Cardiff music scene
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The Cardiff music scene is a thriving one. As Cardiff is the capital city of Wales it draws in musicians and acts from around the principality. The geographical separation of south Wales from England by the River Severn and the toll bridge has helped Cardiff—like another important locus for music in south Wales, Newport—produce and support its own musicians. Touring acts in the UK often fail to cross the river, thus allowing local and less well-known acts to occupy a more prominent place.
Despite Cardiff's status as a multicultural city where the vast majority of people are not Welsh-speakers, Cardiff is home to a number of bands and musicians for whom Welsh is often their language of choice. These include Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. This represents an important contribution to the status of Welsh as a living language beyond the confines of government and education.
Cardiff's music scene has enjoyed various flowerings over the years, often quite out of sync with those elsewhere in the country. In the mid-1990s, partly buoyed by the vibrancy of Newport's scene 12 miles away, Cardiff's own was energised. Though no bands as successful as Newport's 60 Ft. Dolls or Super Furry Animals emerged, the scene was populated by a series of smaller—often short-lived—outfits which made a small but notable local impact, and which seemed determined to go their own way. These bands included Ectogram, Craic, The Pier and The Awkward Moments. Much of this activity was centered around Clwb Ifor Bach.
There are several venues associated with the scene. Clwb Ifor Bach is one of Cardiff's most enduring live music venues, and has been a focal point for the Welsh-language music scene. Chapter Arts Centre regularly hosts nights including Peppermint Patti (largely featuring female and queer music) and alt.cardiff (typically electric folk/country music). The Barfly is a more recent arrival. A more popular venue for young adults, mainly teenagers who enjoy rock music, is the Metropolis bar, commonly known as Metros, which is located on Baker's Street just off St Mary's Street.
The long-standing Meltdown organisation (in operation since 1986) has been a starting-point for many bands and artists, encouraging a diverse mixture of music of many genres to share a stage.
Cardiff also boasts the world's oldest record shop, Spillers Records, which was established in 1894.
