Solved! Mystery of the Grangetown wolf
RESIDENTS of a Cardiff community can at last rest easy – the mystery of the Grangetown Wolf has finally been solved.
For a month since WalesOnline first ran a story warning of a “wolf” prowling the streets of Grangetown, the rumour mill has been running wild with sightings of the creature.
It all started on September 4, when a poster appeared with words to strike fear into the hearts of passers-by – a “large wolf” had been spotted in Grangetown. The poster was attached to a lamp post and included a snatched photograph, said to capture a dark, grainy image of a wolf-like creature that had been spotted “ripping up” bins.
It described the animal as having “grey fur, large head, jaw and ears”, not being on a leash and being “fast and aggressive if spotted”.
The poster also stated: “We don’t know where it’s come from. Possibly escaped from Bristol Zoo. Please ring them or the RSPCA if you spot it.”
Now, the mystery can finally be laid to rest, and we can confirm the “wolf” did in fact come from Bristol, but it wasn’t a terrifying creature with “grey fur, large head, jaw and ears” – it was Rob Nichols, the frontman of Cardiff band Junior Bill.
The student, who has recently graduated from BIMM Music College in Bristol, dreamt up this brilliant ruse and expertly executed it with the aid of his bandmates and manager Ed Townend. They put the posters together, perpetuated the myth and kept it going online – even going out under cover of darkness, skulking in the shadows playing wolf noises in the back alleys of Grangetown.
And it was all for a creative cause – to promote their new single There’s A Wolf In Grangetown.
Frontman Rob said: “It was a rumour around my secondary school Cathays High that I remember.
“It was something that I had heard a few times. The memory of it popped into my head about a year ago and I thought There’s A Wolf In Grangetown was a great title for a song. The song wrote itself. It came to me so naturally.”
Recording the song earlier this year, the band then sat down together and thought about how they could promote the track.
“I thought it would be a good to put these posters up,” recalls Rob. “I also had a few other tricks up my sleeve. So I thought if we do all that hopefully eventually it will get a bit of attention. But I had no idea that after five hours of the posters being put up around Grangetown that it would be all over Twitter, Facebook and local news.
He adds: “I went on Google and found a blurry image of something that might possibly be a wolf. I wanted it to look like a panicked local who didn’t know what to do had stuck the posters up.
“I wanted it to seem as real a thing as possible.”
The new single There’s A Wolf In Grangetown is out now.