LLAIS festival have announced a second wave of artists and performers for their events at Cardiff’s Wales Millenium Centre between 9th to the 13th of Oct 2024. They include SQUID, Geordie Greep(Black Midi), Georgia Ruth, The Staves, Lisa O’Neill, Porridge Radio, Fabiana Palladino, Bombino, Sahra Halgan and more.
This year, LLAIS is also part of CARDIFF MUSIC CITY FESTIVAL (27 Sept – 20 Oct 2024), a three-week cultural and musical extravaganza supported by the Welsh Government and Cardiff Council.
GRAEME FARROW, Chief Content and Creative Officer, Wales Millennium Centre says: “This Autumn, the Wales Millennium Centre will light up Cardiff Bay like a living jukebox – a dream playlist mixing traditions, genres and geographies – celebrating difference while uniting a wild array of voices from across the planet. The second wave of confirmed acts reveals a shimmering constellation of voices spoken and sung – from voices of prayer and protest to heavenly harmonies and howls of a complex world. We invite you to explore, to draw the lines and plot your journey between them all.”
10 OCT – SQUID + GEORDIE GREEP (BLACK MIDI); GINA WILLIAMS & GUY GHOUSE; GEORGIA RUTH; LOCK OFF
11 OCT – ‘IF I COULD ONLY REMEMBER MY NAME’: THE MUSIC OF DAVID CROSBY with MIKE SCOTT, LIAM Ó MAONLAÍ, THE STAVES and KRIS DREVER
11 OCT – LISA O’NEILL, THE BREATH, PORRIDGE RADIO, BOMBINO, BLACKSABBATHMODE, LOCK OFF
12 OCT – FABIANA PALLADINO, ROGUE JONES, JOE BOYD: ‘AND THE ROOTS OF RHYTHM REMAIN – A JOURNEY THROUGH GLOBAL MUSIC’ (BEFORE MYSTERE DES VOIX BULGARES)
13 OCT – FANTASTIC RACKET: A SHOWCASE OF ICONIC (+ ICONOCLASTIC) VOICES FROM ACROSS MUSIC, BOOKS, ART + BEYOND
PLEASE SEE FULL PROGRAMME HERE.The programme has been designed with exploration in mind, therefore festival goers can buy tickets for two shows and receive 10% off their order or 15% off when they buy tickets to three or more events.
Adding to a line-up that embraces American gospel soul legends SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK and a choral tradition invented in the Soviet era with LE MYSTERE DES VOIX BULGARES, LLAIS is a festival where audiences can rock out to Somali freedom fighter Sahra Halgan, get lost in Ganavya’s carnatic incantations and tune in to the voice of a land and its people with GWEN SIÔN’s experimental opus ‘Llwch a Llechi’ (Dust & Slate).
From a celebration of the cosmic Americana echoing still out of Laurel Canyon with the first-ever live performance of David Crosby‘s ‘lost’ masterpiece ‘IF I COULD ONLY REMEMBER MY NAME’ to a gloriously eccentric night of spoken word and song with Holly Mcnish, Irvine Welsh, Russell Tovey and a array of friends via the genre-bending musical syntax of SQUID and Gegodie Greep, LLAIS invites audiences into an array of sounds this October.
LLAIS gets off to an explosive start with a double bill featuring two of the UK’s most incendiary musical forces. Bristol five-piece SQUID channels a complex world of modern anxieties and foreboding futures through a distinctly English lens. While drawing on a dizzying array of influences, subject matters veer from domestic mundanity to standing stones and outer space. Keeping up the urgent intensity is one Geodie Greep, lead singer of the fabled black midi renowned for baroque maelstroms and orchestrated mayhem with the first performance of his upcoming album on Rough Trade. Making their name as powerhouse legends of the UK DIY scene, Brighton five-piece Porrdie Radio are of the most talked about bands of the moment.
‘IF I COULD ONLY REMEMBER MY NAME’ sees The Waterboy’s lead singer Mike Scott, the soulful pipes of Hothouse Flowers’ Liam O Maolai, Lau’s Kris Drever and the heavenly harmonies of The Staves celebrate the musical genius of the late David Crosby. Accompanied by a crack band led by revered MD Kate St John, this premier for LLAIS will be the first-ever live performance of David Crosby’s ‘lost’ solo 1971 masterpiece recorded with Laurel Canyon friends and accomplices Joni Mitchell, Jerry Garcia and Neil Young. This very special performance will be accompanied by a selection of Crosby’s music with the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
FANTASTIC RACKET: A SHOWCASE OF ICONIC (+ ICONOCLASTIC) VOICES FROM ACROSS MUSIC, BOOKS, ART + BEYOND
In the words of Hollie Mcnish, the fearless spoken word artist described variously as “an essential voice for our times” (Musa Okwonga) and, by Lemn Sissay, as “Pam Ayres on acid”: “To close Llais, we’ve conjured a one-off (never to be repeated) whirlwind of fierce and fantabulous voices. Fantastic Racket is a series of unique performances from a phenomenal collective of best-selling writers, chart-topping musicians, cult champions, social media starlets, arts provocateurs, hip-hop supremos, poetic troubadours and the curious realms in-between. Coming to the stage will be the likes of: Lady Leshurr, Sara Pascoe, Irvine Welsh, Charlotte Church, Emma Dabiri, Hollie Mcnish, Nadine Shah, Callum Easter, Jackie Kay, Carys Eleri, Joelle Taylor, Russell Tovery and Norman Blake(Teenage Fanclub) – plus short films by David Shrigley and hosting words from Micahel Pedersen. Think glitzy closing gala meets kooky variety show. Think avant-garde sound-chamber meets electric seaweed ceilidh. Think literary jukebox meets musical stramash. Label aside, it’ll be a night of nonstop sublimeness.”
Adding to a line-up that already includes the singular talent of JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN, LLAIS sees a long-awaited performance by another original pop voice, Fabiana Palladino. While a long time coming, her debut album of “sublime 80s pop innovation” (The Guardian) was worth wait from the prodigiously talented daughter of Cardiff-born session legend Pino Palladino.
LLAIS takes audiences on sonic journeys across real and imagined landscapes – from GWEN SIÔN’s mountain opus ‘Llwch a Llechi’ which mixes field recordings with homemade electronica instruments made of slate and wood with a quarry choir to Blacksabbathmode which sees nu-jazz duo BIG HEAD MODE (ROBBIE and EWAN MOORE) and multi-instrumentalist Plumm combine jazz, electronica and improv to capture the dark essence of heavy metal progenitors Black Sabbath with unique arrangements of tracks including ‘Paranoid’, ‘War Pigs’, and ‘Fairies Wear Boots’. Reading from his newly published book ‘AND THE ROOTS OF RHYTHM REMAIN: A JOURNEY THROUGH GLOBAL MUSIC’, as one of the music industry leaders who coined the now controversial term world music, Joe Boyd channels a personal odyssey through the music he helped popularise including LE MYSTERE DES VOIX BULGARES who he will introduce.
One of the most acclaimed songwriters of recent years, Lisa O’Neill is a true raconteur whose poetic voice is steeped in the cadence of her native County Cavan. Feted by everyone from Cillian Murphy (her song ‘Blackbird’ features on the Peaky Blinders soundtrack) and Margot Robbie to the New York Times who called her a “cultural hero and modern artist tapped into the ancient”, O’Neill’s highly acclaimed release All of This Is Chance featured on many album of the year lists in 2023.
LLAIS is blessed with voices to transport the weariest of souls from GANAVYA’s carnatic incantations to the sublime Sean-nós singing of IARLA O LIONAIRD. The Breath features the matchless singing and storytelling warmth of Riognach Connolly whose voice – described by The Guardian “as tender as the grasp of a child’s hand” – is teamed with the virtuosic guitar of Stuart McCallum. “Stuart is the yin to my yang,” says the BBC Folk Singer of the Year, her north of Ireland accent un-tempered by two decades of Manchester living.
Like the icon of Somali independence SAHRA HALGAN, who makes her Welsh debut at the festival, Bombino forged his craft during a time of political upheaval. Born into a nomadic Tuareg encampment in Niger, before fleeing with his family to Algeria, Bombinotaught himself guitar by watching videos of his heroes Jimi Hendrix, Ali Farka Toure and Tinariwen. Creator of new genre ‘Tuareggae’ – a blend of Tuareg guitar with reggae rhythm – Bombino was the first-ever artist from Niger to receive a Grammy nomination.
LLAIS presents some of the genre-diverse acts that characterise a currently golden era of Welsh rock and pop. Joining a brace of WELSH MUSIC PRIZE winners, experimental bi-lingual outfit Rogue Jones return to Wales Millennium Centre to perform their album ‘Dos Bebés’ in its entirety. For their first Cardiff gig since 2017, audiences can expect special guests and additional voices to help bring their songs and stories about UFOs, computer science, witchcraft and Welsh independence to life. Aberystwyth-based Georgia Ruth performs in the Hoddinott Hall following the release of Cool Head – a thoroughly Welsh affair recorded at Sain studios and featuring Iwan Huws (Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog), Stephen Black (Sweet Baboo) and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci stalwart Euros Childs.
Australian duo Gina Williams & Guy Ghouse mix guitar brilliance and incandescent vocal harmonies sung in the Noongar language, spoken by only 400 people who live in a remote corner of Western Australia. Speaking about their latest work ‘Wundig wer Wilura’, commissioned by West Australian Opera, Gina said: “We couldn’t be more excited to premier our latest work in Cardiff, the city that inspired us to pursue music as a pathway to the revival of our language.”
Returning to LLAIS, LOCK OFF is a one-of-a-kind event created by young people for young people. Mentored by industry professionals, talented young minds take charge, curating, booking and presenting an epic night of rising MOBO talent.
