Each of these artists' updated discography maps has been changed by someone who was there. Band members, family, engineers and fans who know a record better than the sleeve does have all sent me corrections, and I have made them. That is what separates this collection from one built off a track listing.
There are eleven maps here, plus a gift card if you would rather let someone else choose. Each one is an A2 (420 x 594mm) or A1 (594 x 841mm) Giclée print, from £42, and available in a black wood frame.
Below is what the research actually turned up on six of them, and how I would match each map to the listener. If you want the whole set in one place, the updated discography maps collection is here.
Simon Rogers Wrote to Me, and He Is Also on the Map
Simon Rogers played on three consecutive Fall albums: The Wonderful and Frightening World Of (1984), This Nation's Saving Grace (1985) and Bend Sinister (1986). He then comes back in 1992 on Code: Selfish, but only as producer, with no playing credit anywhere on the record.
My rule on these maps is that a producer gets a line only if they are also credited with playing something. So Rogers has a line across the mid-eighties and no line in 1992, which looks odd until you know why. He is also the man who called the series brilliant, which is the sort of endorsement you cannot manufacture.
Mark E Smith is the only name on all 31 studio albums, which run from 1979 to 2017. Steve Hanley and Craig Scanlon each run to 17, both from Dragnet in 1979 to Levitate in 1997, and each misses exactly one album along the way: Hanley is absent from Cerebral Caustic in 1995, Scanlon from The Light User Syndrome in 1996.
Martin Bramah is the scattered one. He is on the 1979 debut, gone for eleven years, back for Extricate (1990) and Shift-Work (1991), then in once more on Levitate. Later on, Eleana Poulou holds the longest unbroken run of the final era, eight albums from Fall Heads Roll (2005) to New Facts Emerge (2017).
The Fall map suits the listener who has read Steve Hanley's book and still argues about line-ups. I would give this one an A1, because 31 albums is a lot of stations. There is more detail in my post on The Fall map itself.
The Artist Updated Discography Maps, Map by Map
Here is the short version of six maps in this collection, with the count, the span, and the finding that makes each one worth hanging.
| Map | Studio albums and span | What the credits show | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Fall | 31 studio albums, 1979 to 2017 | One name on all 31, and two 17 album lines that each break for exactly one record | The completist who wants an argument settled on the wall |
| The Rolling Stones | 28 studio albums, 1964 to 2026 | 152 musicians, and a bass line that stops in 1989 and restarts once, 34 years later | The listener who wants six decades on one sheet |
| Sparks | 26 studio albums, 1971 to 2025 | 87 musicians pass through, and one album from 1977 carries 18 of them | The listener who came in late and went back to the start |
| Nirvana into Foo Fighters | Foo Fighters studio albums 1995 to 2026, with the Nirvana records that lead in | A debut with two names on it, and Sonic Highways with 26 | The listener who came in through one band and stayed for the other |
| The Charlatans | Studio albums from 1990 to 2025 | Two lines that stop because the musician died, and a third drummer who picks it up in 2015 | The long-term follower who has been to the memorial gigs |
| Billy Bragg | Studio albums from 1983 onward | A first album with one musician on it, and a 1991 album with 23 | The listener who likes watching a solo act turn into a band |
Charlie Watts Still Reaches the 2026 Rolling Stones Album
The Rolling Stones map spans 28 studio records, from the 1964 debut to Foreign Tongues in 2026, with 152 credited musicians.
Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts are each on all 28. Watts is the one who stops people: his drums are credited on the 2026 album because those parts were recorded in 2021, so the line reaches the end of the map.
Bill Wyman gives the longest break I have drawn on any map. His bass runs from 1964 to Steel Wheels in 1989, then nothing for 34 years, then one track on Hackney Diamonds in 2023. David Bowie turns up exactly once, on backing vocals on Black and Blue in 1976.
My post on the Rolling Stones map goes through the rest.
Eighteen Names on One Sparks Album, and Two Brothers on All of Them
The Sparks map plots 26 studio albums from Halfnelson (1971) to MAD! (2025), featuring 87 credited musicians.
Ron and Russell Mael are the only two lines that run the whole width of it. Everything else is a short stretch: the early Mankey Brothers line lasts two albums, the Kimono My House band lasts three.
Introducing Sparks in 1977 is the crowded one at 18 names, most of them Los Angeles session players who appear on that record and nowhere else on the map. My post on the Sparks map has more on that.
Two Names on the Debut, Twenty-Six on Sonic Highways
The Nirvana into Foo Fighters map runs both bands as one connected route, which is why it keeps needing updates. The 1995 Foo Fighters debut carries two credited names: Dave Grohl playing everything, and Greg Dulli on additional guitar for one track. Sonic Highways in 2014 carries 26.
Krist Novoselic is the best gap on the map. He is on all three Nirvana records, disappears, and then turns up in 2011 on Wasting Light, playing bass and accordion on a single song. That is an eighteen-year absence rendered as a break in a line.
Then there is Paul McCartney, credited on drums on Medicine at Midnight in 2021 under the name Apollo C. Vermouth. McCartney has his own map in this same collection, which is the kind of overlap I only notice because I build these things by hand.
The map now runs to Your Favorite Toy in 2026, with Ilan Rubin on drums and Harper Grohl on backing vocals. Taylor Hawkins's line stops where it has to. If you are buying for someone who cares about that route from Bleach onward, my post on the Nirvana and Foo Fighters map goes further into it.
The Charlatan's Map Has Two Lines That Stop for the Worst Reason
Rob Collins is on the first five Charlatans albums, ending at Tellin' Stories in 1997, the record he did not live to see finished. Jon Brookes runs for eleven albums, from Some Friendly in 1990 to Who We Touch in 2010, and his line ends before Modern Nature. Peter Salisbury picks up the drums from there and is still on the 2025 album.
Different Days in 2017 is the crowded one, with 19 credited names, including Johnny Marr, Paul Weller, Anton Newcombe, Stephen Morris, Gillian Gilbert, and the novelist Ian Rankin. Tim Burgess is on every Charlatans album on the map, plus the two solo records I have included.
We Are Love in 2025 shows the credit rule working both ways on a single record. Dev Hynes produces it and also plays synth, guitar and piano, so he gets a line. Stephen Street produces two tracks with no playing credit, so he does not.
This is the Charlatans map, and there is a fuller account in my post on choosing that one.
Billy Bragg Starts Alone and Ends Up With Twenty-Three People
Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy, in 1983, has exactly one musician on it. Don't Try This at Home in 1991 has 23, including Michael Stipe on backing vocals and Peter Buck on mandolin.
Johnny Marr is on three Bragg albums: Brewing Up in 1984, Talking with the Taxman About Poetry in 1986 and Don't Try This at Home in 1991. Kirsty MacColl sings on two of the same three. The Mermaid Avenue sessions then bring in most of Wilco, with Natalie Merchant taking a lead vocal.
Marr is the thread that ties two maps in this collection together, because he is also on The Charlatans map for Different Days. If you follow guitarists rather than bands, that pairing is the reason to consider both the Billy Bragg map and the Charlatans one. My Billy Bragg post has the rest.
The Other Five Maps in the Collection
The remaining five have had the same treatment, and each has its own post if you want the details before you decide.
- Dire Straits, covered in my Dire Straits post
- Levellers, covered in my Levellers post
- Paul McCartney, covered in my McCartney post
- Hawkwind, covered in my Hawkwind post
- Deep Purple, covered in my Deep Purple post
Which Size, and Whether to Frame It
A2 (420 x 594mm) works for the maps with fewer stations and a calmer set of lines. A1 (594 x 841mm) is what I would choose for The Fall at 31 albums, for the Rolling Stones at 28, for the Foo Fighters map with a 26-name album on it, and for The Charlatans with Different Days sitting in the middle of it.
Prices start at £42 for unframed Giclée prints. The black wood frame is worth it if this is a milestone present and you would rather it went straight on the wall than into a drawer.
If none of these eleven is quite right, the wider music wall art prints collection has the rest of the discography maps.
Questions I Get About the Updated Maps
Are live albums and compilations on these maps?
No. These are studio records only, so what you see plotted is the studio albums in order and nothing else. Live albums, compilations and soundtracks are left off by editorial rule, which is why the Sparks live record and the Franz Ferdinand collaboration sit outside that map's numbered run of 26.
What does updated actually mean here?
It means the artwork has been revised after someone with first-hand knowledge told me something was wrong or missing, and I checked it and changed the file. The Fall map has had the most of that treatment by a distance.
Why is a producer sometimes missing from a map?
Because a producer only earns a line if they are also credited playing something on the record. Simon Rogers on Code: Selfish and Stephen Street on We Are Love are both examples of the rule leaving someone off.
Will the map I buy become outdated when the band releases something new?
Probably, and that is rather the point of this collection. The Rolling Stones map already carries a 2026 album, and the Charlatans map carries a 2025 one, so the print you buy reflects the discography as it stands when it goes to press.
What if I spot something wrong on a print I have bought?
Tell me. That is how most of these corrections arrived in the first place, and the person who spots the error tends to be a listener rather than an archivist.
Which of these would you give to someone who is not a completist?
Billy Bragg or Dire Straits, because the shape of the line is readable from across the room. The Fall is for the person who wants to stand two feet away and check it.
Choosing One
If the person you are buying for reads sleeve notes, argues about who played on what, and has an opinion about a drummer you have never heard of, the whole updated discography maps collection is aimed squarely at them.
Every one of these has been through the same process: research, publish, get told what I got wrong, fix it. I am Mike. I draw and research all of them myself, and the corrections are the part I like best.
