Five up and coming student bands in Cardiff that you’ll want to know about

We are in the UK’s first music city after all

12 months ago

Over the last decade, there have been many successful bands formed through universities in Cardiff. Los Campesinos! and Ofnus, to name a few. So it’s more important than ever to support your local student bands and artists by going to their gigs, you never know who’s going to become the next Stereophonics.

The Live Music Society at Cardiff Uni holds an open mic night every Tuesday in Gassy’s where a lot of these bands play, so if you like what you see, we’ll see you on Tuesday.

Reckless Disposition

Starting as regular jam sessions in 2020, Reckless Disposition fully established themselves in 2021 when they began performing in front of crowds. The band describes themself as hard-rock and has a wide range of bands influencing their music, including: Alter Bridge, System of a Down, Alice in Chains, and Mastodon. A perfect band to listen to if you enjoy a heavier sound.

Whilst being students at Cardiff University, they have built relationships with venues such as Fuel Rock Club, where they often play gigs at. They also enjoy the open mic at Gassy’s every so often. Reckless Disposition currently has three original songs which are planned to be released by February, they are currently also in the process of recording one of them. Their sets contain a solid mix of original songs and covers, so it’s fun to see which songs you might recognise.

Something About Dinosaurs

Image taken by Adam Witheridge (@dippersyum)

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Something About Dinosaurs was created by Alister as a solo project in 2021 with support from his singing teacher, Tom. After a year, the band was made in hopes of playing in Cardiff University’s Live Music Society’s “Battle of The Bands”. Finding members from Halloween parties, open mic nights and through friends, their different musical backgrounds make Something About Dinosaurs stand out amongst many other bands.

The band often plays original songs during their sets and currently has two released which are available on all platforms. Their most recent song, Silly Me, was released in early November and there’s even music video for it on their Instagram page. They highly recommend I Don’t Think I’ll See You Again as a great song for first-time listeners.

Recently playing at The Moon, the band play all around the city centre, including open mic nights at Gassy’s, Tiny Rebel, Fuel and The Globe. The band’s current favourite memory of performing has been during a Halloween gig whereby they were given, perhaps too many, £1 drink vouchers.

Casus Belli

Image taken by Matt Cross Photography

The newest and heaviest band to be discussed in this article, Casus Belli formed around late September and is made up of Cardiff University students as well as a University of South Wales student. They knew each other through the Live Music Society and had built a friendship from their similar music tastes, it wasn’t until this year that they got the chance to form a band. Their influence comes from Metallica, Foo Fighters and Alice in Chains, performing plenty of metal and grunge music.

As the band is newly formed, they are currently focusing on their covers but still have a few original songs in the works that they recently played at their gig in The Moon. At the moment, they are hoping to organise some gigs at Tiny Rebel, Fuel and even Cardiff University’s Student Union.

The Poached

The Poached is a rock band that formed in October last year, comprised of all Cardiff University students. Their singer, Dara, and lead guitarist, Aiden, had lived together during first year and often played at open mics for fun. After being invited to play at a Halloween gig by the Live Music Society, they decided to form a full band for it by “poaching” members from other bands. This was a great success for the band and now they enjoy writing music and playing gigs together – even selling out at venues such as Tiny Rebel.

They currently have a solid set of original songs which will be released early next year, but if you can’t wait that long, they already play a handful at their gigs. The Poached have already played at several different venues across Cardiff, from Fuel and The Moon, to The Great Hall and Y Plas so it’s likely you’ll catch them somewhere.

The band has made plenty of memorable moments over the last year, including crowds of 90 people waving their phone torches at them performing, wearing thrifted granny dresses to their sets, or most notably when their drummer threw his stick into the crowd, only for it to hit someone in the head.

Ground Control

Image taken by @zachasphotos

Ground Control describe themself as a Trip Hop band which is a fusion of hip hop, electronica and acid jazz. The band formed just before Summer and their members are students from all different universities, such as Cardiff University, Cardiff Met and those on placement in Cardiff. Rosa and Matty created Ground Control as they wanted something more aligned to their music tastes, after being in a previous band together. They found their other members, Vlad, Kate and Em, through various different scenarios. For example, they met Vlad at a jazz bar in Vienna and Em “off the street”.

They currently play a mix of covers and originals and take inspiration from Massive Attack, Portishead, Morcheeba and Luscious Jackson. For now, you can catch this band at the open mic nights at Gassy’s which are hosted by the Live Music Society every Tuesday, whilst they organise some official gigs.