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Armed with matching black and white Gretsch Falcon acoustics, Miles Hunt arrived at The Gate on the penultimate night of his acoustic tour with two extra companions: cough sweets and a box of tissues. A tour cold might have derailed a lesser storyteller, but Hunt simply folded it into the evening’s loose, conversational charm.

The format – two sets of songs and monologues – suits the 59-year-old frontman of The Wonder Stuff, even if, as he admitted, his younger self would have hated him for it. Opening with Everything Is Not Okay and Room 512 (I’m Ready), Hunt quickly established that this was less a greatest hits run-through than a career rummage through memory and mischief. His voice remained strong throughout, despite his cold.

Maybe came with a vivid recollection of being in Monmouthshire’s Rockfield Studios circa late 1989, when Wonder Stuff bassist Rob Jones told the band he was leaving. Another story, about sharing a house with Jones and Clint Mansell – plus a vicious hamster called Iggy, inexplicably affectionate only to the vegetarian Jones – was classic Hunt: funny, affectionate, and edged with loss.

The first set balanced Stuffies favourites like the youthful exuberance of Unbearable and Ruby Horse with the more mature On The Ropes and solo-era reflection via Things Can Change. After the interval, Caught In My Shadow and Circlesquare showed how well the songs survive when stripped right back; others became communal, with the audience adding singalong guitar solos and vocals at Miles’ request.

The funniest detour concerned a flat tyre on the way to a San Francisco gig, involving Wayne Hussey of The Mission and a Bay Area character called Graham. For one of these reviewers, who first saw The Wonder Stuff supporting The Mission in Germany in their heyday, that anecdote brought back memories of the 90s.

After the country twang of Golden Green, audience requests completed the setlist, including finalé Give, Give, Give Me More, More, More – with the proviso that there would be no encore, despite the title. By then, The Gate felt less like a venue than a front room full of old friends. Hunt may have been nursing a cold, but his songs and stories were in rude health.

Miles Hunt, The Gate Arts Centre, Cardiff, Fri 24 Apr

words KARL ELLIS & ALI ELLIS photos KARL ELLIS

Banksy podcaster Peak added: “It’s really clever. It captures a very precise moment in time, which most statues never manage to do, where the flag’s kind of blinding this puffed up, besuited leader who’s about to step off a precipice and look very silly indeed.

The launch of the Aberteifi Live project at Cardigan’s Small World Theatre saw floorfilling post-trad sextet Pons Aelius delivering delectable folk dance tunes and infectious bonhomie. Julia Deli was on the spot for it.

Pons Aeliusmet in Newcastle in 2011, through the local folk circuit and student houseshares, and for the last 10 years have played UK and European festivals, becoming award-winners at Celtic Connections. The passion of Jordan Aikin (bagpipes, pipes, fiddle), Sam Partridge (flutes), Tom Kimber (tenor banjo, mandolin), Callum Younger (the “all-human rhythm section”), Alasdair Paul (guitars, bouzouki) and Bevan Morris (double bass) – to write folk that sounds ancient, and contemporise old tunes – has so far yielded two albums, with a third on the way.

Named in reference to Aelian’s Bridge, the Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall, tonight’s show in Cardigan is their Welsh debut. With a huge skirl of bagpipes, we’re launched into a set of Scottish jigs and reels from their repertoire, where tricksy banjo and ecstatic flute twirl in a fling to heavy, bodhran/drumkit breaks from Younger.

The Irish folk-themed Captain Glen’s Comfort begins in sweet trad vein – each instrument playing its own solo variation within the piece, Partridge teasing “It’s lovely to pour the Captain’s cocktail into your ears!” – and Rafa’s, dedicated to onetime Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez, is a set of jigs that starts with gentle melodies on banjo, penny whistle and flute, revved up into hyperdrive with bass along the way.

A new tune by Paul and Kimber marries Irish and Balkan pulses, all played on the highest register of each instrument, until circle dance-like progressions develop. The composition grows though spooky, jazzy notes until the theme is taken up full force by Aikin’s bagpipes and a frenzy of percussion from Younger.

The interval allows a breather, and a chance to enthuse about the wildness that had just washed over us. Diane Newman, a gardener from Abercych, says “I’m all about the folk, and Small World Theatre is such a special place to host folk music in. I’m blown away by these guys – each of them is so talented. And the speed of Jordan’s finger work on the pipes!”

Made up of four venues – Theatr Mwldan, Small World Theatre, the Cellar and Flach Cymunedol – the Aberteifi Live collective promotes the arts “to enhance the cultural fabric” of the town. Small World Theatre is active in eco-projects, supporting the mental health of young people through their Amethyst project as well as aerial skills with Syrcas Byd Bach – and called upon across Wales for their giant puppets of Bran Fendigaid and other Welsh folk heroes. In September, they’ll be part of Fishguard’s celebrations of the filming 70 years ago of harbour scenes in Moby Dick, making a giant whale lantern to be lit from within.

Time for part two, then, and a lilting new Pons Aeliuspiece penned by Aikin, evocative of his favourite Tyneside walk. Drawn in further by a set of tunes based on Irish jig Sergeant Cahill’s Favourite, complex harmonies fold smoothly over each other like poured toffee, and it’s impossible to find either the beginnings or ends of the well-tuned phrases. 

Partridge notes, “We’ve brought our folk traditions with us from all over the UK – the north-east, the Westcountry and west Highlands, the Peak District,” and now they bring central France to our shores, with a marchoise – a lively, self-penned step dance with medieval chord structures and hypnotic beats. While in The 321, tenor instruments spiral upwards as the bass ones get progressively lower by a semitone at each trancey repetition; legs are kicked to moments of 9/8 rhythm and bouzouki breakouts, the band thanking us for “dusting off [our] boots”.

Intimate reflections on a folk song from New Zealand precedes audience participation in the virtuosic harmonies of Interlude, and nifty footwork is magnetised out of us to the linked, self-authored reels of Fire Under The Bridge, from Pons Aelius’ 2019 album of that title. Finally, banjo and bouzouki duel through an encore of trad Irish tunes dismantled in Molly And Jimmy’s, with counterpoint melodies and frequencies that demand you dance the new waveform out.

After the gig, Tom Kimber tells me: “We started out as mates, who used to bring tunes and things we’d come up with ourselves to jams. Then stuff just sort of happened and our style came together. I grew up in Bath, where there was a good folk scene, and my parents would take us to folk festivals and gigs. Some people in the band have parents who are professional musicians; Alasdair was involved in local pipe bands, like Jordan. In Scotland, you’re taught folk music in school – I’ve always been quite jealous of that.”

“After all these years playing together, we’re able to consider ourselves employed in music, which is a great thing,” says Alasdair Paul. “We find ourselves in beautiful venues like this one, discovering Cardigan, and Wales, and its folk audience and traditions. And so we keep evolving. Nothing beats playing live and making people dance.”

Pons Aelius’ nonstop reeling and whooping is indeed an excellent remedy against what ails us. Let’s hope they’re back again in Wales very soon.

Pons Aelius, Small World Theatre, Cardigan, Fri 24 Apr

words JULIA DELI photos SAM VICARY

Westcountry folk-rocker Gabrielle Aplin got her commercial break on a John Lewis ad, but used the moment to hone her songcraft and find her voice. Now she’s marking the reissue of her 2013 debut album with a tour, and looking back with Emma Way.

It’s winter 2012, and the latest John Lewis advert airs during The X Factor’sad break. That year’s campaign featured a cover of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s The Power Of Love, performed by a 20-year-old Gabrielle Aplin. The singer-songwriter’s debut album English Rain followed in 2013, showcasing Aplin’s knack for sophisticated, heartfelt folk-pop songcraft.

This spring, English Rain’s vinyl reissue is being marked with a European tour, which includes a Cardiff date in May. With her debut centred on themes of home and human connection, Aplin never expected her music to resonate on a global scale.

“I didn’t realise how much it had changed my life at the time, I suppose because it just happened so quickly,” she says, reflecting on the impact of English Rain. “I’d never travelled before this album, and it took me to parts of the world that I never in my wildest dreams imagined I’d be able to go to. When I think back to that time, I think of Japan, I think of Australia, I think of the people there who are listening to these songs I wrote in my childhood bedroom. I’m meeting these people, and we’re communicating through a translator.” 

Another song from this era, Start Again, was written for the last series of Bristol-set cult teen drama Skins; never formally released until this year, it’s now a bonus track on English Rain. “That was for hardcore fans! They really care. Wherever Skins fans and my fans crossed over, that song lived. I grew up watching Skins – my family are from in and around Bristol, and we all watched it. When they did the final three episodes with the original characters, and they asked me, it felt like a big deal for me personally.”

Aplin moved to Somerset in 2020, and gives the impression of favouring a slower-paced life. Now 33 years old, she’s been advocating for animal rights and veganism for a decade or so: she currently keeps dogs, sheep, chickens and ducks, having adopted bottle-fed orphaned lambs from a local farmer friend. Of the exchange, she tells me, “We have very different views on things, but I think that’s a big thing about living somewhere like here – the farming community – and having to learn to get along with everyone, even if they don’t think the same as you.

“I really am very grateful for my time in London. I always tried to make [living between] there and the southwest work for me, but it got to the point where I realised it was never going to, not because it was bad in any way. I just want to create a world where I can go on tour, make music, and then still look after my animals.” After speaking to Buzz today, she’ll be ripping out a kitchen in her farmhouse.

Aplin’s last album, 2023’s Phosphorescent, was recorded in the countryside with Mike Spencer, who also produced English Rain. “I like to keep my team small, even if I do enjoy trying new things. I’m going up to this place with these people who have known me since I was a teenager, and they feel like family, and it makes it so comfortable that there are no bad ideas. It’s a completely safe space.”

In a similar vein of understanding what shapes creativity, Aplin was diagnosed with ADHD in 2017, something that helped her view her brain in a completely new light. Did she, with this hindsight, notice those parts of herself in her earliest songs?

“At the time, I was writing these songs about home when there was so much change happening, and I didn’t realise how different that change was. There are good changes, but differences are scary when your brain is wired that way. I was writing a lot about how things feel uncomfortable and scary, but maybe they’ll be fine in the end.”

Things have turned out more than fine for Gabrielle Aplin, including a spring tour which has already sold out some of its dates weeks in advance. “I regularly get messages from people who were teenagers [when English Rain came out], and now they’re coming to the show because they’re old enough.” She even takes a moment to speak to one of those fans during this interview.

Gabrielle Aplin, Tramshed, Cardiff, Mon 11 May

Tickets: £25. Info: here

words EMMA WAY