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Archives for November 2009

Review: Paper Aeroplanes - The Day We Ran Into The Sea

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Adam Walton Adam Walton | 09:26 UK time, Friday, 27 November 2009

It's not all about the rutting sound of distorted instruments clashing at the speed of loud. Sure there's a primal thrill to uncivilised music with ambitions to rape and pillage society's sense of decorum. But all that bluster and noise is as archaic as cannon fire to me, for the most part. So speaketh the aged man.

Paper Aeroplanes are not loud.

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Rhydian's O Fortuna out Monday

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music | 07:44 UK time, Friday, 27 November 2009

Rhydian Roberts' second album, O Fortuna, is out this coming Monday and features a host of established names in the world of classical and opera.

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Stereophonics' Kelly Jones going for Hollywood?

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music | 08:55 UK time, Thursday, 26 November 2009

Stereophonics frontman Kelly Jones has been talking about a potential alternative to his songwriting career: scripting Hollywood films.

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Cerys has baby boy early

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music | 14:59 UK time, Wednesday, 25 November 2009

Cerys Matthews, one of Wales' best-known music stars and ex-singer of Catatonia, has given birth to a baby boy eight weeks prematurely, and says he's "an amazing surprise".

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Katherine Jenkins apologises to fans over cancelled gig

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music | 10:32 UK time, Wednesday, 25 November 2009

Katherine Jenkins was forced to cancel a London gig yesterday after falling ill.

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Demo reviews #1: Trader, Zebedy, Damir Bojanic, Of Eden

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Adam Walton Adam Walton | 14:46 UK time, Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Here's my first round-up of a few of the many demos to have come my way in recent weeks. Feel free to comment on the music, and read on if you've always wondered what Zappa disco breakcore sounds like.

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All Tomorrows Parties and the Soundtrack Film Festival

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Bethan Elfyn Bethan Elfyn | 13:58 UK time, Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Over the weekend Cardiff hosted another exciting, growing festival that saw the glitterati of the music world in a slightly different context, the . Creation Records, Warp Film, John Cale and Gruff Rhys were among those involved, the latter launching an extremely exciting film project called Seperado!, a personal odessey from Gruff as he travels Patagonia. I can't wait for a general release, or at least another showing!

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Jenkins and Potts may judge ITV opera talent show

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music | 10:33 UK time, Tuesday, 24 November 2009

A new ITV opera-based talent show is set to feature Wales' Katherine Jenkins and perhaps Paul Potts alongside Myleene Klass as judges, according to a report from .

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Adam Walton playlist and show info: Sunday 22 November 2009

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Adam Walton Adam Walton | 10:24 UK time, Tuesday, 24 November 2009

This week's show features:

Serrated noise from Newport's recorded last month at Swn Festival. Theirs is a music of intelligent rage, not just primal catharsis. It's cleverer than a fieldful of hardcore foxes. You can hum some bits of it. Great, in other words.

You can see the whole show playlist, and listen again for the next seven days.

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Catching up with Gallops

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music | 13:59 UK time, Monday, 23 November 2009

Wrexham's Gallops recorded their forthcoming EP in Cardiff last weekend, for release in the new year. We caught up with Mark and Dave of the band as they put the finishing touches to their recordings.

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Lostprophets: X Factor throwing people to the lions

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music | 08:31 UK time, Monday, 23 November 2009

Fame was never the aim for Lostprophets, say Mike Lewis and Stuart Richardson as they talk to Radio Wales' Jamie and Louise show.

Listen again here.

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The guitarist and bassist, promoting their forthcoming fourth album, The Betrayed, say that many artists enter the music industry for the wrong reasons.

Three to see: Harbour, Saturday's Kids, Évariste Galois

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Bethan Elfyn Bethan Elfyn | 11:20 UK time, Friday, 20 November 2009

Some new rocking bands for your enjoyment. Not tips for 2010... yet!

This is a strange time of year where journos start pontificating about the year just gone, and predicting emptily about the future. The NME in front of me has even gone for the best albums of the last decade... ulp! I will inevitably start doing the same soon enough, as for a brief time over Christmas it is a slight relief that the silly hamster wheel of the music industry does slow down briefly, and we get a chance to sit supping Mulled Wine in our furry armchairs and think about what's gone.

Until that time, I'd like to introduce three new furious bands that I've come across of late. These bands have helped remind me of the beauty of some brutal punk rock, that music is about energy, fun, loudness, no-nonsense pedal to the metal, full throttle 'ngraaaaaaah'.

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Mother Of Six: Greek riffology

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Adam Walton Adam Walton | 10:48 UK time, Friday, 20 November 2009

are a storm that has been gathering over Wrexham for the last 18 months. All the black clouds, ominous rumblings and spectacular flashes are about to reach some kind of apotheosis with the release of their eponymous debut EP on Monday 30 November.

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Radio Soundhog Vol. 7 - The Game's Over

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Adam Walton Adam Walton | 15:50 UK time, Wednesday, 18 November 2009

Sometimes I have to bite down on the hyperbole. Great Big Billboard Statements Proclaiming Boundless Musical Brilliance do more harm than good, I suspect. But when I have something to share with you that is so good it feels like a fusion-powered bluebottle buzzing round in my skull, the hyperbole is almost impossible to restrain.

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Adam Walton playlist and show info: Sunday 15 November 2009

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Adam Walton Adam Walton | 14:08 UK time, Wednesday, 18 November 2009

This week's show features an exclusive session from Wales' finest exponents of what some might call 'power pop', except in the skilled hands of Swansea's power pop melds the urgent, effulgent melodies of Todd Rundgren, Jellyfish and Big Star with a spiritual sensibility traceable back to The Band. It's a wonderful session from a band whose previous includes singer Dai's stint in the should-have-been-much-more-widely-appreciated Caves.

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Lostprophets speak about new album The Betrayed

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music | 10:32 UK time, Tuesday, 17 November 2009

´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music recently spoke to Lostprophets' Stuart Richardson and Mike Lewis about recording their new album The Betrayed (due in January 2010), the early recording sessions for it that were eventually shelved, and how making a 'more honest' record brought the band closer together.

Watch the four-part interview on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music website.

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Bethan Elfyn playlist and show info: Thursday 12 November 2009

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Bethan Elfyn Bethan Elfyn | 12:15 UK time, Friday, 13 November 2009

This week's show was an across the board delight with a beautiful instrumental session from the terrific Tim and Sam's Tim and The Sam Band With Tim and Sam (or Tim and Sam for short).

The Drums turned in an amazing acoustic performance and dished the dirt on their tour-van soundtracks as our first ever White Van Band.

We also had Don Leisure's tips from the netherworld of dubstep and future soul.

You can hear the show for the next seven days - and see the whole playlist - at the Radio 1 website.

Great North Walean Albums

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Adam Walton Adam Walton | 09:30 UK time, Friday, 13 November 2009

I hauled my heavy ass up Moel Famau this morning. A freakish morning devoid of rain must have addled my big head.

I eschewed the silence and birdsong in favour of some choice Welsh demos on the iPod. I think I heard the first two. The rest of the country's nascent musical efforts were obliterated by the sound of my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest.

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Meeting Tim and Sam from Tim and Sam's Tim and the Sam Band

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Bethan Elfyn Bethan Elfyn | 11:45 UK time, Wednesday, 11 November 2009

What are your favourite long band names? I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness (Texas), The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster (Brighton), And You Will Know Us By The Trail of the Dead (El Paso), Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine (London), The Presidents of the United States of America (USA), and so on...

There's now a new unusually long band name in their midst, Tim and Sam's Tim and the Sam Band with Tim and Sam. A band who started off as a collective in Ewole Green, near Buckley, north Wales, and have finally honed their instrumental pastorally-charming songs into a finely-tuned machine.

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Young Fathers, Soft Toy Emergency, Y Promatics at Bangor University

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Bethan Elfyn Bethan Elfyn | 11:28 UK time, Wednesday, 11 November 2009

Young Fathers, Soft Toy Emergency, Y Promatics @ Lost Property Nov 3rd 2009.
´óÏó´«Ã½ Introducing at Bangor University Student's Union.

Bangor is one of the smallest citites in the UK, and at the last census has around 10,000 students - this is the Wikipedia description of the place.

Bangor is also my birth city, though my parents moved when I was six months old, but I returned to Bangor to work for Radio Cymru and get invaluable training as a rookie researcher for the ´óÏó´«Ã½.

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Mank interview

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Adam Walton Adam Walton | 14:10 UK time, Tuesday, 10 November 2009

Ben Powell, a.k.a. , has been making unsettling and beautiful electronic music for almost a decade.

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Adam Walton playlist and show info: Sunday 8 November 2009

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Adam Walton Adam Walton | 17:00 UK time, Monday, 9 November 2009

This week's show features a live set from the monumythical, bearded hat and primal storm of piano that is Aberystwyth's , recorded at last month's Sŵn Festival in Cardiff.

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Lucie Jones suffers Jedward X Factor snub

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music | 08:44 UK time, Monday, 9 November 2009

Lucie Jones has been the surprise evictee of X Factor, after losing in a sing-off against cartoonish Dublin twins . But, in the long run, is it such a bad thing for the 18-year-old from Pentyrch near Cardiff?

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Anhrefn's Rhys Mwyn: memories of the Berlin Wall

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music | 15:39 UK time, Friday, 6 November 2009

In the 1980s and 1990s, Rhys Mwyn was lead singer of influential Welsh punks Anhrefn, one of the very first Western bands to play East Berlin. He spoke to Radio Wales about his recollections of playing in the city as the wall came down.

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John Lawrence - Rainy Night

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Adam Walton Adam Walton | 16:19 UK time, Thursday, 5 November 2009

I'm sitting on a train to Manchester, over-priced, magma-hot coffee on the shaky table, flush with the familiar disappointment of having left Something Important at home.

I'm on the way to Manchester to meet Martin Carr for breakfast (ooh, hark at me!). I'm a day and a half late. I was supposed to make this journey on Monday night, to come and see Martin support the very great Jimmy Webb. However a fever and sore throat conspired against me.

In less melodramatic terms: I had a bit of a cold.

I thought that I'd listen to John Lawrence's new album, Rainy Night, on the way and thus inspired and prepared would write an insightful review that would compel you to rush out and buy it. Well, stay in and buy it... you order it off the internet, but that doesn't have the same ring to it.

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Rhydian's X Factor follow-up

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music | 10:09 UK time, Thursday, 5 November 2009

Following up his best-selling debut, Rhydian Roberts has announced details of his second album, O Fortuna.

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Tribute to Cardiff Singer founder J Mervyn Williams

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music | 17:33 UK time, Wednesday, 4 November 2009

J Mervyn Williams, who founded the Cardiff Singer of the World competition n 1983, has died aged 74.

'Merv', as he was universally known, was ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales' Head of Music in the first half of the 1980s, he was responsible for a huge amount of music broadcasting from Wales, during which the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Welsh Symphony Orchestra (now the ´óÏó´«Ã½ National Orchestra of Wales) became the most-televised orchestra in Britain.

But perhaps Merv's greatest achievement at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ was the establishment of Cardiff Singer of the World. Read Merv's recollections of the struggle he had to get Cardiff Singer off the ground in 1983, and our full tribute on the competition website.

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Farewell to competition founder J Mervyn Williams

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Cardiff Singer Cardiff Singer | 10:36 UK time, Wednesday, 4 November 2009

J Mervyn Williams, who founded Cardiff Singer in 1983, has died aged 74.

'Merv', as he was universally known, was a force to be reckoned with in Welsh television circles. As ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales' Head of Music in the first half of the 1980s, he was responsible for a huge amount of music broadcasting from Wales, during which the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Welsh Symphony Orchestra (now the ´óÏó´«Ã½ National Orchestra of Wales) became the most-televised orchestra in Britain.

As well as delivering programmes for broadcast in Wales in both Welsh and English, Merv's considerable powers of persuasion led to many commissions from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two in London. These included many very popular series featuring Welsh tenors Stuart Burrows and Dennis O'Neill; performances of sacred music such as Handel's Messiah conducted by Sir Roger Norrington from Savonlinna in Finland and Elgar's Dream of Gerontius conducted by Andrew Davis in Worcester Cathedral; programmes of Christmas and Easter music recorded on location in Israel with Aled Jones and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Welsh Chorus; and recordings of the major symphonic repertoire, such as the complete symphonies of Tchaikovsky conducted by Mariss Jansons, from St David's Hall, Cardiff.

But perhaps Merv's greatest achievement at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ was the establishment of this competition. Read Merv's recollections of the struggle he had to get Cardiff Singer off the ground in 1983.

He left the ´óÏó´«Ã½ in 1985, shortly after the second competition, to found a very successful TV production company.

Merv was not a trained musician - his degree was in geography - but was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about classical music of all kinds. Distinguished TV music director Rodney Greenberg remembers a lively discussion in the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Club in Cardiff started by Merv's perhaps controversial assertion, which drew on his knowledge of both music and geography: "If you put a compass point on Vienna on the map and extend the compass across a 50 mile radius, you'll find that every important development in western music happened within that area."

Anna Williams, the competition administrator who worked closely with Merv for many years, reflects on his legacy:

"Mervyn was the right man in the right place at the right time in early 1980s. His talent for producing ideas of a high standard and his determination to involve the best possible artists coincided with the formation of S4C and the opening of St David's Hall in Cardiff. He used the venue to its full potential - ´óÏó´«Ã½ Cardiff Singer of the World still thrives and it has established a lasting partnership between ´óÏó´«Ã½ Cymru Wales, Welsh National Opera and the city of Cardiff.

"It was a golden age for the broadcasting of all music in Wales and Merv's death has rekindled many happy memories of the people we worked with and the performances, which will never be forgotten, as we continue to benefit from his legacy.

"Merv had a wonderful life and did exactly as he wished throughout it."

Aarno Cronvall, the Finnish television executive, remembers when he brought Karita Mattila to Cardiff to represent Finland in the first competition in 1983.

"Mervyn was a real character, and gave his time freely to these young singers. His famous advice to them was: 'Do not compete - make music!'

"We all had the feeling that we were a big family supporting each other and we were taken care of superbly. The reputation and the quality of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Cardiff Singer of the World has always been excellent and it is the competition and of course Mervyn's 'baby'.

"Mervyn was always low profile in public but he always knew what to do and how to go further. He was a legend in TV music circles. He believed in people. A true, warm, and loyal friend, he encouraged and supported and was always ready to give his advice and help when needed. He believed that music can make the world better. I think he was right."

Lucie Jones on the X Factor 'bubble'

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Music | 09:09 UK time, Wednesday, 4 November 2009

Lucie Jones, the X Factor contestant from Pentyrch in Cardiff, joined Radio Wales' Mel Doel to discuss her time on the show.

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Catching up with Spencer McGarry

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Bethan Elfyn Bethan Elfyn | 14:34 UK time, Tuesday, 3 November 2009

Spencer McGarry, the band, the man, and the music, is a puzzle, a musical puzzle that you have to embrace for all its eccentricities and flamboyance.

The pomp, energy and enthusiasm of songs like A Title Sparks Would Have Used and Leader Of The Chain Gang from album no 1, aka Episode 1, may now be making way for new songs that have climbed the OTT ladder and deliver something only hinted at, winked at previously - a musical theatre masterpiece.

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