live


BLACK MARBLE Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff Sun 24 Oct


For anyone who digs the sound of the various, primarily British synthpop pioneers of the early 1980s – well, many of them are still touring, but if you want something that captures the slightly wobbly mechanical arrangements and melancholy vocals of their first steps into the light, you won’t find much better than Black Marble right now. Black Marble is the solo alias of Chris Stewart, who cut his teeth in New York over the last decade, now lives in LA and releases his splendid new album Fast Idol on the same weekend as his Cardiff debut, which forms part of a refreshingly extensive UK tour.


“Before COVID struck we did a European tour,” says Stewart – who turns Black Marble into a trio for gigs – “and wanted to go back as soon as possible, but obviously couldn’t. We’ve been trying to do this tour for the last year and a half.”


Fast Idol isn’t exactly a straightforward party soundtrack, but from the moment the high-tempo beat kicks in on LP opener Somewhere there’s a sense that these pulsing rhythms and tender melodies


could get a room moving. “The live show has a bit of a clubbier mix – we’re trying to make the set danceable,” says Stewart. “I’m always asking the sound person to turn the beats up!” Although, “people do all sorts of different things to show that they are into the experience … standing motionless with their eyes closed, just intently listening. To me that’s more flattering than dancing.”


An act whose profile continues to grow, if by no means a household name, Black Marble takes influence from the darker corners of synthpop – cult figures scarcely recognised in their day – but is tuneful enough for theoretical mass appeal. “The circumstances around how I started making music were very off the cuff and I think those old obscure bands felt the same way – ‘we can buy these synths now they’re cheap, and they aren’t that hard to play!’ You were doing it for fun, not to take you somewhere physically, financially or reputationally.”


Tickets: £14. 029 2023 2199 / clwb.net NOEL GARDNER


THE RHEINGANS SISTERS Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama,


Cardiff, Fri 8 Oct; Galeri, Caernarfon, Wed 13 Oct; Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan, Thurs 14 Oct; Wyeside Arts Centre, Builth Wells, Fri 15 Oct


You might hunt high and low for British folk acts with any sort of profile who make similar music to The Rheingans Sisters. Rowan and Anna Rheingans’ grounding, and fanbase, very much skews to quote- unquote traditional folk rather than curious fans of rock or experimental music. Listening to their fourth and latest album Receiver, though, there’s an aesthetic that betrays their schooling in styles such as the trad fiddlers of Norway and Sweden. About half its songs are instrumental and those with vocals transmit inert melancholy over the pluck and buzz of stringed instruments built, at least in part, by their violin-maker dad.


Raised in the Peak District, the duo established themselves in Yorkshire (Rowan’s other musical projects include groups with countywomen Eliza Carthy and O’Hooley & Tidow) and are now based between there and, in Anna’s case, Toulouse. Receiver was released last autumn by the Bendigedig label, which is linked to Theatr Mwldan in Cardigan, and reasonably enough that venue is one of four in Wales The Rheingans Sisters are visiting in October.


Tickets: £10-£14.


rheinganssisters.co.uk/shows NOEL GARDNER


ROGER TAYLOR St David’s Hall, Cardiff Wed 6 Oct


The Queen drummer hasn’t stepped out from behind the kit for a solo tour in over 20 years. But Roger Taylor was forced to stall his ongoing worldwide tour with Queen + Adam Lambert due to the obvious. So, the 72-year-old decided to use his downtime to write and record a new album and put together a band to take it out on the road. To say Taylor is driven might be an understatement, and his recent single releases and Queen tours have shown that he still has the pipes behind the mic and power behind the kit.


Outsider comes out on the first of the month and some of its songs will feature in a setlist that will include old solo material and, of course, Queen classics. By far the most prolific solo member of Queen, with half a dozen albums over the last 40 years, Taylor also penned some of the band’s greatest hits, including Radio GaGa, Heaven For Everyone and These Are The Days Of Our Lives. The show is described as “intimate”, while the assembled band is top quality, including long-time Queen sideman Spike Edney alongside great players from the live Queen show and Goldfrapp’s touring band.


Tickets: £37.50. 029 2087 8444 JOHN-PAUL DAVIES


FOCUS WALES Various venues, Wrexham Thurs 7-Sat 9 Oct


There are more acts playing at 2021’s FOCUS Wales than words set aside for this preview, so my plan of just writing a very long list quickly ran aground. Let’s observe, then, that the team behind this annual takeover of Wrexham town centre have faced their fallow year (FOCUS Wales was moved from October 2020 to May 2021, then to this weekend) with a doughty spirit, and what looks like their strongest, most eclectic programme yet.


There’s a ‘music industry’ dimension to FOCUS, with a snaking list of bods booked to sit on panels on each of its three days, plus film screenings and ‘networking’ events. If it’s all about the music for you, however, here be a sliver of highlights from a total of 20 venues.


London noiserockers John are early evening on Thurs 7, with Lucy Spraggan and Stealing Sheep elsewhere later. Fri 8 boasts Richard Hawley supported by Billie Marten [pictured]; rap-rocker Bob Vylan, the trippy Flamingods and north Walian homecomers The Joy Formidable. And Sat 9 touts Kelly Lee Owens with Tim Burgess plus Gruff Rhys with Nik Colk Void and Don Letts.


Tickets: £45 festival pass; £60 priority pass; days passes and individual tickets available. Info: focuswales.com NOEL GARDNER


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PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING Great Hall, Cardiff University Students Union, Sun 24 Oct; Venue Cymru, Llandudno, Tue 2 Nov


Public Service Broadcasting don’t do things by halves. For 2017’s Every Valley, a stirring account of the south Wales coalmines’ decline, they set up base and recorded songs in the Ebbw Vale Institute. Followup Bright Magic found J. Willgoose Esq in Berlin for nine months, absorbing the atmosphere of a “fascinating, contrary, seductive place” – and regular source of artistic inspiration. Had the opportunity arisen circa 2015’s The Race For Space, he might have hitched a rocket ride with Bezos or Branson for research purposes.


Bright Magic is another brilliant record: more electronic and ambient than Every Valley,


it picks up where Willgoose’s solo album as Late Night Final left off. The songs are arranged into three phases, with the euphoric headrush pop of Blue Heaven at the centre, while sampled speech is largely sidelined in favour of guest vocalists, including Einstürzende Neubauten’s Blixa Bargeld.


The autumn tour kicks off at Cardiff’s Great Hall, scene of a triumphant 2017 PSB show, visiting Llandudno just over a week later as part of 16 UK dates.


Tickets: £29-£32. cardiffstudents.com / venuecymru.co.uk BEN WOOLHEAD


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