Scott Crawford Takes us On A Tour of The

Into The
Valleys
Scott Crawford Takes us On A Tour
of The Sounds Of Wales
W
ales. Land of green fields, sheep, lush valleys, male voice
choirs, and electric guitars. Electric guitars? Oh yes! Since
American, blues-based rock and roll found it’s way over in
the 50s, when we had teenagers queuing up overnight in Cardiff
to catch the likes of Bill Hayley and the Comets, Wales has held
its own in the world of Rock.
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As UK based rock emerged as force to be reckoned with in the 1960s, Welsh
guitarists and songwriters were there at the forefront. Formed in 1963 with
brothers Stevie & Muff Winwood, The Spencer Davis Group took the charts
by storm with hits like Keep On Running and Gimme Some Loving. Spencer
Davis himself, the founder of the group, was from Swansea and actually
dropped the ‘e’ from his surname Davies to Anglicise it so that people
would pronounce it correctly. Stevie Winwood later left to form Traffic and
is now a household name in his own right. The Spencer Davis group itself
has reformed many times but is still going strong with Spencer at the helm.
Meanwhile, over in America, a 21 year old from
Garnant in the Amman Valley had arrived in New
York. This man, John Cale, met a guy called Lou
Reed and formed one of the most influential bands
of all time - The Velvet Underground. Even today
the psychedelic, BDSM inspired imagery, of Venus
in Furs is considered a masterpiece of musical
poetry.
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As the 70s kicked in and Progressive Rock took
over, a close-harmony sextet from Merthyr Tydfil
originally known as The Bystanders changed their
“68 Guns will never die!” was the defiant cry of The
Alarm as the decade of Ra-Ra skirts, shoulder pads
and really, really bad hair came around. Ignoring
the emerging New-Romantic asexualism of the 80s,
Mike Peters from Prestatyn and Eddie MacDonald
from St Asaph teamed up with Nigel Twist and Dave
Sharp from Manchester, and stayed true to their
punk/alternative roots with songs like The Deciever
and The Stand. An angry but inherently idealistic
sound that still reaches even now.
On the other side of the coin, embracing the overthe-top exubrance of the decade was Bonnie Tyler
from Neath. Although she had already made a
name for herself in the late 70s with hits like It’s a
Heartache, a meeting with Jim Steinman in 1981
saw her become an international star with the
anthemic Total Eclipse of the Heart. Her trademark
powerhouse voice is attributed to an operation on
her vocal chords to remove extraneous nodules
which, instead of ending her career, effectively
made her the unique talent she is. A Grammy
nomination for Here She Comes and an appreance
on the Footloose soundrack in 1985 with Holding
out for a Hero cementing her place in Welsh rock
history.
With the dawn of the 90s and the ‘Brit-Rock’ scene,
the whole UK was under the spotlight as massive
US sales of quintessentially British-indie, like Oasis
and Blur, created a a musical tsunami that enabled
the likes of the Stereophonics and Manic Street
Preachers to surf in on the wave.
Formed in 1986 in Caerphilly, the Manic Street
Preachers were no stranger to controversy. Even
before their first album was out, in an interview
with UK music magazine NME, guitarist Richey
Edwards decided to prove the bands commitment
by carving the words ‘4 REAL’ into his arm with a
razor blade. The cuts were so deep he had to be
rushed to hospital.
Generation Terrorists, their first album, came out in
1992 to wild critical acclaim, featuring songs like
Motorcycle Emptiness and You Love Us. This was
followed up in 1993 with the Gold Against the Soul
album, and in 1994 with The Holy Bible, which was
a radical departure from the band’s previous music
style.
In 1994 Richey Edwards’ car was found abandoned
near the Severn Bridge. He has never been seen since
and was officialy pronounced ‘missing presumed
dead’ in 2008. Some of his most poigniant lyrics
appeared on The Holy Bible, notably on the track
4st7lbs: “I want to walk in the snow, and not leave a
footprint”.
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From Swansea, a band known as Badfinger exploded
onto the scene with Come and get it, written and
produced by none other than Paul McCartney.
Having achieved incredible success in both the
singles and album charts, tragedy was to strike the
band when a legal wrangle with their manager, Stan
Polley, and Warner Bros. left the band penniless
causing lead guitarist Pete Ham to take his own life.
Eight years later co-founder and bassist Tom Evans
also commited suicide, never having got over the
death of his friend.
Of course, you can’t discuss Wales in the sixties
without mention of Shirley Bassey achieving global
domination with her James Bond theme Goldfinger,
and the inimitable Tom Jones arriving on the scene
with It’s Not Unusual.
Kelly Jones performing with Stereophonics in 2007
Cerys Mathhews at Glastonbury 2008 - Photograph by Adam Smith
name to Man and forayed into an amalgamation of
blues, pop-rock and progressive which, although
crtically acclaimed, failed to light fires on the
mainland. Once they crossed into the continent
however, they came into their own, touring with the
big names of the day like Chigago and Hawkwind,
and at one point blowing the likes of Yes and Soft
Machine off the stage.
The Victoria Ballroom in Cardiff, later to be known
as the Scene Club was home to the burgeoning rock
scene, and was the birthplace of another legendary
Welsh band, Amen Corner. Formed in 1966, Andy
Fairweather Low and the boys, all from South Wales
had hits with Bend Me Shape Me and a number 1
single with If Paradise (Is half as nice). Andy went
on to perform with legends like Eric Clapton, Roger
Waters & Bill Wyman.
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This was follwed by ‘Performance and
Cocktails’ which has been certified as
5xPlatinum, and ‘Just Enough Education to
Perform’ which reached #1.
The last album to feature Stuart Cable
on drums was ‘You Got to go There
to Come Back’, he was replaced by
Javier Weyler after being asked
to leave the band due to lack of
commitment. He went on to
be a succesful TV presenter
and BBC Radio Wales DJ
until his untimely drinkrelated death in 2010.
The Stereophonics are still going strong today and
are currently working on a new album.
The 90s also saw the invention of the ‘laddette’ ,
women who could out-drink, out-shout and outfight the men at their own game. Cardiff ’s own
Cerys Matthews epitomised this attitude and, whilst
busking met up with Mark Roberts and formed
Catatonia, who, like most Welsh bands of the time
coming from the Cardiff Scene, sang in both Welsh
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After 2 more albums, the pressure got to Cerys, and
suffering from anxiety and nervous exhaustion,
they disbanded in 2001.
From the 60s right up until the present day. Welsh
rock music has held its own globally and is still
breaking new ground with the likes of Peredur ap
Gwynedd and Pendulum fusing Drum and Bass
and rock in such a way they were invited to play
at the Download festival, a bastion of hard rock in
the UK. Lost Prophets and Bullet for my Valentine
continue to sell their brand of melodic punk in
their thousands, and new bands such as Kids in
Glass Houses and Colorama push the boundaries
ever wider.
So if you do decide to visit the land of choirs and
green, green grass, don’t forget your guitars. SC
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A tiny coal mining village called Cwmaman was
the setting for another unlikely trio to rise from the
ashes. Kelly Jones, Richard Jones and Stuart Cable,
originally (along with other bandmates) known
as The Tragically Hip, changed their name to the
Stereophonics and put their tiny village on the map
with their first album Word Gets Around. Featuring
tracks like A Thousand Trees and Local Boy in the
Photograph, Kelly’s gravelly voice and smalltown
lyrics, fusing with Cable’s frantic drumming and
Richard’s pounding bass made the album shoot
straight up to #6 on the UK charts.
and English. Their first album ‘Way beyond blue’
contained the single ‘You’ve got a lot to answer
for’ which; although only reaching #35 in the UK
charts, paved the way for their follow up album
‘International Velvet’. This album spawned 4 top
20 singles and put the spotlight firmly on laddette
Cerys. The title track was especially notable as the
lyrics were mostly in Welsh except for the anthemic
chorus “Every day that I wake up, I thank the lord
I’m Welsh.”
Manic Street Preachers live in Glasgow, Feb 2010 - Photograph by Michael Gallacher (www.twistyfold.net)
The remaining members, James Dean Bradfield,
Sean Moore, and Nicky Wire released another
seven albums as a trio, and dedicated the Everything
Must Go album to their missing comrade. They are
rumoured to be ready to start on another album
when their current tour is finished.
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