South Wales: U

UHT – Powys based band, feat; Mark Woosnam (later of Crash .45), (ex This Bizarre Myth, Wedding Singers, MMAS).

Underpass – break beats Cardiff outfit formed 1999 (originally known as Mainline, until 2003), feat. Lee Mainline (prog,keys) (now of Transposer) with D.J. Parker (turntables) (1999-2001) and occasionally feat. Al Nameless (voc) and MC Catsup (voc). Remix of Nameless‘ Drinking Hell Dry. Has played to hundreds of people at opening of One Live in Cardiff, Parker was often seen to answer mobile phone on stage. Constantly amazes and bemuses people by not having any guitars at all. Good buddies of Cardiff rock lunatics Nameless, and will always be found down the front leading the dancing. Mainline has also featured twice as “ones to watch” on Session in Wales website. As well as playing with local reprobates such as Rocket Goldstar, Nameless, Transposer, Headtest has supported Mercury Rev side project Hopewell and Steve Hellier from Death in Vegas. Rel, Glitch ep, Transmission ep, and a forthcoming (May ’03) mini-album “Hz” on Mortified Records (website)

Unreal Things – early name (during 90s) for Shemko

URDA – Organisation made up of South Wales Musicians. Known for its generous help to worthy causes and its appetite for parties! Each year one musician would be named as Musician of the Year and voted by other musicians. Buddy Rich became Hon. President a few years before his death , Musicians of the Year include Jack Bass (Boogiemen); Robert Watkins (Shakin Stevens); Tich Gwylim (The Superclarks); Robert ‘Dodo’ Wilding (Cadillacs) ; Chris Thomas (Racing Cars); Pino Palladino (Eric Clapton, The Who, Phil Collins); Mickey Gee (Shakin Stevens; Dave Edmunds); Graham Williams (Racing Cars). Pete Hurley (Van Morrison) Robert ‘Congo’ Jones (of Sabre Dance fame); Burke Shelley (Budgie), Steve Power (Sting Like A Bee) (who was the only International Winner). The Upper Rhondda Drummers Association (URDA) was formed in 1980 by Gareth Jones, Roy Rees, Ken Jones and Dave Watkins.

The Urge – Swansea punk band (formed Dec78), Swansea Punk website states, ”They started practicing Stranglers, Rods and Beatles numbers, mixed in with a few of their own self-penned songs, such as “Swansea Mafia” and “Fun in Stalingrad” and playing their first gig at the Langrove in Gower a few months later (albeit with three different drummers while gagsy was at the bar!). Other gigs followed, including the SSA bar and Hendrefoilan Student Village (which was marred by fighting and resulted in a heavy-handed visit by the local constabulary).’ Soon changed their name to Dodos

USB – A one man band from Sth Wales. Toby is USB, he writes, and records all his own material, which is not exactly cutting edge, but has enough to interest the casual listener. He has put out a demo CD-R and gigged a few times on the Barfly circuit.

uthant plopsU Thant – Cardiff based madcap punk-pop band of the late 1980’s, feat; Iwan Pryce (gtr), Owen Powell (later of Crumblowers, Catatonia), Huw Bunford (b.15.9.67) (later Super Furry Animals), Guto Pryce (b.4.9.72) (bass) (later SFA), who replaced Simkin (who moved to London). Rel 7″ EP ‘Plop Plops’ (on Pop Positif 1987), then LP Bugeilio (1988), and ‘Dim ID’ 12″ (1989). Voted most popular Welsh band 1988. In 1991 Crai Recs released their 2nd LP Duwuwd. ‘Plop Plops’ had them listed as U Thant A’r Cenhedloedd Unedig

Uumar – pop-punk band from Cardiff, feat; Rhys Morgan,  Sion Owens, and Tomos Williams. Rel ‘Neb EP’ (2014), followed by the single Heneiddio (2015) (soundcloud)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *