Category Archives: Whats on

Whats on

Sow-a-thon at Cardiff’s Atrium

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Last week, I received an invitation to a Facebook event titled Sow-A-Thon at the Atrium, run by Michele Fitzsimmons (under the guise of Edible Landscaping). The event was to kick off a project to create a living display for the end of year graduation show; “to create a display which incorporates huge amounts of plants, props and non-living displays and multimedia projections which work in with the living material.”

Photojournalist Lili Piggot went along to witness the kick-off event…

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

There’s a nice feature on Michele and her work in garden design and other outdoor activities on Gwion Thorpe’s Inspiring Cardiff blog: Michele Fitzsimmons.

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

Now the Sow-A-Thon is over, Michele still needs people to help out with creating the living display. All sorts of skills are needed – carpentry, craft skills, painting skills, photography and gardening skills. As well as physical help, Michele also needs help with material and plants, in particular plants in pots that you could loan to the show for example. Things like exterior ply and timber are needed for the raised beds that need to be constructed. Basically if you can think of, she is likely to need it.

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

Ty Gwydr - The Greenhouse - 'Sow-a-thon'

For more information about the project contact Michele on ediblelandscaping@gmail.com. I can’t wait to see the final display…!

Michele also runs a whole series of courses, from hedgerow foraging to growing a successful fruit garden. See all the courses here: Edible Landscaping – Courses

As an aside… If you’re interested in this sort of thing, then check out this event happening this Saturday 22 March 2014 at Roath’s MADE Gallery: Gut Feelings – a day of fermentation and social imagination: “A day of talks and practical workshops inspired by micro-organisms. Learn how to ferment veg, make sourdough and yoghurt whilst discussing cultural growth on a macro & micro level. Booking essential as places are limited – contact cardiffm.a.d.e@gmail.com or ring 02920 473373”

 

All photographs taken at the Atrium in Cardiff by Lili Piggot. Lili is studying Photojournalism at the University of South Wales: see the departmental Twitter @PhotoJ_USW; Tumblr; see also Photojournalism course info for next year.

The Arts, Whats on

Sleeping rough for We Are Cardiff …

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Hi friends,

On Thursday 27 March I’m going to be sleeping rough to raise money for local charities that support the homeless and vulnerable here in Cardiff.

I know times are hard, but imagine having to sleep outside during the really REALLY bad weather that we had earlier this year. I only have to do it for one night, and I’m absolutely bricking it. Imagine having to do it every night – whatever the weather is doing. Pretty terrible, hey.

So please donate whatever you can: my Justgiving link is here – Justgiving Helia Phoenix

The event is called CEO Sleepout, and the Cardiff event will be held on 27 March 2014 in Cardiff Castle. I’ll be liveblogging the night on the @WeAreCardiff Twitter feed (there will be reminders on that closer to the time…) 

In case you and I haven’t met before, this is me. I’m frequently found running around under bypasses waving brightly coloured balls in the air. Ooer.

Helia Phoenix - photograph taken by Simon Ayre

So, how did I get involved … occasionally I’ll write about someone who I’ll refer to as a ‘friend of We Are Cardiff’. These are typically people who have written for the blog, and volunteered to help out in some other way, possibly donating money or time or body parts to help out in times of need on the blog. I was sort of kidding about the body parts, but some of these people are the most generous you’ll ever meet. One of those is the guy who kicked off this website, in terms of being the first person who wrote a story for it.

That dude is Neil Cocker, and what a dude he is. This is Neil, squinting into the sunlight for his We Are Cardiff portrait…

neil cocker

Anyway, a few weeks back Neil posted on Facebook about taking part in something called the CEO Sleep Out Cardiff, where local business people and founders of organisations are sleeping rough to raise money for three local charities who help homeless and vulnerable individuals.

I had a look at the website, and was pretty amazed by the number of people who were volunteering for the Cardiff Sleep Out compared to other events held at the time. There were a lot of people volunteering, like really a lot. I emailed Neil about it, and he convinced me to do it. I enjoyed his email, so I’ll reproduce it here:

“Do it.
Do it.
DO IT!!
It’ll be fun*

* cold, wet, miserable. But very worthwhile, raise loads of cash for people who have to do it every day, and something to tell your grandkids.”

Neil is a bit of an inspiration. He’s one of those “run marathons, run my own business, donate money to charities, volunteer for everything and still have time to go out and enjoy life” people, as you’ll probably gather from his We Are Cardiff entry. I won’t go into everything that Neil does, because, quite frankly, this blog post is meant to be about me rather than him (though you should definitely go to Neil Cocker’s website and read all about him there). So it’s not surprising at all that he’s volunteered for this, nor that he’s already raised nearly £300 probably by doing absolutely nothing other than signing up.

If you’d rather sponsor Neil I won’t take it personally – the important thing is that the charities get your monies, after all. In fact, I sponsored him! Visit Neil’s fundraising page.

The three local charities being supported by CEO Sleepout Cardiff are:

Llamau

Service Leavers Wales

Cardiff Food Bank

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting more about the great work that those charities do. So stay tuned! And in case you forgot to do it the first time – sponsor me for the Cardiff sleep out here

Helia
x

Whats on

You want cake? We got cake! The Great Roath Bake Off, Saturday 12 April 2014

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Here at We Are Cardiff, it’s a pretty small crew. When I say pretty small, I mean basically there’s me, plus various others who help out along the way. But there are some people who’ve written for the project AND been long time supporters, AND who keep doing such interesting stuff around the city that we have to keep featuring them.

Wayne Courtney wrote a lovely poem about Roath for We Are Cardiff back in 2011. Since then, he’s arranged a fundraiser for the film that we made, and has appeared on the site again as a ‘dude on the street’ at a street party. He raises thousands of pounds for charity every year, he’s a face you’ll almost certainly recognise from being around Roath, and he’s an all round good egg. The Great Roath Bake Off is his baby, and he was nice enough to write us a little something about the event. Read on, and make sure you get along to the event on Saturday 12 April 2014.

Great Roath Bake Off 2014

The Great Roath Bake Off
Wayne Courtney

The idea came after a conversation with friends, where we discussed which one amongst us was the best baker, which shop in Cardiff sold the best cakes, and who should have won The Great British Bake Off. I suggested we should have our own Bake Off, just amongst ourselves, just for fun. The owner of The Coffi House said we could use the cafe and said she’d like to bake too. It grew from there! The regulars wanted to bake, and then word spread, and the owner of The Coffi House was inundated with requests for application forms. We set the date, in February 2012.

I had been organising events in Cardiff for some years, but had no idea what to expect when I put up the posters for The Great Roath Bake Off. Lots of people had expressed an interest in the competition, but I had nothing to compare it to. I hadn’t heard of a similar event at that time, and had no idea how many people in Roath thought themselves great bakers.

I got myself a great panel of judges who all wrote food blogs and shared a love of cake. I booked a singer to entertain people while they waited for their cakes to be judged. It was all systems go!

I will never forget as the doors opened for the first Great Roath Bake Off, my first thoughts were ‘how will they all fit in the shop’?? So many people turned up with their cakes and bakes, and unfortunately it was so busy that some didn’t make it into the busy Coffi House. The evening was an amazing success and we raised lots of money for charity and everyone had a great time. I was overwhelmed by how many people turned up and totally underestimated how popular baking is. Apparently, people love cake! Lessons were learnt. I knew if we were to hold the event again it had to have a bigger venue and we had to be able to handle a large crowd.

We practised again later that year, with another Bake Off for the wonderful Made In Roath Festival. This was held at The Milkwood Gallery. Again, a massive turn out and a great success. The desire for cake had not gone away.

For the 2013 Bake Off we had to go bigger, so we booked St Andrews Church Hall on Wellfield Road. I enrolled 14 volunteers, more entertainment, and ten judges. This time the judging panel was made up from food bloggers and some well-known faces from television.

We anticipated about 50 entries maximum, and were shocked from the moment we opened the doors to the Bake Off. Fourteen volunteers could barely cope with the volume of people arriving with baked goods – there were over 100 cakes in the cake category alone! We had over 20 entries in the under 16s category, and nearly 30 bakes including pies and bread, and nearly 20 entries in the professional bake category. Ten judges may sound a lot, but believe me, they struggled to eat their way through the amount of entries!

The 2013 Great Roath Bake Off caught the attention of lots of press and radio stations. With that much tasty fare, can you blame them? Lots of magazines wanted a slice of the action and we were written about many months after the event.

It was another big success you could say but lessons were learnt again. Even with all the help we barely pulled it off, and completely bowled over by the amount of people that entered and attended.

So as The Great Roath Bake Off 2014, approaches what can you expect?

We are ready! We started planning back in October. We are prepared for a large turn out and have an army of volunteers ready to help. We have the most amazing line up of judges, our original judges still with us along with some faces you’ll probably know from the telly. We have entertainment to keep you happy while your entries are judged. There will be stalls, refreshments and raffles. We still give every penny raised to charity. This year we are supporting A6 acute stroke unit UHW and A6 trauma UHW. Very worthwhile causes.

RoathBakeoff (61 of 146)

We have grown so much since our first Bake Off. Every year we raise more money, more celebs get involved, and more people enter. But one thing remains constant – and that’s the standard of entries. The quality of the cakes and bakes is amazing, even in our Junior category. This year, to celebrate our younger bakers, we’ll be holding The Great Roath Junior Bake Off on the same day.

Over the years I’ve hosted many events in Cardiff but The Bake Off is by far my favourite. It’s great to see the community come together. It’s not often you see an event that appeals to all ages. It’s amazing to hear from people which have travelled from As far as Bristol or Swansea to enter – all for the love of cake! It’s great to see young people share the same pride as someone who has been baking for over 50 years. It’s also very touching when the traders in Roath donate and sponsor our events, demonstrating the amazing community spirit that’s alive in the area. Also the volunteers who work extremely hard at the Bake Off are totally inspiring.

And when the Bake Off is over and the cake is eaten, it’s great to hand over the money raised to a worthy local charity.

It won’t just be amazing cakes served up at The Great Roath Bake Off 2014. We have …
Beca Lyn Pirkins from last years Great British Bake Off
Nathan Wyburn, artist and finalist from Britains Got Talent
Lauren Harries, finalist from Celebrity Big Brother
Ragsy, finalist from BBC’s The Voice
Chris Needs MBE, radio wales presenter
Owain Wyn Evans, BBC Wales weather presenter
Dave Brooke’s, Real Radio presenter

Great Roath Bake Off 2014 - judges

Singer Calum Ross will host a great afternoon of live music including a performance by Ragsy from The Voice.
Nathan Wyburn will create a special Bake Off inspired portrait.

This year’s Bake Off is also sponsored by CPS Homes, and we’re very grateful for their support!

The Great Roath Bake Off 2014
Saturday April 12th
St. Andrews Church Hall
11am – 5pm
£3 per entry into competition

The Great Roath Bake Off on Facebook
Follow @roath_bake

Photographs by Peri Trigkas

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Thanks Wayne! And in case you’re there and want to go over and say hi to him, here’s the lovely Wayne Courtney, as photographed by Simon Ayre!

wayne courtney

Whats on

Calling all homebrewers – Cardiff Hops needs you!

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Sam Holt stops by to talk about a Cardiff based homebrewing project that you should get involved in…

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Cardiff Hops is a fun new project that started in March 2013 to get more people growing hops in the City. Following on from success with Brixton, Cardiff Hops will support interested parties to source, plant, grow, harvest and use the hops.

Cardiff Hops have teamed up with local micro brewery Pipes –  having turned 2013 crop into 100 litres of green hop ale, The Taff Temptress!

To join Cardiff Hops, join the Cardiff Hops Facebook group or send Sam Holt of EggSeeds an email, sam@eggseeds.com.

Introductory hop packs are on sale for £20 for the first introductory pack, which contains all that is needed to get growing your hops off to a good start. Cardiff Hops will guide you through the whole process. Even if you don’t have much room, a 50cm container or a patch of land one foot in size can hold a dwarf hop plant (that grows only two-three metres in height). There’s a green hop ale revolution that has started in Cardiff – get on board!

Last day to sign up for orders March 9th 2014 – distribution and gathering, March 15th 2014.

The Cardiff Hops Map has just started and will be populated shortly, sharing pictures, stories and information.

PIPES BEER – Craft Beer Cardiff – Welcome to the Beer Revolution…

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The Arts, The City, Whats on

Happy St David’s Day!

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image

Don’t forget that today is the first day of our @wearecardiff Instagram Project – where the Instagram account is handed over to a Cardiffian for a month. You can spend March in the company of Rhian Richards – enjoy!

Follow the @wearecardiff Instagram project here!

Whats on

From Now On Festival – review and interview with Shape Records

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So, at the weekend I went along to From Now On Festival, a two day event held over in Chapter Arts Centre and curated by Mark Thomas from Shape Records.

Mark is one of those people who I’ve known for years, and has fingers in pretty much all local musical pies. He runs a label, his band Islet are Pitchfork approved, and this weekend he picked out a load of crazy noisemakers for people to listen to. Mark has been playing in bands since he was a teenager, though his main one is Islet, and his old one with his two brothers was called Attack + Defend. They set up Shape Records together back in 2007, and have released a fair bit since then, mainly limited edition vinyl pressings. With Islet, Mark has been lucky enough to play festivals and gigs all over the world – “it’s a very fun thing to be a part of”, as he tells me.

This is Mark (or Sparky, as I like to call him. I’m unsure as to whether he likes it, but there you go). This was taken at Swn Festival. Doesn’t he cut a dashing figure?

mark thomas shape records by adam chard

Anyway. I had a spiffing time at From Now On. Friday night was a total mess of weird noises made with harps, guitars, synths and god knows what else, bookended with the superbly crafted tunes of Gwenno (at the start) and Richard Dawson (at the end).

Gwenno (you know her, she was in the Pipettes, right?)

Gwenno

(apologies for the crap pic, you can blame my camera phone)

Then there was Rhodri Davies. I walked in and saw a man with a harp. Ah, this will be nice and mellow, I thought. NOT SO. Never thought the musical boundaries of distorted drone would be pushed – by a harp.

Rhodri Davies by Adam Chard

Trwbador (this pair are from Carmarthenshire, and they played right lovely twinkly electro-pop)

Trwbador by Adam Chard

Bridget Hayden – slow paced distorted guitar and vocals – reminiscent of early PJ Harvey (though I would have liked to have heard more of her voice)

Bridget Hayden

Lucky Dragons got everyone to put their hands together to make music, beautiful music!

Lucky Dragons by Adam Chard

Lucky Dragons by Adam Chard

Lucky Dragons by Adam Chard

Richard Dawson closed off the first night. He sings traditional-style English ballads with a massive voice and his tiny guitar – interspersed by breaking into Abba, Journey, and various other pop hits. Brilliant.

Richard Dawson by Adam Chard

Day Two consisted of more excellent music, ales, cups of tea, and sweet potato fries. Which is why Chapter is such a great venue for watching bands!

First up was Tender Prey, aka Laura Bryon, featuring two members of Islet on drums and bass, yeah?

Tender Prey by Adam Chard

Tender Prey by Helia Phoenix

After that was Hail! The Planes. I don’t have much luck with their gigs. I’ve seen them three times before – once my friend’s bag got stolen, the other time we had been out drinking the night before and got there in time for the last song, and then a few years back at Swn Festival, they were on on the Sunday after a very long weekend of boozing and not sleeping, me and two friends sat at the back of their set in Undertone on a sofa, then got the giggles so badly that we were massively shushed by everyone at the back of the room and in the end had to leave. Anyway, I managed to see the whole set, and it was great!

Hail! The Planes by Adam Chard

Hail! The Planes by Adam Chard

Hail! The Planes by Adam Chard

Hail! The Planes by Adam Chard

After that I went to listen to Aidan Richard Taylor and Kim Da Costa weave together some music and visuals – bended by lights …

Aiden Richard Taylor by Adam Chard

Aiden Richard Taylor 03

Then it was time for some melodic, dreamy stoner rock from R. Seiliog. It was HEAVY and it was GREAT.

R. Seiliog by Adam Chard

R. Seiliog by Adam Chard

Then came my undoubted highlight of the night – which was the Peski Records Silent Disco – by far the weirdest silent disco I’ve ever been to. One channel had a DJ playing some deadly beats, another was soundtracking the screen in the middle of the room (playing old disco records and various other random things), and then another – well, I’ve no idea how to describe it, other than it sounded like a man doing the shipping forecast over members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop trying out sounds for a new sci-fi programme. It was brilliant!

DSC_0144 DSC_0147 Micro Peski Nacht by Adam Chard

The festival was closed off by Euros Childs! Isn’t it a lovely day, eh?

Euros Childs by Adam Chard

Other shots, from around the festival over the weekend…

DSC_0102

DSC_0113

Kidder with noise blockers

I had a great time at the festival. One of my favourite things about things like this in Cardiff is the likelihood of bumping into everyone you know there, as I did. Lovely to catch up with people! In fact, there were so many ‘Cardiff band-scene’ people there that one of my companions wondered how many new bands were being formed right there, in the miasma of knitwear, beards and sparkly jumpers, outside the Theatre in Chapter, before our very eyes…

I guess we can look forward to seeing them all perform next year, eh!

from now on banner

Mark was kind enough to answer a few questions for me about the festival. Overall, it was a great couple of days. Roll on the second one!

Have you ever run a festival before?

Mark: No, I’ve been putting on live events in Cardiff for years and always wanted to put on something more ambitious. When the opportunity came to work in collaboration with Chapter and the PRS For music Foundation it gave the platform to realise that.

How did you pick the line up?

Mark: Each of the acts has been chosen for their leftfield approach and individuality. There is a strong independent spirit to many of the acts in the sense that many operate without a record label or music industry representation. It’s music that challenges the boundaries and operates outside of the mainstream.

What local bands will be ruling the world soon?

Mark: On a world level Cate Le Bon is going from strength to strength at the moment and it’s brilliant to see her getting the recognition she deserves.

What bands generally are you excited by at the moment?

Mark: Well, we’re releasing a record by a band called from Wrexham called Mowbird so I’ve been listening to that almost constantly. I’m very excited about them!

How would you describe the music scene in Cardiff generally?

Mark: I love it, I’ve been involved with music in Cardiff for over 10 years now and people come and go (still miss Kruger) but there is a very supportive and strong backbone to the whole scene with places like Clwb Ifor Bach, Spillers Records and Music Box being particularly vital and good to know. It’s big enough that you can never know everyone involved but it’s small enough that you can feel comfortable & reasonably worthy!

If you had some friends visiting Cardiff for the weekend, what would you tell them they HAD to do to fully enjoy the city?

Mark: I’m pretty partial to a Frankies, which is a takeaway pizzeria on Mackintosh Place! Also a wander round Cardiff indoor market is a good way of getting a true Cardiffy flavour.

Thanks Mark! All photographs in this post were taken by Adam Chard and me, Helia Phoenix.

Speakers by Helia Phoenix

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Whats on

From Now On Festival, 14 – 15 February 2014, Chapter Arts Centre

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from now on banner

Gah! Is it just me or is this week dragging ON forever? Anyway, for those music lovers who are looking for something to do this weekend, the We Are Cardiff flag will be flying (and by that I mean I’ll be drunk and draped over the speakers) at Chapter Arts Centre on Friday and Saturday for From Now On festival. It’s been put together by Mark of Shape Records, and is a new festival of adventurous and experimental music.

Friday 14th Feb 7pm – 11pm: Lucky Dragons, Rhodri Davies, Bridget Hayden, Richard Dawson, Trwbador, Gwenno and more

Saturday 15th Feb 3pm – 11pm: Euros Childs, Serafina Steer, Davies & Dawson: Hen Ogledd, Laura J Martin, Dan Haywood, Thought Forms, Trust Fund, R Seiliog, The Jelas, Tender Prey, Hail! The Planes + Micro Peski Nacht

Tickets: £25 two day Festival ticket (no booking fee) here
£12 Friday only ticket (no booking fee) here
£15 Saturday only ticket (no booking fee) here
(You can also buy tickets in person at the Chapter box office or from Spillers Records)

Check out the From Now On website for background info and to hear snippets of the artists who’ll be performing …

I’ve been trying to get Mark to do a We Are Cardiff for about four years now (unsuccessfully, he keeps running away from me every time I mention it), but I’ve managed to squeeze a mini interview out of him, which you’ll be treated to next week, along with photos from the event.

See you there, yeah?

Helia x

Whats on

We Are Cardiff: 2013 in review

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Oh hai there!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 34,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

We Are Cardiff Productions, Whats on

We Are Cardiff: Portrait of a City film screening at Made In Roath festival!

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Right then you horrible lot – you might remember that earlier on this year we had a couple of screenings of the documentary film we made about Cardiff based on the We Are Cardiff blog. The lovely folks at the Made In Roath festival are doing another screening of the film, so you get the chance to see it again!

Get this in your diaries:

We Are Cardiff: Portrait of a City documentary film screening
Made In Roath Festival
Wednesday 23rd October 2013
8:30pm (following the Roathbud shorts screening) at G39, Oxford Road, Roath

oh – and it’s TOTALLY FREE TO SEE! So get your butts down there, you hear?

visit the Made In Roath website
want to know more about the We Are Cardiff film? Read all about it on the We Are Cardiff: Portrait of a City project blog

We’ll post up another reminder nearer the time. Until then, as Jerry Springer would say … take care of yourselves, and each other.

Helia x

Check out the AMAZING print that Adam Chard aka Croatoan Design made for the film. BUY IT FROM HIS WEBSITE! Perfect for the Cardiff lover in your life

cardiff-low-res

Whats on

Project Cardiff – new exhibition at Milkwood Gallery

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Marc Thomas photographed for Project CardiffA new exhibition featuring the work of We Are Cardiff photographer Lann Niziblian is launching this weekend at the Milkwood Gallery, Roath.

The exhibition will feature portraits from Lann’s Project Cardiff – ‘a portfolio of photographs of people how have been identified as making a positive contribution to the creative life and soul of the city.’

A selection of the images has previously been shown at the Senedd and they will now hang in the Milkwood Gallery from 2-24 February.

Exhibition Dates: 2 – 24 February 2013
(Private View: 2 February 2013 from 6.00pm)

Opening Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10.00am – 5.00pm

Venue: Milkwood Gallery, 41 Lochaber Street, Roath, Cardiff CF24 3RU

Image is Marc Thomas, Editor of Plastik Magazine, with thanks to photographer Lann Niziblian.

The Arts, The City, Whats on

Two Cardiffs Caught on Camera: Images of a City, Stories of its People

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We Are Cardiff photographer Jon Pountney publishes ‘Cardiff before Cardiff’

Cardiff Before Cardiff book cover jon pountney

During the 1970s and early ’80s, hundreds of prints and negatives of Cardiff were taken by the photographer Keith S. Robertson.

These were left forgotten in drawers in an artist’s studio in the city, with the photographer being told that his years of work had been burned and destroyed.

However, exactly two years ago the photographs were finally recovered by another photographer, Jon Pountney, who realised their value immediately.

The result of his restorative work on the photographs, and the reaction generated from the people portrayed or who have seen them, is published this week by Y Lolfa in a new book called Cardiff before Cardiff.

Jon Pountney
Jon Pountney

“I discovered the prints and negatives whilst renovating Warwick Hall, a building in the Gabalfa area of Cardiff, and was instantly struck by the quality of the prints,” explains Jon Pountney.

“The pictures were amazing; ordinary people going about their day, looking as if they could step off the page… What was very striking was the rich vein of community, smiles, winks and laughter.

“A couple of these pictures were stamped ‘Keith S. Robertson’, but that was all. So I created a new blog, called Cardiff before Cardiff, and shared a few photos on the website in an effort to learn more about this photographer. They were seen by a journalist, who subsequently put a number of the prints in a newspaper. The response was immense, and resulted in me being able to reunite Keith with his photographs once more.”

In Cardiff before Cardiff, Robertson’s powerful black and white images show the people and streets of Splott and other areas of Cardiff during the 1970s and the early ’80s, and Pountney’s work revisits some of those same areas today, showing how little has changed, and vice versa.

“Ever since I found those photos, I’ve been shooting Cardiff in a response to Keith’s work,” adds Jon. “It’s inspired me to step out into the streets of Cardiff and make the work I’ve always wanted to do. In this new book, my pictures appear side by side with Keith’s, and I couldn’t be prouder.”

Alun Gibbard
Alun Gibbard

The book’s author, Alun Gibbard says, “What has breathed life into Cardiff before Cardiff is the response of the city’s people. On seeing the black and white images in the press, on the blog and Facebook, people began to respond. Someone would recognise themselves in a photograph, or their father, mother or child. Some saw photographs of their family for the first time.”

Jon Pountney and Alun Gibbard will be signing copies of Cardiff before Cardiff in the city’s WHSmith on Thursday, 20th of December between 4 and 5pm. YourCardiff has also published an interview with Jon today.

 

 

 

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The People, Whats on

The We Are Cardiff stage at Swn Festival 2012: presenting Ratatosk

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This year, we’re curating a stage at this year’s Cardiff-based musical cornucopia – SWN FESTIVAL! In the run up to the festival, we’re going to be running short profiles on each of the lovely people performing on our stage. Today, we’d like to introduce you to the lovely Rhodri Viney – aka, Ratatosk!

photo by simon ayre

Q. You’re playing the WAC stage at Swn this year! Can you describe your music / your sound please? What can people expect?
A. A guy doing his sad sad quasi-historical faux-dystopian musical thing, with guitars, harmonium, saw, pedal steel and whatever else is within reach. Expect some looping of instruments, and miserablist folk songs about shipwrecked sailors and the like.

Q. Describe the music scene in Cardiff for us
A. Erm, having a young son means my finger isn’t exactly on the pulse anymore, so my answer would probably be inaccurate!

Q. Any local bands/artists/producers you’d tip for people to see?
A. Firstly, I’m playing in the In Chapters band on the friday night – In Chapters is always tremendous fun and highly unpredictable, so I’d recommend that. No Thee No Ess have been sounding tremendous lately, Zervas and Pepper, Among Brothers, Islet and Sweet Baboo are always good to see too. I’m sure some of the young types I’ve not seen or heard of before are probably good too – so just go and see some music.

Q. What’s your favourite thing to do in Cardiff? (music related or otherwise)
A. Drinking / film watching in Chapter – record shopping in Spillers – eating copious amounts of food from the Vegetarian Food Studio – Riverside market – haranguing the staff at Fresh baguettes before eating their phenomenal food – Garlands cafe…

Now I write them out, I’m surprised to see how many of my favourite things involve food… I must be getting older. And fatter.

Q. Have you ever played Swn Festival before? Have you got any good Swn memories? And… who are you most looking forward to seeing at Swn Festival this year?
A. Yes, I’ve played Swn quite a lot – I think my other band, Right Hand Left Hand have played four times, the highlight was a headline gig upstairs at the Model Inn on the sunday night – a packed, excitable venue, long queues to get in, and we played well – everything I’d want a gig to be! Though I mainly remember Alex from Islet being told off for crowd-surfing-walking on the ceiling.

Q. If people want to check out your music online, where can they do that?
A. A ton of pay-what-you-want-I-don’t-care downloads are available here: ratatosk.bandcamp.com/