City’s musical heritage brought back to life by librarian’s online archive
ONE man from Cardiff has taken it upon himself to create a wonderful archive of the city’s rich musical heritage.
In just a few months librarian David Taylor has amassed thousands of followers for his Cardiff Music History Facebook page.
In doing so he has started to build a hugely impressive collection of posters, pictures, tickets and music from rock ’n’ roll stars, forgotten names and unsung heroes who have all contributed to the city’s music history through the decades.
The page has seen some incredible contributions so far featuring huge names such as The Beach Boys, The Who and The Clash at much-loved venues of yesteryear like The Capitol Theatre, Top Rank and Sophia Gardens.
The Facebook page describes itself as: “Documenting the music history of Cardiff. From legendary gigs, long forgotten Cardiff bands to venues and club nights that are long gone.”
The page emerged a couple of months ago.
David said: “One Sunday I was digging around on YouTube and the internet for Cardiff stuff and kept finding some really good things and on a whim decided to put it all together on a page.
“When I was searching I would search for ‘Cardiff Top Rank’ or ‘Cardiff Sophia Gardens,’ and I very quick found stuff like Pink Floyd with Black Sabbath supporting them at Sophia Gardens in 1970. I thought it was amazing the sort of stuff I was finding, so I thought I should start a page. It was done more on a whim than anything else.”
The music archivist said he has been taken aback by the reaction to the page.
“It’s really nice hosting stuff and chatting to people who attended the shows or remember the bands,” he said. “It’s lovely getting this stuff because there’s so much enthusiasm out there for the archive.
“There are so many brilliant stories that need telling, like all-girl group The Fabs who were amazing and perversely big in Mexico, ’60s singer Tawny Reed who was signed to Pye Records who sadly died aged 39 and a lovers rock group from Butetown called Denym who had a brilliant single out in the 80s that is hugely collectible. These are the sorts of stories that fascinate me.”
In addition to building the archive, David has now begun creating a timeline of Cardiff shows through the decades.
“It’s been compiled through painstaking searching through the internet,” he laughed. “I’ve also been sent gig listings and flyers from club shows in the city sent to me by those who have started to follow the Facebook page.
“There are certain websites where there is a lot of that sort of information available and then I’ve been sent flyers for places like The Square Club in Cardiff, which have been brilliant, especially when you see some of the names who played there back in the late ’80s, early ’90s like My Bloody Valentine and Spiritualized.”
For David, 43, music has always been a hobby of his.
“I was a promoter for a few years putting on gigs in Cardiff under the name Set It Off putting on punk and ska gigs at Clwb Ifor Bach and the Barfly,” he said. “I put on lots of skate punk shows and bills