SUPER FURRY SUNDAYS (aka The Singular Adventures of Super Furry Animals)

A new guest series by The Robster

It was St David’s Day yesterday. We should mark the occasion in a suitable fashion…

So let’s start at the beginning. Towards the last quarter of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, a myriad of Welsh bands came and went in the blink of an eye, barely noticed by anyone in the industry in this tiny province of ours, let alone the rest of the UK. Anyone remember a twee indie-pop group called Emily? No? Didn’t think so. Yet, their one-time drummer would go on to form a band with a former member of U Thant. Ring any bells yet? U Thant also spawned a guy who would team up with the drummer of punk legends Anhrefn to start a group called Catatonia. Yes – THEM.

Still with me? Now, the band formed by said ex-drummer of Emily and other bloke from U Thant were called Ffa Coffi Pawb. They soon became one of the most popular cult acts in Wales, spreading their upbeat, vaguely psychedelic sounds across the nation. After three albums, they split. A couple of them went on to form Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, who you have DEFINITELY heard of.

But seemingly by sheer fate, FCP’s vocalist Gruff Rhys and drummer Dafydd Ieuan (the moonlighting ex-Anhrefn drummer who was also still in Catatonia at the time) found themselves teaming up with two more ex-members of U Thant, Guto Pryce and Huw Bunford, along with an unknown, wannabe actor called Rhys Ifans and another musician, Dic Ben. They called themselves Super Furry Animals and started to make music together. It was largely rave-influenced to begin with, but then became more guitar-based. One or two recordings were made but not released. The very first of them was this:

mp3: Of No Fixed Identity – Super Furry Animals (1993)

Ifans quit when he realised he was a better actor than he was a singer. A good move, as it turns out – the lad’s not done bad for himself since. Gruff Rhys subsequently switched to vocals and at some point, Ben left and Daf recruited his techo-loving younger brother Cian Ciaran, who had been part of the electronic outfit Wwzz. Before long, more tracks were recorded, some of them deemed good enough to actually release to the public.

And so it was that the greatest band to ever emerge from the Land Of Our Fathers started their journey into the conscious (and often unconscious) minds of the music-loving consumer. Over the next 30 weeks (!), I will be guiding you through the thrills and spills of a curious and wonderful career. Every single released by Super Furry Animals, complete with b-sides, alternative versions and one or two little surprises to boot. We start with a record that to this day is in the Guinness Book Of Records for having the longest ever title for an EP:

#1: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyndrobwllantysiliogogogochynygofod (In Space) (1995, Ankst Records, ANKST057)

As an opening salvo, this is as good an introduction to the early Furries sound as you could wish for. Quirky, upbeat, Welsh lyrics and a bit of weirdness. The EP title, in case you don’t know, is an amalgamation of the Welsh village with one of the longest names in the world, and the Welsh phrase for “in space”. Not sure why they felt the need to add the English translation at the end.

Released in June 1995, and comprising four songs pressed on a 7” playing at 33rpm on a local indie label, it was never going to be a big seller, although the meagre amount of copies pressed did sell out. What it showed was a band who knew a good tune, had a lot of energy, and didn’t sound like they were taking themselves too seriously. Listen to Gruff’s vocal on Crys Ti and tell me it doesn’t sound like Elvis on acid…

mp3: Organ Yn Dy Geg (trans: An Organ In Your Mouth)
mp3: Fix Idris
mp3: Crys Ti (trans: Your Shirt)
mp3: Blerwytirhwng¿ (trans: Interspersed? or Inbetween?)

Each side of the 7” had a locked runout groove, meaning tracks 2 and 4 could play infinitely if you let them. I’ve given you not-infinite versions: Fix Idris is from the ‘Out-Spaced’ b-sides album, and Blerwytirhwng¿ from the ‘Songbook’ singles collection, as the ‘Out Spaced’ version drags that end noise out for far longer than necessary…

The EP was later reissued on 7” and, for the first time, CD with different artwork, whereupon it reached the dizzy heights of number 151 in the UK charts. ‘Twas a more than decent debut, but there would be more to come before the year was out. Britpop was at its peak, but Cool Cymru was brewing, and its most interesting band was just getting started…

The Robster