aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Is This The Life?
JC WRITES……….
It’s the start of another new series, one which will have at least ten parts to it over the coming weeks, but I’m hopeful that the author will enjoy himself enough to become a regular contributor to this little corner of t’internet during 2025. He’s someone who shouldn’t need any introduction to many of you who are regular visitors. I won’t add too much as he tells the story in his own introductory paragraphs below. I simply want to not just thank him, but to give him a very warm welcome on his long-awaited return to blogging. And with that…….it’s over to him.
THE ROBSTER WRITES……
Once upon a time, there was a blog called Is This The Life? Alongside all kinds of self-indulgent nonsense, it celebrated the music and culture of the tremendous land of song known as Wales, or Cymru to certain natives. A song posted each Wednesday by a Welsh artist was both an innovative and thrilling concept, the likes of which no one had ever thought to do before, or indeed since. (Imagine if something like that existed for a country like, oh I don’t know, Scotland?) When the blog finally ceased to be, all hope of a revival of this highly celebrated and much revered series appeared to expire with it.
But…
One day, the host of Is This The Life? got bored, so dropped a line to the legendary creator of the greatest music blog in the world (no, not No Badger Required, but you’re on the right track) to ask if he would like to help bring the corpse of this mighty entity back to life. Much to his (my) surprise, Lord JC of Alba said “Aye”. And so, in the face of absolutely no demand whatsoever, Welsh Wednesday returns. Until one of us gets tired of it. All at once, the people of planet Earth can set their differences aside for a few short minutes a week and rejoice at the sounds of a tiny province that gets cruelly overlooked by so many (including the UK Government and media). Don’t worry, there won’t be loads of waffle, just a bit of background and some tunes. I will be aiming to post stuff by artists who never featured in the original series (or its lockdown-induced follow-up), but that’s not a promise. There’s room for everyone here, especially if they are the Super Furry Animals (or one of the umpteen acts their various members have played in).
Make yourself a cuppa tea, some cheese on toast and a Welsh cake and enjoy what will hopefully be a slightly better than average look at some of this fair little nation’s finest musical offerings of the past and present, while keeping an eye and ear on the future. Mwynhau!
#1: Sudd by Adwaith
We’re starting off with a band some of you may have heard of. Adwaith (trans. Reaction) are a three-piece hailing from Carmarthen. They formed in 2015, and by 2018 were releasing songs to much acclaim. Their debut album ‘Melyn’ followed later that same year and in 2019, it won the Welsh Music Prize. A few singles appeared between 2019 and 2020 before the follow-up album ‘Bato Mato’ was unleashed in 2022. It also won the Welsh Music Prize that year, making Adwaith the only act (to date) to win the award twice.
Adwaith are passionate about the Welsh language and have been a part of Welsh Language Music Day for a number of years. They are UK festival regulars and are already making themselves known further afield.
Sudd (trans. Juice) is taken from ‘Bato Mato’ and is one of my favourites from their catalogue. The MP3 is the album version, the video is a live version performed for BBC Wales at the Lleisiau Eraill (trans. Other Voices) festival in Aberteifi last year.
MP3: Sudd – Adwaith (from ‘Bato Mato’, 2022)
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
This is great news!
First Dirk and now The Robster.
Drew and Brian next please!
Isn’t that just gorgeous. I’m aware of the band via Helen Love but have never really taken the plunge to listen to anything. What a fool I’ve been. The vocal harmonies are beautiful and there’s a real sense of shoegaze. As might be excpected, I have no clue as to what is being sung about, but that matters little to me. Hello Adwaith, I’ll be hearing a lot more from you, soon.
Flimflamfan
Looking forward to this series as my wife (JC’s sister in law) is Welsh.
SC
Good to have you back Robster and with a fantastic start into this new series. I like this live version and it sound familiar to me. I just can’t remember to whom they remind me.
Great song and a convincing live performance. If Adwaith ever comes to Germany (formerly known as the Third Reich), I will buy two tickets (My wife loves Adwaith). I promise.
One of my big goals is to put together a playlist of my 24 favourite songs for every year of my life (I know, if you hurry, you can do it in a day). “ETO” (from the same album) is in my 2022 playlist and had a good chance of staying there forever.
I remember carelessly joking recently about how difficult it was to create a playlist of Welsh pop and rock music. Because of this new series and also because I exaggerated a bit, I would like to take that back.
Here is a small list of other musicians/bands from Wales of which I really like at least one song (Sorted from ancient to recent):
Young Marble Giants
The Darling Buds
Catatonia
Gulp
Meilyr Jones
The Joy Formidable
The Bug Club
[silly kisser]
Great to have you back here, Robster – and as a colleague even 😉. Looking very much forward to your choices and I hope that Melys will feature as well as Llwybr Llaethog, their ‘Cyfundrefn Gyfalafol’ ist absolutely ace! Ta, Dirk.
Just out of curiosity, how difficult is it to emigrate to Wales from the US?
… the language might turn out to be a problem, Jonny. But then again this is true for Scotland as well – I mean, let’s face it: you cannot call JC’s muttering ‘proper English’, can you … ?
But at the end of the day this is little league compared to what you are about to face within the next four years …. and us over here also, I’m afraid.
What a bloody nightmare, to be sure … for us “just” financially, but my thoughts are with the poor Ukrainians – they are really f***** now after all their struggle!
Dirk
Cheers everyone.
@[silly kisser] – loads of good tunage from Wales over the years. Go to my place and click the Wales link on the links bar. You’ll see what I mean…
@jonny – We’d be glad to have you mate, if you can afford to live here! Don’t worry abut the language unless you move to the west and north west of the country. The rest of us speak English, though to varying degrees…
@Dirk – Melys probably won’t feature as they were in the original Welsh Wednesdays TWICE! Llwybr Llaethog also featured, so may not do so this time around, but who knows…
*checks flights to Cardiff*
@therobster71:
I was able to find it. Until then I thought Swansea was a city in England. It was a pleasure to include “On Tape” (Peel Session 1988) in my Wales mix.
Thanks [sk]