HIMALAYAS: Cardiff's Riff Merchants Keep Climbing
Photo: Skyline524 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Himalayas2024.jpg
On U-Rock® Network, HIMALAYAS mean one song above all: "Cheap Thrills." The BROADCAST server's AzuraCast history logged 3,810 plays of it between July 2 and October 12, 2026. That makes the Cardiff band the third most-played act on our WURN-dB Underground playlist, which also carries "Thank God I'm Not You," "The Masquerade," "Sigh on a Hurricane," "How Do You Sleep?," "Intoxicate Me," "We Love to Hate" and "Alone." Eight tracks is more than any other act on the playlist except Kid Kapichi.
Four lads from Cardiff
According to Wikipedia, HIMALAYAS formed in Cardiff, Wales, in 2015. The lineup is Joe Williams (rhythm guitar, lead vocals), Mike Griffiths (lead guitar, backing vocals), Louis Heaps (bass) and James Goulbourn (drums). The band's early blog says that by December of their first year they had built a reputation on the South Wales scene and played a six-date UK run through Cardiff, Bristol, London, Brighton, Manchester and Liverpool. Wikipedia notes early shows at Clwb Ifor Bach, Warehouse 54 in Newport and the Fiddler's Elbow in Camden.
Where "Cheap Thrills" came from
"Cheap Thrills" was where it started. The band began putting music on SoundCloud in July 2016, and "Cheap Thrills" was their first track. A few months later came the debut EP, Ecstasy, which also featured "How Do You Sleep?" and "Intoxicate Me." The band's blog says the EP came out on August 24 through Peepshow Records, with a launch show at Clwb Ifor Bach.
Early reviews caught the band's character fast. A review quoted on the band's blog called "Cheap Thrills" a track that "carries itself with attitude and is full of energy," with "brash guitar riffs" and hooks that "will linger in your head for days." The Ecstasy write-up on the band's Music Glue store calls it "a track with attitude and explosive guitar riffs" with "punk-esque vocal techniques" from Joe and Mike, and says it sets the pace for the EP.
Bigger stages
From there, the band kept growing. Kerrang! reports that the early single "Thank God I'm Not You" passed fifty million streams. The band released their debut album, From Hell To Here, in 2023. Then the famous names started calling. AC/DC's Brian Johnson co-wrote their single "V.O.V.," and Foo Fighters chose HIMALAYAS to open for them at Cardiff's 74,500-capacity Principality Stadium. AllMusic sums them up as a "Welsh quartet [that] plays its bold indie rock in arenas as a rising opener for major bands."
Wikipedia lists the band with Nettwerk Music Group. Their second album, BAD STAR, was released on April 25, 2025, via Nettwerk, followed by a UK tour starting May 28. Kerrang! called it "fatter, louder and ballsier" than the debut, still built on "gargantuan rock hooks," and compared their stadium-sized choruses to Queens Of The Stone Age and Royal Blood.
Why they fit U-Rock®
HIMALAYAS are what WURN-dB Underground is about: a guitar band that started in small rooms, put out a scrappy first single, and worked its way up to stadium stages. "Cheap Thrills" is where it began, and our listeners have heard it 3,810 times since July. Kerrang! closed its feature by saying "you get the feeling they're still only at base camp." We agree.
--- U-Rock® play data: BROADCAST server AzuraCast `song_history`, artist "Himalayas", title "Cheap Thrills", 2026-07-02 to 2026-10-12 ET (3,810 plays).
Sources
1. Wikipedia, "Himalayas (band)" — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayas_(band) 2. Himalayas band blog — https://himalayasblog.wordpress.com/ 3. Music Glue, "EP - Ecstasy - Himalayas" — https://www.musicglue.com/himalayas/products/ep-ecstasy 4. AllMusic, Himalayas — https://www.allmusic.com/artist/himalayas-mn0004140090 5. Kerrang!, "Meet HIMALAYAS: The riff kings on the ascent" (21 Apr 2025) — https://www.kerrang.com/himalayas-new-band-interview-second-album-bad-star-ac-dc-foo-fighters-riffs-rocknroll 6. Spotify, "WURN-dB Underground" playlist (embed) — https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/0bZ0fCQCL7IkKfqcQycsMI
