CLWB IFOR BACH. January 25th 2025.
I stood in a dimly lit room, surrounded by the community of Cardiff’s underground music scene. The crowd, large and diverse for the setting, included not just alternative students and young adults, but also parents, loved ones and friends of the performers. All eyes focused on the band performing on stage, who were illuminated by a neon glow of ambient floodlights. This band was The Cheeky Habibis, formed two years ago by Cardiff University’s very own Gabriel Lester, Les Davies and Hadi Checri. Hadi, who is normally on the drums, is on placement in Argentina, and Zach Mills is his temporary stand-in. The band was also joined by Dilibe Aneke, a guitarist.
Listening to The Cheeky Habibis was like listening to a modern and youthful take on 80s soft indie, post punk and new wave-esque music, sonically in the vein of Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen––and it clearly won the audience over. Their music radiated through the audience, as everyone’s bodies responded to the beats of Les’s bass and Zach’s drums; eyes were fixed on the very exuberant lead, Gabriel, who absorbed and expressed the weight of every lyric he sang.
What always drew me to watching live music was to see how bands and crowds connect. At this particular gig, The Cheeky Habibis and the crowd acted, and to an extent reacted, symbiotically to each other. The band fed off the audience’s energy and responded with a performance full of confidence and nuance. This dynamic, in turn, fueled the band’s stage presence. Following the show, I was fortunate to speak with two members from the band. Les Davies, the band’s bassist and Gabriel Lester, the vocalist, shared the experiences of performing live shows from a musician’s perspective.
“When you’re jamming, the feelings you are feeling come out in the way you play. It’s important to keep people listening to you, and make sure their thoughts don’t meander away from the music”, said Les. For every show, Gabriel tries to perform a ‘drama piece’. He said, “songs can’t always just speak for themselves, you need to give the audience more to engage with”, a process to which he describes as being “completely freeing”, and leaves him in a “trance-like” state. To see a crowd respond positively and seeing people ‘move to the band’s music notes’, is something both have referred to as one of the most “elevating” aspects to live music performances.
While live audiences undeniably play a crucial role shaping a performance, Gabriel and Les emphasised that the on-stage connection between band members is equally important to a gig’s success. Through our conversation, it became clear that communication among the band members, sometimes as simple as eye contact, can help them feed off each other’s energy. As Gabriel and Les put it, performing is a collective, communal effort: ‘The way we engage with each other isn’t for the audience, it’s for each other.’
In the two years since The Cheeky Habibis formed, the band has had many successes under its belt: many live shows, a few singles, and its first EP, which is set to drop in Autumn. Friendship, and the tight bond the band members have with each other, can be credited for all of these achievements. ‘It feels social as it does creatively to achieve something, which is a process that has enabled us to work well and keep the band together’, said Gabriel and Les.
With graduation creeping up this Summer, the future of The Cheeky Habibis remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: the band fully intends on staying together after University, especially with Hadi returning from Argentina this July.
Listen to their new single Being Human, out now.
Words by: Sophie Hauptmann
Photo courtesy of Sam Stevens. No changes have been made to this image.