current_members website years_active label article_title past_members background genre origin name
mr duke www.dukeofcardiff.com 2007 -- present earth monkey productions , baby blue records/blue chartists mr duke
 gareth josh webber , macauly crackpipe , simon bartlett , `` barney '' barnby , cristian marcico , solo_singer ambient country , antifolk dolgellau , gwynedd , wales mr duke
mr duke

mr duke -lrb- born 1 april 1983 as gwynfor dafydd edwards -rrb- is a welsh bilingual country singer-songwriter .
born in snowdonia , north wales he took his name from a character in hunter s. thompson 's 1971 novel `` fear and loathing in las vegas '' .
at the age of 17 he left north wales for london to join prog band `` elysium field '' whom , he stayed with until 2003 .
the following couple of years resulted in duke hitch-hiking all aver europe , reading 1950 's american beat literature , which would have a profound effect , as did the music of that era .
after returning to the uk , and ready to record again , mr duke 's first solo album was released by earth monkey productions in may 2007 , entitled , `` i ca n't find my keys '' .
later in the same year , duke released `` is this anti-folk '' , anti-folk a genre duke had not long discovered , and by which he was deeply influenced .
in cardiff , 2008 , mr duke formed his backing band , known as `` the hoodlum circus '' , taken from a hunter s. thompson book , '' '' .
this band consisted of cristian `` amigo '' marcico -lrb- drums -rrb- , josh `` yoshi '' webber -lrb- bass -rrb- and gareth `` macauly crackpipe '' grant -lrb- guitar -rrb- .
in 2008 mr duke , backed by ` the hoodlum circus ' released `` who shot mr duke ? ''
described as the `` welsh flaming lips '' by tom robinson , bbc6 music .
2010 saw the very small release -lrb- 25 copies -rrb- of `` the trail of ... '' a collection of unfinished work , inspired by peter sellers the backing band also had several rolling members , including simon bartlett , and jacob powell .
following the disbanding of `` the hoodlum circus '' , mr duke retreated to snowdonia , where he recorded `` be there to love you '' , a countryesque album , and a homage to townes van zandt , released by blue chartists in march 2011 , which featured sophie cochrane from the bands spencer mcgarry season and barefoot dance of the sea
