Richard Earl, sometimes known as Biggles Books, was the blistering hot guitarist with Swell Maps.
Anyone familiar with the Swell Maps records knows how good the trebly guitar interplay between Richard and Nikki Sudden was... but what kind of record would such a man make if left to his own devices?
"The Egg Store Ilk" was recorded in a Flat in London in 1981 using the Swell Maps 4 track reel to reel recorder. Both Epic and Jowe were embarking on solo recordings at the same time, and the 4 track was being used by them all!

Left - the original artwork for the Richard Earl "Egg Store Ilk" album was a beautiful woodcut of a leaf motif. The tracklisting and recording details were barely legible as they were handwritten in white on pale grey.

Living downstairs from Richard was Russell Richardson who was making a movie at the time... "I lived downstairs from Richard when he recorded the album in fact, we were sharing the Swell Maps 4 track at the time as I and my then companion were making our first film... "A Sense of Waiting"... for which Rich wrote the song, but which in fact we never used (the song was too good to be an end credit thing...)
I think 'egg store ilk' must be about the most obscure and d-i-y album ever. Richard was so determined to break out and do only what he wanted (Epic, meanwhile was starting his solo career (anybody ever heard the lovely 'Jelly babies' with R Wyatt?) and drumming for Red Krayola... as for the 'Ilk', there was a big influence of thinking about movie soundtracks.
Rich used some homemade instruments (I remember a broom pole with dozens of bottle tops threaded on string which produces the jigga-jigga heard on a lot of tracks)... he also used an unamplified (but miked) Rickenbacker for the distinctive guitar sound.
At the same time we were all getting into jazz in a very deliberate but haphazard way (going off to record and tape exchange and nabbing a handful of albums from the one quid rack) so I know that Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Monk and Mingus were being listened to at that time, as well as Epic innocently bringing EVERY Rough Trade single home (he considered it was part of their 'equal shares' contract agreement)
In retrospect, that was an incredible time, and perhaps our best advantage was that we didn't realise, just got on with it.... In and around those few short let houses in Stoke Newington were Laura Logic, the Young Marble Giants, most of Swell Maps and bits of the Raincoats (Dalston)...
Richard had had his own epiphany about the music business, and 'being in a band' by then, and seemed very happy to be just doing his own totally uncommercial stuff and ripping motor bikes apart in the front room...
It's great, but also a bit of a hoot that there are now cover versions out there" ( Russell Richardson 2005)

The record was released on Pilot Records (through Rough Trade) and has wallowed in obscurity ever since. It was Richard's last recordings, though he has been involved in compiling the Swell Maps re-releases along with Nikki Sudden.

John Cockrill (ex-Swell Map) - "Liked the artwork. Amazed you've actually got a copy of the Egg Store Ilk!! I've got one but it seems very hard to find. As you may or may not know, the Egg Store is a rather downmarket grocery store in North London (Tottenham or somewhere around there)".

The NoMen Left & Right - the NoMen's artwork for their 2005 recreation. Below - the Early Learning Centre toy saxaphone bought for this recording session... an excellent investment at only £10.

Allan NoMan says... I bought the album on E.bay and knew nothing about it... I suppose I expected something like Jowe or Nikki's early albums which still had a certain Swell Maps sound... how wrong I was!
Right from the first chord I knew I was in for something completely different! The opening track has a fantastic one note riff over a sea of jangling percussion! Richard's vocals are high pitched and fragile, always on the edge - the whole album has an edgy, unsettling feel.
For a guitarists solo album, the guitar is very restrained (interesting to find out it was an unplugged Rickenbacker!).. the bass playing is excellent with it's strummed minimilaist chords... and the sax is in that avant-garde (or badly played) style you hear in all the best bands from Beefheart to Pere Ubu.
I knew the NoMen could do something with this album... George NoMan had been listening to the album... Cal didn't give a fuck! We started with 'Mother Home' one of the few tracks on the album with a guitar based riff! We did it like a funky Scissor Sisters song utilising our Early Learning Centre brass section to full effect! 'The Rain' was played on acoustic bass and not much else except percussion and vocals - we couldn't make out the lyrics so we made up our own! 'Task db' is our big slow ballad with George crooning like a dopey Scott Walker. "A Big Sense of Waiting" bears no resemblance to Richards song whatsoever! 'Grass Heart' and 'No More Macho' are reduced to short instrumentals but the stand out track we did was "Hypnotism of a Film Cast". I played bass along to the original album track while the other pair screamed in a disturbing Genesis P Orridge style. Some unpleasant guitar and extra percussion were added to make this a harrowing trip!
We had great fun doing this session and I think we've done something as different and challenging as the original!