Ed Cox

The Welsh Rock Scene in the 1990s: an ethnographic study

Note 1: The information below was accurate at the time of writing in 1995.

Note 2: For the purposes of this article, the Welsh Rock Scene constitutes Welsh-language pop, rock and folk music both in their- recorded forms and in Live performance, all of which aim for” a chart position in the independent Welsh Top 20

On this page:

Foreword: Introduction to research techniques and presentation of data

This ethnography is concerned with the struggle for survival of independent Welsh-language bands within the Welsh Rock Scene (y Sin Roc Gymraeg) in the first half of this last decade. This time limit has been chosen because of recent events that are popularly believed to have led to a decline in the number of new bands becoming successful in Wales as opposed to the more well-established bands who seem to be monopolising the industry. Using examples of the recent critical acclaim received by Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and Catatonia in the British music press as a starting point, the project plans to contrast their success with the plight of new bands trying to break through, especially those featured on the compilation album “Gog Rock” put together as part of this project. The bands featured on “Gog Rock”are all under 25 years of age, and all (with the exception of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci) without the backing of the major Welsh record labels – Sain, Ankst or Fflach.

The album project allowed more research possibilities, allowing me to Learn about promotion and marketing of bands as well as Opportunities to interview then in the local music press, quotes from many of which are included in this ethnography. Co-ordinating the “Gog Rock” project also allowed me to become more involved in the industry, from TV appearances to being interviewed for magazines about the need for this type of project, and its effect on the scene and the bands who are part of it.

Interviews were conducted with several bands and individual band members, asking about their attitudes towards certain aspects of the industry (and to each other), a common question being “What problems have you encountered in trying to break through into the Welsh rock scene?” This was intended to give me some insight into how Welsh groups relate to each other and to the industry in which they are trying to earn a living. To add to this, I am a member of the Welsh-language rock band Diems, so it was both interesting and educational for me to compare my own experiences with that of other musicians, while also allowing me some experience to judge exactly how much of what was being said was actually the truth and how much was myth. It was often hard to distinguish between fact and myth since image is such an important Part of the scene.

Not all bands faced the same problems, but there were some common concerns, and this is what 7 have attempted to highlight in this ethnography. Many problems seem to have been created by the decision-makers in the industry, such as record companies and broadcasters, but this will be explored later.

Some of the academic research into the ethnography included works by Wallis and Malm on the Sain recording company, and on minority cultures and the arts; various essays and books on culture, identity and music, and others on broadcasting policy. Some research was also done on the Welsh language, and on the English in Wales. I found that there was little academic research that was directly relevant to this project, and it was an advantage in that it encouraged me to read Welsh magazines and newspapers searching for data. It also meant that I had to go out and speak to more musicians and industry people than perhaps would have if there were more academic research available.

The ethnography is structured as a series of subheadings of different aspects of the Welsh Music Scene that complicate the development of new Welsh-language rock bands, while explaining the way the system works in Wales.

Most of the evidence is based on personal experience, but supported by the use of quotations from other musicians who have encountered similar references problems. There are references to specific compositions, many of which are included on a tape that originally accompanied this essay, but the essay itself is more concerned with social relationships than with musicological analysis, though the content of the songs will be directly relevant to any points being made.

Introduction: Welsh pop music and the English music press

On 22nd January 1994 the NME‘s Single of the Week was “For Tinkerbell” by Catatonia. What made this Welsh band different from others previously featured in the NME (Manic Street Preachers, K-Klass etc.) was that “For Tinkerbell” was taken from the EP “Catatonia” which was originally marketed independent rock scene in Wales as a Welsh-language single containing two English tracks. Even though the welsh tracks “Dimbran” and “Gyda Gwen” were firmly established on Radio Cymru playlists, they went ignored in the NME’s review of the single, but it was the first time that music trendies who buy music according to what the NME recommend were exposed to Welsh-language pop music.

When Catatonia’s second EP, Hooked was released in July 1994, the welsh; track “Difrycheulyd (Snail Ambition)” was mentioned in the NME’s single reviews, though not favourably:

“‘Difrycheulyd” we can safely assume, is Welsh for ‘rather inadvisable and indulgent third track that the world can comfortably live without”
(NME, 09/07/94).

Despite this, “Difrycheulyd” was the only track from the “Hooked”EP which was regularly played on Radio Cymru.

There seemed to be a difference of opinion and attitudes towards Catatonia between the Welsh and the wider music scene in Britain. Catatonia’s Welsh tracks remained largely ignored by the British music press, while their English tracks were ignored by Radio Cymru even though the EPs were probably more widely available in Wales than they were in England.

Welsh-language music and musicians have never really been taken seriously by the music press, dismissed as “quaint” or “olde-worlde” etc. When I spoke to Iestyn George (News Editor of the NME) in 1993 asking why no Welsh-language bands were covered by the NME, I was told that there would be no reader interest and that ‘Welsh Rock” was Mike Peters from The Alarm going solo and Anrhefn performing in Prague. However, when interviewed for Welsh magazine “Golwg” in April 1995 he acknowledged that Welsh music was now fashionable.

“I believe that we as a nation are more sophisticated than we were perhaps ten years ago. People don’t look on us as ‘hicks” as they used to, even though we do get patronised terribly”
(Iestyn George, translated from “Golwg” 13/04/95).

There seems to be a shift in attitudes towards Welsh music, even in the Last 18 months. The NME even stated in a live review of Welsh band Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci on 1st April 1995 that “this year Wales just might become the world capital of cool”. Much of this swing in attitude seams to have come about in the wake of critical acclaim received by Gorge’s Zygotic Mynci in the NME and Melody Maker.

All three singles released by Gorky’s since June1994 have been favourably received by the NME – “The Game of Eyes” / “Pentref Wrth Y Mor” (“Village By the Sea”) was Single of the week on 3rd December 1994, their latest, the “LLanfwrog EP” was Single of the Week on 18th March 1995, while Merched yn Neud Gwallt Eu Gilydd” (“Girls Doing Each Other’s Hair”) was No.10 in the NME’s Top Turn-ons of 1994, and even appeared n the NME Writers Top 50 Singles of the Year 1994. Their debut album “Patio” was re-released in February 1995 to favourable reviews, including NME and Vox.

“Patio” means ace pop tunes in Welsh… Anyone for lo-fi, prepubescent, Welsh-language punkadelica?”
(from Vox, March I995).

The 8th April issue of the NME included Gorky’s first major interview in the British music press, in which Ted Kessler writes

“They’re no longer dismissed as quaint weirdoes who make poor Mercury Rev-type mush in Welsh, they’re now known purely as miners of something fresh and lovely of their own. It’s a Welsh thing”
(NME, 08/04/95).

While the success of Gorky’s and Catatonia within London and the British music press highlights what Welsh bands have to offer the industry, it seems to have ruffled a few feathers within the closed community of the Welsh Rock Scene in which both bands were allowed to nurture and develop. Under the headline “Catatonia: Conquering England…but what about Wales?” Golwg reporter Meleri Wyn James attempts to describe the fate of new bands and music fans in Wales now that its two Great White Hopes have seemed to desert their Welsh audience.

Catatonia seem to be the worst offenders. Having joined MRM Management in London shortly after the release of “Hooked”, their last two singles were curiously absent of Welsh tracks (“Whale”/ “You Can” on Rough Trade Singles Club in August 1994, and “Bleed” / “This Boy Can’t Swim” on Nursery Records in early 1995) and their last tour visited no Welsh venues. A recent two-album deal with Warner Bros subsidiary Blanco Y Negro means that Catatonia may never record in Welsh again.

The “Welsh” issue

Apart from the language, there is very little that makes Welsh popular music “Welsh”. Most new bands in the Welsh Rock Scene are influenced by Anglo-American bands (Gorky’s have been compared in the NME to Soft Machine and The Beach Boys) since they are a symbol of success and fame. This also reflects the (lack of) influence that Welsh music has had on much of Wales’ youth in the I990s. Welsh traditional music is often considered too modal or “odd-sounding” for many bands to perform, and many feel that it would be pointless playing more “traditional” Welsh music without the correct instrumentation. Since guitars, drums, keyboards and brass instruments are what most of these young bands include in: their line-up, they feel that they get their influences from bands who use a similar line-up or play a style of music that they Like.

Calon y Ddraig are influenced by Metallica and hard rock, Diems are influenced by Van Halen‘s guitars an Aerosmith‘s horn section, Dylanwad Drwg are influenced by Bon Jovi in the way they sing vocal harmony. These direct results of familiarity – the bands are more influenced by these Anglo-American groups because their music can be heard all around them while Welsh traditional music seems to keep a low profile outside of its clubs and venues.

Catatonia have proved that the language is the only aspect of Welsh music that is “Welsh” by recording two versions of “New Mercurial Heights” for their “Catatonia’” EP in 1993, one sung in English, the other in Welsh ( “Gyda Gwen”). This is not an isolated incident. The Alarm released their final album “Alarm” in both English and Welsh at the end of the 80s, as did lead singer Mike Peters with his solo single “Back into the System”/”Nol Mewn i’r System” and album “Breathe” / “Aer” in 1994. Mike Peters was believed to be “returning to his roots” as a Welshman, but Tecwyn of Welsh rock band Calon y Ddraig believes there are other motives behind the release of bilingual formats.

“Ankst (one of the major Welsh record labels) said that they were set up to promote Welsh music and that they wouldn’t record any English bands, while Sain (Ankst’s rival Label, and the longest-running in Wales) had English-reggae band One Style on their books. But with Gorky’s, they seem to have changed their tune.” He believes that if something will make money, then your principles have to take a back seat.

Since being noticed by the NME, Gorky’s have recorded more tracks in English, including The Game Of Eyes, Miss Trudy and a cover- version of the Soft Machine track Why Are We Sleeping. It seems that however fashionable Welsh music may be at the moment, English songs are still needed for anyone outside Wales to take any notice. But are bands like Gorky’s and Catatonia “selling out” by adapting their art to suit a wider audience?

Bari, of Diems and Socrates: “Yes, but everyone’s got to do it. They’re doing it for their own good, and if that’s what makes them successful, well…” Guitarist Jo Webb agrees. “If you were offered a million pounds or a multi-album deal with a major label, would you change from being a Welsh band to an English band? Most people would sign up without a second thought, and if they say they wouldn’t then they’re liars”.

Gorky’s are certainly in a better position than any other band to promote the Welsh Rock Scene and the Welsh language, but will they continue to do so? There seems to be some amount of misunderstanding in the music press about Gorky’s and the Welsh language, much of it caused by the band itself. Lead singer Euros Childs:

“We’re not after justice for the Welsh language, we just like the sound of it sometimes”
(NME, 08/04/35).

In the introduction to the same interview, Ted Kessler writes “Sometimes they sing in Welsh”, though the majority of the 13 tracks on their last album Tatay (1994) were sung in Welsh, as well as all 21 songs on their debut album Patio (1993). These comments lead the nation to believe that Gorky’s are an English-language band who occasionally sing in their native tongue, but this is not strictly the case.

Worse than misleading the nation is misleading new bands who believe that including a few English lyrics will guarantee them media attention, even if the bands deny that this is the case. Tecwyn (Calon y Ddraig: “I don’t think that singing in English detracts from the message of our songs. The language of the song depends on its content, its nature and the audience the song is aimed at. I don’t choose to write in English because it’s fashionable or whatever, every song needs something different to make it work” (translated from Sothach! February 1995)

Two or three years ago it was unheard of for a Welsh band to record an English song or to record vocals in English. Not only was it politically unsound, but it seemed to defeat the purpose of being in a Welsh band, which to many was a way of voicing discontent at the way the English continued to invade and oppress Wales and the Welsh. The important thing was that singing in Welsh guaranteed a modest amount of national success because of the close nature of the Welsh Rock Scene.

English-language bands in the north may tour and release material for years, but they may never become known outside their own town/area. Since the Welsh Rock Scene is a structured network of venues and organsations which help promote Welsh music throughout Wales, nationwide links such as Radio Cymru (which plays Welsh-language music from folk to pop to easy listening) and Welsh newspaper Y Cymro (which is distributed to all Welsh-speaking areas both inside and outside Wales) guarantee some amount of success for any band that is touring or has recorded material to promote. In this respect Welsh-speaking bands are more fortunate than their- English-speaking counter parts, but does the language alienate a large part of the potential audience: is Welsh music for the ears of the Welsh only?

A factor that is believed to have led to the decline of the Welsh Rock Scene in recent years has been the rise of the dance scene and raves, where the atmosphere (and even the audience) is totally different to the one found at the more traditional rock gig. Perhaps the reason for the rise of the dance scene is that language is not a barrier to its enjoyment.

Deian Owen of Diems: “Who’s going to go to a gig if you can’t understand what’s being said? No matter how good the music is, part of the fun of going to a gig is being able to sing along with songs that you know, or songs that are catchy and have a simple chorus”.

Welsh band Diffiniad have attempted to merge the Welsh Rock scene with the dance scene, as have Ty Gwydr before them at the end of the 80s. Diffiniad’s album Discodawn was released in the summer of 1993 and owed much to the British House and Techno scenes. The only difference was that all the lyrics were sung in Welsh.

Deian Owen (Diems): “Though the music on Discodawn was different to anything released in Welsh before, it was still in Welsh” and as a result didn’t do as much as it intended to reconcile the rift between the Welsh Rock Scene and its audience. Tracks such as C’mon! Co Ni’n Mynd ( C’mon! We’re Moving) or Edrych Arna Ti (Looking At You) were played on Radio Cymru but rarely in public events such as discos, except for discos organised by Yr Urdd (an organisation that promotes the Welsh language among children in Wales).

One track on the compilation tape Gog Rock is Cadfael and is different to the other tracks in that it is a dance track, but unlike Diffiniad, there are no vocals. Deian co-wrote the track and said of it “It’s meant to appeal to more people, hence its appearance on the tape as a Dub version. We wanted to pretend that there are lyrics to it just that we chose to use the dub. To stop it being just a normal instrumental, we used Gregorian chants in the middle section and this got us out of the problem of What vocals to use.” He sees Cadfael as an opportunity since there seems to be a gap in the market for dance music in Wales, and if there are no vocals to limit its possibilities, he believes it could break through into the non-Welsh market.

More new bands tend to look towards Anglo-American bands for their influences. In a gig at the Bryncynan Arms, Nefyn, on March 3rd I995, three Welsh bands performed, two of which (Cherrybombs and Dylanwad Drwg) performed cover versions of Anglo-American songs, including Stiltskin’s “Inside”, The Cranberries” “Zombie” (Cherrybombs) and Green Day’s “Basket Case” (Dylanwad Drwg). The inclusion of these cover versions shows that the bands have a cynical understanding of the audience to which they are performing.

Alun Pritchard of Cherrybombs: “Kids relate more to English or American bands than they do to Welsh bands, since American culture is all around us. The kids hear these songs on the radio, see them on TV or MTV or whatever, and buy them in local shops. They read the music press, who tells them that these bands are cool, while Welsh music is harden to get hold of, less publicised and the kids normally associate Welsh music with: old stagers Like Dafydd Iwan or Meic Stevens, which aren’t all that cool to be honest. If you want to be a success locally, you have to give the audience what they want to hear, and if that’s American music on whatever, you’ve got to give it to them.”

Language doesn’t seem to be a problem for every band tough. Hywel Wigley, previously of Welsh guitar band Aros Mae, runs the independent company Do Re Mi Ffwnc, and believes that it is possible to be successful in the international market by bypassing Britain altogether. He works with artists and musicians to promote the Celtic heritage of Welsh bands contracted to him by inventing a Celtic design for each band and then attempting to “sell” their image to other Celtic nations, such as Ireland or Brittany.

Welsh punk band Vaffan Coulo has contributed material to compilation tapes in Czechoslovakia, Greece, Sweden, Germany, Singapore and Japan. Lead singer Jo Shooman believes this offers them different opportunities on the international “underground” scene, and takes them away from Wales for a while. He believes that being part of an underground scene, being written about in fanzines, and signing recording deals in other countries is important to a band’s development in that it offers new touring possibilities and allows bands to see how the industry works outside Wales.

Further information

Interviews

Interviews conducted for this project were edited and published in the Welsh language fanzine Sothach!

Videos

Welsh language 90s pop playlist: with thanks to Ffarout.
History of the Welsh Rock Scene (y Sin Roc Gymraeg) from Hansh
History of Welsh pop music from Ankstmusik’s perspective.

Books

Magazines / Periodicals

  • MELERI WYN JAMES – “The Cool Welsh” (Golwg, Vol.7 No.3, 13 April 1995)
  • BARI JONES – Diems interview (Sothach! 61, June 1994)
  • EDWARD COX – Calon y Ddraig interview (Sothach! 67, February 1995)
  • KIRSTIE PARRY – Open Letter (Sothach! 63, September 1994)
  • TED KESSLER – Interview with Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci (NME, 18 March 1995)
  • MARK BENTARIO – Album reviews (Vox, March 1995)
  • Various articles from Melody Maker (4 March 19395)
  • and NME (22/01/94), (11/06/94), (09/07/94), (27/08/94), (24/09/94), (22/10/94), (03/12/94), (24/12/S4), (07/01/95), (18/03/95)

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