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Welsh Bands Weekly
is a bilingual magazine set up in London in April 1997. It
is dedicated to Welsh bands and other Welsh people, is not
your average magazine, and is not published weekly. Welsh
Bands Weekly is so dedicated to its cause, it even has a subsidiary
company, Stwff, which sells Welsh music by mail order at very
low prices. For a catalogue, see the relevant section of this
website.
To go back to WBW’s
beginning, it has to be understood that starting a magazine
about Welsh bands became necessary because the established
music press – which of course is London-centric and believes
that for a band to be good it has to come from Camden Town
– seemed unable to write about a Welsh band without trotting
out the same old stereotypes about leeks, dragons, daffodils
and the supposed lack of vowels in the Welsh alphabet. I felt
I could do a better job of it whilst ensuring publicity for
the bands I loved, and so I put my money where my mouth is.
The magazine got
its name after a series of spoof letters were sent by what
was later to become the original WBW team to Super Furry Animals’
then record label, Creation, in the hope of being given aftershow
party passes to some of their gigs supporting Manic Street
Preachers in December 1996. One of these letters stated "…we
have started a new magazine, Welsh Bands Weekly, and need
aftershow party passes in order to interview the bands…"
We used the silliest name that could possibly be given to
a magazine, and by the time the real thing was born a few
months later, it seemed a good idea to hang onto the name
that had already earned us infamy in the SFA camp.
After a few calls
to various people connected to the Welsh music industry, within
six weeks Issue 1 was on sale. The magazine came as a pleasant
surprise to those few doubting Thomases who’d assumed
that it would be the standard photocopied cut ‘n’
paste format that most fanzines seem to favour. WBW Issue
1 was printed on proper printing presses using glossy paper,
and was well written, informative and – perhaps most
importantly – was 100% bilingual. So successful was this
format that it’s remained largely unchanged over the
years – every paragraph can be read in one half of the
magazine in English, and the whole thing flips over to reveal
the entire magazine repeated in Welsh.
It has to be said
that part of WBW’s continued success comes from its insistence
on carrying out exclusive interviews with its subjects rather
than just writing about them. From the first issue the interviews
have been 100% exclusive, and carried out with enthusiasm
on the part of both the magazine and the bands. Articles in
Issue 1 included the full story of the night of drunken debauchery
that led to the Creation Letters, and exclusive interviews
with Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Topper, Melys, Derrero, Llwybr
Llaethog and Ceri Collier, founder of Cardiff’s Big Noise
Recorders studio and record label. Issue 1 also introduced
a short-lived but popular feature, "Celebrity Corner",
where we cornered a Welsh celebrity into saying nice things
about the magazine. Our first celebrity was Richard Elis,
who at the time played Huw Edwards in UK soap opera Eastenders.
Richard said of Welsh Bands Weekly: "It’s about
time for a regular publication that shows everyone that Wales
is not just about Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and sheep shagging."
Melys’ Paul Adams was also supportive of the magazine:
"Welsh Bands Weekly is a really good idea," he said,
while Big Noise Recorders’ Ceri Collier offered "it’s
good for us and the bands that WBW has started." It’s
also rumoured that Manic Street Preachers’ bassist Nicky
Wire, after perusing the copy we’d sent to the Manics’
press office, complained: "Welsh Bands Weekly? Why aren’t
we in it?!" But as he was to learn, MSP were not to appear
in WBW until they were prepared to grant an exclusive interview…
issue 2
With the success of the first issue it was clear that Issue
2 would have to follow hot on the heels of its predecessor.
With Issue 1 the magazine had gained enough credibility in
the Welsh music industry to secure some interesting interview
subjects for Issue 2. 60ft Dolls, the now defunct Newport
rockers, graced the front pages – singer Richard Parfitt,
apparently tired of the usual music press line of questioning,
asked during the course of the interview: "How come you
haven’t asked us any Welsh related questions?" –
while between the covers exclusive interviews came from Feeder
(singer Grant Nicholas said: "I think what you’re
doing is great. It’s marvellous"), David Wrench,
Ectogram, Rheinallt H Rowlands and, in WBW’s perhaps
greatest coup to date, Issue 2 carried an exclusive interview
with a Stereophonics that was at the time still small enough
to play Camden’s Barfly venue without risk of injury
to life or property. Our cornered celebrity was beloved hash
smuggler and folk hero Howard Marks, who commented "it’s
wonderful to have a bilingual magazine sincerely dedicated
to drug laden musical communication." Fantasy flashing
also made its debut – a game which had young people round
the country flashing their bits to total strangers in an effort
to top the Fantasy Flashing League!
Thanks to a telephone
call from the Welsh Language Society’s Lleucu Meinir,
Issue 2 went on sale at the 1997 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol in
Bala, North Wales. The Welsh Language Society (known in Wales
as "Cymdeithas", short for Cymdeithas Yr Iaith Gymraeg)
were kind enough to offer low cost selling space for the magazine
on their stall, and a long standing mutual support has existed
ever since. Sales of Issue 2 were better than ever –
the 500-copy print run completely sold out – and before
long, plans were made for Issue 3.
issue 3
Welsh Bands Weekly’s third issue remains my favourite,
mainly because a lot of the interviews were carried out during
an exciting and busy period for the magazine. The Welsh media
had caught onto the buzz surrounding the magazine, and several
TV, radio, newspaper and magazine interviews followed. Welsh
Bands Weekly had proved that you don’t have to be Welsh
to speak the language and do something for the Welsh speaking
community, and this, along with the magazine’s honesty,
positivity and off-the-wall approach to life, paved the way
for Welsh Bands Weekly’s success. We had also quickly
realised the importance of putting a well known band on the
cover to lure customers into buying the magazine, then having
lots of interviews with less famous bands so that readers
would be able to get a feel of the vibrancy of the Welsh music
industry. And with our policy of sending out freebie copies
of each issue to the London-based music industry and press,
we were guaranteed to bring smaller bands to the attention
of London. Many bands that have featured in WBW have later
gone on to record Peel sessions or be interviewed by Melody
Maker and the NME. Not that we hold ourselves directly responsible,
of course, but I’ve often wondered whether NME would
have picked up on Big Leaves or whether Melody Maker would
have fallen for Murry The Hump if they’d not read about
them in WBW first…
By the time Issue
3 came out, more and more bands were sending their demos to
us for review. We like to think that the reason for this is
the fact that we always manage to find something positive
to say about everything we listen to, even if it’s not
really our cup of tea. That’s not to say, however, that
some very odd things haven’t been said about some bands.
Not necessarily derogatory things, but perhaps there have
been a few little comments that made perfect sense to us but
left the bands wondering whether we loved or hated their music.
Issue 3 was a real
mixed bag in terms of contents. Having had difficulty finding
a celebrity to corner, we were forced to summon from beyond
the grave 15th Century Welsh revolutionary Owain Glyndwr to
wax lyrical about the magazine. Luckily he was happy to provide
some very complimentary quotes, even going as far as to say
that perhaps some English people weren’t that bad. The
cover was graced by Super Furry Animals, the best band in
the world ever. With Issue 3 the precedent was set of making
the cover interview the longest – the SFA interview spanned
a total of four pages and contained 20 furry facts that we’d
managed to glean from other publications’ interviews.
Other Issue 3 interviews were with The Crocketts, The Honeydews,
Crac, Verona, Pic Nic and Serein, and a special interview
with Lleucu Meinir about the work of Cymdeithas Yr Iaith.
SFA vocalist Gruff Rhys said of the magazine: "It’s
surreally good… it’s amazing. It shows the way."
"I really like the idea of a bilingual magazine coming
from London. It’s incredible," enthused Owen Hopkin,
drummer with The Crocketts.
issue 4
More publicity and plenty of sales ensued, with WBW team members
appearing in Welsh gossip columns and on radio and TV shows,
then in November 1997 we achieved something we’d been
trying to arrange for eight months: an interview with Catatonia.
The band were playing
in The Astoria in London’s Charing Cross Road and it
was a very chuffed Welsh Bands Weekly that was led into the
dressing room for an audience with Queen Cerys while writers
for another ‘zine were disappointedly led away for an
interview with guitarists Mark and Owen. After eight months
of harassing Catatonia’s press office, we’d finally
made it. Cerys herself was surprising; we’d heard so
many stories of her wildness (and had witnessed it too, at
various hotels and aftershow parties) that we weren’t
sure what to expect. I’m very pleased to report that
Cerys is indeed exactly as she describes herself – a
lady. The interview went well, and after we finished with
Cerys we were off to the next dressing room for an interview
with support band Big Leaves. Later that evening, while walking
from the Astoria to a private drinking club with members of
the band and various friends, guitarist Owen Powell commented
to me: "You know, we were starting to wonder if you didn’t
like us, because you hadn’t asked us for an interview!"
Little did he know that we’d been desperate for an interview
since the first issue.
That month also
saw the management of London venue The Borderline contact
us with a view to arranging a Welsh Bands Weekly gig. A date
was set for 11th December and the Welsh Bands Weekly Christmas
party was greatly enjoyed by all, with record companies having
donated prizes for us to give away in a raffle.
Other Issue 4 interviews
included rap band Tystion (rapper Gruff Meredith: "The
magazine is brilliant… Welsh Bands Weekly… fucking
classic. It should have been done years ago"), Novocaine,
Hush, Cartoon and Nar, a band we later went on to do some
publicity work for and with whom we’re still very close
friends. Issue 4 also contained an article about the Christmas
party, saw the demise of Fantasy Flashing and the birth of
Fantasy Riverdancing and Fantasy Singing Chas ‘n’
Dave songs, and the now infamous Girls’ Corner had its
debut. Sub-titled "Handy household hints for bints",
Girls’ Corner gave ten top tips for pissing on bollards,
and was so popular that it’s remained a regular feature
ever since.
issue 5
By Issue 5 the format was changing slightly. Welsh Bands Weekly
was becoming more and more like a ‘proper’ magazine;
gone were the long rants on pages 2 and 3 – these were
replaced by proper news items and a few silly items. Gone
were the glossy inner pages – these were replaced with
matt pages which gave better print quality. Issue 5 contained
a record number of interviews, too – as well as the bigger
interviews with cover stars Melys, plus Rachel Stamp, Doc
Savage, Armstrong and Rhys Mwyn, Issue 5 also carried a questionnaire
interview carried out with Manics’ bassist Nicky Wire
in which he said that WBW was "Lovely", plus an
article called "Six Of The Best" contained mini-interviews
with six unknown Welsh bands who we felt were on their way
to better things. These six bands were Pink Assassin, Dragonfall,
Revelation, Zeros + 1s, The Orginal Mind and Bruise. Issue
5 also contained some bizarre little features such as The
National Kitten Shaking Championships, The On The Piss List,
The Adventures of Little Les and a feature which has, in one
form or another, appeared in every subsequent issue of the
magazine: "Inside Emma."
Issue 5 was also
unusual in that it contained a free gift – a bollard
spotting sheet. Yes, the spring of 1998 saw us wandering around
London taking photos of unsuspecting bollards – we collected
25 different styles, in total. Bet you didn’t know there
were so many different types of bollard, eh? Neither did we.
Issues 4 and 5
made the journey with us from London to Pencoed in South Wales
for the National Eisteddfod in the first week of August 1998.
Five boxes of issues 4 and 5, in fact. And it was four boxes
of mud-encrusted magazines that we dragged back to London
by coach a week later. The Eisteddfod had been too much of
an orgy of Bacchanalian proportions to bother ourselves with
trying to sell the magazine, so we allowed ourselves a little
holiday.
issue 6
By the autumn Issue 6 was starting to come together. The news
pages were looking more and more like a proper magazine, the
quality of writing was improving with experience, and the
magazine boasted its first ever coloured cover – a nice
deep purple. Cover stars Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci provided
a frank interview, discussing their being dropped from their
record company and their plans for the future. Exclusive interviews
were wrung out of Gwacamoli, Murry The Hump, Slip and Anweledig,
and three pages of the magazine were dedicated to reliving
our drunken experiences at the Eisteddfod in the form of a
diary of our exploits. Issue 6 came out a few days before
Christmas, and subscribers received a Christmas present of
an exclusive WBW keyring, only 40 of which exist in the world
(I’ve not even got one myself!)
By Issue 7 (mid-1999)
we’d cooked up a little scheme with a couple of bands
which has ever since been a source of huge entertainment to
all involved. We’d been approached by a Swedish fanzine
to do some band-swapping. The idea was that we would take
three bands (Nar, Tystion and Crac) on a mini-tour of Sweden,
and that the Swedish fanzine would reciprocate by bringing
three Swedish bands to Wales. Due to funding problems (it
would have cost thousands to take twenty band members abroad,
money we just didn’t have) we decided that even if we
couldn’t physically take the bands to Sweden, there was
nothing to stop us from pretending we’d been… We
now publicly admit that we didn’t actually go to Sweden,
it was all a lie. The only lie we’ve ever told our readers.
Actually, that’s a lie; we regularly lie to our readers,
but the Sweden lie was the biggest lie we’ve ever told.
But to get back to the story… we arranged gigs in Cardiff’s
Clwb Ifor Bach and London’s Bull And Gate, both of which
were a huge success, and then took all the funny stories from
those two gigs, tweaked them about a bit, and made them look
like they’d happened in Sweden. One doctored photograph
of Tystion and Crac members sitting on the promenade at Aberystwyth
later, and suddenly Cardigan Bay had been replaced by huge
snowy mountains. Highly convincing. Anyway, it all made interesting
reading if nothing else…
issue 7
Issue 7 was lovely and shiny and turquoise in hue, and our
cover stars were the increasingly popular Feeder. Gracing
the inside pages were, for the second time, both Tystion and
Big Leaves, plus Oxygum and Twp. The Sweden story – entitled
"This Ain’t ABBA" – made an appearance,
as did another article, Welsh Bands Changed My Life, in which
two of our readers told of their life-altering experiences
after becoming interested in Welsh bands.
issue 8
By Issue 8 work commitments meant that the magazine was being
produced less regularly, although the quality was by no means
compromised. Issue 8 was printed in February 2000 and as befitted
a magazine with Super Furry Animals on the cover, the front
pages were a beautiful bright orange colour. As well as the
exclusive SFA interview, Issue 8 contained interviews with
poet Patrick Jones, Topper, Scuba, Zabrinski, Picture The
Beautiful, plus a mystery 80s band making a comeback. True
to WBW tradition the summer festivals were also relived in
an article covering the best of the Eisteddfod, Miri Madog
and V99 festivals.
In the summer of
2000 I upped sticks to North Wales – it kind of made
sense for a Welsh magazine to be produced there – and
because of the move and the surrounding chaos, plus settling
into a new job, the publication of Issue 9 has been delayed
until now. However, it is newly printed, and contains –
apart from four amazing competitions with some brilliant prizes
to be won – interviews with The Crocketts, Nar, Pete
Fowler, Infinity Chimps, Derrero, Maharishi and Supa Myff.
Girls’ Corner remains, as does Inside Emma, and the issue
is groundbreaking in WBW terms as, for the first time, new
team members have been brought in to carry out interviews
for the magazine.
so there’s
our history – but what about the future?
We’re concentrating now on building a strong team to
bring the very best in Welsh music, both via the magazine
in its printed form and through our new website, due to debut
in April 2001. We’ve expanded the team so that geographically
we have writers spread about the country – WBW now has
South of England, South Wales, North Wales, London, Midlands,
West Wales and even US branches – and we’re already
planning major things for Issue 10. We’re also collaborating
with the Search And Rescue Dogs Association in North Wales
to arrange a benefit gig in May 2001. Bands so far confirmed
to play include Anweledig, Nar and 48F, with more bands to
be confirmed. Further details will be available nearer the
time from www.welshbandsweekly.com or www.anweledig.com, plus
announcements will be made on various Yahoo email discussion
groups including Clwb Malu Cachu, Super Furry Animals, Melys,
Anweledig, Tystionlist, nuts_about_nar, All Things Welsh and
Catatonia.
Availability
Issues 1-3 of Welsh Bands Weekly are now completely sold out,
however we do offer a photocopying service for interviews
from sold-out issues. Photocopies cost 10p per sheet plus
postage – for details of how many pages each interview
contains, please email welshbandsweekly@hotmail.com.
Welsh Bands Weekly
is available by four-issue subscription. Prices are £10 UK,
£11 Europe, £14 ROW. Prices include postage and packing, newsletters
and a Christmas card every year. For a subscription form please
send an email to welshbandsweekly@hotmail.com
The magazine is
also available in various shops around Wales. For an up to
date list of shops stocking Welsh Bands Weekly, please email
us at the address above.
Debs Williams, Editor
March 2001
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