Cardiff Meltdown Archive Project 1986 - 2011 and beyond

Who else is coming to Railroad Bill's 40th Birthday Party at the Gate in Cardiff tonight (Saturday 25th April)? Just a warning that I'm likely to come across as somewhat anti-social. I will not be accepting any alcoholic drinks and will be avoiding any attempt to hug me, slap my back or vigorously shake my hand! Don't be fooled though. I will be deliriously happy to see you all, but after a run in with a bit of the M5 the other day, followed by a few days in hospital, I'm nursing 3 broken ribs and a odd nostalgia for social distancing!

In brighter news, I'll be spending a lot more time in Cardiff through 2026, and would love to a) catch up with friends b) put on a few more Meltdowns at Tiny Rebel etc c) practice my rehabilitative hugging exercises and d) find a new car!

See you at the Gate!

Well, that was good!

Eight songwriters share a smorgasbord of superlative songwriting drawn from 4 decades since the first Cardiff Meltdown in 1986 (Sian Donovan) right through to 2026 (the Mermerings). Plus No Fit State Circus co-founder Dave Id offering an interlude of non-musical but still magical hilarity.

Tickets on door or via https://wegottickets.com/event/695521

The Magic of Meltdown - 40th Anniversary Gig
Wed 11th March at Tiny Rebel - 25 Westgate St, Cardiff. CF10 1DD
Tickets on sale - just £5.50 - from WeGotTiclets.

Ticket link for event is https://wegottickets.com/event/695521

Join the SIX SIDED MEN, PAUL ROSSER (of the Watermelons), SIAN DONOVAN, DAVE ID (co-founder No Fit State Circus), ADE ROPER & MIKE SLEE, ROB NICHOLS & DAMIR, the MERMERINGS, PETE MATHISON and compere DEBBIE MANLEY (tbc). This Wednesday March 11th at 7.30pm.

TICKETS now on SALE for
THE MAGiC of MELTDoWN - 40th Anniversary Gig - Wed 11th March - at TINY REBEL

Link: https://wegottickets.com/event/695521

Just £5.50 each.

Join the SIX SIDED MEN, PAUL ROSSER (of the Watermelons), SIAN DONOVAN, DAVE ID (co-founder No Fit State Circus), ADE ROPER & MIKE SLEE, ROB NICHOLS & DAMIR, the MERMERINGS, compere DEBBIE MANLEY (tbc) and more tbc to celebrate the legacy and reignite the spirit of a quarter century of regular Meltdowns (1986 - 2011).

It's 40 years since the South Wales music and performance scenes were revolutionised by a small non profit, genre melting cooperative of unpaid enthusiasts, Cardiff Meltdown. On Sunday Feb 16th 1986 in Chapter Arts Centre Bar, Cardiff Meltdown first experimented with using a folk club format but blowing open its content to all forms of music and performance. This led to a quarter century of Meltdowns, including well over 1000 gigs, where the melting down of barriers rippled out into the South Wales folk, jazz, indie, rap, comedy, and circus scenes, got written into the DNA of Cardiff Summer Festivals, and helped spark the emergence of Cool Cymru.

Tonight is both a celebration of that legacy, a reunion for many involved and a 'proof of concept' in 2026 of how 'meltdowns' still create community, collaboration and creative connections. And it will help us mark 2026 with further events, share our Meltdown digital archive, and encourage others to learn the art of melting down! 🎉

Limited tickets so don’t prevaricate!

See you there.

On Sunday Feb 16th 1986, 40 years ago (!), Cardiff Meltdown took over Chapter Arts Centre Downstairs Bar, for the first of what was to turn into a quarter century of regular Cardiff gigs - over 1000 of them - plus spin off roadshows, several major Festival collaborations, and an album (3 stars in Q magazine).

It began by taking over from but keeping the special guest plus open stage format of a struggling folk night at Chapter Arts Centre. Meltdown’s radical idea was to throw open the content to all genres of music and performance, which from the outset drew in everything including jazz, punk, circus, comedy, folk, rap and crochet.

"We blew it open in terms of anyone else coming along – it could be a sixth form thrash metal band, it could be set of jugglers – we had a set of jugglers who went on to turn into No Fit State Circus. It could be folk musicians – Julie Murphy used to come along, even comedians like Rob Brydon, who was then part of the Cardiff Comedy Explosion, would come along wearing a fez!

“So it created a space which melted down barriers between different kinds of music and performance. That fundamental thing has been there ever since. It allowed established musicians to experiment, it was a place where new acts and musicians could start and a place where audiences could come and have to be ready for anything.” Paul Clarke talking to Dave Owens in 2006.

While it started at Chapter, with a parallel spin off in the Four Bars Inn, in 1990 it moved to Clwb Ifor Bach where, on and off, it spent much of the rest of its 25-year run. Its move had the side effect of creating a bridge between the Welsh and English language music scenes which Ceri, manager at the time, when interviewed by Rebecca Edwards for her Cool Cymru PhD, regarded as one of the key foundations of Cool Cymru.

Meltdown partnered with Cardiff Council in the 1990s to develop major city events like the Bay Fiesta, Hayes Alive and the the Big Weekend.

In its final years it held regular nights in a giant Yurt at the back of Milgis cafe on City Rd, and one off specials at the Globe. Even after its ending as a regular night in 2011, Meltdown's legendary triple decker Christmas Parties were resurrected. by Dan Nichols for several years before the pandemic.

During the pandemic a Meltdown archive project digitised a horde of music, images and memorabilia from its 25 year heyday/ Many thanks to Chris Walker, Rob Khoo, John Liepins etc for their help with that, and to Andy Roberts who encouraged us to create a 90 minute documentary of Meltdown's first decade )click link below).

https://radiocardiff.org/index.php/2024/01/26/meltdown-remembered/

On Wednesday 11th March at Tiny Rebel there'll be a the first of a series of celebration of Meltdowns 40th birthday year. More details soon.

The images below are all from the first three years of Meltdown.

On Sunday Feb 16th 1986, 40 years ago today(!), Cardiff Meltdown took over Chapter Arts Centre Downstairs Bar, for the first of what was to turn into a quarter century of regular Cardiff gigs - over 1000 of them - plus spin off roadshows, several major Festival collaborations, and an album (3 stars in Q magazine).

It began by taking over from but keeping the special guest plus open stage format of a struggling folk night at Chapter Arts Centre. Meltdown’s radical idea was to throw open the content to all genres of music and performance, which from the outset drew in everything including jazz, punk, circus, comedy, folk, rap and crochet.

"We blew it open in terms of anyone else coming along – it could be a sixth form thrash metal band, it could be set of jugglers – we had a set of jugglers who went on to turn into No Fit State Circus. It could be folk musicians – Julie Murphy used to come along, even comedians like Rob Brydon, who was then part of the Cardiff Comedy Explosion, would come along wearing a fez!

“So it created a space which melted down barriers between different kinds of music and performance. That fundamental thing has been there ever since. It allowed established musicians to experiment, it was a place where new acts and musicians could start and a place where audiences could come and have to be ready for anything.” Paul Clarke talking to Dave Owens in 2006.

While it started at Chapter, with a parallel spin off in the Four Bars Inn, in 1990 it moved to Clwb Ifor Bach where, on and off, it spent much of the rest of its 25-year run. Its move had the side effect of creating a bridge between the Welsh and English language music scenes which Ceri, manager at the time, when interviewed by Rebecca Edwards for her Cool Cymru PhD, regarded as one of the key foundations of Cool Cymru.

Meltdown partnered with Cardiff Council in the 1990s to develop major city events like the Bay Fiesta, Hayes Alive and the the Big Weekend.

In its final years it held regular nights in a giant Yurt at the back of Milgis cafe on City Rd, and one off specials at the Globe. Even after its ending as a regular night in 2011, Meltdown's legendary triple decker Christmas Parties were resurrected. by Dan Nichols for several years before the pandemic.

During the pandemic a Meltdown archive project digitised a horde of music, images and memorabilia from its 25 year heyday/ Many thanks to Chris Walker, Rob Khoo, John Liepins etc for their help with that, and to Andy Roberts who encouraged us to create a 90 minute documentary of Meltdown's first decade )click link below).

https://radiocardiff.org/index.php/2024/01/26/meltdown-remembered/

On Wednesday 11th March at Tiny Rebel there'll be a the first of a series of celebration of Meltdowns 40th birthday year. More details soon.

The images below are all from the first three years of Meltdown.

RIP Danny Thompson. I first witnessed his mesmerising double bass playing when he played the Cory Hall in Cardiff with Ralph McTell in the early 1970s. Recently, in an interview, Pino Palladino talked of that gig as a revelation that spurred him on to explore further, then dedicate his career, to playing bass.

Then in the first year of Cardiff Meltdown - 1986 - we booked MARA - a superb Australian genre busting folk/jazz/roots band fronted by the haunting vocals of Mara Kiek - for one of our first Chapter Arts Centre Theatre showcases, and to our delight discovered they'd be joined for their UK tour by Danny Thompson.

Not only did he and they play a storming gig that night, our local support acts played a blinder too, including a solo set from Welsh jazz guitar maestro Dylan Fowler. He and Mara's multi-instrumentalist (sax, flute, percussion) Jim Denley each were so dazzled by each others masterful and adventurous improvisation that we invited them back a few months later for an extraordinary one off collaboration - headlining another of our Chapter Theatre Meltdowns. By then Jim had joined Danny Thompson's own jazz outfit, the critically acclaimed 'Whatever', and shortly after Danny invited Dylan Fowler to join Whatever too. One of those many mycelial moments Meltdown carried on being a catalyst for in its subsequent 25 years.

With his insatiable musical curiousity and love of collaboration Danny Thompson continued to weave a web of interconnectivity across music and cultures through his long career, straddling jazz, folk, and a host of african, asian and other musical forms at a time when 'world music' became a playground of creative inter-cultural possibilities. And my abiding memory of that Meltdown night was of his friendly unassuming presence, curious about Meltdown and the support acts and the Cardiff scene, and then when he played, his melding seamlessly into the Mara sound - adding his sinuous basslines to enhance and anchor an already spectacular collaboration.

Oct 5th 1986 CHAPTER THEATRE: MARA (Aus) + America Morena (Chile) + Howling Howard & Den on spoons + Trashman Thomas & Steve + Paul Clarke & Ken Richman + Joe of 'Mouth to Mouth' comedy duo + The Song (aka Mally nd Wiggy) + Dylan Fowler

https://paulcourtneyclarke.substack.com/p/ec5485f7-69ef-4bd6-902f-a2c98558379b?postPreview=paid&updated=2025-03-04T00%3A24%3A27.515Z&audience=everyone&free_preview=false&freemail=true

paulcourtneyclarke.substack.com

The Sun Kings have just released a video for their glorious new single 'B-Sides and Rarities'. Love both the song and the video! And ashamed at selling off my awesome vinyl collection (the fruits of doing an MA in the music and language of Rock Song at Keele University) decades ago to fund my Cardiff to Bristol downsizing.

If ever there was a Meltdown in a band it's the Sun Kings. Both in the intoxicating range of genres and influences in their music, and also in their roots in the 25 years of Meltdown - from Railroad Bill in the late eighties Chapter years, through Wonderbrass every Xmas Meltdown in Clwb Ifor Bach in the Nineties through to Junior Bill in the Milgis Yurt in the 2000s.

B Sides and Rarities New Single by the Sun Kings on Country Mile Records(D Nichols/Sun Kings)LYRICS:Sometimes it's chance, sometimes selectionSome things don't fit with my collec...