Ignite Cardiff #5

Our speakers for Ignite Cardiff #5 are…

Huw Stephens

Huw joined Radio 1 at the extremely young age of 17 and has since gone from strength to strength. Huw now presents on BBC Radio 1 Wednesday 9-10pm, playing the most extraordinary new and emerging, weird and wonderful music as well as pulling together the highlights from the UK’s BBC Introducing shows. He also hosts his own show on Radio 1 (Thursday 0000-0200) which concentrates on the finest new music and unpredictable emerging talent. Huw regularly deputises for Zane Lowe and Jo Whiley.

Being very proudly Welsh and with the language being his mother tongue, he presents two shows a week on C2 for BBC Radio Cymru, the Welsh language radio station, playing the best new music. He contributes to the Welsh and UK media regularly, including BBC News and an appearance on Mastermind.

He is the host for Bandit on S4C, the flagship music show for the TV station where he interviews bands, musicians and reports from all the festivals. Huw has also travelled to Texas for the South by South West festival, Iceland, the Netherlands, Venezuela, Patagonia, LA, and Norway to report on the music and cultural scene.

Not limited to just Radio and Television, Huw also writes reviews and articles for various magazines, newspapers and is always asked for his professional opinion on new bands for all types of press. He has written for the NME, Guaridan, Independent, Mirror, Barn, Planet, Cambria and writes a regular column for Kruger Magazine.

Ruffstylz

Ruffstylz built his reputation slaying cipher circles in London with a jagged and developed style that can truly rate amongst the most original and skilled lyricists in the world. There’s also the small matter of the world record he set for the Longest Freestyle Rap at 10 hours and 34 minutes long. And after supporting quality names such as Prince Paul, Taskforce and Rahzel, he’s now gone out on road alongside Beatbox Fozzy with their insane vocal only live show. With two mics only they’’ve torn stages all over. Underground giants Prince Po (Organised Konfusion) and El-P have also shown love, listing him as a collosal wordsmith from these shores. Famed for his acappellas that can almost religiously silence a room and verses that redefine what lyricsims about, the man has developed his style more singularly than most. He is a beast with words. He is high priest to skill and focus. He is an emcee’s emcee. He’s a wurly curly roller coaster ride. Etch this in your brain. His name is Ruffstylz.

Follow Ruffstylz on Twitter of check out the Associated Minds website.

Justin Toland

Justin Toland was born and raised in the Vale of Glamorgan. After a roundabout journey involving Manchester, Nottingham, London and Brussels, he now lives in Cardiff. Justin is a freelance journalist who writes about all kinds of weird and wonderful things, from butterflies to how toilet paper is made – oh, and music. Justin writes for FACT magazine and has previously worked for SPIN and Vice; he once deejayed at the Vice Belgium office party, where he was paid in vodka. This was not a good idea. Justin also wrote the complete history of the original ‘indie’ record label, New Hormones (Buzzcocks “Spiral Scratch”, etc). He does loads of other things, but there’s no room to tell you here!

At Ignite Cardiff #5 Justin will be talking about ‘The top 20 Objects in the History of Welsh Music’.

You can follow Justin on Twitter or check out his website.

Rob May

Rob May discovered punk in his mid-teens and has never been the same again.

He once lost both his shoes in a pit at Reading Festival only to find them again half an hour later outside the tent.
He knows all the words to Total Eclipse Of The Heart.
He used to work in film but now takes pictures for a living.
He once broke his friend’s tooth with a well timed elbow at a Rammstein gig.
He honestly believes that in the deepest darkest heart of every hardcore metal head is a tiny pop princess crying out for some Britney.
He promises to not mention Zombies in this talk, although he still thinks you should all be prepared…

He will be giving a talk all about the societies we build around music, entitled ‘Circle Pits And Sing-A-Longs’
You can check him out on Twitter or his Website.

Anita Harris

Anita enjoys rock music and photography. Occasionally she feels energetic enough to go mountain biking.

Anita works at ITV pressing buttons, twiddling knobs and pushing faders. She finally made it to my first ever festival this year – aged 39 years young!

You can follow Anita on Twitter or check out her Flickr page.

Anita’s Ignite Cardiff talk is entitled ‘My First Ever Festival – AND on my own!’

Paul Parry

By day Paul is a charity events fundraising manager. By night he is a documentary comedian – whether fighting misuse of the word “literally” as the Literally Tsar, or being an expert on Father Christmas, an honorary Admiral in the Nebraska Navy, and hosting eclectic pub quizzes.

He is the only person on earth to have literally travelled from A to B, and one of several to have literally been to hell and back, taught an old dog new tricks and bitten off more than he can chew.

Hopefully he will have literally got his act together before Ignite Cardiff…

You can follow Paul on Twitter or take a look at his website.

Peter Cox

Peter D Cox is an immigrant to Wales, coming from London via a lifetime in leafy Warwickshire. He was, until back and knees collapsed, a management and training consultant working anywhere people would pay him. He has also had career moments as a print and radio journalist, spin-doctor (before they invented the word), computer guru and art critic.

A former chair of Chapter Arts – and board member of many arts organisations across the years – he currently idles away his ‘retirement’ as chair of Cardiff Civic Society and a presenter on Radio Glamorgan, the station at Wales’ largest hospital.
He’ll be talking about the music he plays, the musicians (and others) who grace his show, and generally the benefits of legalised “Drugs and Rock and Roll”.  You can find out more about Peter on his website.

Alex Kavel

Alex was bought up in 80s with bad jumpers, Farley’s Rusks, and copious amount of Bollywood.  He fell in love with lady music and had a love affair with radio.

After the blur of university Alex moved into the wonderful world of web and was coaxed away by the Dark arts of IT Recruitment.

He’s now busy working on a new venture and mainly eats Maltesters.

Check out Alex’s website or follow him on Twitter.

At IC#5 Alex will be talking about ‘Blaggers Guide to: Bollywood’

Here’s a shot of the crowd on the night:

Ignite Cardiff 5 is very kindly sponsored by the Wales Millennium Centre, for the latest news why not follow them on Twitter.