Central Cardiff alehouse and music venue Dempseys is to close on Sun 12 Feb for a comprehensive redevelopment which will include a name change, refit and shift of focus. Its owners, local brewery Brains, have suggested it will reopen in early summer, still as a pub of some kind; rumours of a sports bar/restaurant combo and the ever-subjective ‘fine dining’ have also circulated. Either way, it appears that the upstairs function room – known as Four Bars, which was the name of the whole pub until a faux-Irish rebranding in the late 90s – is to host its last few gigs this month, calling time on a warmly-recalled history in which the Welsh jazz scene features especially strongly.
A stone’s throw away on Womanby Street, the two-floor Full Moon establishment is to downsize. Its upstairs space, the Moon Club, has been sold and will reopen in March as the Bootlegger – a venue whose focus is on blues and jazz, as well as cocktails and gin, and which already has an establishment in Bristol. Gigs which would have taken place upstairs will now be in the slightly smaller downstairs bar, the Full Moon, with the upstairs PA relocated for good measure. For reasons which aren’t quite clear, many people seem to think this amounts to the venue ceasing operations entirely; it might be worth considering that, had the Moon attempted to continue trading over two floors, that would have likely been its eventual fate.
Out in Pontardawe, another pub goes up for sale, namely the Ivy Bush – and again, its status as a sometime music venue isn’t enough to save its bacon. The Valley Folk Club has been resident there for the last 33 of its 49 years, currently serving up trad folk sessions three times each month with monthly out-of-town guest performers. At press time, the fate of the pub is unclear, but Valley Folk are staying put until further notice. However, booking secretary Huw Pudner is to step down, having booked guests until the summer; if you’re interested in taking up this role, email him on [email protected]
The fifth edition of Wales Goes Pop!, an annual indoor festival focusing on what some might describe as “real” indie, takes place from Fri 14-Sun 16 Apr at The Gate Arts Centre in Cardiff. A commendable, self-made success in an uneasy climate for independent ventures like this, 25 bands have been announced for 2017 so far. Fuzzy Glaswegian duo Honeyblood [pictured], gloopy psychedelicists Toy and Welsh indie-punkers Joanna Gruesome top the bill, with other notable names including BC Camplight, Fear Of Men and The Boy Least Likely To. Local acts will be healthily represented as ever, with confirmed names including Artefact, Van-illa and WGP! headgal Liz Hunt’s own band, The School.
The deeply pleasing return of David R Edwards, and his band Datblygu, to the fray of underground Welsh culture continues apace. Viewed by many as a postpunk poet, if you will – Datblygu’s most recent LP, 2015’s Porwr Trallord, is essentially a spoken word record – in April Edwards’ second book of poetry will be published. It’s titled Dave Datblygu’s Search In English For The House Of Tolerance, and as per the name is his first work of substance not written in Welsh. Featuring 35 poems, it’s packaged with a CD on which Edwards reads his verse over music by Ash Cooke (aka Pulco), who’s publishing this through his Recordiau Prin imprint.