Cardiacs: Classic or Dud?

There's a Rock Sounds mention this week (thanks to Sean Organ), and a couple or articles in The Organ 'zine - www.organart.com

Always check out WWW.CARDIACS.COM for info!

I've had the Greatest Hits on constant play since I got it. What an album! I've only had Guns, Sing to God and the Sampler up till now, so most of the old stuff is new to me. Affectionate Friends ain't bad either.

xini

BTW if you get the chance go see Bill Drake, he has an album forthcoming, and there's a CD-single out produced by Tim Smith (Cardiacs).

A fan!

Result!

DL... If you've just heard 'Guns', wait till you hear 'A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window'... give us an email if you have difficulty getting stuff.

08/12/04: London - Astoria
09/12/04: Manchester - MDH (Uni)
10/12/04: Glasgow - Garage
11/12/04: Sheffield - Leadmill
13/12/04: Cambridge - Junction
14/12/04: Bristol - Anson Rooms
15/12/04: Wolverhampton - Wulfrun Hall

Did anyone see them at the Astoria on 12th Nov? What happened?

Say WHAT? What a fuckin' double-bill!!!!!

I expect indifference followed by swift irritation followed speedily by violence.

For you lucky bastards that live in London, Cardiacs will be playing TWO SPECIAL SECRET CONCERTS at The Bull and Gate in Kentish Town, London on the 21st and 22nd of December.

Take some time to appreciate the lyrical genius of the man... A song about an insect landing on a TV screen and falling in love with Lassie (who was a he-dog). A song about when you used to play with your food on the plate because it was too scary. All with random letters inserted into words ("indside") and resurrection of beautiful archaic terms like "phiz" and "foundling". And utterly no respect for the rules of metre. You could write a doctoral thesis on it.

It shouldn't be about whether you boo or hurrah Cardiacs, by the way. Just take it as a fact that Cardiacs are a truly independent musical/lyrical universe in itself. For that is undeniable fact.

Let's fly hawks around your house :-)

The Astoria gig last December was, I think, my 20th and I’m looking forward to the next 20. A new album would be nice though – Guns was SEVEN years ago! And I wonder when these promised DVDs will come out…?

One more thing - my girlfriend’s sister is one of the uninitiated and wants to hear what Cardiacs sound like – is there one song I could play her which will get them across? I was thinking ‘Fiery Gun Hand’.

Tim Smith is on tour supporting Ginger And The Sonic Circus at the moment. I was dead keen to go to the london date, except tickets are something like £15 plus booking fee and considering I have no interest in seeing the headline act, it would be a bit of a waste of money. Sigh.

Seven years is just silly. I wonder how many times they've recorded/scrapped the new album now? I imagine it's like Lee Mavers and The La's - they just keep redoing it over and over again and are never satisfied with the result.

theres genuinely something very humanly touching about the fact that this was finished and is every bit as good as Tim himself would've done. it really is exactly the album I was hoping would drop in 2008 and make people pay attention

https://kiyimuzik.com/cardiacs-interview-where-tim-is-hes-up-front/

wait, what???

Here is a question asked by a friend: Is LSD the grand finale, or is there more stuff coming out in the future?

No, it’s not the final album. I think we have got two more albums, which we will start soon. It’s not the end of the road. So you can look forward to seeing us all on mobility scooters or wheelchairs on stage. (laughs)

the Vennert band played its first live show and it sounds like it was fookin amazing

I'm going tomorrow, with a heavy heart and enormous misgivings

Had tickets for this evening but had to cancel as I have a poorly kitty to take care of, would have been my first Cardiacs gig in something like 25 years.

Ooops tomorrow evening

I seen them last night in Glasgow and it was really good, I assumed I would know all the songs but was surprised by how much I didn't recognize, I guess some of it really just sounds that different live.

Kind of embarrassed how little I knew about the current lineup, I thought the Saxophone player was Sarah but it's someone else (I seen two women in the band last night but there's 3 women in the current band photo). I think I've got every Tim Smith written studio album now but there's still EPs and singles and the wider family. Very daunting.

Looking for more stuff Sarah sings on because I really love her voice and I wish there was much more.

the Vennert band played its first live show and it sounds like it was fookin amazing

― frogbs, Tuesday, 10 March 2026 04:05 (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

It was

Imago, what did you think?

I have only watched two of the gigs on YT, I feel Sharron is a little underused; she has such an amazing voice, and my friends said she was very low in the foh mix.

Singing is still a sticking point for me, I feel the STT gigs were let down by some poor choices, but I get that a communal feeling was what drove those concerts, but only Jon Poole carried it off well.

Mike is good a lot of the time, (and he's a great frontman), at his best when singing vocal melodies that he did on the record, but songs like Fiery Gun Hand, he takes this odd middle path, they could have handed it to Sharron, who would have knocked it out of the park.

I don't have much useful to say about the show other than it was an excellent and quite emotional night and there wasn't anything to even nitpick with. It was a fully-formed show for sure, Mike was fantastic.

There was a chance I was gonna have to move outside or leave after Fiery Gun Hand because I fell abruptly sick and the hot air wasn't allowing me any useful breathing so I had to squat for a moment. Shoutout to the man next to me who appeared with some water from out of nowhere I thought it would only help for a short while but it genuinely saved the night.

It's a little odd (not in a bad way) to me that they're playing ArcTanGent, i.e. a crowd beyond the faithful. I mean sure, go for it fellas. I feel like for Jim especially it's joyous to be on stage again playing the catalogue so it's a moment to make the most of. Hope they go down really well.

I thought I read about some Primavera or adjacent gig in the summer, too. So I'm hoping there might be a return later in the year, and I might actually be able to see them, it's been so long. But it must be so difficult to corral all these musicians. I wonder whose job that is.

I was kind of underwhelmed, then suddenly they became absolutely incredible for Signs/Burn/Everso. Weird experience, on balance glad they're back. But bring on Bloom :P

There were some annoying sound issues at Brixton which made it a bit of a frustrating experience - drums/bass way too loud and Kavus's guitar almost inaudible. It improved in the latter half of the gig so hopefully these technical issues will be ironed out at future shows - these seem to have gone down very well so that practically guarantees there will be more.

This channel has uploaded very good quality recording of the entire Portsmouth gig. Never thought in a million years I'd ever hear them do "Hymn" live again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STiW1xHybGM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ttHCrgfx3E

Was at the Manchester Albert Hall gig with my best friend of over 40 years, sharing a devotion to Cardiacs since our teenage years. Very different delivery and sound to the STT tour, but the line-up and Mike Vennart definitely worked for the heavier late era and new material. I expected an emotional evening, so Jim at centre stage, Kavus playing Tim's green Westone guitar, Hymn and the finale with portrait of Tim held aloft certainly delivered.

There was a real standout moment when Mike shot off stage during the encores then appeared on the circle to sing Whole World Window with support from the whole crowd; my pal projects a stone-faced exterior but grabbed me and said "I love you, mate". The power of music :)

Aw <3