It’s simply not true that great bands and artists don’t come out of Wales. Considering the size of the population – about one quarter of Greater London, smaller than Melbourne – the miracle is they’ve contributed so much.
People may talk about Manchester, Sheffield or Glasgow, but what you’ve got in those cities is a ‘scene’. A concentration of pubs, venues, student colleges and promoters feeding off each other. Before the internet someone in Morfa Nefyn (where I spent reasonably happy childhood holidays, the go-to destination for the Midlands family) would have had no clue what a band in Cardiff looked like or sounded like unless they appeared in the NME or on John Peel.
Some memories of Welsh music.
Wondering what on earth the Eisteddfod was. It used to fill up the schedules of BBC daytime TV.
Listening to the strangely unnerving accent of John Cale narrating The Gift on The Velvet Underground’s White Light/White Heat. Hearing his solo album Honi Soit on my friend Lewis’s turntable.
Falling in love with Alison Statton’s voice and the whole Colossal Youth album. Later hearing its influence in bedroom pop, Sneaks, a slew of last year’s post-punk bands. A great interview recently with Phillip Moxham on local radio in Australia.
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci didn’t sound like a Welsh name, but were clearly from there.
Melys Number One in the Festive 50! Them and Derrero keeping the early ‘90s effortless future sounding female cool schtick alive through the grimmer years of Britpop where it blossomed once more in the early years of the 21st century.
Mclusky – DIY punk rock returns!
Steveless – so named because none of the band members were Steve. Now that is funny.
Anhrefn and Datbyglu singing heroically in their national tongue.
Thank you so much to all our fantastic Welsh bands.
