Low Culture Essay: Cathi Unsworth on the Cardiacs Legacy of Tim Smith

In this month's Low Culture Essay, Cathi Unsworth attends a beautiful night in tribute to Tim Smith of Cardiacs, speaking to those who knew, loved and played alongside him. This can also be read in the Subscriber Area of the new Quietus website (Opens in a new window).

"What's going on?" asks a curious resident of Highbury Corner, eyeing the line of people that extends from the mouth of The Garage into the far distance of Holloway Road. "I've lived here for years," he continues, "but I've never seen anything like this before." A clue is offered by the symbol on the T-shirts and badges of many of those eagerly waiting in the queue. It’s a black-and-white photograph of daisy bud in bloom – a potent omen of spring on London’s first properly warm day of the year. For those displaying it, tonight's venue is also of considerable occult significance: four years since his departure from this world, for two nights running, the Cardiacs faithful have come to Sing To Tim.

It has been a long and not inconsiderably difficult path to this door, behind which tonight, Saturday 4 May 2024, a portal into a different dimension will open. Over the course of four hours, three different bands comprised of various past members of Tim Smith's band, Cardiacs, their extended family and multifarious offspring, will recreate his songs of innocence and experience. I use the allusion to William Blake deliberately. For what binds those musicians and their multi-generational audience tonight is a mutual love for a visionary artist every bit as profoundly talented and, in his day, misunderstood. Someone born to a seemingly ordinary, working class family from London who was able to see beyond the perimeters of our world and make art from that which was beyond the ken of his times.