music live
BIG LOVE FESTIVAL Cwm Cayo Farm, Usk Fri 14-Sun 16 July
Ravers will have busy schedules with over 130 acts performing at this year’s Big Love Festival, held in Monmouthshire over a mid-July weekend. The independent event, which prioritises danceable Welsh music, is in its second year in this location, and their chosen theme is ‘Carnival Of Colour’ – meaning visitors are encouraged to attend in their brightest attire.
A selection of unusual settings including woodlands, a repurposed vintage fire engine, and a classic circus top will all play host to popular selectors both from the region and further afield – such as Cardiff promo/DJ collective Concrete Junglists, who have just released their own coffee table art book this month, and Radio 1 turntablist DJ Yoda.
London group
fresh from touring with Rancid, endeavour to be an energetic offering. Constantly gigging with
The Skints,
their unique style of ‘tropical punk’, they fuse a range of influences from Jamaica with traditional punk and hardcore, and will headline the Love Live Stage alongside Nubiyan Twist, an Afro-jazz band with a chance for improvisation; their live dub processing is a particularly impressive draw.
It will be the first Big Love Festival for Mad Apple Circus, a Bristol-based group that performs ska, funk and jazz with Latin overtones. Furthermore, the First Love Stage is dedicated to emerging talent, such as Cornish female folk-pop duo True Foxes and 21-year-old Tom Auton, who produces his band’s own records in his parents’ bedroom. It will be a place to witness the possible stars of tomorrow.
Tickets: £149. Info:
biglovefestival.co.uk BILLY EDWARDS
19TH DREAM OF DR
SARDONICUS The Cellar, Cardigan Fri 4-Sun 6 Aug
This longrunning weekender for underground psychedelia heads, enabled by the collaborative work of collectible indie label Fruits De Mer Records and west Wales spacerocker Pete Bingham, returns for 2023 in its traditional venue, Cardigan’s Cellar Bar. Topping the three-day bill is The Bevis Frond, a band founded by and based around the idiosyncratic outlook of Nick Saloman.
A true underground psych lifer, Saloman has been using the Bevis Frond name on and off since the 1960s, though the late 80s was when he began to collect a fanbase for his surreal, lo-fi ditties and wild, scrawly guitar playing. He’s headlined this fest as recently as 2019, but has since released another album, 2021’s Little Eden.
Other highlights among the 14 acts currently billed include Bingham’s own Sendelica, Italian flower power prog-pop
Underground, Cardiff’s Soft Hearted Scientists, Nick ‘son of Roy’ Harper and American psych- folk polymath Cary Grace.
throwbacks London
Tickets: £70. Info:
fruitsdemerrecords.com NOEL GARDNER
34
ALOGTE OHO & HIS
SOUNDS OF JOY Tonnau Tropical Garden Par- ty, Anglesey, Fri 7 July; Love Trails Festival, Gower, Sat 8; Llangollen Town Hall, Sun 9
Can I hear some hallelujahs? And what about some amens? Because The number one Frafra gospel group from Bolgatanga in Northern Ghana will be bringing their exuberant party to three Welsh festivals in one hectic weekend. No doubt there’ll be hand-clapping and swaying, but this gospel isn’t the same as the US kind. Alogte Oho & His Sounds Of Joy are on their long-awaited UK debut tour, and fans will be blessed with the band’s infectious blend of soul, reggae, funk, jazz, Afropop and highlife.
As a boy, Oho was fascinated by the sounds reverberating in his father’s church and wanted nothing more than to join the choir, which he did at 13. His first slam-dunk single was inspired while he was recovering in hospital after a motorbike accident. So thankful to his lord for sparing him, he wrote the song Mam Yinne Wa (God, You Love Me So). The latest Sounds Of Joy album O Yinne! is out now, so PRAISE BE!
Tickets: £135 (Tonnau – weekend ticket); £194 (Love Trails – weekend ticket); £15 (Llangollen). Info:
facebook.com/alogteoho RHONDA LEE REALI
GWYNETH GLYN &
TWM MORYS Galeri, Caernarfon Thurs 6 July
In the shadow of the formidable castle by the sea, be prepared to be swept away by yarns of Myrddin Wyllt (The Real Merlin) or Myrddin the Wild. He’s also known as Lailoken in Scotland and Suibhne, or Sweeney, in Ireland: many believe him to be real, not make- believe.
Two of Wales’ finest bards of song and story will be headlining this event. Singer-poets Gwyneth Glyn and
joined by musicians Maeve Mackinnon (Scotland), Andy May (Northumbria) and Lorcán Mac Mathúna (Ireland) in a performance of new music featuring Northumbrian pipes, percussion and multilingual harmonies in Gaelic, Irish and Welsh inspired by source material of the Old North and the old man himself.
Twm Morys are
In addition, Glyn and Morys are musicians and authors: both have been Wales’ National Poet Laureate for Children and won the crown at the National Heritage of the Urdd, Llyn and the chair at Eifionydd National Eisteddfod, respectively.
Tickets: £6-£12. Info:
galericaernarfon.com RHONDA LEE REALI
POWERPLANT Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff Sat 15 July
Very overdue debut in Cardiff here for DIY freek-punk originals Powerplant. The band – in actuality the solo project of Ukrainian in London Theo Zhykharyev, assisted by buddies when in the live arena – did play Newport in 2019, and were very good too, but have subjected the Powerplant sound to multiple modifications since.
From rickety, slightly geeky synthpunk along the lines of Devo and 2010s cult heroes like the Coneheads, Zhykharyev has grown in stature as a songwriter, with his oddball essence very much retained. Following a remarkable deviation into faux RPG soundtrack music – 2022’s Stump Soup, packaged with an “adventure module” booklet – new EP Grass, released the day before this gig, reverts to relatively rocking mode. The title track fits at least four distinct, excellent riffs in under three minutes; Broodmother is equal parts postpunk, industrial rock and goth metal and Beautiful Boy is a bombastic, frantic denouement. The current lineup have been great whenever I’ve seen them recently, so expect bang for your tenner.
Tickets: £10. Info:
clwb.net
NOEL GARDNER
Anete Lapsa
M. Weissenfeldt
Lloyd Clipston
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