Swans Way (band)
British pop group
Swans Way were a three-piece English pop group formed in Birmingham in late 1981. The band comprised Robert Shaw (vocals), Maggie De Monde (vocals and percussion) and Rick P. Jones (double bass). They released one album and had a UK Top 20 hit with "Soul Train", before splitting up in 1985.
History
Shaw had previously been the singer/guitarist in The Last Gang, while De Monde and Jones, who met at the University of Kent, had been members of the Playthings. All three were living on the same road in Birmingham when they formed the band, and initially rehearsed in an old casino, experimenting with different instruments. The band's name was a play on Swann's Way, the first volume of Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu.
Swans Way presented a mixture of musical influences, from jazz to classical and pop to disco. After an appearance on the cassette magazine SFX in May 1982, their first single, "Theme from the Balcony" was issued later that year on Exit Records a label owned by their manager Simon M Woods. Their second single released on Polygram, "Soul Train", gave them their first hit, reaching number 20 in the UK Singles Chart in February 1984. The band subsequently appeared on BBC One's Top of the Pops performing the song on 9 February 1984.
“Swans Way (band)” enters the record as british pop group. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Swans, band and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Swans Way (band)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Swans, band and British provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7653645. VIAF identifies the subject as 141505607. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1981, 1985, 1982 and 1984.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Swans Way (band)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Swans Way (band) primary sources, Swans Way (band) archive and Swans research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Swans Way (band)”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Swans Way (band)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.