Wales versus the humanitarian crisis

Want to help the growing numbers of refugees, and - at the same time - grab some rare Welsh music?

Good news; you really can do both - lob a tenner in the hat, pick up (or rather download) the Welsh Rock For Refugees album, and do some good.

It's for download on Bandcamp, and it's a remarkable collection of Welsh musicians - Mike Peters via Charlotte Church to the Joy Formidable. If you can't find a couple of favourites on the collection, you SHOULD BUY IT ANYWAY OR JUST GIVE A TENNER. Because it's a good cause.

Welsh music might vanish from the BBC

Well... not quite, but over 300 Welsh Language artists who have decided that PRS wasn't working well for them have set up their own rights agency, Eos. As the Cardiff City Hall clock chimes in the New Year, the PRS deal ends and broadcasters will have to make deals with the new group.

Trouble is, although S4C have just come to an agreement, the BBC has yet to sign anything. Which means, in the short-term at least, there could be a big hole in Welsh music on TV and radio.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: It's not like it was when Bassey was young

Is it really so strange that a Welsh person gets to number one? Apparently so, as Sian Evan's ride to the top (albeit through "featuring" on a DJ Fresh track, Louder) has forced the Western Mail out to ask Gennaro Castaldo what he thinks about it all:

Music industry expert Gennaro Castaldo said the song’s popularity was down to a number of factors, including its timing in the music festival season and at the start of the summer holidays.

“Clearly it’s getting a huge amount of coverage and a huge amount of airplay, which is one reason for why it has done so well.

“In this particular case it has also been on the ad campaign of a well-known drinks product, which has given it a huge additional profile.”

He said the music industry had changed from when Dame Shirley and Sir Tom were among the first Welsh chart-toppers in the 1960s.

Fans are less interested in following a specific artist and more driven to listen to what fits in with their behaviour as a consumer and what their friends are sharing through social media, he said.

“It’s more about the song and how it fits in with people’s lifestyles.”

You'll note something surprising here - no, not the way that he falls into the "must mention Tom Jones" trap of "talking about Welsh music" but there's no mention of HMV attached to his name. This is, I think, the first time that Gennaro has turned up without his employer's name in the copy. An editing slip-up? Or is there something we should know?

(By the way, if you're really going to stretch back to Wales' original chart-toppers, isn't Ricky Valance, who had a number one half a decade before Tom Jones managed it, a more interesting name to bring up?)

Llangollen International Eisteddfod tries to get down with the kids

Organisers of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod want to attract a "younger audience".

So they've, erm, sent for Lulu.

Jesus, how old was the age group turning up if Lulu's audience is going to bring it down?

It's not just Lulu, though - they've gone for McFly:

Mr Cousins said: "Llangollen attracts a healthy and varied audience every year.

"With McFly joining our fantastic line up this year we expect a surge in our numbers of young audience members, taking our festival to new heights.

"This is a very exciting time for us."

He said organisers felt McFly were "just perfect" for the "coveted slot" to close the festival on Sunday, 10 July.

I would have thought the one thing you could have said with certainty about the Eisteddfod would have been it was one place where you were safe from aging boy bands. I think they've just dumped their unique selling point.

Wales considers UDI from PRS; PRS looks worried

Welsh artists and labels are showing signs of increasing discontent with the UK-wide PRS organisation. The Welsh Music Foundation has held a conference to discuss the feasibility of constructing a Wales-only royalty collection agency, mainly irked by the BBC's National Regional stations paying royalty rates on a par with local radio stations rather than the UK-wide networks.

Naturally, the PRS aren't happy with the idea and suggest that a breakaway Welsh-only organisation could be a terrible idea:

"We are a well-oiled machine, and we have all the things in place to administer on behalf of all a members in Wales," said John Hywel Morris from PRS.

"We have over 2,000 PRS members in Wales - it's a very small fraction of people who have turned up here voicing their concerns.

"Yes, they are concerns that we take seriously. We've been in discussions with them for the last three years, and I speak to a lot of the people who have been hit.

"And we have been working to better reflect what the usage of Welsh language music is in general."

If the PRS is really convinced that only "a very small fraction" of people suggest breaking away, they could hold an event in Wales to demonstrate the depth of support for the current system, then? That'd be a useful exercise.

You can understand the fear, though - if Welsh artists quit, it'd only be a matter of time before the Scottish and Northern Irish explored their own options, and the very existence of the PRS would be thrown into question.

Perhaps, though, the PRS having taken three years of discussion to get absolutely nowhere indicates why it's time for someone else to have a go.

Venueobit: John Sicolo

John Sicolo, founder and owner of TJs in Newport, has died.

The venue originally started its life as a steak restaurant, operating under the name of Cedar's Rest. It then had a spell as an American-themed diner before John bought the building next door, knocked through and eventually rebranded the whole place TJ's Disco. The J was for John; the T was Trilby, John's late partner.

John was half Welsh, half Seychellian, and had learned to cook during his time in the merchant navy. The restaurant business was supposed to have been the plan when he came ashore, but somehow he ended up running one of the nation's best-loved, longest-running circuit venues.

Beloved by John Peel, Kurt Cobain and Richey Edwards, any band worth seeing live over the last thirty years has played there. Including Scarfo, even.

If you've never had the pleasure, there's a virtual tour of TJs on their website.

John had been in hospital earlier this week for a knee replacement; the cause of his death at 6am this morning is not yet known.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: Wales and the West

You know how the PRS insists that everything it does is for the benefit of the its members? Somehow, they've stretched the definition of this to producing a pointless survey:

The Performing Rights Society used its 65,000-strong database to locate the birthplaces of its membership and work out Britain’s most musical cities.

Wales Online is quite excited at Cardiff coming, erm, second:

CARDIFF has beaten the birthplace of The Beatles and the home of Oasis to become the UK’s second “most musical city”.

The birthplace of Dame Shirley Bassey was named ahead of Liverpool and Manchester but lost out on the top spot to Bristol, home of Massive Attack.

The flawed nature of this survey is probably shown by how excited the Cardiff team are at coming higher than Manchester or Liverpool, which more or less concedes that, when thinking of musical cities, it's not Bristol that springs to mind first.

Still, with Cardiff celebrating, who to turn to but town-centrist expert Gennaro Castaldo, of the HMV people. Can he explain the musicaliscature of Carddif?

HMV pop guru Gennaro Castaldo said Cardiff’s place in the music world should be celebrated.

He said: “People think of Liverpool and Manchester as being the musical cities, and Cardiff is often forgotten. They forget the amazing contributions of Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey, the male voice choirs, when somewhere like Liverpool is living off the history of one type of music and hasn’t produced any outstanding musicians since then.”

Now, I might sometimes be critical of Liverpool for living off the Beatles myth, but a man who is lauded as a pop guru casually writing off the Bunnymen, Wylie, Cope, OMD, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the people who coagulated around Cream seems a little intemperate.

Hats off the Wales Online, by the way, for having a report which contradicts itself but doesn't seem in the least bothered:

Radio One DJ Bethan Elfyn said the region’s music scene centred on the city.

“It’s so exciting at the moment with loads of pubs and clubs putting on gigs,” said the Cardiff-born DJ.

“In the city there are four or five venues showcasing live music every night, all the way up to the Coal Exchange, and even the Millennium Stadium. The best thing is we have so many different types of music on offer.”
[...]
Carol White, a tutor at Grassroots City Centre Youth Project, which gives young bands and performers a chance to record and rehearse without spending a fortune, said she was not surprised at Cardiff’s position in the table.

But she said musicians were not given the opportunity to showcase their talents due to the closing down of many of the city’s venues.

She said: “Compared to Bristol, which has loads of great small venues that up-and-coming bands can play at, Cardiff has hardly any.

“We’ve already lost the Point, the Globe has been trying to soundproof so it’s not closed.

“Why can’t the local authorities help them out so we’ve got plenty of venues? The bands just don’t get any support.”

A city simultaneously packed with loads and loads of great venues, busy night after night, and suffering from a terrible shortage of venues. I'd imagine one of those would have to be right.

Festivals: Bryn-fest scratches

Bryn Terfel's Faenol Festival is taking a break this year after a "considerable financial loss" in 2008; organisers insist it will be back next year.

It's blaming the disaster of last year on the weather and "fear of the credit crunch" rather than the appearance of Boyzone on the bill.

Talent shows are sources of discontent

It's bad - by which we mean amusing - enough that The X Factor result has already been called into question by claims that the phone system collapsed allowing Leon Jackson to edge out Leland Palmer (Rhydian Roberts) and claim the right to ruin the Christmas charts. Ofcom is looking into it - although, surely anyone stupid enough to trust ITV to run a properly managed phone-vote after the year they've had probably deserves to be fleeced - and some Welsh radio stations are going to boycott Jackson's single until there's a recount.

A gathering conspiracy base is suggesting that Welsh voters were more likely to encounter an engaged tone than voters elsewhere, doing down the boy from the valleys. Talkback Thames have denied any such thing would have happened, pledging that, erm, actually, they're just incapable of putting a system in place which would count all the votes.

Meanwhile, in America, Light of Doom are claiming they've been kicked off The Next Great American Band because the organisers more-or-less bounced them in to having big drums on a cover version of We Will Rock You. They don't seem to have thought that, perhaps, the problem would be covering Queen rather than the nature of the cover.

Actually, they have thought of that, claiming they didn't want to do it in the first place. It's a pity, actually: a bunch of guys who are happy to be pushed around so much would have been a delight for the major labels to mould.

Wire launches XFM South Wales with word puzzle

At the end of terms when I was a kid, we'd sometimes be given a light-hearted word game where words and phrases on a theme were not-very-convincingly worked into a longer stretch of prose. See how many you could find, of course.

Nicky Wire knocked up something similar to mark the launch of XFM in South Wales, forcing in some Welsh pop titles into the sort of empty, echoing honkfest you'd expect to launch a network designed to bring the great sound of the Shine albums to FM in Cardiff:

As the great man said 'This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours',

Let this music speed through the geography - criss cross the
Rain ravaged rivers and wild winds of our tiny massive country.

This is a 'Liberation Transmission' this music welcomes all skins,
All voices, all languages - for music bridges all divides.
This new 'Comfort In Sound' this new beginning.
'So God Show Me Magic' - 'Thank The Lord We're Welsh'-

Creation, inspiration a new generation..
'Maybe Tomorrow' the 'Local Boys' and girls of the future will make their own 'Design for Life'.

'For the art of playing music is the art of playing and listening
- One enhances the other"

We shall be one made of many, we are making history 'U Knows It'!!!!

Into the valleys out to the cities do not go gentle into that dark night.

XFM a 'New South Wales', 'What's That Coming Over The Hill, What's That Coming Over The Hill'

'What's That Coming'!!!

We understand that the 3AM Girls are hiring right now; with these skills Wire would be shoo-in.

More top talent for commercial radio

The Welsh branch of XFM has announced which local presenters will be called upon to provide a semblance of not being beamed from a London HQ when it goes live at the end of next month: two of Goldie Lookin' Chain and Stuart Cable. Who, you know, are nice enough people but further confirm that XFM has long since abandoned any semblance of being in any way associated with new-edge music and are, instead, content to cater to the Young Dads market.

Cerys says no to November

Cerys Matthews has axed her November tour; the good news is that she's shifted the dates to February and added a few. The late winter Welsh tour looks like this:

Swansea Grand Theatre - February 14
Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan - 15 and 16
Aberystwyth Arts Centre - 17
Wyeside Arts Centre, Builth Wells - 19
Muni Arts Centre, Pontypridd - 20
Blake Theatre, Monmouth - 21
Theatr Hafren, Newtown - 22

Cerys: It's over

Further to our comments last week about the difference between the gentle touch of the regional press and ther harder-nosed nationals, having elected to avoid discussing the status of her marriage with the Western Mail, Cerys Matthews blurted the truth to The Independent on Sunday:

So when is Seth going to arrive? The gulls circle overhead. Cerys slumps in her chair and stares at her glass of white wine from behind huge pink wraparound sunglasses. "Well," she says quietly. "I am now divorced."

That's news to me, and I have read everything anyone has written about her recently. This split is not public knowledge, is it? "No, not really. I've not done an interview about it. What am I meant to say?"

The sun seems to have gone in. Judging by her mood we had better brace ourselves for hail stones. I am still going to ask, though, if that's why she's back. Which came first: the split or the decision to return? "Erm," she says slowly, "they both became apparent at the same time."

Even though he's from London, Cole Moreton knows when probing has gone far enough, and moves on himself.

Cerys comes home

The Western Mail has been in touch with Cerys Matthews, who - by their reckoning - is back in Pembrokeshire now. The difference in approach between the regional and nation press is illustrated by their gentle touch around Matthews' marriage:

The conversation is full of “we’s” which makes it hard to get to the bottom of rumours that have been flying around Wales saying that the singer had split with her husband.

Whatever the truth, it seems the 38-year-old is not keen to discuss the matter over the phone.

When asked if Seth was helping with the packing she simply says, “No.”

In response to whether she’s still enjoying family and married life, she answers a straightforward, “Yeah.”

And when asked if everything is still fine, despite rumours of difficulties, she adds, “Yeah.” The conversation is closed.

You suspect that, had this interview been typed up in London rather than Cardiff, the result might have been rather less respectful of Cerys' desire to not talk about it.

Weller in a jam

Now, we've no particular beef with the new no-smoking laws slowling clambering over the nations, one country at a time. But we could do without the associated "education" campaigns and flogging of nicotine gum off the back of the ban. And we're lost as to how it can really be worth the time of Welsh officials to watch video footage of a Paul Weller gig in Newport, in already smoke-free Wales, to see if he sparked up on stage or not. Surely the investigation will outspend the £200 maximum fine, and the conviction of Weller won't send a 'don't smoke' message as much as an 'it's cool to flout the ban' one. If they really wanted to make a point, couldn't they have just issued a tutting press-release?

A welcome in the... oh, no there isn't

Of course, Paul McCartney was only joking when he told Ricky Wilson that "Wales is a Third World country." But he's already had to have a spokesperson stress that it was only a joke. And before the dust settles, he'll probably have to borrow Boris Johnson's sackcloth and have a spell of self-abasement in the Principality.

XFM heads to South Wales

A very, very long way from its pirate origins: XFM has won a regional FM licence for South Wales. Its bid was guided by an advisory panel chaired by Nicky Wire - curious that someone claiming in the Guardian last week to have rediscovered his punky roots is also doing consultancy work for GCap Media, isn't it?