Under the Driftwood Tree (also known as UDWT) are a

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

-based band founded in Wales by Kitt Stoodley in 2008. Their music is described as 'surfer folk' and is based on vocal harmonies and unusual instruments, including

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

, didgeridoo, djembe, cajon and accordion as well as acoustic guitars and bass.

History

The band originated as an acoustic guitar duo consisting of Chris Stoodley and Dylan Thomas (of Pwllheli) after the pair had met whilst performing at "Open Mic at the Gate" in Cardiff during the Autumn of 2008. The band name is an adaptation of "The Milk Wood" by Thomas's namesake. Stoodley and Thomas recorded their first song together in December 2008 entitled 'Gone for a Week'. In February 2009 Thomas left the group to pursue other interests. Stoodley met the other members of UDWT through shared interests in music and surfing. Alex Perry on lead guitar and Robbie Price on vocals and rhythm guitar, from Pembroke, joined Cardiff based Kitt Stoodley on vocals and Ukulele and Kathryn Shanahan from

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on vocals and djembe drum as a four-piece ''surf style'' folk band in February 2009. They began playing regularly at popular live music venues in

and were the Welsh winners of the ''Surface Unsigned Festival'' in 2009, shortlisted from 30,000 applicants and performed at IndigO2 in

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. In 2010 they were joined by Samuel Lloyd Griffiths on Bass and performed at The Eden Sessions with Jack Johnson in

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on 26 June 2010. In 2013, Shanahan left the band and returned to Ireland. In 2019 Chris changed name to his stage name Kitt Stoodley during his campaign to promote his solo material and his own record label "Amped In'Sain". The year also saw the announcement on the bands

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page that Under The Driftwood Tree had reformed and will play a live come back show at the "10 Feet Tall" music bar in Cardiff in September 2019 . Whether this return is just a re-union or a permanent one and if the band will finally release any new material is still yet to be announced. In July 2019 the shelved debut album was finally released on

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entitled "If Only If: The Collection. Following the release of the debut album on 28 August 2019 a collection of unreleased material and covers saw release on the compilation album "Covers and Left Overs" on

Band members

;Current members * Kitt Stoodley – Vocals, Ukulele, Guitar, Accordion, Didgeridoo, Djembe, Percussion ;Former members * Robbie Price – Vocals, Guitar, Accordion * Alex Perry – Lead Guitar * Samuel Lloyd Griffiths – Bass * Ian Jenkins – Percussion * Dylan Thomas – Bass, Vocals, Guitar * Kathryn Shanahan – Vocals, Percussion, Accordion

Television and radio

In May 2010 Under the Driftwood Tree played a live session on the

BBC Radio Wales BBC Radio Wales is a Welsh radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the 'Radio 4 Wales' opt-out service (previously the Welsh Home Service). Radio Wales b ...

''Evening Show''. This has since led to them being invited to play the UK Number 1 live each Monday on

Radio Cardiff Radio Cardiff (98.7 FM) is a community radio station serving Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. It broadcasts on a terrestrial frequency of 98.7 FM, via DAB in Cardiff and streams online via their website and TuneIn. The station was formerly ...

, as well as performing on

RTÉ Radio 1 RTÉ Radio 1 ( ga, RTÉ Raidió 1) is an Irish national radio station owned and operated by RTÉ and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926. The total budget for th ...

. Although they did not get through to the final their appearance on the

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

talent show ''

Must Be The Music ''Must Be the Music'' is a British television musical talent competition contested by aspiring singers and musicians drawn from public auditions. The show is a music competition and reality show that was broadcast in the United Kingdom and Irel ...

'' led to

Fearne Cotton Fearne Wood ( Cotton; born 3 September 1981) is an English broadcaster and author''.'' She began her career in the late 1990s presenting various children's television shows for GMTV, CITV and CBBC. In 2007, she presented '' The Xtra Factor'', a ...

inviting them to perform live on her radio show on 14 December 2010.

Singles

* "If Only If" (2011)

Albums and E.P's

*BBC Introduces: Under The Driftwood Tree E.P. (2010) (released in limited numbers) *If Only If: The Collection (2019) (Release of the shelved debut album from 2012) *Covers and Left Overs (2019) (Compilation album featuring a collection of covers, demos and unreleased material)

Music Videos

* "Under The Thumb" (2010) Directed and edited by Claire Kern. From If Only If: The Collection. * "Road Runner" (2012) Directed Unknown. From If Only If: The Collection. * "If Only If" (2019) Directed by Various, Edited by Toomas Probert. From If Only If: The Collection. * "Noah's Ark" (2019) Directed and edited by Toomas Probert. From Covers and Left Overs.

References

External links

Photo gallery of UTDT on BBC 'Introducing Artists' web site

Under The Driftwood Tree perform If Only If live at Maida Vale for BBC (video)

Facebook page

Bandcamp

website
{{Culture in Cardiff Musical groups from Cardiff