‘Every day when I wake up, I thank the Lord I’m Welsh…’
There’s no song that epitomises 1990s Wales quite like Catatonia’s International Velvet, and its lyrical content continues to occupy my mind over a quarter-century later. In fact, I’ve woken up every day for the last three years thinking about it.
Back in August 2021, the University of Wales Press emailed me asking if I would like to write a book for them as they had listened to the Welsh Music Podcast (which I’ve co-hosted with James Cuff since 2019). They were just about to launch a new non-fiction imprint called Calon (meaning ‘heart’ in Cymraeg) to celebrate the forthcoming 100th anniversary of the Press.
Originally, my pitch was for an exhaustive history of Welsh music, but what is even your starting point for such a huge project and what genres to include? It was too tall an order for a book of approximately 250 pages. Instead, we decided it was time to revisit the 90s boom period of Welsh music – aptly in 90,000 words.
Although there have been great books written individually about the Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia, Stereophonics and the Super Furry Animals, there’s never been one that delved deep into that groundbreaking Cool Cymru scene. I always think you should write about what you know, and as a 90s kid, I’m hugely nostalgic for my childhood when Welsh bands regularly appeared on Top of the Pops and graced magazine covers. Born in 1986, I’m a bit sad that I was too young to attend era-defining gigs like Knebworth and Manic Millennium, but with Oasis announcing their long-awaited reunion over the summer; the timing of a book on 90s music and culture couldn’t have been better.
Yet, the term ‘Cool Cymru’ still elicits winces from musicians and fans alike. On the book’s tour I’ve felt hackles raised at its mere utterance. Like Britpop, it’s a collective marketing tool devised by the media to meld together disparate bands who have nothing in common other than their national identity. Therefore, I certainly wasn’t going to include ‘Cool Cymru’ in the book’s title or subtitle.
Away from the branding though, there’s so much to be proud of from that time. Why wouldn’t you celebrate Manic Street Preachers selling five million copies of their most quintessentially Welsh album This is My Truth Tell Me Yours? That figure included one million sales in Wales alone, so one in three of the population owned it! Or how about Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci having BBC Radio 1 Single of the Week with the bilingual beauty of Patio Song? Or Stereophonics putting a tiny Welsh mining village in Cwmaman on the map by weaving true-life tales of the Cynon Valley on Word Gets Around? The Manics may have pulled down the curtain on 20th century on Millennium Eve of all nights, but perhaps the crowning glory of Cool Cymru was Super Furry Animals releasing Mwng in their mother tongue a few months later?
I briefly considered calling the book A Design for Life, which was my entry point into Manics just shy of my tenth birthday in 1996. A seismic sounding ode to working class resilience, spirit and self-empowerment that won an Ivor Novello award, it’s a song that remains immediately synonymous with Welsh music nearly 30 years after its release.
Yet, International Velvet summed up the 90s in Wales even better. The song was such a great discussion point throughout the book that it became a no-brainer as the title. Whether you think its chorus is completely over the top or even cringe is missing the point (and its intended heavy dose of irony). Such a lyric was inconceivable only a few short years before when Wales was a laughing stock for the London music press, and A&R men didn’t travel further than the Severn Bridge. Even worse were horror stories of bands posting their records to the media from Bristol, so that their packages had English postmarks. In the book’s intro, producer Gorwel Owen talked of working with North Walian bands, who claimed they were from Liverpool to secure coverage.
Thankfully, that all changed in the 90s. On Catatonia’s 1998 chart-topping album (also called) International Velvet, you now had a singer in Cerys Matthews reveling in her Welsh accent – from the rolled r’s of Road Rage to the elongated vowel sounds of Mulder and Scully. Most notably, on the title-track you had a band proudly wearing their national identity on its sleeve. When Wales hosted the Rugby World Cup in 1999, it wasn’t the aforementioned Top 5 singles that the organisers wanted to kick off the tournament. It was International Velvet – an album track – that was chosen to showcase the nation on a global stage.
Far from flag-waving, International Velvet actually tears down stereotypes of Welshness in its Cymraeg lyrics before the tongue-in-cheek, patriotic bombast of the chorus. As the book’s title, I liked the idea of promoting an internationalist vibe and to illustrate that it wasn’t just on these shores that these artists were successful.
Hence, amongst the ticket stubs on the cover, you get the Manics in New York and the Super Furries in Tokyo, as well as The Darling Buds in Hollywood, Donna Lewis in Canada and Anhrefn in Germany. Elsewhere, there’s a mix of the iconic (Catatonia and Stereophonics at Margam Park and Cardiff Castle respectively) and the more obscure (The Crocketts at Wolverhampton Civic Hall and The Pooh Sticks at The Krazyhouse in Liverpool).
Speaking of the latter, I recently enjoyed a magical mystery tour around Liverpool with God is in the TV Features Editor, Cath Holland. I’ve been a fan of her work for the last few years (and she’s quoted in the book about Gorky’s). With Cath living in nearby Birkenhead and me already being on Merseyside for a match at Anfield, Cath was the perfect tour guide and special guest for the evening’s book talk in Oswestry.
In the immediate aftermath of the flooding, Welsh-language voices of rebellion became commonplace in music. Co-written with Dafydd Iwan and Meic Stevens, Huw Jones issued a protest song that vented the fury of a generation. Bolstered by Heather Jones’s ethereal backing vocals, Dwr (meaning ‘Water’) became the first single released on Sain (‘Sound’) in October 1969. References to Capel Celyn continued into the 90s with Tryweryn by Tystion and the Manics’ song Ready for Drowning. The latter featured a soundbite from Richard Burton, whose first movie role in 1949, The Last Days of Dolwyn, revolved around the flooding of a Welsh village.
Yet, the links between Liverpool and Wales go back way further than 1965, and generally it’s been a far more positive relationship. Liverpool is often referred to as the capital of North Wales, and on a clear day it’s possible for each location to see each other. In the early 1500s, the city had a Welsh mayor in Dafydd ap Gruffydd, and by the late 1700s, many North Walians travelled to Liverpool for work. Consequently, by 1813 almost 10% of people living in Liverpool were Welsh. Areas like Anfield, Everton, Dingle, Vauxhall and Wavertree had high migrant populations where Cymraeg was the dominant language. A slight Scouse twang can still be heard in North Walian accents.
The Welsh influx brought with them a love of music and Cymraeg, and they built many chapels to celebrate both including one overlooking Penny Lane. Founded in 1900 after a National Eisteddfod in Liverpool, the Liverpool Welsh Choral continues to be a haven for Welsh speakers with a membership of over 130 singers under the patronage of Sir Karl Jenkins.
In the late 19th century, there was also the creation of 16 streets in Toxteth, which were named after Welsh towns and villages. Designed by Welsh architect Richard Owens and constructed by Welsh builders to house the dockers. A terraced property on Madryn Street even provided Ringo Starr with his early childhood home.
The presence of The Beatles in Liverpool is inescapable, so to further immerse myself in my surroundings, the superb McCartney: A Life in Lyrics podcast accompanied my walk. Peppered around the city centre are Beatles statues of varying quality, so Cath and myself met under the noses of their best likenesses looking out towards the River Mersey. The connections between The Fab Four and Wales are countless including a recent claim that John Lennon was a long distant relative of Owain Glyndŵr and Llywelyn the Great.
The Beatles even ventured into North Wales for a new drummer. In the summer of ’62, they recruited Ringo Starr from a Pwllheli Butlin’s holiday camp for a grand sum of £25 per week after spotting him playing with Rory Storm & The Hurricanes. Thrown into the deep end, Ringo was soon behind the kit in Hamburg for the band’s new singles Love Me Do and Please Please Me.
As world domination beckoned, The Beatles still honoured a £50 agreement with Mold Urban District Council for a gig at the Assembly Hall in January 1963. Likewise, they also kept a promise to fulfil a date at Abergavenny Town Hall Ballroom later that year. Yet, there was a last-minute hitch when John Lennon was doubled-booked for an appearance on the BBC’s Juke Box Jury in London. A hasty plan was hatched to airlift the singer to Abergavenny and arrive at the gig in the nick of time. Fast-forward to December 1965 and with fan hysteria reaching fever pitch, The Beatles played their UK performance in front of a paying audience at Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre.
A couple of years later, The Beatles went on a day trip to Bangor for a seminar on transcendental meditation by Indian guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Even fellow scouser, Cilla Black joined them (surprise, surprise!) Sadly, their retreat was cut short though when news broke that their manager Brian Epstein had died from an overdose of sleeping pills. In 2022, a statue of the Beatles’ boss was unveiled on Whitechapel.
Perfectly placed opposite the Epstein family business NEMS (North End Music Store), it’s also around the corner from the Cavern Club where he saw the band for the first time in 1961.
Part Two tomorrow…
- The next International Velvet event is at Wrexham Library on Wednesday 6 November at 6.30pm with special guest, Ash Cooke of Derrero. Entry is FREE, but please reserve your spot by calling 01978 292090.
- For interviews and podcasts or to arrange an International Event, please contact @neilcollins86 or the Welsh Music Podcast on social media.
- International Velvet: How Wales Conquered the 90s Charts is available now in bookshops and online including the University of Wales Press here: https://www.uwp.co.uk/book/international-velvet/
Photo credit: Neil Collins / Cath Holland
