the egg store ilk

I do have a few holy grails of records, and there is one I've been looking out for forever but never seen until today, when the cash I forked out some weeks ago finally bore fruit. It's a copy of Richard Earl's one and only album The Egg Store Ilk, all the way from the Netherlands.

Richard Earl was a member of the Swell Maps, of which at their peak there were about six, although the main ones always talked about are Nikki Sudden, Epic Soundtracks, and Jowe Head. No-one thinks much about the others - Phones Sportsman, Biggles Books and Golden Cockrill, ha ha what hilarious names they all had. Richard Earl is Biggles Books although apparently neither of those are his real names (I assume Dikki Mint, which discogs tells me was another name he went by, wasn't his real name either). 

In my opinion the absolute best Swell Maps record was not a Swell Maps record, it was Soundtracks and Head's 'Rain Rain Rain'. Thereafter I am on the spectrum between awe and staggering ambivalence, and there was a lot of self-indulgence there, actually (hold the front page). I really like the sound and style of a lot of the work. I love side 4 of Whatever Happens Next and pretty much all of Jane From Occupied Europe but I have a strong feeling, based on testimony from someone I trust, that Nikki was a jerk and it spoils my enjoyment. I liked Epic a lot (met him - why didn't I put that in my last blog entry?!) but I am rare amongst people with taste in not enjoying Epic's three solo albums much (so strange that I don't; maybe I should visit them again but every time I think of that 'stay in school - obey the rule' song or whatever it is I want to puke and cry). Nikki wrote most of the songs, and I guess in a way he probably inhibited Epic (to a lesser extent Jowe, who has had an amazing solo career and whose Swell Maps songs are a godsend). Nikki's lyrics, nine times out of ten, sucked a big turd in the mud, and once he went solo and got all folky-stonesy with the scarves and jewellery you sort of wanted to slap him. Also, as I say, personally I gather he was a jerk and I go into a bit of a tither when I try to grapple with what I know about him and how I feel about cancelling someone who's dead anyway. (I really resent not being able to enjoy 'The Big Store' which is a great song, and some of the other works). (Sorry to be obscure but it's not my story to tell). 

But I love the ambience of the Swell Maps records and the adventurousness of them, the milieu, the privilege, the strangeness of them. I think Epic's drumming was something else, and he was really happening, when he was colouring the work of others. Classy. 

So, Richard Earl, who was like the fourth Map (or the 5th or 6th - dunno) and who made a record and disappeared. I found a little bit of text about him on a weird music blog (that is, a blog about weird music) from 2008, which intrigued me:

Hi many coincidences. I just remet Jowe Head of the Swell maps (and others) in a gig in a small town in the Catskills in NY state. We used to be neighbours in London 1980-82. I shared a house with two of the Swell maps - Epic and Richard, and as a young filmmaker, shared the Swell maps' TEAC 4-track for my sound work. Jowe was recording his first solo album 'Pincer Movement' and Richard was building bikes and recording - or building - his first solo album - the Egg Store Ilk It took several months while he learnt the sax and handmade several percussion instruments. The film myself and girlfriend were working on was called 'A Sense of Waiting' and originally the last song on Richard's album was to be used as the title song (a Big sense of waiting) others related to our common film fetishes (Werner Herzog's 'Heart of Glass' inspired Hypnotism of a Film Cast) the title was bounced off a weird shop on Stamford Hill called The Egg Store (we lived in Stoke Newington) and Richard's family name is NOT Earl, but I'll leavce him his privacy. Yes, he was Biggles and he HATED the nickname. He was a very decent bloke and now - apparently - constructs classic racecars for pleasure somewhere in the Cotswolds. I haven't seen him since 84??? and I have been looking for any sight of this album for decades, so thanks for that. The cover was hand printed from woodciuts Richard did and one of the percussion implements was a series of beer tops strung together at the end of a broom handle. the whole was banged on the floor. I know this because Richard's floor was my bedroom ceiling! Though The Egg Store Ilk had nothing to do with me, I felt unreasonably proud of it. In a sense we were all part of a community without realising and everyone's ideas and enthusiasms filtered into everyone else's work. I still make videos which owe a lot to the d-i-y ethos and I'm pleased to see me old mates are still awarded some kind of kudos by younger generations. Nice to see this blog so appreciative of Richard's winter work at a time I know he was finally getting back into playing after what he considered an unpleasant chore (live concerts left him sick to the stomach with nerves) and, ultimately, musically unrewarding. best regards Russell from Woodstock, NY

So the record, which I've known about for decades, is finally in my possession. I won't say I dreamed about it every night but I have long been intrigued and I have never had the opportunity. It's been a long day and I'm thrilled to have it in my house. I'll let you know how it goes down (almost 100% certain, of course, that it will be a disappointment - how could it not be - even when I really just do not know what to expect!). 

Really looking forward to new Swell Maps record compiled by Jowe from his own tape stash - all new stuff, apparently.