The Shapes

The Shapes

The Shapes are a UK punk band from Royal Leamington Spa. One early line-up releases the Part Of The Furniture EP in 1979, which includes the tracks “Wot’s For Lunch, Mum? (Not Beans Again)” and “(I Saw) Batman (In The Launderette)”. The band records a session for John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 show and plays support gigs with The Killjoys, The Cure and The Fall.

After issuing the single “Airline Disaster” b/w “Blast Off!” on Terri Hooley’s Belfast label Good Vibrations, the group splits up. John Esplen later persuades them to release Songs For Sensible People on Overground Records in 1998. In 2007, the US label Hyped2Death includes “(I Saw) Batman (In The Launderette)” on Messthetics #103.

The band is identified with punk, and the name is also used by other groups in different places, including an indie-rock band from Brooklyn and another band based in Oxford.