Super Furry Animals: Flower power amid the botanical gardens of Live At York Museum Gardens on Saturday
WELSH art-rock band Super Furry Animals headline day three of Futuresound’s third season of Live at York Museum Gardens concerts on Saturday.
The botanical gardens are a suitable setting for such a psychedelic act, who have returned to the concert platform after a ten-year hiatus, and will draw on the nine albums recorded since forming in Cardiff in 1993 (originally with Notting Hill and Star City actor Rhys Ifans as their frontman, by the way).
Expect a choice selection of “ageless multicolour hits and off-piste deep cuts, all lovingly handpicked from an incredible catalogue”.
Joining Super Furry Aniamls in Museum Gardens will be four special guests: unconventional kindred spirit Baxter Dury, compatriot indie-pop septet Los Campesinos!, fast-rising Nottingham alt-country group Divorce and the Welsh Music Prize-nominated woozy, Sixties-inspired psychedelia band Pys Melyn (whose name translates as Yellow Peas, should you be wondering).
“I’m pretty sure we haven’t ever played York before,” says lead guitarist, pedal steel guitarist and cellist Huw Bunford, who will be joined as ever by Cian Ciarán, Daf Ieuan, Guto Pryce and Gruff Rhys.
The Futuresound press release stated that “until now SFA had no plans to reunite live”. Huw puts the flesh on those bones: “We got asked every so often over the past ten years if we’d be playing again. People approached us to do shows, and I think it was more to do with marking 30 years that brought us together again. It seemed like the usual stars aligned and that happened to be at a time when the rest of the band was available to get together.
Super Furry Animals’ poster for Live At York Museum Gardens
“Initially, we had pencilled in about six gigs, going around the UK and Ireland on the Supacabra Tour, but then I think we added a couple more, York and Bristol, so in May we did indoor gigs and the rest of the summer will be outdoor shows.”
Open-air concerts are a “completely different beast”, says Huw. “There’s something about it that’s nice to do outdoor gigs, where you get a cross section of fans and even people who have never seen us before. Whenever we do things like festivals, you know you have a certain amount of time to play, so at certain songs we’ll check the time!”
After signing to era-defining label Creation Records – the home of Oasis – in 1995, Super Furry Animals turned heads with their unorthodox approach to promotion from the famous Super Furry Animals Tank to a suite of bespoke Yeti costumes. In 1996, debut album Fuzzy Logic broke the familiar guitar music mould with a heady mix of literary, musical and narcotic influences before 1997 follow-up Radiator gave them their first UK Top Ten album.
“Welshness and weirdness” was the phrase coined to describe their distinctive indie psych-pop sound, not least because they recorded in the Welsh language too. “Maybe a bit of alliteration there, getting excited with that,” says Huw, on hearing that description down the phone line. “I wouldn’t say we were particularly weird. It’s just weird that a reviewer would say that. I’d throw it back at them!”
The rock history books say that label boss Alan McGee signed Super Furry Animals to Creation on the spot after watching their Camden Monarch club gig in London, maybe with expectations of matching the rise of Oasis. “The whole thing of Alan McGee seeing potential, but in the wrong way…but he still saw potential…and he then realised, and maybe over the years, it’s helped, that we’ve never been able to be pigeonholed,” says Huw.
Super Furry Animals will include Welsh-language songs in next Saturday’s set. “We’ve got three or four Welsh songs in the squad,” says Huw, recalling the days 30 years ago when they played a venue with a Welsh-language-only policy. “At that time, we whistled our English songs and gave lyric sheets to the audience!”
“I wouldn’t say we were particularly weird,” says Super Furry Animals’ guitarist, Huw Bunford
Looking ahead to next weekend’s York debut, he says: “We like to change one or two songs each show. In the festival shows, it depends on how much time we’re playing for, but we always try to play one or two Welsh songs wherever we play.”
Returning to the rehearsal studio for this spring and summer’s shows, “after the first week, there was a bit of muscle memory kicking in and actually it was the same with the energy levels as well,” says Huw. “But it’s one of those weird things in rehearsals that you don’t feel like you’ve ‘got it’, but then you get under the lights.
“The audiences have been amazing so far, like super fans, and very forgiving as well! It’s an amazing thing to see the band back.”
Reflecting on Super Furry Animals’ career path, Huw says: “We don’t do things in a formulaic way, so it’s almost like each album is a reaction to the one before. We take it as being like a craft and we’re blessed that we’re good songwriters. I think the production on the albums stands the test of time as well, which we take to be an important thing, always making sure that the content is good.”
Riding on the wave of Super Furry Animals reuniting for the 2026 series of concerts, could they return to the recording studio too? “If it happens, it happens,” says Huw. “We never say never, but at the moment it’s just a joy to be playing together again.”
Futuresound presents Super Furry Animals, Baxter Dury, Los Campesinos!, Divorce and Pys Melyn at Live At York Museum Gardens, July 11. Gates open at 4pm; last entry, 8.30pm. Tickets: futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-info.