Current: Cardiff, a burgeoning music scene halted by COVID-19

By Resonate | February 3, 2021

Words by Finch Evans

It’s no hot take to say that the pandemic has ravaged local music scenes worldwide, however, I feel safe to say established musical cities like London, Manchester and Bristol, who have been worldwide musical meccas for decades, have a better than average chance of returning to their pre-pandemic status. But what about the towns and cities on the verge? Places that contained scenes which seemed destined to be the next big thing? Have they missed their chance due to the unfortunate timing of this global disaster?

Before lockdown I had been spending a lot of time in Cardiff and always had the sense that the city was home to a scene on the rise. Walking into any bar on Womanby Street felt like walking through Manhattan’s East Village in the 70’s, or the Reeperbahn in Hamburg in the 60’s. You would see bands hunched together in dingy pub corners, scheming on anything from world domination to where the nearest party is. Far from the disjointed free-for-all of larger musical cities, the Cardiff scene had a sense of community, like a pride of lions preparing for a hunt.

I spoke with Dave Bassey, founding member of Cardiff rockers, CVC on how the pandemic has affected his band and the Cardiff scene and what the future looks like for the Welsh capital. 

When I ask him about the effects of lockdown on his band, the answer is surprisingly positive: “I’ve had a great time because we’ve been able to work on a lot of music. I had all the instruments and stuff I needed and all the means to make music – I’ve written like 20 songs since the first lockdown, so for me it’s been pretty good!” It seems the lockdown restrictions have at least given some time to create.

He admits, however, that although the timing was good for his band, it was different for bands at other stages in their careers, citing fellow Cardiff band, Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard as one of these: “I think it only really affected the sort of bands like Buzzard, because the next stage of their progression was gonna be touring, which is like the one thing you can’t do.” He continues: “When it comes to releasing singles obviously you can’t do the gigs to support them, but you can still release singles in lockdown. They [Buzzard, Buzzard, Buzzard] got cut off right at the fucking launch pad. If there hadn’t been a lockdown those guys would have been in the stratosphere by now.”

Cardiff is also home to some of the country’s best venues, like the Tramshed, Moon Bar and the iconic, Clwb Ifor Bach. I was curious to know how these venues were coping with the pandemic. 

“I’m working at the moment with one of the sort of co-owners at Clwb and he’s getting really frustrated, obviously they’re doing stuff like live streams and stuff, and for the first few weeks people were interested but now it’s just not cutting the mustard. It seems like the avenues available for venues to make money are fraught with problems. The only way that venues are gonna get anything good is by paying a lot of money to get them well recorded, well filmed, because if it doesn’t look and sound really good then people don’t give a fuck. Then again to do that they have to start charging online tickets you know, and I think people are really reluctant to buy online stuff. What usually happens is someone will buy it then all their mates will come over, so it’ll be like 10 people per ticket so it’s quite hard to sort of regulate that.”

Despite the obvious issues the scene is facing, the main theme I got from the interview was one of hope. It seems the lockdown has given the scene a moment to reflect and make something bigger of itself. “I know lots of bands were aimlessly gigging and releasing songs and now this has given them a bit of time to ask themselves, well actually, what the fuck are we doing? Let’s have a sit down and make a bit of a plan for it, which is always good.” Bassey also points out how the situation has been a good time to combat any mental blocks affecting bands: 

“I think it’s given some people some perspective because everybody’s had to take a break. It’s like if anybody felt they were falling behind or not doing as well as another band, it’s a fresh start for them to have another go, per se. I know a few people who suffer quite badly from envy for other bands, you know seeing other bands do well is not a good feeling for them, so everybody having to start again, start afresh has done good for some people’s confidence.”

So, it seems the pandemic hasn’t killed the Cardiff scene. On the contrary, the break from live music has provided an opportunity to look inward, make plans and come back stronger with some amazing music. CVC are evidence of this, announcing their new project, Get Real in November. The excitement for the future was clear from Bassey’s perspective: “this time next year we’ll be riding those Cardiff waves on surfboards made of… money!”

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