plaid cymru

during the time i was sauntering between my folks' house and the small-holding in darkest wales welsh language bands seemed to appear in one big lump out of the undergrowth.
i know lots of them were around already of course, but it seemed like a sudden thing that peel was playing them and then there was a feature on some of them on (i think) snub tv (though i may be wrong).



i recorded the tv thing and watched it over and over.
were anhrefn on it? i don't remember. they were a bit straight punk for me (nowadays they'd be emo i suppose).
my favourite part was datblygu doing "casserole efeilliaid" ("the casserole twins").
oh i loved that song.

i was spending more and more time in wales and seriously considered learning welsh - i even made moves to start, and dipped into a few books on it.
then i realised what hard work it'd be.



then there was the adoreable tynal tywyll.
a welsh primal scream if you will.
shimmering, byrds-y guitars and a bobby-gillespie-out-of-the-valleys singer.
perhaps they did more than just the one 7" i bought.
i never found out.
but it's a great single - a real lost gem.
i may well stick it up here at some point - maybe the next compilation installment.

then this came out:



it was on the turntable forever.
didn't understand a word.
didn't care.

you know, there are friends of mine who i love dearly who say stuff like,
"urgh. sorry but if it's not sung in english and i don't understand it then i don't really like it because i don't get the point of it."

that's an attitude that drives me crazy.
and it's that attitude that makes bands sing in english.
and it spoils so many bands.

i'm thinking now of my time living in italy a few years ago.
i know this is nothing to do with my life as an indie-kid, but i've made myself think and now i need to get this out.

take consorzio suonatori indipendenti for example.
CSI are a heavily political band and having them sing their agitprop in english about what they see to be the problem in italy would make a mockery of them.
but then in terms of their sound, if they sang in english they could well be all over the music media all over the world.

what am i trying to say?
i don't know really.

oh, perhaps i do - i LOVE bob hund but they wouldn't be who they are if they sang in english.
i love the welsh bands as much for being bloody-minded enough to sing in welsh as for sounding great.

that said i love melt banana and they sing in english.
kind of.

note: i promise to try not to digress from the 80's indie thing anymore.