Faithless, Chicane & Kosheen, Depot At The Castle, Cardiff Castle, 01.08.25
Oh how the other half live! We always try to cover the shows that come to Cardiff Castle and this year Blackweir Fields, while they aren't always in our remit so to speak, we're committed to the South Wales scene and if getting out to shows such as Slayer, Alanis Morrisette, Rock The Castle or this one, increases the visibility and viability of the South Wales scene then perhaps their will be investment into the grassroots venues.
Anyway enough of my manifesto, it was my wife who had asked for us to go to this one and as they're just about in our remit, well the opener and the headliner anyway, (if Classic Rock/Metal Hammer can cover Prodigy and Pendulum then I can cover this) it seemed like a great idea to head down to Cardiff Castle and throw some shapes.
Entering as per usual, stupidly early there was some great dance anthems coming out of the speakers played, on vinyl as DJ Ian Davies reminded us multiple times as the crowd poured in ready for the first act of the evening. With everyone in the right mood, the weather pretty much perfect the drinks flowing and the steak cooking (from the delicious Fire & Flank) the Welsh crowd made their way forward as we welcomed our local heroes.
Well semi local as Kosheen (9) are a band based in Bristol but singer Sian Evans has the Welsher roots than the trees surrounding us. It was Kosheen that brought us to the event, as they have a huge following in Greece, where Konstantina is from so she loved every minute of their set.
This was the first time she had seen them due to them only ever playing the big cities in Greece so the smile on her face was massive for the whole time as she sang along to the likes of Suicide, Hide U and Catch.
From an outside perspective (i.e. me) Kosheen turned out to be my favourite band of the evening too, they've got a real flavour of 90's alt rock along with the trip hop and EDM influences, especially live they rock a lot harder with Sian's powerhouse vocals and frantic performance a real highlight. A short blast but enough to keep the audience rivited as they were warmly embraced as local heroes.
If there's one thing I'd take away from this show is that I'd love to catch Kosheen again sometime.
Back to the night at hand and it was long tenured DJ, Chicane (7) up next dropping a plethora of chilled out, dance anthems you could easily expect to hear at a Mykonos beach bar. The songs played were often remixes, which made a for a fantastic game of spot the song with a few fellow music nerds.
There's was an EDM take on The Waterboys' Whole Of The Moon, a trancey version of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill and even one that features Clannad's Harry's Game. The crowd were being eased into dancing mode golden hour saw the sun set over the castle, the vibes were immaculate, a heaving mass of folks having a good time in the sunshine, the beats pounding through the P.A as the sky became dark.
With Chicane's 45 minutes up there was change over and we were finally ready for the headliners. If ever there was a British band who became a cult it's Faithless (8), for 3 decades they have been leading the charge in various dance genres of trip-hop, trance, house and electronic, the beats of Rollo and Sister Bliss combined with the lucid, baritone vocals of Maxi Jazz made for the soundtrack to the mid 90's and early 2000's.
Thier songs have been used in countless movies, TV shows and ads Faithless have become a real force in sociopolitical music, they've charted at No. 1 in numerous countries, headlined Glastonbury twice and were voted the 4th greatest dance band of all time by Mixmag.
However in recent years they have faced turmoil with the untimely death of Maxi Jazz leaving them without one the key elements in their sound. Still every show now is a tribute to him, the full live band (led by Sister Bliss) let's their music do the talking as the video images of Maxi Jazz fill the screen throughout their set.
The abundance of shirts in the audience was testament to their popularity so when the light went down and then sparked to life on deep red for opener Forever Free/Yeke Yeke (a Mory Kanté cover) there was huge cheer and the mass of fans between the stage and the sound desk started undulating in unison.
From here it was wall to wall big hitters as Salva Mea gave way to Insomnia, Synthesiser to God Is A DJ, Take The Long Way Home into We Come One, with many more besides. Each track was greeted like and old friend and while there was a glaring omission vocally of course, the band managed to be just as captivating as ever.
The emotional weight of the occasion felt by everyone as there was a collective catharsis but the time they dropped the encores of Music Matters and Thank You (their drum and bass version of a Dido song) it was all out there in the ether, band and fans joined through music in Wales capital.
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