Performance Style & Mythology
Cardiacs are also renowned for their startling performance style, which has been historically integrated (via video work, publicity, interviews and onstage presentation) with a vague and oppressive band mythology. The latter involves Cardiacs' record label and supposed management company, the Alphabet Business Concern, which shares some similarities with the "Cryptic Corporation" supposedly responsible for managing The Residents. As with the Cryptic Corporation, there is a strong possibility that the Alphabet mythology is entirely fictional and that the band - often hailed as archetypal independent musicians - control all aspects of their work themselves.
As presented, the Alphabet Business Concern is a repressive, controlling organisation with a vaguely Edwardian character, It supervises (and restricts) Cardiacs' recording work and live appearances (as well as communicating band news and statements to the band's mailing list in florid and archaic corporatese). Several early 1980s video releases by Cardiacs - in particular The Consultant's Flower Garden and the clip for To Go Off and Things - provided video "evidence" that Alphabet ran Cardiacs' internal affairs in the manner of an Edwardian children's home (complete with behavioural problems and bullying). The corporation's original representatives were Cardiac's "sordid, waxy" manager The Consultant (real name James Stevens) and his assistant and band advisor "Miss Swift", both of whom made in-character appearances onstage with Cardiacs during the 1980s. In the late 1980s both The Consultant and Miss Smith left both Cardiacs management and Alphabet. They were replaced by Mark Walmsley, who played a less public role but did appear for inserts in the Maresnest concert video, expressing contempt for his charges and their music.
In performance, Cardiacs generally reject (or occasionally parody) standard rock band posturing. In keeping with the Alphabet mythology, the band's shows have instead featured behaviour which has been described as "therapeutic, surrealist pantomime", compared to absurdist theatre, and labelled "not so much theatrically eccentric as completely fucking neurotic". During any given performance, Tim Smith rants between and during numbers, acting out bizarre childlike ideas and emotions. During the 1980s the band perfected a detailed stage act involving shabby lift attendant costumes, badly-applied clown make-up, Tim Smith's bullying of other band members (predominantly his hapless brother and bass player Jim Smith), and a final formal presentation of champagne and flowers by The Consultant and Miss Smith complete with confetti, taking place to "a euphoric sweep of saxophone and keyboards that wouldn’t seem out of place in a '70s cigar advert." During the 1990s, the theatrical elements of the live show were toned down and the uniforms replaced by formal suits, although certain rituals (including the childlike mannerisms and Smith's ranting style) were retained.
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