Every map in this collection 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 makes this the present for music fans who read the credits, rather than the ones who read the track listing.
There are nine maps here, plus a gift card if you would rather let someone 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 four of them, and how I would match each map to the person you are buying for. If you want the whole set in one place, the updated music 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 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 albums. Steve Hanley and Craig Scanlon each run to 17, both from Dragnet in 1979 to Levitate in 1997, and each of them misses exactly one album on 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. Late 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 fan who has read Steve Hanley's book and still argues about line-ups. I would give this one at A1, because 31 albums is a lot of stations. There is more on the detail in my post on The Fall map itself.
A Present for Music Fans Who Read the Credits, Map by Map
Here is the short version of the four maps I have researched most recently in this collection, with the finding that makes each one worth hanging.
| Map | What the credits show | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| The Fall | One name on all 31 albums, and two 17 album lines that each break for exactly one record | The completist who wants an argument settled on the wall |
| Nirvana into Foo Fighters | A debut with two names on it, and Sonic Highways with 26 | The fan who came in through one band and stayed for the other |
| The Charlatans | 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 | 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 |
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 Charlatans 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 the drums up from there and is still on the 2025 album.
Different Days in 2017 is the crowded one, 19 credited names, including Johnny Marr, Paul Weller, Anton Newcombe, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, and the novelist Ian Rankin. Tim Burgess is on every 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 are buying for someone who follows 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 detail 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 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 unframed, printed as Giclée. 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 nine is quite right, the wider music wall art prints collection has the rest of the discography maps.
Questions I Get About the Updated Maps
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 go out of date when the band releases something new?
Probably, and that is rather the point of this collection. The Foo Fighters 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 fan 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 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.
