Key Points
- Cardiff has launched a new intergenerational oral history project, titled Our City, Our Stories: Untold Stories, Unforgettable Sounds – Capturing Cardiff’s Vivid Live Music Heritage.
- Younger volunteers, especially those aged under 25, will be trained as interviewers to record the memories of older Cardiff residents.
- The project will cover live music across the decades, including rock, pop, punk, soul, dance and classical.
- Volunteers will receive training in oral history techniques, including interviewing, asking questions and making audio recordings.
- The recorded interviews will be archived at Glamorgan Archives and the People’s Collection at the National Library of Wales.
- A public exhibition is planned for October, featuring extracts, photographs, audio and memorabilia from Cardiff’s live music history.
- Cardiff council said the project is designed to preserve audience memories as well as the city’s broader music heritage.
Cardiff (Cardiff Daily) April 30, 2026 – Cardiff has launched a new intergenerational oral history project aimed at recording and preserving memories of the city’s live music scene, with younger volunteers asked to interview older residents about gigs, venues and musical moments that shaped Cardiff’s cultural identity. The project is being run under the title Our City, Our Stories: Untold Stories, Unforgettable Sounds – Capturing Cardiff’s Vivid Live Music Heritage.
As reported by Cardiff Music City, the initiative is designed to bring together people across ages and experiences, with volunteers of all ages welcome but a particular focus on people under 25. The project will collect accounts spanning rock, pop, punk, soul, dance and classical, alongside memories tied to specific venues and landmark performances.
Why is the project being launched?
According to the council spokesperson quoted by Cardiff Music City, the project is intended to reflect the city’s long music history and the role that audiences have played in shaping it. The spokesperson said Cardiff has hosted artists at every stage of their careers, from grassroots venues to major stadium shows, citing examples such as Aretha Franklin at Casablanca Club, the Beatles at Top Rank, Adele at Buffalo Bar and the Oasis reunion tour at Principality Stadium.
The council said Cardiff’s Music Strategy aims to support and sustain the city’s music sector, but added that live music depends on fans who buy tickets and help shape the scene. It also said some of the most powerful stories belong to audiences, including friendships made in queues, early sightings of bands before they became famous and songs that still bring back specific moments in time.
How will volunteers take part?
The project will train younger volunteers as interviewers and pair them with older Cardiff residents so they can record oral histories in a structured way. Volunteers will be supported by a mentor and given full training in oral history techniques, including how to conduct interviews, ask strong questions and make high-quality audio recordings.
Cardiff Music City said no previous experience is needed, only enthusiasm, curiosity and a love of music and storytelling. Training is expected to take around one day, while each interview and recording session is expected to take about two hours. Volunteers can take part in one interview or as many as they wish.
What will happen to the interviews?
The recorded interviews will be preserved as part of a public archive at Glamorgan Archives and the People’s Collection at the National Library of Wales. Cardiff Music City said this will create a lasting legacy so that Cardiff’s live music history can be accessed by future generations.
The project is not limited to professional musicians or major concerts. It also seeks to document the everyday audience experience, including the first live concert someone attended, a favourite local band, a venue that felt like home or a night that changed a person’s view of music.
Why does Cardiff’s live music past matter?
Cardiff’s live music history is being presented as something that has been built not only by performers and venues, but also by the people who attended the shows and carried the memories forward. The project organisers say the city’s music story includes everything from intimate early gigs in grassroots spaces to large-scale stadium performances.
Nation Cymru reported separately that Cardiff Music History has long run as a public archive and memory-sharing project, with founder David Taylor describing City of Sound as a celebration of the gigs people loved, the DJs they danced to, the venues they miss and the subcultures that shaped the city. That earlier coverage also noted that the exhibition would include posters, flyers, tickets, records and photographs, linked to interviews with people from Cardiff’s music scene.
How does this connect to other Cardiff music projects?
The new oral history project sits alongside wider efforts to document Cardiff’s musical heritage through exhibitions and digital archives. Nation Cymru reported that Cardiff Music History – City of Sound was due to open at the Wales Millennium Centre as part of Llais in October, with audio accessible through QR codes and interviews tied to exhibition items.
Cardiff Music City’s oral history project also places emphasis on public participation rather than only institutional archiving. It is designed to draw in older storytellers as well as younger interviewers, creating a bridge between generations through shared memories of music, places and events.
What is the expected timeline?
Training for volunteers is expected to take around one day, according to Cardiff Music City. Each interview and recording session is expected to last about two hours, meaning the total time commitment can vary depending on how many stories a volunteer chooses to collect.
The project will culminate in a public exhibition in October, which will bring together extracts, photographs, audio and memorabilia from across the interviews. Cardiff Music City said the exhibition will help present the people, places and moments that have defined the city’s live music culture.
Background of this development
Cardiff has spent several years building and promoting its identity as a music city through archives, festivals and heritage projects. The wider context includes long-running efforts to preserve oral histories and sound recordings in Wales, such as archival work at the National Library of Wales.
The new project reflects a shift towards capturing not just the headline acts and famous venues, but also the audience memories that surround them. That approach places equal weight on the social history of live music, including friendships, first concerts and the way songs become tied to particular moments in people’s lives.
Prediction
For younger volunteers, the project could provide practical experience in interviewing, listening and storytelling, alongside an introduction to heritage work and community archiving. For older Cardiff residents, it offers a formal way to preserve memories that might otherwise remain private or be lost over time.
For Cardiff’s wider music audience, the project may strengthen public interest in local venues, past concerts and the city’s cultural identity, while also supporting future exhibitions and archives. It may also encourage more people to see live music history as a shared civic record rather than a set of isolated events.
