Cardiacs
Cardiacs are an English rock band formed in Kingston upon Thames by Tim Smith and his brother Jim in 1977 under the name Cardiac Arrest. One of Britain's leading cult rock bands, Cardiacs' sound folded in genres including art rock, progressive rock, art punk, post-punk, jazz, psychedelia and heavy metal, all of which was topped by Smith's anarchic vocals and hard-to-decipher lyrics. The band's theatrical performance style often incorporated off-putting costumes and make-up, complete with on-stage confrontations. Their sound and image made them unpopular with the press, but they amassed a devoted following.
Tim Smith was the primary songwriter, noted for his complex and innovative compositional style. He and his brother were the only constant members in the band's regularly changing lineup. The band created their own indie label, the Alphabet Business Concern, in 1984 and found mainstream exposure with the single "Is This the Life" from their debut album A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window. Their second album, On Land and in the Sea, was followed by Heaven Born and Ever Bright, which displayed a harder edged, metal-leaning sound retained in the subsequent albums Sing to God and Guns. The final Cardiacs album, LSD, was left unfinished after Tim Smith was hospitalised with dystonia resulting from a cardiac arrest and stroke in 2008, which caused the band to go on hiatus until the release of the album in 2025.
Smith's illness brought increased and belated critical recognition to Cardiacs, with several music outlets calling Sing to God a masterpiece. His death in 2020 saw a raft of tributes on social media. Many rock groups including Blur were influenced by Cardiacs' eclectic music, which appeared on streaming services in 2021. Billed as Cardiacs Family & Friends, or sometimes just Cardiacs, Cardiacs members "past, present, and future" performed the music of Tim Smith at several sold-out gigs in 2024. After the release of LSD, Cardiacs announced three live dates in support of the album for March 2026.
History
1977–1984: Early years
Cardiacs originated in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, in the late 1970s. Frontman Tim Smith began his musical career in 1975 after forming a nameless band at school in which he played guitar. Smith played his first gig at Surbiton Assembly Rooms aged 16 alongside Adrian Borland of the Outsiders and drummer Bruce Bisland as Gazunder. The Cardiacs biography describes their two gigs in 1976 as sounding "a bit like the rocky instrumental bits" on David Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World. The band that would become Cardiacs was formed in late 1977 by Smith and his brother Jim on bass guitar and backing vocals, alongside Michael Pugh on lead vocals and Peter Tagg on drums. The project was initially called the Filth, but soon changed their name to Cardiac Arrest, possibly by their second gig in 1978 according to Tagg. According to the official history, Tim Smith formed the band merely to punish his brother "for all the unkind things he would do to him as an infant", as Jim allegedly couldn't play an instrument.Cardiac Arrest produced a demo in 1977, and released their debut single "A Bus for a Bus on the Bus" in 1979 under Tortch Records. Peter Tagg and Ralph Cade decamped from Cardiacs and formed the Trudy. Tim Smith, the primary lyricist, initially took on guitar and backing vocal duties before Pugh's departure saw him promoted to frontman. Cardiac Arrest followed the single with a full-length cassette release titled The Obvious Identity in 1980, which was released at around 1000 copies exclusively sold at concerts. Shortly after, the group went through a number of name changes, settling on simply Cardiacs in 1981. They held their first concert under the new name in April.
In 1981, Cardiacs self-released the cassette album, Toy World, featuring both new material and recordings dating back to the Cardiac Arrest period.. During 1981, Colvin Mayers left the band to join the Sound, a group led by Borland. Sarah Cutts briefly covered live keyboards as well as saxophone, before Mark Cawthra swapped drums for keyboards and Dominic Luckman was recruited from the road crew as the new drummer. At around the same time percussionist Tim Quy became a full-time member. In July 1983, Tim Smith married Sarah Cutts – taking his surname, she was henceforward known as Sarah Smith.
In mid-1983 Mark Cawthra left the band, to be replaced on keyboards by William D. Drake. Tim Smith had previously met Drake in 1982 at the debut performance of Drake's band Honour Our Trumpet Following Cawthra's departure, Smith returned Drake's favour by inviting him to join Cardiacs. Drake played his first concert with the band on 31 August 1983. Later in the year, Cardiacs added Marguerite Johnston and Graham Simmonds, and for about a year the band worked as an octet. Both Johnston and Simmonds left during the following summer, although Simmonds stayed on as Cardiacs' sound engineer. At some point in 1983, Tim Smith produced two issues of a comic alternatively called "Peter and His Dog" and "Peter and His Dog Spot".
1984–1989: The "classic lineup" established
''The Seaside'' and ''Seaside Treats''
By autumn 1984, the band lineup had settled as the sextet generally referred to as "the classic lineup" – Tim Smith, Jim Smith, William D. Drake, Sarah Smith, Tim Quy and Dominic Luckman. The first Cardiacs release featuring the "classic" lineup was their third album, The Seaside. The album was released on Cardiacs own record label, Alphabet. The bizarre and sinister "Alphabet Business Concern" mythology now began to become a significant part of Cardiacs' artistic presentation, and the band members would promote and add to it at every opportunity. The band evolved an elaborate and theatrical stage show, involving off-putting "bandsmen's uniforms, makeup, Sarah's music stand, Tim's mile-wide grin".Between 5 November – 21 December 1984, Cardiacs performed their first major British support tour, supporting Marillion at the personal invitation of Marillion's vocalist, Fish. Whilst the tour afforded the band a new level of publicity, generally they were not well received by Marillion's fanbase. On most dates of the tour, the band was pelted with a variety of makeshift missiles. During the 13 December show at the Hammersmith Apollo, Fish himself was indignant enough about the Marillion fans and their hostile behaviour to come onstage during Cardiacs' set and berate the audience about it. The band eventually ducked out of the last three days of the Marillion tour.
A Cardiacs spin-off project – Mr and Mrs Smith and Mr Drake – emerged in 1984. As the name suggests, this featured Tim and Sarah Smith plus William D. Drake and consisted of a quieter, more acoustically-orientated take on Cardiacs' music. The project released a self-titled cassette album which was only available via the Cardiacs fan club. Later on, the project would be renamed the Sea Nymphs.
On 1 April 1985, an attempt was made to film Cardiacs at a live concert at the Surbiton Assembly Rooms. The band had been approached by film-maker Mark Francombe and his colleague Nick Elborough, both of whom were at that time students at Portsmouth College of Art and Design. Francombe and Elborough offered to film the band for free as part of their coursework project. However, when the band viewed the resultant footage, they decided against releasing it. Instead, they retained Francombe and Elborough for a new video project which would become Seaside Treats, named after the 12" single that was released at the same time. As well as containing three music videos, Seaside Treats contained a ten-minute film named The Consultant's Flower Garden. The latter featured Cardiacs in bizarre, comedic situations which continued to propagate the absurdist Alphabet Business Concern mythology which surrounded the band.
''Big Ship'', ''A Little Man and a House'' & ''On Land and in the Sea''
Cardiacs played the Reading Festival on 24 August 1986, releasing the very rough audio footage as the Rude Bootleg album. On 27 January 1987, Cardiacs released the mini-album Big Ship, the first studio release by the sextet, to mixed reviews. The title track would prove to be one of their most enduring anthems.In March 1987, the British tabloid newspaper Sunday Sport ran a story claiming to be an exposé and revealing the supposedly incestuous relationship between Tim Smith and Sarah Smith, in which the couple were portrayed as brother and sister. The headline ran, "In their bizarre world of music... anything goes – even incest.". Band manager Mark Walmesley is thought to have started the whole rumour to gain some publicity for the band, predating the superficially similar strategy later employed by the White Stripes twelve years later.
On 17 April, the band's music video for "Tarred and Feathered" was broadcast on Channel 4's groundbreaking music show The Tube, giving Cardiacs their first exposure on national television. Later in the year, Cardiacs released a 12-inch single called "There's Too Many Irons in the Fire". In October, a live-in-the-studio session was recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio Leeds, followed in December by a similar session on BBC Radio 1 for Janice Long's Night Track show.
In 1988, Cardiacs released their debut studio album proper, A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window. The single from the album, "Is This the Life", saw brief chart success due to exposure on mainstream radio, and garnered the attention of a wider audience when it entered the Independent Top 10 in the UK. The band followed up this burst of success with another single, a cover of the Kinks' "Susannah's Still Alive" with a video directed by Steve Payne. Strange Fruit Records also released a 12-inch vinyl EP of the band's BBC Radio 1 session from the previous year, under the title Night Tracks . By this time, Cardiacs concerts were drawing hundreds of audience members and they were well on their way to becoming a hit underground band. On 15 May, the band played a concert at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, which was recorded for later release as Cardiacs Live.
Later in the year, Cardiacs recorded tracks for what would become their fifth studio album, On Land and in the Sea which was released in 1989. The album successfully consolidated the intricate style and unusual songwriting vision of A Little Man and a House..., but the stable lineup which the band had enjoyed for four years was now beginning to weaken.