For 2026, Swell is offering a Collector Series – 4 lathe-cut, limited edition 7″ records with never-before-released musical goodness. The first, released in February of this year includes two songs from Swell’s live set at The Royal Theatre in Victoria, BC, July 21, 1993. Swell was on tour with the band The The. From Monte: Band was DF MV SK and Niko Wenner. Nothing too sordid to report. Saw some Orcas on the ferry ride from Seattle, after soundcheck went to a strip bar called Monty’s on the ground floor of our hotel.

“The Plaza Hotel – Featuring Victoria’s only Showroom Pub!”
“By the time Monty’s closed, it had seen better days. The shower on the stage still worked, but hadn’t been used for a while. Ceiling mounts showed where the swing used to hang. The hydraulic riser that once elevated dancers amid pillars of smoke and light was broken.
It was nothing like the mid-’90s, when events such as the World Duo Championships drew big crowds. Organizers of the 1994 Commonwealth Games weren’t thrilled when Monty’s held the Miss Nude Commonwealth competition at the same time (a Saskatchewan-born dancer named Roxette won by singing Michael Jackson’s Heal the World before shouting: “Let’s work together, country to country”).”

The second Swell Collector Series installment features two early demos recorded in David Freel’s San Francisco studio around 1989. These are demos recorded by David in the transition between the more electronic and electric guitar approach he was recording with Tim Adams in 95 Pound of Affection and Hold My Head it Hurts (1986-88), and the start of the acoustic guitar songs he started recording for the early Swell albums. It is interesting that these 2 songs were demoed in 1988 and they weren’t fleshed out until the third album “41” recorded in 1993. It is a mystery why these weren’t considered for the 1st or 2nd Swell albums.

We’ll keep you up-to-date on installments three and four.

Head over to the Bandcamp page to check out 1 and 2!