VOICES FROM WALES – TWENTY FOUR OF FIFTY-TWO, RON LEWIS PART THREE It’s the final part of the Ron Lewis interview and once again he reveals stories from his career as a T.V.reporter. Thanks for sharing, Ron, it was a real insight. You can read Ron's memoir here for more: Confessions of a TV Newsman: Broadcasters behaving really badly in the Golden Age of ITV

Read More

VOICES FROM WALES – TWENTY THREE OF FIFTY-TWO, RON LEWIS PART TWO Ron Lewis, retired T.V. journalist and reporter, reveals more about working in Pontcanna, Cardiff as part of the news team on the newly founded Harlech Television, H.T.V. When I first heard Ron’s voice, I giggled to myself, as in its soothing warmth I heard a voice from the past, from my childhood. It brought memories of sitting with my family in front of the telly and having to sit through the news every night, whilst all I wanted to do was watch cartoons. Ron is a natural storyteller and has a rich vein of...

Read More

Hear both English and Welsh language acoustic versions of  Whirring  HERE   Released October 25th via Hassle Records The Joy Formidable are today announcing the release of a special commemorative 10-year double album edition of their acclaimed debut release  A Balloon Called Moaning.  The double album will include their 2009 EP  A Balloon Called Moaning  plus a newly recorded acoustic Welsh language version,  Y Falŵ​n Drom .   Written and recorded in a bedroom over a decade ago by lead singer and guitarist Ritzy Bryan, and bass player and vocalist Rhydian Davies in North Wales,  A...

Read More

How many pedestrians are arguably pedestrian? how many drivers can claim to be driven as the kilometer psychotically accelerates  to that finite point when rust will return  triumphant on the saddles of a troop of horses  that will be the daddies and mummies of the new heathen horsepower horde  of carbon-neutral transportation? flashing one's debit card in the twilight of plastic in an era of multiple extinctions  you could almost get a programme to aid  a more user-friendly viewing of the shows got Popol Vuh on the speakers  Germans riffing to Mayan influences how I like...

Read More

2 Comments

VOICES FROM WALES – TWENTY TWO OF FIFTY-TWO, RON LEWIS. Ron Lewis is a retired T.V. journalist and reporter, He started his career with The Cambrian News in Aberystwyth, moved on to writing for The Western Mail and then found himself working in Pontcanna, Cardiff as part of the news team on the newly founded Harlech Television, H.T.V.. Ron now lives with his family in the subtly stunning countryside of west Carmarthenshire in the parish of Merthyr where the River Cywin cuts through a rolling landscape of fertile tree-covered hillsides. Earlier this year Ron gained a First Class...

Read More

VOICES FROM WALES – TWENTY ONE OF FIFTY-TWO, HUGH REES D.F.C. A Professor at Aberystwyth University, a Fellow of The Royal Society a peson, like so many others, who never talked about the war. He did, however, leave a diary, which hopefully we will look at a later date. Hugh’s family lived in Llansteffan and his father was the local policeman, P.C. Owen Rees. I hope the film reflects the respect and gratitude that we always will have for those who fought during the Great War and especially those at Mametz Wood 103 years ago. In the video his son, Hubert Rees, is interviewed...

Read More

It's theatre on a dead planet a candidacy lost in space the life lessons you need from a black girl's reading list there's not a cloud in the sky so I'm going to give you what I want a quarry in the steeper side of a peak abandoned unworked unloved except by us in our hole in the wall with raven flight feather we don't fly as our legs and loads are heavy and anyway we're enjoying the view and the fact that no one comes here on the more challenging side of the eminence where paths are of sheep and water oozes from the skin of height a week of resignations an ambassador...

Read More

VOICES OF THE GREAT WAR JULY 2016 A video from the archives - in July 2016 Seimon and myself organised a day of commemoration. It was 100 years since the Battle of Mametz Wood took place on the Somme during the Great War of 1914-18. We invited local people and musicians to come along and tell their stories and sing their songs of the war. We videod and recorded their oral history and their musical performance. The Open Day at the Tin Shed Museum in Laugharne was an amazing emotional day and thanks again to all those who cointributed! I hope the film reflects the respect and...

Read More

It’s not too late to enter the stage and Visual Arts competitions at the North American Festival of Wales in Milwaukee (Aug. 29 - Sept. 1)!  Once again, we have seven different stage competitions in singing or poetic recitation - suiting all ages and different levels of proficiency in Welsh.  Singers can join our Semi-Professional competition to win the Welsh North America Prize - a generous cash scholarship for travel to compete at next year's National Eisteddfod of Wales (Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru) in Tregaron (Ceredigion).  We’ve also got Instrumental Solo, open to...

Read More

A new novel by Welsh author Sam Adams was inspired by a family Bible. The novel called  In the Vale , published by Y Lolfa, is a family saga that takes the reader from London to the Vale of Glamorgan and outwards into the social ferment and bloody turmoil of the Napoleonic era. It was inspired by the Williams family, who lived in the Vale of Glamorgan. George Williams, Rector of Llantrithyd was the Bible’s original owner, and used it to record the births and deaths of his and his wife Sarah’s children. Sam Adams received the Bible, which has been passed down from father to son since...

Read More