Swansea Sound

Swansea Sound formed around alumni from Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, and the Pooh Sticks, quickly becoming a favorite among indie-pop enthusiasts. Their concise, punchy tracks blend the tuneful charm of classic indie with punk’s sharp edge, addressing fascism, consumerism, major-label rock, and mining while occasionally touching on off-kilter romances. Following several striking standalone releases, the band delivered Live at the Rum Puncheon in 2021, which cemented their sound, and Twentieth Century in 2023, which further refined that nostalgic-yet-current approach.

The project began when Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey found themselves confined at home in 2020 after the COVID lockdown halted Catenary Wires activities. Pursey penned several songs he considered too raw for that group and reached out to Hue Williams, the former Pooh Sticks singer, who responded enthusiastically; the trio then committed to recording those tracks and expanding them into a full album. Working apart, Pursey composed the material and tracked guitars and bass, Ian Button supplied drums that mixed samples with live takes, and Williams captured his vocals on a phone inside a cupboard. Fletcher added her parts through conventional microphones, Fay Hallam contributed keyboards on select tracks, and members of Portland’s Crystal Furs provided backing vocals on a pair of songs.

The band first appeared publicly at the close of 2020 with the cassette-only single “Corporate Indie Band”/“Angry Girl.” They next pressed a single copy of the December 2020 release “I Sold My Soul on Ebay” and auctioned it on the site itself for £400, echoing earlier Pooh Sticks maneuvers. Their third single, issued in March 2021, paired the sardonic “Corporate Indie Band” with the brisk, C-86-flavored “Je Ne Sais Quoi” and reached the UK Physical sales Top Ten. After debuting live at Preston Pop Fest that August and issuing two further singles, the group released Live at the Rum Puncheon on the joint Skep Wax and HHBTM labels; the LP collected every single to date.

For their follow-up, the musicians convened in person and enlisted ex-Dentists guitarist Bob Collins. The resulting Twentieth Century broadened the palette with synth-pop and punk ingredients while examining aging pop stars, the historical struggles of miners, and Pete Shelley. Skep Wax issued the album in September 2023, after which Swansea Sound embarked on a brief UK tour.