MELTDOWN COMES OF AGE!
Founded 21 years ago in 1986, Meltdown has been responsible for over 1000 gigs (including roadshows to London and Scotland), a compilation album (3 stars in ‘Q’!), and early gigs by now legendary performers including Catatonia, Sian Evans of Kosheen, jazz guitarist Dylan Fowler, comedian Rob Brydon, Massive Attack collaborator Nicolette, Victorian English Gentlemen’s Club, Wales Folk Diva Julie Murphy and a clutch of Super Furries. And all this from a club that is organised by a bunch of unpaid enthusiasts, runs almost wholly on self-generated money, and melts down barriers between styles of music and performance with reckless abandon!!! Yay for us!!!!
MELTDOWN JUKEBOX See our selection on the right of this page.
NEWS:
DAI COVE MEMORIAL PAGE Send us your memories, tributes etc.
GALLERY: Mei Lewis’s shots of a year of Meltdown’s inc. Ruby Samba, Optimus Prime, Lady Reality & CF11, Cakehole, Smokehand, Menna Hughes, Ruby Samba, Physicists, Dafydd James, Mark Heenan etc. And we’ve extra special photo gallery pages for the ...
LADYFEST BENEFIT with LESBIANS on ECSTACY and the ...
Meltdown & No Fit State Circus 20th birthday bash in November 2006
COMING SOON: A May Bank Holiday Special with NAUGHTY, PAGAN WANDERER LU, GINDRINKER, SILENCE AT SEA and lots more tbc.
RECOMMENDED: JIM JAMs new night at the Riverbank Hotel across the river from the Millenium Stadium - another place for new bands and acts to strut their stuff.
ARCHIVE: new colour snaps of Mark Miwurdz (now Mark Hurst) headlining in 1987 with Ross McKinney, Cara etc.
Find out about Meltdown recommended gigs
and events. From riot grrrl to storytelling, from
Jazz to juggling, from soul to stiltwalking
... You get the idea
Click on the image below.
“Was cool checking the site - especially the archive - gota be the longest running night in Cardiff init!” - Rob Optimus Prime
"Happy twentieth birthday Meltdown, thanks for all the memories. I wish you well with your next twenty years, and know you’re going to get to do some extraordinary things. Penblwydd hapus. Love from Cerys [Matthews]"
HOT PUPPIES - Hell, we liked them before Jonathan Ross did! Signing to Fierce Panda and a fabulous album failed to lift them to the stratospheric heights they deserve - but a year of major achievement and national recognition culminating in a cracking peppermintpatti gig at years end! www.thehotpuppies.com
PHYSICISTS - Now Adam Walton faves and among the most compelling live acts on the South Wales scene www.thephysicists.8m.com
SILD - Wales-Estonian Folk with soundscapes that dazzle and haunt. Steadily widened their reputation with Festivals etc, and their spin-off old-timey trio the Foundlings went down a storm at Meltdown. Major feature on them in the April F Roots magazine. www.sildmusic.com
MR & MRS CLARKE - With Chapter Theatre shows, international tours and rave reviews the deliciously absurd art-performance duo exceeded all expectations. Except ours!
NICKIE CHARLES - Superlative singer, by turns sexy, sombre and soulful, framed in gorgeous ambient dance grooves. Constantly inventive and deliciously danceable. Largely invisible this year apart from a to-die-for track - Boundaries - on her MySpace page.
FROMMARS - From Gwent, actually, but their twisted melodies and left-field lyrics all swept up in an avalanche of sound are to die for.
www.from-mars.co.uk
CHRIS RIDGEWAY - Last year we said that “ one day the world has to bow down and acknowledge the wise and wild genius of ex-Howling Sleepers/ Vinegar Flies frontman, songsmith, and sage” and with a global response to his new band Cakehole Presleys Myspace page (with songs topping online radio station Revolution Radios chart, and the page a favourite of both NME’s Unsigned bands page and Chris Moyles unsigned bands page) it finally came true! What with a sizzling reunion of the Howling Sleepers at the Meltdown Birthday Party on November - Chris’s appeal across generations of music goers has never been greater. Here’s hoping 2007 builds on that!
DRUNK GRANNY - hyper-electric, riot grrrrrrl duo spitting out songs full of noise and wit who continue to astonish, and now promote dazzling left-field nights themselves as Fag Club.
PEPPERMINTPATTI - These Chapter based promoters with a passion for music and an ear for wild sonic gorgeousness from across the globe have earned universal respect and were sterling friends and collaborators with Meltdown over the year. The Ladyfest benefit featuring Lesbians on Ecstacy which we co-promoted was an incredible night. www.peppermintpatti.co.uk
JULIA HARRIS - Steady progress for this one woman acoustic maelstrom, a glorious combination of sharp songwriting, expertly percussive guitar, gorgeous melodies and sheer force of personality (I'd say about force 10). Her upcoming new album and gig at the Point should consolidate all that. www.juliaharris.net
TORCHWOOD - Can’t drive across the bay without imaging the aerial shots of Cardiff as sexy metropolis, and the websites feature on Splott is hilarious (seems Planet St and Orbit St etc are so named due to Splotts proximity to the spatial temporal rift). Otherwise bit of a curate’s egg. Owes massive debts to Angel and Buffy (rift = hellmouth etc) but shame they didn’t steal Joss Whedons consistent and complex character arcs, his lightness of touch and his warm-heartedness. Still - could find its immortal intergalactic feet in series two.
Thankyou for the support you gave us in our infancy last winter....we are now crawling and dribbling a little more competantly, but still cant make the transition from screaming Debbie Drunk Granny xxxxx
LILY GREEN
DESENSITISED
PAGAN WANDERER LU
CHRIS RIDGEWAY
BEATBOX FOZZY
CATE LE BON
Los CAMPASINOS
THREATMANTICS
WATERMELONS
ONE STRING LOOSE
ADRIAN HUGHES
ROOM TEMPERATURE CAT
Bravo to you for keeping honest music alive.
Wishing you all many brilliant nights of Meltdown and continued success.
The Alarm on our MySpace page
Dai Cove (Watermelons, Funhouse) died in 2006 after a short illness. He’s a great loss to the South Wales scene as both musician and man and our thoughts are with his family. There’ll was a special tribute gig for Dai at Clwb on Saturday December 16th. See our news page for more (click below).
MEI LEWIS’S PHOTOS OF THE
MELTDOWN/PEPPERMINTPATTI LADYFEST
BENEFIT feat. LESBIANS on ECSTACY
Click image below
MySpace Comments on the January Meltdown (Love is all around!)
I had a wonderful time at Meltdown.
Pagan Wanderer Lu
Forgot to say, great gig the other night in Cardiff you were ace xx
Beth (Hot Puppies) to Pagan Wanderer Andy
Fabulous gig at Clwb Ifor Bach last Sunday......We are your biggest fans in masks!! Much Love xx
Mr & Mrs Clark [to Eirlys Rhiannon]
Great night, great music! Bought 2 Pagan Wanderer Lu cds! That good!!
Peppermintpatti
Great Gig Last Night....We Really Enjoyed Ourselves.
Nice One
Mr & Mrs Clark
We love Mr and Mrs Clark. think we've found a new tune for them: Don't fart on my heart
Peppermintpatti to Mr & Mrs Clark
Thanks for having us again, it was good fun as always, I just wish Clwb was open a bit longer on Sundays so that we could mill around and dance to DJ Tim.
Threatmantics
Top banana night all round chaps
David Mysterious
Had a great night last night. Good show! I shall definitely turn up to more Threatmantic gigs in the future.
Cloud Atlas
MEI LEWIS PHOTOS OF THE MELTDOWN JAZZ
CONNECTIONS NIGHT IN FEBRUARY IN OUR
GALLERY NOW. Click below
