Chester: Welshpop

Welshpop

You would assume that the term Britpop would refer to pop music emanating from the British Isles. However, this is not the case. The bands which have dominated the Britpop scene have almost entirely been from England (and more commonly based in London). Obviously whoever coined the term (no doubt it was either The Melody Maker or The NME) decided that Engpop or Lonpop just didn't have that ring to it, even if it was a damn sight more accurate.

Super furry! It's hardly surprising that Britpop is so Londoncentric when you consider that most record companies and the powerful British music press are also based in London. This situation has stirred much indignation through the British Isles with many bands feeling left out of the most significant resurgence of British music since the 60's. Surprisingly it is the Welsh who are now challenging England's dominance of Britpop.

Up until now Welsh music, apart from a few exceptions, has failed to excite the world. This seems set to change with a plethora of exciting bands emerging from Wales including Catatonia, the 60Ft Dolls, Novocaine and Creation's Super Furry Animals (photo left). Mark Bowen, Creation's head of A&R and the man who signed the Super Furry Animals says "Once the taboo was broken and Welsh bands were no longer perceived as being necessarily uncool, the climate changed and Welsh acts were allowed to prosper."

Sweet Cery's and Mark golly it's the 60ft dolly's The new Welsh bands have little in common musically. They're also divided linguistically. The 60Ft Dolls (right) have no tradition of speaking Welsh and are aligned to the more Anglo sounds of the southerners. Whereas Cardiff's Catatonia (left) share the Celtic-based ideals of North Wales and are all Welsh speakers. Catatonia however choose to sing in English, as Cerys Matthews explains:

"Speaking the language is natural for us, but we sing in English in order to reach as many people as possible."

In the context of these emerging Welsh bands, it seems fitting that older Welsh bands such as The Manic Street Preachers and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci are also enjoying new found success.

Alex Allegos

A lesson in geography

The music landscape never ceases to amaze. Overnight geographical regions become music hot spots. So what would it take to get say Glen Waverley* onto the musical map? Basically it's a three step process:

1. Firstly there needs to be the discovery. All music hot spots can be traced to one truly great band - Seattle / Nirvana, Merseyside / The Beatles, Manchester / Happy Mondays.

As an alternative the Glen Waverley Council may wish to lure bands to the region and then claim them as their own. The City of Camden has been very successful in this regard, attracting such bands as Blur, Elastica and of course Oasis to its environs.

2. The next step involves the music press converging on the region looking to interview the next Oasis, Nirvana or The Beatles.

Front cover stories declaring the New Glen Waverley Sound to be truly revolutionary will start appearing in music weeklies everywhere. Bands from all over the world will clamour to pronounce their links to the Glen Waverley scene. Comments like "my grandma once lived there" will become common.

3. The final step involves record companies, behaving like countries going to war, sending battalions of A&R men to Glen Waverley with wads of cash. Acting on the belief that there exists a scientifically proven correlation between a region's drinking water and the quality of it's music, the record companies will sign anyone foolish enough to admit to having been in a school choir.

At this point the world will be trumpeting the new Glen Waverley sound and punters everywhere will shelve out money for CDs which one day will make nice drinking coasters.

* For those of you unfamiliar with Melbourne, Glen Waverley is located in the middle of suburbia.

Content and design � Chester 1996.