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The mid-’90s Cool Cymru explosion put Wales firmly on the map. Dave Owens charts the fallout from a glorious period for Welsh music and the aftershocks that are still being felt to this day

Bonnie Tyler, Shakin’ Stevens, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Aled Jones – you took one hell of a beating. And, let’s face it, much of if was warranted.

Until the mid-’90s, when Wales conjured up Cool Cymru and with it a host of pioneering trailblazers in the guise of Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Super Furry Animals, Catatonia, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and 60ft Dolls, the country’s music scene was burdened by the weight of its own underachievement.

At the same time the decline of the once mighty coal industry compounded the angst, dealing a hammer blow to our confidence that took a long time to recover from. Success, both economically and culturally, though, has been quietly and steadily growing and a nation once on its knees now walks tall.

The formation of the Welsh Government has given us autonomy to carve out our own political destiny, while the regeneration of our capital city is a shining monument to Wales’ reawakening.

And this rebirth, which comes from a sense of pride in identity, has much to do with Wales’ startling musical transformation.

To trace the cultural uprising that has spawned so much groundbreaking music, you have to tread backwards to the dim and distant past, and immerse yourself in the murky embarrassment of our land’s dark ages.

There was a time when you could bet that anyone, when asked about Welsh music, would have cited Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, and male voice choirs amongst the nation’s sole musical achievements – cliches that would trip off the tongue as predictably as Wales being the land of sheep, leeks, daffodils, druids, dragons and bilingual road signs.

Read this sparse roll-call of Welsh success and hear the wind whistle across the barren rock ‘n’ roll conquering plain: the ’60s and ’70s served up Cardiff’s original Britpop stars.

Amen Corner, the downbeat Beatles-aping Badfinger, pastoral folky Mary Hopkin, rock ‘n’ roll survivor Dave Edmunds, psychedelic soundscapers Man, and heavy rockers Budgie.

Meanwhile the ’80s gave birth to Rhyl rabble rousers The Alarm, Swansea’s archly-knowing indie cult The Pooh Sticks, Cardiff’s coolly influential Young Marble Giants and Newport’s blonde popsters The Darling Buds.

And that was the sum credibility quotient of 30 years of hurt.

But it was a decade and a half ago in 1996 – year zero for the new Welsh music big bang – when all that changed forever.

A new breed of outfits blossomed and forced talent-spotting A&R men, who had never dared to cross the Severn Bridge, to check out what all the fuss was about.

Bands featuring Welsh speaking musicians such as Catatonia, Super Furry Animals and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci were not overnight sensations. They had learnt their craft and honed their talent playing for years as part of a burgeoning Welsh language scene that had prospered in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

By 1996, with a wealth of experience under their belts, they were ready for the great leap forward.

Wales, of course, is unique in that it harbours two equally strong music scenes – one in English, one in Welsh (see page 54).

These two disparate and diverse breeding grounds make occasionally uncomfortable bedfellows but, in the main, exist in a state of unencumbered creativity.

Legendary Welsh language pioneers such as Y Cyrff and Y Crumblowers (who formed the nucleus of Catatonia) and Ffa Coffi Pawb (who featured Super Furry Animals’ frontman Gruff Rhys) realised if they were ever to make a successful career they would have to sing in English – a politically contentious decision facing Welsh-speaking bands even to this day.

The simple fact was that Welsh speaking bands might make waves in Wales, but their music was unlikely to export far beyond the border.

Meanwhile, the music press was having a field day with the emergent populist scene, conjuring such creative and hilarious headlines as Fight The Powys That Be, You Make Me Feel Mighty Rhyl, and the criminal Don’t Leek Back In Anger.

Alongside Britpop, which was firing a British music renaissance and making stars of Blur, Pulp and Oasis, Welsh music was in vogue for the first time and everybody wanted a piece of the action.

Cool Cymru was the unfortunate and conveniently alliterative moniker attached to the scene, but at least this wasn’t some media-manufactured hype. It was gloriously real.

Owen Powell, former guitarist with Catatonia, and the man responsible for nurturing the early career of Duffy, pinpoints the differences between the scene now and its embryonic stages.

“The bi-product of this period of change has been the creation of a stand-alone, self-sufficient music industry that has prospered through the lessons learnt from the past and a more professional outlook applied to the present,” he says.

“Where there were very few record companies, recording studios, rehearsal rooms, management companies, or the merest hints of an industry framework, now there is a defined business structure.”

Much of this spirit of enterprise has been fostered through the formation of the Welsh Music Foundation in 2000.

One of the co-founders of the WMF was Huw Williams – a man with a record, in more ways than one.

Not only did he make quite a few of his own as frontman with legendary Welsh indie pop aces The Pooh Sticks, but he nurtured the nascent careers of 60ft Dolls and Catatonia.

More importantly he was also the co-founder of the WMF – an organisation that in the last decade has raised immeasurably the profile of the Welsh music industry both home and abroad.

“The idea came around the time of the mid-’90s Welsh music explosion where I was involved with working with bands like the Dolls and Catatonia,” he recalls.

“Even though we were pleased with the exposure the bands were getting and the excitement it was causing we started talking about the other side of the music scene and the music industry.

“It was through conversations and interviews that we did at the time that we entered into a joint venture, a partnership with what was then the Welsh Development Agency and my publishing company, at the time Townhill Music which was funded by Sony.

“We started to talk about the other side of the music industry, the economic development side, the stuff that people weren’t traditionally talking about at the time.”

So how important was the Welsh Music Foundation in creating a widespread infrastructure in Wales?

“At first we wanted to bring a network together of practitioners and all the interested parties in Wales and we did that in various ways.

“We set up a magazine called Sound Nation which wrote about the bands, but also the business side of things.

“We also went about not just supporting Welsh-based businesses, but attracting events and companies and events into Wales.

“We did this by bringing companies like Barfly to Wales.

“Sadly the venue recently shut after 10 years here, but it was their first venture – a grassroots live venue, the first venture outside of London.

“We also brought Radio 1 to Wales with what was then called Sound City which is now One Live, which was a week of big name shows in various venues around Cardiff, as well as a fringe element which we organised, which brought all the local promoters together.

“At the time we featured up-and-coming groups like Lostprophets and Mclusky.

“And also in the early years we were involved in attracting (the late Manchester music legend) Tony Wilson who was involved in Factory Records, who launched the In The City music event in Manchester.

“We brought Interactive City which was their digital offshoot to Cardiff.”

Huw believes that while Cool Cymru served its purpose, the WMF had to ensure its legacy was keenly felt for years to come.

“I think what we did was we improved the economic reach of the creative industries and the music industry in Wales,” he muses.

“It was done really out of a fear of that mid-’90s boom not being a blip in history.

“We were kind of worried that it would go back to the days before that when at best you would get one band at a time coming along from Wales and signing a major deal.

“We wanted to encourage activity but wanted to get to a position – which we think we have now – for a group coming from Wales to not have the reaction, ‘Oh you’re from Wales – it’s pretty rubbish musically down there’.

“Now it’s just an everyday occurrence and normal for bands to break through.

“That’s part of the legacy.

“And I think the other thing is that there are lots of bands, lots of labels, lots of venues, lots of activity, so I think we’ve encouraged people – or kept people in the game for longer than they would have anyway.”

That word legacy is really very important.

As Owen Powell points out, the aftershocks of Cool Cymru are still being felt.

“The bands that were successful back then had two effects. Firstly, they made a generation of people want to form their own bands, and secondly, the others who didn’t want to or couldn’t join a band put on gigs, formed labels or got involved in any way they could.”

Radio Wales DJ Bethan Elfyn was one of those inspired by the mid-’90s scene to get involved with music through going to gigs by both English and Welsh-speaking bands.

“Unfortunately in some respects it’s been difficult for the media to move on from those names and bands (of the mid-’90s), but Welsh music hasn’t stopped developing, evolving or producing big names,” she says.

“At a time when indie music is more popular than ever before, the DIY aesthetic of Welsh labels, fanzines, websites, venues and new festivals means there’s more opportunities than ever before and, most importantly, more genres of music.”

That’s the key. Wales has never been about one style of music or one particular scene. It is a particularly parochial area.

“Wales is like four or five different countries in one,” adds Owen Powell.

“Wherever you go you get various sounds and styles – rock and metal in the Valleys, pastoral, psychedelic folk in West Wales. You have the Welsh language stronghold of Gwynedd and everything from dance, hip hop and experimental electronica in between.”

You only have to look at two of Wales’ most successful exports to underline this diverse approach.

From the dark heart of the Rhondda Valley come Lostprophets, heading a fertile rock scene that has already produced Funeral For A Friend, Bullet For My Valentine and Kids In Glass Houses, while at the opposite end of the scale Wales can lay claim to the talents of chart-bothering pop princesses such as Duffy and Marina And The Diamonds.

Ashli Todd of Spillers Records, Cardiff’s self-proclaimed “world’s oldest record shop”, says all these emerging bands are indicative of today’s industrious scene.

“It’s vibrant and buzzing with hotly tipped new acts. Welsh language bands are still thriving within their niche market,” she explains.

“Live music is booming and there are some top-notch releases being distributed by major labels, local labels and in a DIY style.”

Back in the mid-’90s, Todd confesses the popularity of the Manics, Furries, Phonics, Catatonia and the rest of the Cool Cymru crowd, saved the shop from extinction. But she sounds a note of caution to those expecting another epochal musical uprising.

“It doesn’t look like we’re going to have another Cool Cymru.

“This is probably because Welsh bands don’t really need to prove themselves to an international audience.

“Those bands in the last wave of Cool Cymru paved the way for those making music now.

“This time there’s no need for a catchy tag line. It was great for the scene at the time and now it’s not unusual to see Welsh acts in the music press and on radio and national TV – which is how it always should be.”

That’s a view backed by Radio 1 DJ and TV presenter Huw Stephens.

“I think it’s very healthy, there’s so much going on in both English and Welsh languages. There’s a lot of variety.

“We’ve recently had great new albums by Jonny (the collaboration between Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci’s Euros Childs and Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake), Gruff Rhys and The Joy Formidable. Add to this the likes of Pete Lawrie and Marina And The Diamonds, and you also have bands like Kids In Glass Houses making the A list (playlist schedule) at Radio 1 – and no one makes a big deal out of it. It’s become the norm now for successful bands to come out Wales, so hopefully that will mean terms like Cool Cymru will never be used again.”

This confidence in the rude health of Welsh music can be seen in the recent unveiling of the Welsh Music Prize – our version of the acclaimed Mercury Music Prize, launched by Stephens and SWN festival organiser John Rostron.

The Welsh Music Prize hopes to celebrate Welsh music across a wide variety of genres, and will be selected and judged by a panel of industry figures and music experts.

A shortlist of 12 albums released between August 1, 2010 and July 31, 2011 will be announced shortly with the winner to be announced at SWN Festival, the annual music festival staged in Cardiff during October.

“The Welsh Music Prize is a chance to highlight incredible albums made by Welsh musicians, and bring their music to a wider attention,” says Stephens.

“By inviting a panel who love, make or work with music to judge this award, it will be a chance to celebrate the wealth of recording talent that exists in Wales, and shine a light on some exciting, diverse and excellent albums.”

“We’ve long thought Wales should have a critically judged music prize which celebrates the great diversity in genre and language which comes from this country,” adds Rostron. “We had the idea for it a long time ago. We looked at the Mercury Music Prize and what they’ve done. Wales used to have its own awards and this was an opportunity to fill that hole.

“We were also inspired by the Nordic Music Prize which runs alongside a similar festival to SWN in Scandinavia. It worked really well for them and got a lot of exposure for their bands.

“Things came to a head when I brought two bands to Wales, Austra and Braids, who both got shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize – which is Canada’s music award.

“It was then that we thought we have to prioritise it and make it a reality.”

Rostron says the prize will be judged across all music genres.

“We’ll have a wider remit than the Mercury Prize which doesn’t seem to favour rock and metal, and we’ll also include bilingual albums and Welsh language releases.”

Rostron admits: “It’s going to be very difficult shortlisting 12 albums as there’s been so much great music coming out of Wales in the last year.”

One of those bands hoping to make next year’s shortlist is Kids In Glass Houses.

They release their new album In Gold Blood next week and look set to follow the success of their mates Lostprophets, Funeral For A Friend and Bullet For My Valentine.

Guiatrist Iain Mahanty says just as those bands were willing to take Kids In Glass Houses out on the road, now his band are returning the favour and fostering the new breed – revealing the close-knit sense of community that exists amongst the Welsh rock fraternity.

“We’ve had the fortune of playing with Funeral, the Prophets, the Manics, the Phonics. They’ve all given us the chance to support them. We think it’s good to return the favour and give new bands the chance to play with us.”

Ironically when Cool Cymru went overboard, it was joined by a sub-sector of bands from Newport that portrayed the town as the new Seattle, after the American city that spawned Nirvana and a slew of influential indie rock revolutionaries.

Now the new wave of Newport is reverberating to an equally thrilling rock noise, with bands like Town (see page 17), Save Your Breath and Dead Beggars Club leading the charge – bands that are firmly on Mahanty’s radar.

“I went to the Town single launch and the Save Your Breath album launch and both shows were rammed with people who just wanted to hear good music,” says the guitarist.

“We’re all mates. I know bands say they’re friends, but it’s true that we hang out with each other.

“Ben from Save Your Breath slept on my floor for six months. There’s a proper sense of community. Now it feels great.”

This spirit of enterprise among like-minded musicians is self-evident among Wales’ burgeoning Welsh language scene.

Young outfits like Race Horses, Jen Jeniro, Y Niwl, Yr Ods, Y Bandana, Sensegur and Caernarfon’s Masters In France – inspired by the Welsh speaking community that had blazed a trail before them.

“When the Furries and Gorky’s were around I was 12 or 13. Having bands like that made you want to make music,” says Master In France frontman Matthew Ellis-Sayer.

“Some of the Super Furry Animals grew up in Bethesda, they were a great influence. If you can see bands like that doing it and being successful it inspires you.”

These new young Welsh-speaking pretenders are leading the way with a bilingual manifesto that straddles both languages.

“If you’re going to stay in Wales and sing Welsh songs then good luck to you, but it’s not something you can make a living out of. There’s no chance we could pay five wages and do that,” points out Ellis-Sayer.

“We feel that when we go away to England, Scotland or wherever we go and play gigs, if we can put one or two Welsh songs in our set we’re advertising the Welsh language in a positive way as well.

“We have no issues with floating between two languages – if we spoke three we’d probably write songs in them!

“It’s not a problem for us, some people have an issue with Welsh-speaking bands singing in English but I can only see it as a positive to be honest.

“Those attitudes do still exist with some people, the more narrow-minded I think.

“I’ve come across it a few times, as have the other boys in the band. Mainly, it’s a tiny minority but everyone else has given us great support.

“Now DJs at 6 Music who have played our songs are talking about Wales and supporting Welsh bands.

“If you think of the population of Wales and the amount of great music being produced, it’s pretty incredible.”

We’ll leave the last word with Kids In Glass Houses’ Iain Mahanty.

“I think the Welsh music scene is stronger than ever across the board,” he concludes.

“I think people are sitting up and taking notice. You get the feeling that something genuinely exciting is happening.

“You never know, this could be Cool Cymru part two.”