Journalist Ben Newman gives us his lowdown on the wonderful Festival of Voice 2018 – taking over the streets of Cardiff for a fortnight, from the 7 – 17 June …
The Festival of Voice, following the event’s enormously successful Welsh-centric event last year, has returned, promising a line-up that balances pastoral Welsh treats with internationally-renowned performances. At its core, the festival is all about celebrating what makes Wales tick, along with appreciating the power our collective voices have, whether that be artistically or otherwise.
The festival lasts from June 7 – 17, with events running throughout each day across several locations. Most of the festival will take place within the Wales Millennium Centre, but other venues around Cardiff are hosting some events, including Chapter, Clwb Ifor Bach, New Theatre, and so on. The timetable for the festival can be found on the Festival of Voice website, along with a full description of the acts on show.
Highlights, with the obvious show stoppers Patti Smith and Elvis Costello aside, include Gwenno, the Welsh-Cornish alt-pop sensation, Billy Bragg in a special “Voices of Protest” performance, Laura Marling’s and Mike Lindsay’s LUMP, the wonderful one-woman stage performance Lovecraft (Not The Sex Shop In Cardiff), the Charlotte Church curated Utopia – which includes Ionalle of iamamiwhoami fame – and all of the smaller, local performances.
We also recommend following checking out @DTACardiff for a very special and secret pop-up with a difference taking place throughout FOV …
Tickets for each individual event can be found on SeeTickets, with prices varying depending on the act.
To support the release of their new single ‘Shades of You’ on May 4 – and in celebration of surpassing 32 MILLION STREAMS on Spotify alone – Cardiff haze poppers XY&O have announced a spring residency of live shows at The Big Top!
Entry to all shows is FREE, and each gig features support from different artists (including Safari Gold, Jack Ellis, Sønder Choir and rising stars Hvnter and The Dead Method).
WATCH: XY&O – Low Tide
XY&O’s Big Top residency shows are:
April 19th: XY&O + Safari Gold
May 4th: XY&O + Jack Ellis + Blue Honey DJ Set [single launch show]
May 17th: XY&O + Sønder Choir [semi acoustic show]
June 1st: XY&O + Hvnter + The Dead Method [presented in association with the Forte&Project]
We caught up Skip, Nick and Tudor for a mini interview before their residency kicks off!
Q. Where and how did the band form? Introduce all the members and maybe tell us a bit about your musical influences
Skip. We met in Cardiff, I was at University there. Me and Tudor crossed paths down at a little studio in Cardiff Bay and almost immediately decided that we should write some songs together. Our tastes are styles when it came to writing where similar, but also different enough so that we could spin off each other. He yinged, I yanged.
I knew Nick because I was recording and producing some tracks for a band he was in at the time, he was only about 16/17 and had an amazingly original style of playing guitar and writing even then. I thought it would be interesting to rope him in and see how his musicality fitted with the songs me and Tude had started.
My musical tastes are pretty broad. I can usually find something I like about a track or genre. Some of my biggest influences would be artists like Prince, John Martyn The Cure, Sting, stuff my Dad was listening too as I grew up. When I hit early teens and started finding my own music, then it was all about Jimmy Eat World, Alkaline Trio and Blink 182 for a couple of years. I like heavy music, soft music and everything in between. Atreyu to Arianna Grande.
Nick. My influences constantly change, at the minute I’m listening to a lot of electronic soul type stuff as well as artists such as Mt. Joy and Jordan Mackampa.
Tudor. My musical influences are pretty broad and always changing. I love haunting and spacey music like Daughter, RY X and Sigur Ros. I’m also a massive Coldplay fan (saw them in Cardiff for the first time not so long ago and it only confirmed my obsession). I’m currently listening to a lot of traditional Colombian music (probably due to watching all of Narcos on Netflix in three days).
Q. Where are you all from originally? How did you end up in Cardiff?
Skip. I’m originally from the valleys, a little town called Abercarn. I came to Cardiff University though so lived in the city for 3/4 years at that time.
Tudor is from Barry and Nick from Whitchurch so they’re both Cardiff boys.
Q. What are your musical memories from being younger? What made you all decide to get into making music?
Skip. Most of my musical memories just revolve around listening to it. I sang in school and stuff like that but the most vivid memories for the first times I heard certain artists. I remember listening to REM, Led Zeppelin and Sting CDs in the car with my parents. I remember the first time I heard Youth & Young Manhood by Kings of Leon and amazing records like that. I used to sing and make up songs as a kid, and I guess I just never really stopped…
Tudor. Family BBQs that went late into the night with Bob Marley albums being played back to back. I’ve always been obsessed with how music makes people feel and I suppose I wanted to be a part of that process.
Nick. Listening to Jimi Hendrix in my dad’s car was a big one, I remember being pretty mind blown that those kinds of sounds existed (especially the solos in All Along the Watchtower). I think it’s that curiosity that got me into music
Q. What are your favourite music- related spots around Cardiff – venues / shops etc?
Tudor. We’re big fans of The Full Moon, Clwb Ifor Bach, Womanby Street as a whole really. Gwdihw is a pretty cool place and The Big Top of course. That’s a great venue for intimate gigs.
We’re also looking for a New York Deli sponsorship so will give them a shout out too!
Skip. Also, Bomber’s Deli…un-related to music, but if you’re in Cardiff and it’s lunch time then you need to check that place out.
Q. Tell us about the Ten Feet Tall/Big Top residency
It’s going to be a chance for us to experiment with all of our new lights, equipment and music. Our live show has evolved massively and we’re keen to show it to people in an intimate setting. We’re using the gigs to try out new songs, experiment with arrangements and just generally play some fun local shows because we haven’t really played in the city that much. We’ve made all the gigs free entry because we’d rather people just come and enjoy, critique or just listen to our new music
Q. What’s been the best gig you’ve played to date?
We actually played at Glastonbury 2016 on the BBC Introducing Stage. It was obviously pretty amazing so that always ranks highly. It was only out 10th gig as a band so very strange and looking back on it, it almost feels like a different band. Our live set up then was very different to what it is now. We played an amazing gig at The Phoenix in Exeter in the run-up to Glastonbury. It was a BBC show at a big sold out theater and the crowd were amazingly receptive to us.
Q. What are your plans and hopes for the future?
Our new single ‘Shades of You’ is scheduled to come out on May 4th so we’re excited for that. We’re shooting the music video for it next week actually.
We’ve just been picked up by the live agents Primary Talent so we’re keen to get out playing live much more. We’re hoping to use the residency to fine tune our live set too.
Tudor. We want to go over to the US and play for all the Americans that have been streaming our music for the last two years!
XY&O is the creative amalgamation of songwriters Skip Curtis, Nick Kelly and Tudor Davies.
It began in early 2015 – Skip (from the Valleys) and Tudor (from Cardiff) began writing music and songs with the intention of pitching them to other artists to use. Skip quickly roped in another Cardiff native Nick Kelly in hopes of bringing another dimension to the music. After posting some early demos online under the moniker ‘XY&O’ the trio started seeing their play count rise. They started receiving airplay on US Radio stations as well as gig offers from US promoters, some of whom assumed the band were from Cardiff, San Diego.
Early on, the boys wrote what would become ‘Low Tide’ – bringing with it the genesis of their unique style, coined by Skip as haze pop. ‘Low Tide’ was self-released and went straight into Spotify’s Global Viral Chart at number 7, reaching an audience worldwide, but was particularly well received in the US. The track has since gone on to accumulate over 20 million streams. The trio gained huge popularity on all online platforms, it was at this point the three had discovered that XY&O had somewhat unintentionally become a band.
The band slowed things down the second half of 2016 and early 2017, allowing Nick to finish his final year studies at University but have now re-focused their efforts into their live show and have recently been taken on by live agents Primary Talent. The boy’s story was picked up by the Wales Online in late 2017 which led to them being featured live on the ITV News at 6pm talking about their unusual story of being a little known Welsh band with an audience in the USA.
They hope to expand their live following over 2018 as well as release plenty of new music. New single ‘Shades of You’ is set for release on May 4th, 2018.
In true better late than never style, welcome to our photoblog about this year’s awards! Congrats to all the winners … and by winners, we mean everyone making, breaking and championing the arts in our fine city. You’re ALL winners to us!
The awards were compered by Thomas Evans (Made In Cardiff TV presenter) and held in Tramshed. Big love to local music hero Ed Townend who brain-birthed the awards, putting them on in conjunction with Cardiff PR firm agency River and Bear.
All photos by Stephen Meredith – read on for the list of winners!
In case ya hadn’t heard, here’s the deal. The Gatekeeper has put in an application to convert some of the building to be Cardiff’s first Wetherspoons hotel. Unfortunately, it happens to be located right in the heart of the alternative musical heart of the city: Womanby Street, a place we’ve spent many hours stumbling around, weaving from venue to venue, smoking, eating burgers, drinking pints, putting the world to rights. Whether you’re a boozehound or not, late alcohol licensing is totally vital to this epicentre of alternative music, and venues are worried about the implications of having the hotel there.
To try and safeguard the venues on this street, there’s a “Save Womanby Street Campaign”. Do your thing, join up, get educated, lobby those that represent you.*
Here’s the vibes:
Save Womanby Street
Backed by Cardiff’s grassroots music venues, the Save Womanby Street campaign is lobbying the council to recognise the street as an area of cultural significance for music and performance arts.
Home to live music venues Clwb Ifor Bach, The Full Moon, Fuel Rock Club and Bootlegger, Womanby Street has been described as “the epicentre of Cardiff for grassroots music” and “the heartbeat of live music”
According to campaign organisers, late alcohol licensing and live music is vital to the venues’ survival.
The addition of a hotel will benefit the area but current systems of law could threaten the unique nature of the street.
As a result the group are calling on Cardiff Council to designate Womanby Street a cultural night time economy. This will protect the street and allow businesses to continue to flourish.
The decision under the current systems of law has been met with widespread objection, with folk singer Frank Turner joining nearly 7,000 others to petition against the move.
However, Save Womanby Street organisers have stressed that the wider issue lies with planning permission policy and not the pub in question.
Under current regulations any complaints regarding noise pollution would threaten the livelihood of the street’s venues.
In addition to the local planning changes, the campaign will lobby the Welsh Assembly to adopt the agent of change principle in relation to planning permission, making it the responsibility of the developers of any new premises, commercial or residential, to find solutions to noise from nearby pre-existing business.
* (if any of you live in Butetown, like I do, good luck trying to lobby our councillor Ali Ahmed for anything, all he ever does is reply saying what’s happening and that there’s no way of changing anything, not once have I ever experienced him actually representing the views of local people – especially on the crazy bonanza of flat building that’s going on around Hamadryad Park. Although I just read he hasn’t been reselected to stand in May, and to be honest, good riddance. How can you live in Penylan and represent Butetown?)
Is it over? Has it finally finished? Has someone finally dragged 2016’s lifeless body out to the garden and buried it under a mountain of Leicester City and Nigel Farage memorabilia? Great, well let’s all collectively repress our memories of 2016 together with Free For All Festival running from 5 January to 31 January at The Moon Club + The Full Moon. They have kindly put on a month of free events – so don’t worry if your pockets are empty like the rest of us – with bands and artists of varying descriptions, so give your eardrums a treat and pop down to The Moon Club + The Full Moon and support these artists.
The event runs from 5 – 31 January, so if you’re gagging for an all-dayer or fancy checking out some local talent see the array of events on below.
Tuesday 10 January, 8PM
Downstairs: 6foot7 + Paul Divers & support 8pm
Friday 13 January, 7PM-10PM, 8PM-late
Upstairs: Electronic Music Wales showcase feat. Skeleton House & support 7pm-10pm
+
The Black Hole Of Womanby St feat. Samurai Cop + DJs til late
Downstairs: Monsterometer + Godbomber 8pm Friday 13 January Facebook event
Saturday 14 January, 5PM + 8PM
Upstairs: Maddie Jones – Band + Lilygreen’s Sky Machine + Instructions + Tobias Robertson + Charlie Says 5pm
Downstairs: Mike Dennis + AcouMetal & support 8pm
Sunday 15 January, 7PM-10PM + 6PM
Upstairs: Staylittle Music presents Beth Goudie + Joe Bayliss + Matthew Frederick 7pm-10pm Follow the event on Facebook
Downstairs: Timeless Promotions + Beast PR + HOPE not hate + Decidedly Records present Gareth Bonello (The Gentle Good) + Vinna Bee +Francesca’s Word Salad + Adwaith 6pm Follow the event on Facebook
Sunday 22 January, 2PM
Upstairs: RecRock Youth Music Project showcase 2pm (Ages 14+)
Downstairs: Pi & Hash Music alldayer feat:
Them By There + The Sam-Antonio Freeway + Thee Manatees + Siblings Of Us + Charlie Says + Canada Road & support. 2pm-11.30pm
2-floor alldayer! Tibet + Junior Bill + The Chalk Outlines + M I L K + Shop Girls + Them Dead Beats + Nevsky Perspective (solo – performing the works of Britney Spears) + Thom Bentley & more TBA. 4pm
Sunday 29 January, 2PM
Forté Project // Prosiect Forté showcase – 2 floors! 2pm (Ages 14+)
Showcasing the 10 acts announced as part of the Forté Project scheme.
Monday 30 January, 8PM
Upstairs: CitySound Publications – magazine launch night feat. CHROMA & support 8pm
Downstairs: Anonymous Iconoclasts + Capra Mamei & support 8pm
That’s all the free music and events you can partake in at The Full Moon + Moon Club this month, so be sure to get on down there and support your local scene. Even when your pockets are empty and the January cold bites a little harder than you remember, there’s still a way to support your local scene and – most importantly – your city. Be sure to check out some of these events as they are putting a lot into Cardiff, so it’s only fair for us to give back.
Oh, and have a fun, crazy, challenging and memorable 2017.
Oh my lordy, TEN YEARS of Sŵn! This October we welcome back our own inner city music festival for its tenth year. Excited? We are!
In case you haven’t been to Sŵn before, here’s the vibe. The festival takes over several venues throughout Cardiff city centre, spreading musical joy and happiness between them all. You buy a wristband – either for the weekend or a day at a time – that gets you into all those shows (provided there’s room – so get there early for bands you really want to see!).
There are additional festival shows in Tramshed that you can buy separate tickets for. Your wristband will get you into these, but again, only if there’s space.
Sŵn have now announced the FULL LINE-UP for the LONELY THE BRAVE all-dayer on Saturday 22nd October 2016 at Tramshed, as part of Sŵn Festival 2016. Huge! LONELY THE BRAVE will be joined by FATHERSON, CASEY, BLACK FOXXED, MAX RAPTOR and MUNCIE GIRLS. What a humdinger.
Join the Lonely the Brave all-dayer Facebook event for updates or jump straight to Lonely the Brave all-dayer tickets. If you want to spend the day here you can buy a ticket just for this show for £12.50 OR buy a Sŵn Festival Saturday Wristband or weekend wristband to get entry (subject to capacity)
Volunteering at Sŵn Festival
Fancy working on an award-winning music festival? Drop them an email if this is your bag! If you’re interested in a future career in events or music, this a great way to get experience and have fun too.
Other Sŵn shows …
Sŵn began life as a festival but we get bands asking to play Cardiff all the time, so we now promote shows year-round. To get more live new music in your life, here’s a list of our upcoming shows to take you all the way to Sŵn Festival….
August Bank holiday weekend in Cardiff promises a veritable smorgasbord of musical delights, as HUB Festival returns to Womanby Street with an extended selection of music, comedy and poetry!
Looks pretty incredible, right?? Tickets are a mindblowing £12 per day or just £20 for the full weekend!
BEER FESTIVAL, STREET PRESENTATION & FOOD
This year sees the addition of a beer festival featuring local craft brewers, a new street presentation with designers decorating the area, as well as musicians, poets, comedians, performing arts and street food.
Too many artists for you to keep up with? HUB have made a handy Soundcloud page, giving you a ‘greatest hits’ of this year’s bands. Put it on and let the music wash all over you!
If you can squeeze this in beside the Butetown Carnival also taking place over the Bank Holiday weekend, HUB Festival is once again taking over Womanby Street with a BILLION bands, loads of beers, and more boogying than you can possibly manage!
HUB Festival returns this August Bank Holiday Weekend with a whole host of great music and performers!
===== LATEST LINE UP =====
SATURDAY 29 AUGUST
JONES COURT
Josephine and the Artizans – Tree House Fire – Kookamunga – Grand Tradition – Public Order Act
THE MOON CLUB
SPECIAL GUESTS – JaJa OK – Baby Brave – Rainbow Maniac – Love Bazaar – Tarsiers – Recluse
THE FULL MOON
Fingertrap – King Tut’s Revenge – Hipicat – The D Teez – Kinky Wizzards – Paint Happy – Milpool – Ukulele Nights
FUEL
Tides Of Sulfur – Vails – Gung Ho – Haast’s Eagled – Buff – Mind Factory – Clarity As Arson – Your Protected
FOUR BARS
Quiet Marauder – Harri Davies Band – The Gentle Good – Mike Dennis – The Migrant – Matthew Frederick – FUR – Dot’N Bang
NIGHT JAR
Mixalydia – Homes – Denim Snakes – Ofelia – Local Enemy – Willo Wonder
DEMPSEYS
A Girl Called Ruth – Owain Whatley – Dead In The Water – Grace Hartery – Lee Blackmore
CITY ARMS
Captain Accident (Solo) – Aled Rheon – Arfur Bone – Joe Kelly – Kirk Morgan
URBAN TAP HOUSE
Cotton Wolf – Nico Reuben – Will Ford – Mike Johnson & Maddy Read – Ingrid Lagounel – Fara Allibhai – Nightmares From The Discotheque – Fritz O’Skennick 0 Mark Curtis – Des Mannay – Johnny Giles – Terry Hoskins – Ceri Sian – Julie Croad – Maggie Nash – Dave Daggers – Nia David – Laz Lazarus – Martha Shitpeas – Ade Jones – Lee Prosser – Christina Thatcher – Ffion Wyn – Aisling Tempony
ONER HIP-HOP STREET STAGE
DJ Jaffa – DJ JB – Double Cee – DJ Alkemy – Turna Phrase – Sythe & Jomez – Culture Vultures – Conrad Lott – Inner City Cypher – Skunkadelic – Rob Wax – Ill Lit – Chew & Dex
SUNDAY 30 AUGUST
JONES COURT
Johhny Cage & The Voodoo Groove – Smokey Bastard – Railroad Bill – Screamin’ Miss Jackson & The Slap Yo Mama Big Band – Featherjaw – The Brwmys
THE MOON CLUB
Howl – Lacertilia – Thorun – Wight – Morass of Molasses – Attercopus – Tradish – Wall
THE FULL MOON
Junior Bill – Poor Old Dogs – Third Party – Iron Eye – Maddie Jones Band – Shop Girls – Ohhimark – Tomos Lewis – Sean O’Brien
FUEL
Hogslayer – Chaos Trigger – Ten Cent Toy – Intensive Square – Bismuth – Water – Mwstard
FOUR BARS
Jnr Hacksaw – The Lash – The Johnstown Flood – Rhodri Brooks Band – Them Deadbeats – Bella Collins – The Higher Bells
NIGHT JAR
SPECIAL GUESTS – Baby Queens – Lionface – Why We Love
DEMPSEYS
Skunk-Boy Project – Calling All Heroes – Eleri Angharad – Tobias Robertson – Jaymee Summers – Danny Saben – Kim Campbell & Sam Griffiths
CITY ARMS
Howlin’ Lord – Jack Cookson – Doozer McDooze – Brooks, McManus & Capper – Siobhan McCrudden – Josh Evans – Eady Crawford
URBAN TAPHOUSE
Sion Russell Jones – 5th Spear – Rye Milligan – Andrew Paul Regan – Zac White – Glocal Now – Luke Bennett – Jacob Nico
ONER HIP-HOP STAGE
DJ Killer Tom – DJ Brave Toaster – Joe Dirt & Ral Duke – Chubbs & Jpegg – DJ Veto – Dope Biscuits – Project – Magi – DJ Jaffa
On the street over the weekend you will also find:
Street Food Warehouse
The Busker’s Revenge
Art & Visuals from The Abacus
Lindy Hop Cardiff
Wonderbrass
Hub Radio with Big Scott
I have hesitating trepidation in revealing my Shangri-la in the city. The influx of anything approaching trending would upset what I have found. Luckily the very nature of my choice negates such an occurrence for you see dear reader… I have selected Garlands as my choice memory of Cardiff, having patronised its loving environ for over ten years and at one point had my own table and regular order. I have occasionally got too busy to regularly attend, but like catholic guilt, I am always drawn back to its pleasure.
Located in Duke Street Arcade opposite the castle, Garlands entices with a tobacco stained, penny university aesthetic, the old world Italian allure familiar from films and holiday brochures; perhaps such a place never existed, but these kind of coffee houses continue to offer a faux decadence of fonts, painted pillars, plastic chandeliers and brass decor which has now become a decadence all of its own.
As coffee shops become more standardised (and Garlands is itself a sort of 80’s standardisation) in low- slung cushioned comfort, it is a pleasure to be forced to sit upright like an adult whilst consuming. Garlands harks back to places where people could think, discuss, and plan within a city, yet away from distractions. One can do this elsewhere but well lit, bright colours; open spaces and urban (not urbane) noise can work against this.
By contrast, Garlands has soft brown hues and hushed voices, a more respectful climate than the abrasive places. Here, you will not hear overweight voices bandy out repulsive terms like ‘skinny’, ‘frappe’ ‘latte-a-chino’, the same voices who only a few years ago would have violently rejected such terms (often with violence). This is a place with coffee machines that don’t look like they are about to rise up against the human race, there is none of the spluttering distain of the modern machinations, instead the very mechanical elements themselves are in harmony with the more reserved eatery nature, and its artificial nurture, in unison.
Consequently as I’ve noted, it is a place to think, and many a song lyric/idea has been formulated or completed within its walls. When I began frequenting, they used to have the Independent newspaper every Friday, making it an ideal place to catch up on the arts supplement over the free coffee refills. The paper has stopped there but the coffee refills continue (for around £1.50 you can have one free refill – sometimes more).
The food is delightful and as simple or complicated as any rival, whilst retaining a delectable character missing from the countless identical test tube paninis the western world over. Ranging from the simple toasted teacake (which you may have to ask for), to the Italian experience jacket potato (capable of summing up an entire country’s cuisine in a potato), via the cream cheese, smoked salon sandwich (alas no capers any more), there is something to sate any visiting town patron. Homemade cakes are proudly displayed in cylinders of sin, next to a fridge containing water, juices and various forgotten carbonated genres of refreshment.
Here is a place to reflect whilst listening to Gershwin, classical excerpts, or themes from motion pictures, and whilst the music may err toward Classic FM, this is no bad thing. Give me this over the nasally forgettable, mid-Atlantic tones of a thousand strumming, anodyne singers called Ryan, Sarah, Ben or Fiona any afternoon.
I suppose its main attraction for this writer is the way it avoids the visitation of the young who seem repelled by its lack of identifiable corporate logo or multi-media advertisement. Garlands is not the community where people jump off loud, high objects whilst making wide eyed hand signals, nor does it display full coloured, sweaty, laminated representations of its wares. It simply has a menu with words like ‘sandwich’, and entrusts the reader with enough intelligence to know what this is. It’s probably too much of a gamble for a youth raised on spoilers and plot revealing trailers. Even when I was young, I wanted to distance myself (when taking my coffee) from the noise of excited bores talking at disbelief over the previous nights substance inspired travail (“man, Ollie was so wasted”). I craved a more ecumenical church, where lecturers, grandmothers, aspiring jobless elitists (like myself), families, crazies and yes even some young people could freely take refreshment in the haven of a reminder of a more homily, intelligent time, where people didn’t ask you if you wanted confectionary on your coffee.
This though is where the contradiction resides. As I’ve noted above, Garlands is also has its own ‘corporate’ identity familiar to anyone growing up in the eighties who was dragged endlessly around town by mothers or family. For me, it is a prompt to being little (and probably slightly bored), eating crisp jacket potatoes with mother whilst playing with a Transformer, asking (and getting) a rare ice cold glass of coke and perhaps a Welsh cake. It is essentially the last outpost of a memory, an Alamo to encroaching American invaders. That’s right… I’m using the confusing yet apt allegory of an America invading itself, replacing our cherished heritage of coca-cola with a skinny-choco-frappe-a-lingo, taking away all we hold dear. I will hold out in my fortress of drawn fireplaces, ginger beer, and cutlery in baskets and take refuge under its gingham moon, shielding myself behind soft paintings until the day is won.
Only please, please please, dear Garlands, bring back capers to the menu and the Independent every Friday and credit my life-partner for the pictures you have of hers on the wall. Then all will be well.
Spencer McGarry is a Swansea born composer living in Cardiff. He is currently halfway through a project to record and perform six albums in six different styles (under the oft misunderstood as arrogance moniker ‘Spencer McGarry Season’) and is a part of Businessman records. He is an avid reader of popular science and religion and inexplicably believes that all pets suit the name Napoleon. He lives with his life-partner near a small Tesco’s outlet. Check Businessman Records on Big Cartel and Spencer’s Soundcloud.
Spencer was photographed in Garlands by Adam Chard
Cardiff is rapidly changing; the new shopping mall is only the physical side of this growth coming to fruition. It is colossal; it is grand, yet it is anonymous. Now progress is natural, and I am little too young to daydream in sepia but I am concerned that any sort of unique character in Cardiff is becoming too rare a delicacy. What Cardiff will look like in the future is a mystery to me, but I would like to briefly write about a place that I hope survives the evolving landscape, where others have fallen (the Point). That remains, even if just for my own selfish memories.
Clwb Ifor Bach, or Welsh Club to those of an English disposition, sits on Womanby Street, in the shadow of Cardiff Castle. It looks unremarkable. Illustrated posters of upcoming events line its outside wall. Occasionally a queue and puffs of cigarette smoke line the air as mobile phones illuminate the dark, the time reminding impatient hands how long they have been waiting. Other times the emptiness of the cobbled street follows with the absence of bodies on the dance floor. On such occasion the emptiness is only exaggerated by a green laser, which trickles from bulb to the tapping feet of the few dancing. My mind is filled with fond memories of my friends and I dancing to Le Tigre, Hot Chip, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and miming the Smiths to the unimpressed ceiling.
There are three floors of music and a cold staircase to guide you skywards. Music seeps from each level creating a cocktail of sounds. People crowd to talk, their tones varying from the joyous to the bleak. Eyes lined thick with mascara are the most telling in sadness, a trail of black make up thinly descends down their cheeks.
The majority of the time you barely catch a glimpse of smiling expressions as groups rush from room to room chasing a song, meeting people, enjoying the playground that is Clwb Ifor Bach.
I enjoy the scope of fashion you see paraded in Clwb Ifor Bach, it accepts the eccentrics. Its red brick interior provides the backdrop to polka dot dresses, arms swathed in tattoos, flat caps tilted to impossible angles and piercings protruding from the faces of strangers. The eclectic tastes of the punters are mirrored by the different types of music played there. From indie to dubstep, drum and bass, electro, pop and (although rare) hip hop. It is nice going out to a night, and the songs not being inane and bile educing as Lady Gaga crooning that she wants to ride your disco stick. Wales is a country that loves music, and Welsh Club caters for those whose thirst goes beyond the Radio 1 daytime playlist.
We live in a western world connected by chains and franchises that mean every city centre is all too familiar; any mystery vanquished under the strain of luminous logos and the sea of striped shirts and squeaky-clean shoes. In Clwb Ifor Bach there is a sea of styles, of stories waiting to unfold, of romance and rejection, of bravado and bravery spurred on by music, alcohol and dance moves. It has been the host of many of my happy memories, and I hope it will continue to be a venue that will offer a haven from the beige discothèques that line the more commercial St. Marys Street.
Richard Arnold is in his third year at Cardiff University studying History and Politics. He currently lives in Cathays.
Richard was photographed at Clwb Ifor Bach by Ffion Matthews
We Are Cardiff 