So, here we are, a handful of days away from Wales Music Day, Â鶹Éç Radio Wales' inaugural celebration of Welsh music's contribution to Welsh culture and the economy, on St David's Day 2010.
I had the idea a couple of years ago: a flag day for Welsh music
staged by the national station. It would signify a real and ongoing
commitment to Welsh music and Welsh musicians. Most importantly, it
would be a fascinating and entertaining listen for the station's
audience.
Back at the end of November we had the go ahead to organise this
musical feast. Three months might seem like a long time to pull this
together, especially if you're used to hit 'n' run, impromptu gigs, but
those months soon feel like minutes when you have Christmas in between
and other programme commitments to fulfil.
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Stuart Cable returns to Â鶹Éç Radio Wales on St David's Day to help celebrate the station's first ever Wales Music Day.
The ex-Stereophonics man will be joining Roy Noble on Monday to chew the fat on all things Welsh music.
In the run-up to John Cale's performance of his seminal Paris 1919 album at London's Royal Festival Hall, Â鶹Éç 6Music caught up with the ex-Velvet Underground man.
Wales Music Day this coming Monday (1 March) sees Radio Wales delve headfirst into the world of new Welsh music. Curated to a large degree by DJ Adam Walton and his production team, the day will involve a range of artists from across a few genres, from the country-tinged soft rock of to the harder stylings of Kids In Glass Houses.
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Hot on the heels of the successful bid to get Rage Against The Machine to the 2009 Christmas Number One spot comes another Facebook campaign, this time to achieve the first Welsh-language Top 40 hit single.
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At a special outside broadcast in Bangor this morning, Radio 1's Chris Moyles announced that the pop station's Big Weekend event will be taking place in Bangor's on 22 and 23 May this year.
One act has so far been announced: chart star Pixie Lott. More acts will be announced in the next few weeks.
20,000 tickets per day will be made available to the public, and registration for tickets will take place online in the near future.
The skin is pale English rose, the knees are bloodied and bruised, and blood trickles down the shin. In the background there's a delicate floral sheet just covering a quilted eiderdown. There's a fragility to the picture, it's a reminder of the playground, it's a reminder of youth and the past, and it's slightly bleached as proper film pictures used to be. It's the cover for the fabulous gatefold album from Los Campesinos! that I bought recently and wanted to blog about weeks ago, but finally get round to it today.
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If you are a budding band, producer, DJ then I hope you've discovered the
Â鶹Éç Introducing website. It's full of useful information for new artists, and is the vital hub connecting all the new music shows across the Â鶹Éç.
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On Saturday 6 March 2010, Â鶹Éç Radio Wales, in conjunction with Radio 1 and Radio Cymru's C2, will be hosting a night of free musical wonderment at , Tal Y Bont (off the A55, just outside Bangor).
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Charlotte Church has been announced as one of the judges on Andrew Lloyd Webber's forthcoming Â鶹Éç TV talent show Over The Rainbow.
The panel of judges, which also includes John Partridge and Sheila Hancock, will help decide who'll play Dorothy in a new stage production of The Wizard Of Oz.
"I'm so looking forward to working with Andrew - he's an icon of the music industry, and a real hero of mine," said Church. "My career started with Pie Jesu, which was of course written by Andrew, so it feels like I've come full circle."
More on Over The Rainbow can be found in the .
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Welsh record label is rush-releasing a compilation of music recorded in Port-au-Prince in aid of the victims of the .
Haiti Vodou: The Drums Of Haiti will be released on 1 March with 100% of profits going to relief efforts in Haiti.
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The Boardwalk in Sheffield is one of the many unpretentious music
venues dotted around the less celebrated parts of the country that
manages to be the first and last, beer-sticky rung on the ladder for
many of our music-making folk.
A handwritten history on a scrap of
paper on the dressing room wall details the notable talents who have
passed through: AC/DC, the Pretenders, the Clash, Patto (mentioned for
my friend, Ben, who'll get a kick out of that) - it's quite a list.
The
posters at the entrance tell the story of the other end of the
spectrum: Mentallica, Limehouse Lizzy and, the night following my
visit, Sgt Pepper's Only Dartboard Band. I'm not decrying tribute
bands, frequently it's the punters who come in to see these that
subsidise a venue's ability to support upcoming, independent talent.
So, I'm here to see Milford Haven's exquisite Paper Aeroplanes and Aberystwyth's
Georgia Ruth.
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Ahead of the release of her debut album this Monday, we've been listening to the record that looks like it's going to propel the half-Welsh half-Greek
Marina And The Diamonds into the bigtime. Here's our track-by-track guide to the sound of The Family Jewels.
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I don't know how I've managed to avoid Los Campesinos! over the four-ish years since I first played them on the radio. Their ascent was as quick and exciting as any Welsh band of the last decade. The fact that they're playing Central Station in Wrexham, just round the corner from where I work, is great squared, to the power of 10.
Photo: Paul Gregory
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The third album by Porthcawl's metal heroes Bullet For My Valentine has been announced with a release date set for 26 April.
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Welsh opera star Sir Geraint Evans will be celebrated with the unveiling of a blue plaque at Pontypridd High School this year.
The plaque to the world-famous singer - who was born in Cilfynydd and who died in 1992 - will be unveiled at Pontypridd High School on 14 May.
While the Welsh presence at the Brit Awards tonight may be a little paltry, in the , the country has no fewer than three nominees up for Best Classical Album.
Ex man Rhydian Roberts is nominated for O Fortuna, while Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir are nominated for Voices Of The Valley: Memory Lane and Only Men Aloud are up for their album Band Of Brothers.
The Classical Brit Awards take place on 13 May.
With the on tonight, and Duffy and Marina And The Diamonds the sole Welsh representatives (Duffy as part of the frankly execrable list of the best 'BRITs Album of 30 Years' which is as nonsensical as its title, and Marina as one of the Critics' Choice nominees), we've been reliving some past Welsh involvement in the annual music industry backslap.
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Based on some crunchy remixes and promising original tracks the team
here in Â鶹Éç towers thought we'd continue to focus and feature a run of
really young new names here in Wales producing exciting music.
From Leucine, Ivan Moult, to Hail! The Planes, the bands and producers
in session have given the show a sparky start to 2010, and helped us
get to know the Welsh music scene's new breed of musicians. This week
we stuck our necks out a bit and had a really new producer in to do a
mix.
With just two week's notice Axxon (aka Jack Meadows from
Newport/Monmouth) took to the challenge like duck to water, and his
wealth and bredth of musical choices were brave, bold and adventurous.
You'll have to listen back to the show to hear his brilliant mix, but
exclusively for the blog I wanted to find out a bit more about him.
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Tonight (Monday 15 February) sees a host of Welsh stars performing at a charity concert at Cardiff's in aid of Haiti earthquake victims.
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A film director working on a biopic on Lemmy, the frontman of Motorhead and once of Hawkwind, has gone to Lemmy's primary school in Amlwch to find out more about his formative years.
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An "all star line-up" of musicians, golfers and celebrities will appear at a concert to celebrate the start of the Ryder Cup on 29 September.
So far no acts have been announced for the Welcome To Wales event but organisers told the that the event will feature "international superstars including popular Welsh artists".
Assembly First Minister Carwyn Jones said, "This is an ideal way to kick-start proceedings and show the world what Wales has to offer".
Speculation will inevitably start about potential artists for the gig and we at Â鶹Éç Wales Music will indulge by saying that Manic Street Preachers' Nicky Wire is famed for his love of golf. And their 2007 album was called Send Away The s - surely no coincidence?
Who do you think should appear?
Sometimes they're schmaltzy, sometimes they're silly, sometimes they're deeply affecting, but 'love' songs are the oldest form of pop music.
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/iplayer/episode/b00qnsyp/Adam_Walton_07_02_2010/
This week's show features the first part of a celebration of the Independent Music Award winning compilation album Blodeugerdd: Song of the Flowers - an Anthology of Welsh Music and Song. The compiler and producer of the album, acknowledged authority on traditional Welsh music, Ceri Rhys Matthews, joins us to tell us about how the album was commissioned by ; how the album was recorded; and various other aspects of this fascinating and beautiful album.
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As you hopefully know by now, Â鶹Éç Introducing, my radio show, is all about unearthing some brand new talent and maybe play some music you'll have never heard before. Discovering that music comes in many shapes and ways and one of the best ways always has been 'word of mouth'.
No amount of internet connection will replace talking amongst a group of people about a great gig you've seen or a wonderful CD you've bought. Its one of the best things after all about getting to know your local record shop - but that's another story.
Ìý
Its through a student radio DJ, Dan Potts, at Cardiff's Xpress radio that I came to hear about this week's session artist, Ivan Moult. Dan had seen Ivan perform in the student open mic night, and as a fellow student saw how popular Ivan was becoming at these gigging occasions.
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Look, there are those who will outright dismiss the idea of guitar
instrumental surf-ish music in 2010. I wonder if those same people
forego pizza because it's been around for a couple of centuries; thumb
their nose at the moon for being an old fart of a planetary satellite;
and only read novels finished the day after they start reading them.
But
one man's passé is another man's revelation, and in my book there's
nowt as passé as prescriptivism. All that counts, generally, are vision
and the passion to see that vision through.
Y Niwl's vision is
guitar instrumentals in the tradition of Dick Dale, Link Wray and the
Ventures. The junkshop organ that oscillates through flipside Tri hints
at The Tornados' Joe Meek-produced Telstar, a record that changed the
instrumental forever, that became iconic because of its experimental
sounds and recording techniques.
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Welsh-language label celebrates its fifth birthday this year with a new compilation featuring artists on the label and its sister imprints and .
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judge and Welsh 'popera' mainstay Katherine Jenkins has issued a 'come and get me' appeal to kingpin to replace on the hit ITV show.
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I'm a long way from home. 154 miles if I came via Shrewsbury, 202 if I'd chanced the motorway. I can't remember. I was up at 5:30am. And I've had a couple of beers. I wasn't intending on reviewing this, but I heard stuff that intrigued me and have to share. The memories are fuzzy. Please forgive.
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Determination is a wonderful thing, and you'll find no less a determined bunch than the band Race Horses, made up of members Meilyr Jones, Alun Gaffey, Dylan Hughes and Gwion Llewelyn.
Despite line up changes, years and years of performing, and travelling from the four corners of Wales to various gigs, in the last few months they really have flowered as a band and blossomed with newly-released album Goodbye Falkenburg.
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| 14:28 UK time, Friday, 26 February 2010
Adam Walton
Bethan Elfyn
James McLaren
Laura Sinnerton
