Cardiacs

One mark of a truly great band is the ability to inspire overwhelming adoration. Very few bands really achieve it. But Cardiacs did. If you’re a fan, there is a very high likelihood that Cardiacs are your absolute favourite band of all. On the other hand, their wild, intricate and gleefully deranged music might also make others want to run screaming from the room. They were that kind of band.

Formed in 1977 (initially as Cardiac Arrest) and led by the unparalleled wonky genius of the late, great Tim Smith, Cardiacs were the ultimate underground band: zealously supported and loved by their hard-core fan base, and completely ignored by everyone else. The music press absolutely loathed them, but that didn’t stop Smith and his ragbag of eccentrics from building up a formidable reputation as a dazzling, life-affirming live band. Defying the notion that prog and punk were somehow incompatible, Cardiacs’ music sounded like everything happening at once. An often frenzied eruption of mad ideas and skewed time signatures, it always arrived over-endowed