudden)

4. Aeroplane Blues (Nikki Sudden)

5. Something New Under the Sun (Epic Soundtracks)

Side 2

6. Kings and Queens (Dave Kusworth)

7. I Don’t Know (Epic Soundtracks)

8. The Last Bandit (Nikki Sudden)

9. Chelsea Embankment (Nikki Sudden)

10. Winter (Nikki Sudden)

Recorded by Mark Mulholland in France, Tunisia and Berlin.

Produced by Mark Mulholland. Mastered by John Rivers at Woodbine Street Studio, Leamington Spa, England

Ports of Call Music