[14] According to the official history, Tim Smith formed the band merely to punish his brother "for all the unkind things he would do to him as an infant",[5] as Jim allegedly couldn't play an instrument.

The bizarre and sinister "Alphabet Business Concern" mythology now began to become a significant part of Cardiacs' artistic presentation, and the band members would promote and add to it at every opportunity.

[2][4] The band evolved an elaborate and theatrical stage show, involving off-putting[10] "bandsmen's uniforms, makeup, Sarah's music stand, (and) Tim's mile-wide grin".

During the 13 December show at the Hammersmith Apollo, Fish himself was indignant enough about the Marillion fans and their hostile behaviour to come onstage during Cardiacs' set and berate the audience about it.

The band had been approached by film-maker Mark Francombe (later a member of Cranes) and his colleague Nick Elborough, both of whom were at that time students at Portsmouth College of Art and Design.

[2] The album successfully consolidated the intricate style and unusual songwriting vision of A Little Man and a House..., but the stable lineup which the band had enjoyed for four years was now beginning to weaken.

Although Sarah would not rejoin the band, she would retain a long-term connection with Cardiacs by playing on future albums and would very occasionally appear as a special guest for live concerts.

Drake was considered irreplaceable and Cardiacs opted not to look for a new keyboard player, remaining as a quartet of two guitars, bass and drums (with Christian Hayes being replaced as second guitarist by Jon Poole[2] who had previously played with the Cardiacs-inspired Milton Keynes band Ad Nauseam).

While Cardiacs were still able to record more fully orchestrated music in the studio, a lack of suitable personnel (or the budget to keep them in place) meant that the live band had to change drastically.

[29] 1998 also saw renewed activity by the Sea Nymphs, with the "Appealing To Venus" single reissued with extra tracks by Org Records, and a rare concert at the Camden Falcon in north London.

At the start of 1999, Cardiacs played three nights in a row at the Camden Falcon, London between 29 and 31 January: on the final date, Sarah Smith and William D. Drake joined in for the encore.

During these concerts, Sarah Smith, William D. Drake, Christian Hayes and Dominic Luckman all appeared onstage with the band on various occasions, as did the Consultant and Miss Swift.

These were taken mostly from the cassette albums (The Obvious Identity and Toy World, but also included songs such as An Ant, Hopeless, Gloomy News and Hello Mr Minnow (which had never been officially recorded before and had only ever been played at concerts in the late '70s/early '80s).

[50][3][51][52][53][b] Heavily pre-ordered, the single featured two other new tracks "Gen" and "Made All Up", which teased Cardiacs' next planned project, a full album called LSD (intended as a double set, their second following Sing to God).

[56] Claire Lemmon and Dawn Staple had also left the active lineup by the time of the 2007 winter tour, on which Melanie Woods and Cathy Harabaras both doubled on percussion and singing.

On the tour, Torabi recalled that "the crowds were getting bigger and younger and something was definitely happening", adding that Tim's brother and bass player Jim Smith said "something was in the air, that this might be our time.

In June 2009, a new announcement appeared on the official Cardiacs website, letting readers know that, after a year of rehabilitation, Tim Smith's mind had returned to full functionality and that "no part of your favourite pop star's intellect or personality has been found to be absent whatsoever.

"[63] It thanked fans for their kind thoughts and made clear Smith's interest in returning to playing music with Cardiacs at such time as his physical rehabilitation allowed.

The albums featured cover versions of Smith-penned material (originally for Cardiacs, the Sea Nymphs, Spratleys Japs and Smith's solo album OceanLandWorld) by musicians including the Magic Numbers, Steven Wilson, Oceansize, Robert White/Andy Partridge, Sidi Bou Said and North Sea Radio Orchestra as well as former Cardiacs including Hayes himself (as Mikrokosmos), Torabi (as Knifeworld), William D. Drake, Mark Cawthra and Peter Tagg (with the Trudy).

In 2013, after a long period of radio silence, the official Cardiacs website relaunched with many pieces of merchandise for sale, including a DVD release of All That Glitters is a Mares Nest.

He also stated that he was "deeply touched" by the efforts of those who had contributed toward the Cardiacs tribute album, Leader of the Starry Skies (the sales of which went directly toward rehabilitating Smith) and that he had since "made a pledge to [him]self to get better".

[69] In November 2016, Jo Spratley gathered several musicians of Cardiacs-influenced origins and "reformed" her and Tim Smith's band, Spratleys Japs (albeit without Smith due to his health, although he did attend as an audience member), for a one night show in which the band performed the entirety of the Japs' sole album, Pony (1999), as well as the remaining tracks from the "Hazel" EP (and ended the set with Cardiacs' own "Flap Off You Beak").

[75] Further fundraising events were held in 2018 and 2019, featuring live music from Cardiacs members and related bands, film screenings and interviews, with Tim Smith sporadically in attendance.

It was released by the band's record label, the Alphabet Business Concern, as a free download through their Bandcamp page at midnight, intended as a thank you to the group's fans.

Two favourite cut-and-paste sources were Pedro Carolino's English As She Is Spoke (a failed Victorian English-Portuguese phrasebook once hailed by Mark Twain as a perfect example of absurdity)[111] and the nineteenth-century Irish poet George Darley.

The band's shows 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".

[115][116][117][118] During the 1980s the band perfected a detailed stage act involving shabby lift attendant costumes, badly-applied clown makeup, Tim Smith's bullying and confrontation[10] of other band members (predominantly Jim Smith), and a final formal presentation of champagne and flowers by the Consultant and Miss Swift 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.

"[119][4][117] 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.

[121] The snooker player Steve Davis is also a big fan of the band and attended many of their live gigs, as well as co-authoring the book Medical Grade Music, featuring Cardiacs, with Torabi.

[4] During the 1980s, Cardiacs were a professed influence or inspiration for Marillion, It Bites and British psychedelic acts such as Ring; during the 1990s, emerging bands and musicians who were or became Cardiacs fans included Blur, Supergrass,[4] Shane Embury of Napalm Death,[125] Storm Corrosion's Steven Wilson and Mikael Åkerfeldt, Neil Cicierega, the Scaramanga Six, the Monsoon Bassoon, Leech Woman, Mike Keneally, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness,[126] Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters,[127] and the Wildhearts (who would later pay direct tribute via their track "Tim Smith" on 2009's Chutzpah!