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The Welsh traditionally were interested in their genealogy. From the endless “aps” and “ferchs” that preceded the edicts of the Act of Union to the closely penned family trees contained in homemade prefaces to prized Bibles, they felt connected to their predecessors and homeland through collections of names and monuments.
I was an awkward and sullen youth, not really interested in my tribe beyond those I could see, my parents and their parents, my uncles and aunts. I grew into an awkward and sullen adult albeit one with a developing fascination and preoccupation in what came before. I recall the afternoon when I realised that a lot of my future time would have to be devoted to the past. I was at the graveyard of a chapel called Pensarn on the outskirts of the village of Caerwedros in Ceredigion, Wales. With me were my mother and sister. My mother had been born and brought up in this little, out of the way village and we were there to visit the grave of her grandmother. What struck me about the grave’s headstone was the story it contained, an account of people with names crammed and carved into stone. I learned the name of my great grandfather who had died three years before my mother’s birth. I also discovered that there were two children I was not aware of. One, a man, had lived into his twenties, the other, a girl, had not even made her second birthday. I was impressed by the wealth of information, the tragedy and the triumph, the self-assured use of the Welsh language, the poetry enshrined in slate. I remember disturbing a lizard that was basking in the sun in the vicinity of a glass jar I happened to move near the grave. I was to return to this tranquil spot many times, identifying about a third of its graves as those of my family members.
My search for my ancestry began in earnest with interrogation of my parents. One of the reminiscences that my mother had carried with her since her childhood was of oranges that her mother used to receive from the USA each Christmas in the late 1940s and 1950s. My mother didn’t know the identity of the thoughtful person who made these presents available to this family of seven children at a time when such luxuries were quite rare in that place.
About ten years ago I paid a visit to my mother’s cousin who had moved from her village to the isle of Anglesey. He was older than my mother and as a result had more history to share. He gave me a copy of a document called The Families of Davies and Evans, a history including a detailed list of American and Welsh names and addresses from the early 1800s to the late 1960s that had been given to his father Daniel Davies by a man called David Wendell Hughes. He was from Lincoln City, Nebraska and had come to Caerwedros in about 1969 to look for his Welsh family. The visitor believed that he and Daniel were related but could not say exactly how. He was descended from Reverend David Davies and Mary Jenkins. Rev Davies was closely connected to the little chapel I visited at the start of my search and Mr Hughes believed that the minister’s family was instrumental in providing the land on which the chapel was built. Daniel related that his father who had been born in 1851 also claimed a connection with a family that left the village for America in the time before his birth. On leaving my cousin that day, he shared with me that he didn’t subscribe to this theory despite what his father had said.
Armed with dozens of names of the descendants of a Welsh Calvinist Methodist preacher and his wife, I set to work trying to fill in the missing pieces of this Atlantic jigsaw. I obtained a copy of the certificate of the marriage of my great great grandfather, another Daniel Davies. His father was named as David Davies whose occupation was described as preacher and Daniel’s address on this happy day was Tirgwyn, the ancestral home of the migrant Reverend David Davies. Although this was some evidence, it was mostly circumstantial: after all, why hadn’t Daniel sailed away too?
I like my history and I like the history in my family history. I decided to research why a southern Cardiganshire family in the 1830s might choose to leave their country and never return. I ordered a very informative book from my local library, Calvinists Incorporated: Welsh Immigrants on Ohio’s Industrial Frontier by Ann Kelly Knowles. This publication explained that about 3,000 people, mostly Calvinist Methodists, had left the sparsely populated county of Cardiganshire for Ohio between 1818 and the middle of that century. They had been persuaded to make that long and dangerous journey because of religious persecution, oppressive taxation following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, an increasing birth rate, and disputes with landlords. David and Mary Davies of Tirgwyn in the parish of Llandisiliogogo are mentioned in this account which said they arrived in Ohio in 1837 then moved on to Minnesota in 1856. It seemed to be an organised sort of exodus, the Welsh, to start with at least, sticking together on the other side of the ocean. Once again I had the feeling I had often experienced, that sense that I had been denied some of my history, that somehow it was not important for a West Welsh boy to learn of significant events that occurred in his impoverished county in the century before he attended school.
Using the tools available to the seeker of family history, I unearthed records of baptisms at Pensarn Chapel of a number of the Davies children who had gone to America with their parents. I was however, unable to find one at that chapel for my Daniel Davies. It transpired that he was baptised in Llanarth Church which is about two miles from Pensarn Chapel. This record showed his father as David Davies, Methodist preacher, of Tirgwyn, Llansilio. I assume that Llansilio was shorthand for Llandilisiogogo. The mother’s name is oddly missing from the actual record though in the modern transcript she is named as Mary Jenkins. The baptism was in 1820, seven years before the birth of the oldest of the Ohio-bound children. I found that David and Mary were married in 1826 in St Tysilio’s Church near Caerwedros. This would suggest that the boy baptised as Daniel was born out of wedlock. This would have been a scandal in the narrow beliefs of the participants especially as the Davies family was heavily involved in the Methodist movement of the time and perhaps Daniel may have initially been brought up by his grandparents. This, coupled with his age at the time of decision making, may have led him not to want to leave or even not being given the choice. Maybe Ohio was too much of a potential lion’s den for this Daniel. However, it could also have simply been a case of him intending to join his family at a later date, something that occurred from time to time among other Cardiganshire immigrant families. His uncle Jenkin Davies, a renowned preacher and the only member of my family with an entry in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, died in 1842. Perhaps he too was planning to join the Calvinist Methodist exodus and travel to the States with his own family including his nephew. There is no evidence for any of these theories though one of them is likely to fit. Daniel is not mentioned as a son of David Davies and Mary Jenkins in the document The Families of Davies and Evans but then this was compiled at least a century after the event and memories can become unreliable at that distance. I guess the story of a journey is of those who made it, not those who did not. These were unexpected conclusions, ones that did not seem to provide enough corroboration.
An exciting new tool available to the researcher is DNA. I had submitted a sample of mine to the Ancestry.com website some years ago and I was delighted to learn that a woman living in Oregon and whose name was included in the document The Families of Davies and Evans was a match to me. She was descended from David Davies and Mary Jenkins. This in my view validated my hunch which was further reinforced by another DNA match, also of a person in the The Families of Davies and Evans document. This distant cousin lived in Maryland but had been brought up in North Dakota and his mother had been born in Minnesota.
I have yet to unmask the identity of the kind soul who regularly provided my grandmother and her seven children with a much needed seasonal treat. My cousin in Anglesey believes he has an old postcard "somewhere" from someone who could have been called Betty and who could have posted the card from Florida.
Delving into one's family's roots and migrations can be frustrating and lonely, a sort of "minority sport" like poetry, something people know that they should enthuse over but just haven't got the time or the tools to comprehend the sheer weight of numbers that lead directly to them. I am glad to report that my family on the whole is receptive to my findings. My uncle revealed that in my great grandparents house in Caerwedros was a Black man money box. This uncomfortable cultural artefact was mass-produced in the USA and exported to Europe in the late 19th century. Could this have been another gift from our New World cousins?
I am pleased that many Americans hold dear their Welsh heritage. In my search I received crucial information and support from the Great Plains Welsh Heritage Centre in Whymore, Nebraska, the University of Minnesota in Mankato, and the Blue Earth Genealogical Society, Minnesota.
That long forgotten branch of my family had many adventures and were among the earliest settlers in what was to become the state of Minnesota. I will watch movies featuring depictions of Sioux Indians somewhat differently in future. Reverend David Davies became Reverend Doctor David Davies and two of his sons and five of his grandsons also became Ministers of Religion. One of his Caerwedros great grandsons also followed in his footsteps, albeit unwittingly perhaps.
In Wales, at least, the land remembers. At the funeral, at the graveyard of the disused Pensarn Chapel on a bright summer day in 2017, of the last Davies cousin to live in the village, I lazily made conversation with one of the bearers, a local man I had not met before. I was amazed when he recognised what I told him about the ancestors of the cousin of mine he had just helped to inter, that they had emigrated from that village to Ohio in 1837. One hundred and eighty years later and the people still remember though the story had slipped from the consciousness of the affected family for a number of potential reasons: my grandparents left the village while their children still lived with them; my grandmother died at the age of 48; my great grandfather had been 20 years older than my great grandmother and as a result was not around to share the tale of the grandparents and uncles he had never met with very many of his family; in the rush and distractions of our continuing diaspora, we were in danger of forgetting who we were.
I was born in Cardigan, Wales and honoured to be so. I could so easily have been born in Lake Crystal, Minnesota and would have been equally honoured with that outcome.
Have you ever stared into an adit or dark mine shaft on a hillside and wished you could explore further? Or perhaps you would prefer to send somebody else down with a camera and enjoy the experience vicariously? Well the good news is. that thanks to the growing number of intrepid mine explorers on Youtube this is now possible.
My personal favorite ( of the American channels ) is Abandoned and Forgotten Places . With nearly 100 videos to their credit your guides, 'Gly' and 'Mister M' have established a reputation for fearless exploration and high quality video production. Together they reveal the lost wonders and perils of the multitude of abandoned mines in Nevada, Arizona and Calfornia Their videos are graced with frequent touches of humor and you could do worse than lay in a supply of popcorn and a sixpack and binge watch the lot. Of course you'll need a day or two to spare but what better way to spend, what are hopefully, the last, lingering days of 'lockdown'?
And the Welsh connection? Linked from the above channel is Lost Mines a Welsh mine exploration channel which concentrates on the lost metal mines of Wales. here is the channel description:
" A bit about myself (Al), I love Exploring abandoned mines with my good friend Ioan, when I get spare time from my day job which is a crematorium technician, and also do a bit of metal detecting and out on my boat. Ioan Lord has been researching and exploring the metal mines of Wales since the age of 9, and published his first book in 2018 which can be found at https://shop.rheidolrailway.co.uk/products/rich-mountains-of-lead-ioan-lord. He is now on his second and third books, and runs public guided tours of the mines in mid-Wales at https://www.midwalesminetours.com. He is writing a PhD in Welsh History at Cardiff University, and is a Director of the Cambrian Mines and Welsh Mines Preservation Trusts. When he isn’t underground he works on a heritage steam railway as a locomotive fireman. We both enjoy showing the world what's underground and how they did it. "
We thought we would embed an appetizer before you head on over to the channel/s and subscribe. So here it is (see above).... Exploring the Abandoned ALIEN lost mine ~ Underground Repel! pt 1
Statue of Eddie Thomas, Merthyr Tydfil cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Ian S - geograph.org.uk/p/4001542
“ When shall we three meet again?” asked Daniel Druff dramatically.
The remaining two members of his drama group at Merthyr Tydfil Technical College stared back from their online Zoom meeting and shrugged their shoulders.
“I think it best if the ‘Read Brigade’ meet in person to discuss our proposal, in order that no third party can infiltrate our Group or stop our plan…agreed?” continued Daniel.
His fellow Brigade members of Grant Aide and Douglas Deep nodded their approval from their respective bedroom laptop computers.
“5.00 am at the statue?” he suggested.
Daniel was the ringleader of a plot to get even with society over the issue of the unfair treatment of Black & Asian people caused by the British Empire and all it stood for.
His lecturers (when he saw them on the Merthyr Tydfil equivalent of the Open University) called him Danny Boy.
Post-Brexit English Nationalism was on the rise and like everything in this World this was the check and balance.
Danny Boy was the antidote to fascism.
He wanted to push back.
Daniel was so incensed after watching the 1970’s Alex Halley mini-series ‘Roots’, that he felt that he should make his stand with his Bristol brethren, who had demolished slave trader and capitalist Edward Colston’s statue and thrown it into the harbour.
Daniel wanted to do the same with other forms of slavery- just like the 19 th Century English Ironmasters, Crawshay, Guest & Homphfrey had done to Dowlais, Cefn Coed & Merthyr Tydfil but couldn’t find any statues to tear down of these evil tyrants.
The ‘Read Brigade’ decided that they would have to make do with the former Coal Mine- Owner Eddie Thomas statue in Georgetown- on the justification basis that he was always surrounded by people with black faces which were beneath him.
They felt that miners should be included in the definition of BAME- Black and Mineral Extracts- after all the history books showed that the members of the NUM had taken ‘Rodney King-style-beatings’ from the Police at Orgreave Colliery and other places around Great Britain in 1984.
There was no doubt that Daniel Druff had rebellion in his blood.
His family had descended from Irish immigrant ancestry that had come to Merthyr to work in the Ironworks after the terrible Potato Famine that had hit Ireland.
He was fed up of decades of Tory Rule and was particularly incensed, as the current Government had taken away his one chance of going abroad by removing the Erasmus Programme Post-Brexit.
No longer could he or his fellow students have the freedom to roam Europe or have roaming data but the inept handling of the coronavirus issue by the same Eton Mess, had meant that a visit to the European Continent was now out of the question for the foreseeable future.
He was determined to follow in the footsteps of the Chartists, who had met at the nearby Cambrian Arms Public House (currently closed in its modern- day form of the Lantern) and raise his own ‘Read Flag’ of defiance to the powers that be.
5am was a little early but if he wanted his disciples to be ‘Woke’ then this the appropriate time.
Besides, they would get a march on the Police at that time in the Morning, who were probably dozing in their vehicles on night shift.
Z ZZ- Cars most likely.
The call sign of the Read Brigade was that of an owl.
They really did give ‘two hoots’ to make sure their subversive agenda was met.
They had all agreed to dress the same.
Balaclava Road black ski-mask and khaki camouflage coats with tracksuit bottoms for warming their hands down the front- in true Gurnos tradition.
They wanted to give the appearance of Irish Terrorists but not too fashion trendy-they didn’t want the Sun newspaper to refer to them as the ‘New Look’ IRA.
Daniel was first on the scene and had brought with him the tools for the job.
His neighbour’s van had a sticker on it saying that no tools were left overnight in this van.
Daniel had made sure this statement was true by pinching them.
If there was one thing young Daniel had taken from his schooling at Penydre High School, it was his ability to break into vehicles.
He had a jack-hammer, sledgehammer (once registered to one Peter Gabriel) and a series of guy ropes.
He stood next to the tall figure of Eddie Thomas former boxing promotor, mine-owner and former Mayor of the Town.
He stood hands out as if sparring in the air.
Daniel was determined that this stand would make a show that the underclass of Merthyr Tydfil had risen again, once more against their puppet masters in Westminster and Cardiff.
They no longer spoke for him.
Talk and debate never got anywhere- it was time for direct action.
Grant was second to arrive and hooted loudly before he emerged from the thick bushes on Avenue De Clichy, left to go wild after the initial landscaping budget had run-out.
That was the way with Merthyr.
Nothing was ever maintained the way it should be.
Always cutting corners and opting for cheap rather than quality.
Grant had his own hidden agenda.
He wasn’t as committed to the cause of his fellow students as Daniel was.
His plan was to achieve notoriety and achieve a career path of his own.
Activist.
Media Exposure.
Reality Show influencer.
Strictly Come Dancing.
I’m a Celebrity get me out of here.
Welcome Break Magazine Cover model.
Retire to Emmerdale.
Unlike Norwich Union- Grant really wanted to make a drama out of a crisis.
With that, forgetting to hoot came Doug Deep.
But then again there was little need -as you could hear him coming from a mile away, after all it is difficult to silent pushing five stolen Iceland trollies.
“ It’s no wonder Peter Andre is ripped….pushing this bloody lot uphill from Town!” he said gasping for breath like an asthmatic smoker with one lung.
“That Long- Covid really takes it out of you!” he rasped noisily.
“What’s that Gibberish written on the front handlebar?” asked Grant.
“Bee Gee language of course from the Isle of Man!” replied Danny Boy pulling their legs.
Grant and Doug looked blank.
“Welsh…c’mon boys it’s your Mother tongue!” said Daniel.
“What does it say then?” asked Doug.
“I have been trying to read what it says while I was pushing them!” he continued.
“May contain horsemeat!” stuttered Daniel trying to convert it into English for the pair of numbskulls.
“That’s not horsemeat!” proffered Grant as he pointed into the final ‘fifth columnist’ trolley.
“What the F*** is that!?” asked Danny.
“It’s my Jamiriqui hat for the start of the Friday, Bloody Friday rebellion….I bought it on e-bay for £5.00….only cost me £40.00 in postage too….bargain…!” replied Doug.
“Besides, you told me that you wanted us to get on national television and what better way than wearing a Red Indian Buffalo Hat?” Doug replied.
“Didn’t you think we would lose the support of the vegetablists?” said Danny wisely.
“Most of Merthyr is now vegan after seeing the looks on the faces of the sheep and cattle being transported up the Slip Road to Cowsvitz in Pengarnddu!” agreed Grant.
“Any way, no time to lose, the sun is coming up and we need to separate the statue from the Plinth of Wales before the Cunstabulary release what we are doing !” ordered Danny.
As he unloaded the jack-hammer, Grant – the electronics wizard- began to patch the power supply into the adjoining traffic lights shorting them out.
Just like the film Ocean’s Eleven, another Danny had a masterplan to help their cause by creating mayhem with the traffic in Avenue De Clichy which would prove even worse than the existing confusing road layout.
Ocean’s Eleven had nothing on River’s Three.
As Doug Deep dug deep, it came as a shock to the three would be rebels that the ground around the statue was so soft it took minimal effort for the statue to resemble the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Merthyr equivalent- the mining subsidence hit Edwardsville Swimming Baths where the shallow end was now 45 feet deep.
“Stop!” warned Danny, as the statue began to list at a 3.99 degree angle.
Both of the others ran into position to support the statue and were shocked to see how light it actually was.
“It’s hollow!” declared Danny surprised- noticing a tracing crack around the neck of the former Mayor- where his goldie looking chain would have been.
“A bit like Nigel Farage’s life is after achieving Brexit!” he continued.
“Bring the trollies around to the front!” ordered Danny, just like a foreman of the Council watching others toil away filling the potholes in the road with fairy dust.
Grant manoeuvred the Iceland metal carts with a mind of their own under the structure and lowered the statue onto them to take the weight.
“Take the knee!” shouted Danny back straining under the weight.
Doug immediately dropped to the floor like a Pre-Match Premiership footballer.
“No….you dopey bastard…HIS knee!” screamed Danny to avoid a sucker punch from the Welsh Muhammed Ali.
There was no cheer like the fall of Saddam Hussain in Baghdad, just a few grunts that would turn into full-blown hernias in 20 years time for the foot soldiers of the Read Brigade.
Now controlling one Iceland Trolley with a wonky wheel is hard enough, but attempting to guide five of them downhill on a slope towards the Civic Centre is a Herculean task best left to Greek hero of the Underworld Sisyphus.
The runaway train of carts began to pick up pace with the incline and like most drivers in Merthyr refused to stop at the junction with Avenue De Clichy.
There was a massive ‘wind rush’ as the students flew pass the Council Offices and out onto the Fire Station Bridge without stopping, mounting the pavement and finally only coming to a halt when it bashed into at the metal bridge railings- leaving the statue teetering like the van in the 1968 Italian Job film over the edge of the parapet.
“Oi…what are you bunch of teenage delinquents up to?” shouted local Official, Hectorz House, who appeared to be cleaning peanut butter off the outside of the windows of his office attached to what looked like a bungee chord.
“I may be suspended but I am not having that….Not In My Back Yard!” he screamed at the trio.
The volatile situation was bad enough as the three students had to use all their puny muscles to keep the statue from going over too early.
They wanted maximum publicity and the arrival of local ITV news correspondent, Hanna Barbara to film the event.
She had received a tip-off to be at the bridge at 5.15am for some excitement which would go far beyond the usual local news stories such as a goat being born in Vaynor with the face of Jesus Christ.
As she arrived the bridge, the Mexican stand-off with Hectorz and the Fire Brigade, just like the River Taff was in full flow.
“What are your demands?” asked Hanna pointing a microphone in the face of Doug, still partly covered in goatshit.
Doug just smiled weakly, as the cannabis from Amsterdam he had smoked early that morning to give him Dutch courage kicked in, as he tried in vain to hold onto the feet of the deceased boxer.
The Fire Brigade had already worked out a plan to defuse the situation and Fireman Sam ‘Sparkes’ Toomey was busy twirling a lasso around his head.
Its purpose to ‘rope a dope’ if he had too.
Hectorz House too was closing in on the students from the other side of the road.
“That’s close enough!” warned Danny, reaching into his pocket with one hand and producing a neatly typed list in Gaelic Font.
“The demands of the Read Brigade are as follows:
One : the immediate demolition of all statues of slave traders and Ironmasters in Wales.
Two: A declaration that Winston Churchill and Tony Blair be deemed War Criminals.
Three: That all student loans be wiped and replaced by Student Grants – except for those doing a degree in David Beckham Studies.
And
Four : The release of all political prisoners currently held on Gogglebox.
“ It is Merthyr Council Policy not to negotiate with Terrorists or Blackmailers!” replied Hectorz.
The crowd suddenly gasped as the Official had used the B word in public.
A Note was immediately added to his extensive Personnel File by a member of the Council CIA (Council Interview Associate).
“Now if you drop that Statue into the River Taff you will never get that job at the Guardian Newspaper as a Fifth Columnist and will be in big shit!” Hectorz continued.
“ I will see to it that you lot get more F’s on your college report than if it was marked by Gordon Ramsey!” hectored Hectorz.
The flooded River had turned black from the overflow of 58 unsafe spoil tips that still blight the Unitary Authority Land.
It was also receiving raw sewage from the Morlais Brook outlet , with turds now racing the squadron of plastic bottles dumped on the steep side of Abermorlais Tip.
Daniel was not an easy one to imidate.
He decided to fight fire with fire.
“Very soon we won’t be the only ones!”- he said pointing the boxer in the direction of Cardiff Bay.
As he did so, the top of the Boxing Promoter suddenly fell off into the raging River below.
Miraculously, just like a miracle of Fatima, the gathered crowd watched as Eddie Thomas face did a reverse Michael Jackson and turned from white into black.
Some began genuflecting.
Then even more miraculously for Merthyr, a series of Ten Pounds Notes began shooting out of the head of the statue like a broken cash machine.
“Well, I’ll be blowed!” said Hectorz, trying to hold onto his trousers- as the Monica Lewinsky career following female assistants from the Council surrounded the Dreamboat.
“I think you have discovered the fabled Reddy Money from the Atlanta Match in 1987!” he continued.
“Quick Fireman Sam….jump in and retrieve the monies we could plug the Gap in the Council Budget with that lot!”
Too late.
The three students in a pre-determined plan all smiled at the ITV Camera, produced their mobile phones and shouted ‘Selfie!”
As they did so, gravity took effect and the remainder of the headless statue toppled into the fast-flowing Taff waters, before landing upright on a small island- standing there stranded just like Robinson Crusoe.
The Iceland Trollies, one by one, tried to follow the statue into the raging black waters as if drawn in by some ghostly invisible drunken hands on a night out at Koolers.
Just like the three students- they had to be forcibly restrained.
It was just another Black, Black Friday in Merthyr alright.
MINAS begins 2021 with ‘BURNER’ - a low key protest anthem brooding with resentment and an undercurrent of dissent.
By Ceri Shaw, 2021-02-26
2020 saw two releases from Minas - ‘Drinker’ released in July was a precursor to the upcoming debut album ‘All My Love Has Failed Me’ (releasing later this year) whilst the EP ‘Nudge’ captured the energy (or lack thereof) brought about by lockdown.
‘Burner’ , the next release ahead of the debut album, again stands alone. The track exudes a cool yet angsty vocal that simmers over the top of a steady rhythm and intensely humming bass. Not afraid to spit indignantly at authority Minas questions “How could you call that man there a president?” and as the beat fades away slowly in the second verse he simply states “Fuck the government” before the chorus drops back in again.
Minas is the mononym for James Minas, Greek/Welsh artist and producer based between Cardiff & St David’s in South Wales. When not creating his own music he works as a producer for artists like Welsh Music Prize nominated rapper Luke RV and internationally touring folk artist Dan Bettridge.
Lyrics
Two steps back put your shit down
Two men fled when they hit town
Wise crackers, you’d need half an army to kick out these wise crackers
Two steps back put your shit down
Who let the snakes decide who’s an immigrant
Wise crackers, you’d need half an army to kick out these wise crackers
It’s breaking news
Louder, it’ll work in time
It’s breaking news
Round up, we’re out of time
Two steps back put your shit down
How could you call that man there a president?
Half cut, broke and a let down
But I still show the ropes to my fellow man
GB’s a mess no union
Call it a kingdom I’d say a shithole
5 foot snakes in a green room
They don’t talk like us 'cause they’ve never been down here
Fuck the government
Breaking news
Louder, it’ll work in time
It’s breaking news
Round up, we’re out of time
Reviews for the ‘Nudge’ EP
‘...his music captures an array of sound, intertwining both rap and electronic. Each tune takes us on a voyage through his state of mind, from frustrations to anger and the inevitable self-reflection afterwards.’ - God Is In The TV Zine
On ‘As It Goes’: ‘a subtle tone throughout this track, with a simple guitar melody that creates the groundwork for the vocal delivery to flourish with emotional content. With a flatline vibe it allows the listener to take in every word on this track - showing off the full creative lyrical form from Minas’ - When The Horn Blows
Reviews for ‘Drinker’
‘Drinker is ruthlessly grounded in the realities of the day to day. It’s this authenticity that cuts through.’ - Right Chord Music
‘a fantastic hip-hop inspired electronic track, it has a gorgeously chilled dreamlike melody to it, which catches your interest from the opening beats’ - Alive and Gigging
‘a captivatingly electric track with synthy, feel-good rhythms and modern vocals … thought provoking lyrics that explore the fight with his thoughts ... an unexpected, passionate piece‘ - Rockstate
Wales’ Tom Auton has announced his brand new single blues-rock single Victim of the Groove will be released on Friday 26 February on all major streaming/download platforms. You can pre-save/listen to the track HERE
Victim of the Groove is a delicious slice of rock that’s infused with disco, to create an unstoppable deep groovy blues sound. The track is about the thoughts that rage inside you when you have a mental block. As Tom eloquently puts it “As a chef, you’d feel incredibly useless if you couldn’t cook anything. The same applies to songwriters when they can’t write songs.”
The track is short, sharp and incredibly catchy with a low-slung monster bass riff in the chorus, which is comprised of 9 different layers. Victim of the Groove is self-produced by Tom at Long wave Studios and mastered by Robin Schmitd (Liam Gallagher, The 1975, Nothing But Thieves).
“Victim of The Groove ironically explores the hatred I have towards myself, when I can’t write a new song. I explore this hatred... by writing a new song. Throughout the verses I frivolously wallow in a pool of self-pity, tearing myself down at every line. Then get to the pre chorus, I explain that self-doubt is part and parcel of being a musician.” says Tom.Victim of the Groove is an ode to self-success, battling with your mental health as you think you can’t reach your own previous successes. It’s one of Tom’s most personal tracks, as he further explains: “I invite people into the world of being an independent artist, cycling between two main emotions; thinking your god’s gift, when you write a good song and feeling worthless, when you can’t. I sum up the song with the title - “I’m a Victim of The Groove”.
The addiction to the groove started in 2016 when Tom received a dreadful mix of a previous single. The control freak within him spiraled out of control and started aggressively buying microphones, mixing plug ins and a laptop. Fast forward 4 years to the present day and Tom is living the true rock and roll dream; producing his own Rock and Blues records at the age of 21 from his own studio ‘The Syncopation Station’ (his parent’s living room). Tom’s produces and co-writes with a number of artists including Dan Owen, John Adams, Amber Leigh Irish and The Voice’s Chanel Yates & Jake O’Neil.
He’s received critical success on his previous records with Mother Mary being added to one of the most prestigious playlists on Spotify All New Rock, BBC Introducing’s Adam Walton calling him “An Incredible Talent” and David Owens, South Wales Echo claiming “Everything Tom touches turns to Gold” Victim of the Groove will be released on Friday 26 February on all major streaming/ download platforms. You can pre-save/listen to the track HERE
I was taught history the old, boring, way of memorizing lists of king and prime ministers, battle dates, and significant eras of change such as the Renaissance only to forget them immediately after the test.
And yet, I had a fascination with the bygone eras. How did they impact who we are and what we do in the twenty-first century? Have we changed or are people still basically people with the same hopes and fears but just with different technologies and toys?
My answer was found in the great historical fiction produced by people like Ken Follett, Mary Stewart, Conn Iggulden, Bernard Cornwell, Edith Pargeter (author of the Brother Cadfael series under the pen name Ellis Peters) and so many others. Through them, I learned that people are the same yet are different through the ages—more through circumstances and eras than through personality.
Reading wasn’t enough. I had to write historical fiction.
I can tell you from experience that writing historical fiction is hard. Researching everything from locations, to clothing, to speech, to food and drink is both painstaking and frustrating. I had to understand how they lived and where, and how they lived and worked in the society they did with the political, economic and societal pressures of that day. Books, articles, location visits, all became part of my engagement with these people. I poked around old, ruined abbeys and castles. I read through archive materials and spent days visiting various museums. I needed to “live” there in my heart and mind and experience what they did as much as possible.
My latest novel, Musick for the King , is pure historical fiction. It lives and moves in a short period of time in the mid-1700s when George Frederick Handel wrote Messiah and the aftermath that ensued. I am humbled by the positive reviews and response. I visited the Handel House in London, Dublin Castle, Fishamble Street in Dublin and toured through the beautiful Wicklow County in Ireland. I listened to, watched and heard in person, Handel’s great masterpiece Messiah . I have felt Handel’s rejection and suffered his doubts.
Prior to that I dabbled in historical fiction, trying to bring real times and places to life along with sometimes real sometimes imagined individuals and then contrasting them with our modern age. The stories picked up ancient myths and legends and asked “what if” those stories were real and what impact would it have today. I titled these novels “ The Oak Grove Conspiracies ” and up to now there have been three books in that series: The Excalibur Parchment, The Lucifer Scroll and The Prince Madoc Secret.
Again, the response and reviews for all three have been generous and overwhelming. My characters and situations in all the books have been well received. Indeed, I originally planned that it would be a trilogy. However, the response has been so positive that readers in Canada, the US, Australia and the UK have requested a continuation of the story.
So, I am back at work. This time, I was intrigued by the fact that US President Thomas Jefferson (himself of Welsh heritage) sent Capt. Merriweather Lewis (also Welsh) off on a journey of discovery across the unknown American West. Together with his partner, the Lewis and Clarke expedition made history. But there was an added dollop of intrigue and mystery. Lewis committed suicide—with many claiming he was murdered—as he returned to Washington with the final documented report of the expedition. Given that one of his mandates from Jefferson was to seek proof of Welsh-speaking natives of which many stories abounded, it raised a lot of questions. Did he find such proof? Was he killed to prevent that news from becoming public? Were such natives in fact the descendants of Prince Madoc, the Welsh prince who took colonists to America in 1170?
I am enjoying exploring this story further and creating the worlds and situations I am writing about. This one will be book four of the series and mix both the historical and modern eras.
For those interested, I have attached the prologue as a teaser. Where does the story go from here? How do Stone, Mandy and the rest handle it? With the Druids all but destroyed organizationally, who will stop them from finding the truth and finding the relics that were so carefully hidden?
Read on, if you wish!
Download the free sample below:
 | Dragon Legacy teaser |
| Dragon legacy teaser.docx, 17KB ∞ |
viA fAntAsticA share reassembled pop collage 'Onstage, right now....' from forthcoming album '2 any 1' an aural voyage of outsider synth pop and electronica
By Ceri Shaw, 2021-02-24
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viA fAntAsticA is J.T. and Gaia de Voxx on a DIY synth pop journey. J.T. is Justin Toland, erstwhile purveyor of loops and found sound on Recordiau Peski and self-released cassettes under the name Location Baked. Gaia de Voxx is his droid vocalist.
2 any 1 is the debut album by viA fAntAsticA. It’s about songs, tunes, accessibility, reaching out. Influences range from mass market and under-the-radar 80s synth pop ( Yazoo, Human League, Fad Gadget ) to contemporary Puerto Rican electronic indie ( Los Wálters, Buscabulla ).
2 any 1 began as an imaginary soundtrack to a 21st century kitchen sink drama set in the faded seaside resort of Porthcawl. That was the inspiration for the Italo disco stylings of ‘Meet me at Sidoli’s', the electronic surf rock of ‘Never surf again’ , lover’s lament ‘Not waving but crying’ , and the incidental noir of ‘Fog and mirrors’ . When Covid scuppered those plans, the album began to take a different shape: less conceptual, more personal, more free-ranging.
So there are songs and tunes about Cardiff communities and community action, including ‘Row Town’ (Roath), ‘Rebuild the Poets’, and ‘Agents of Change’ , which nods to Toland’s found sound roots, with its field recording from a Save Guildford Crescent demo.
There are tracks based around loops and inspirations, including ‘Must be built’, which searches for the essence of the Hacienda nightclub, ‘Swim-up bar blues’, ‘Cowley’, and lead single ‘Onstage, right now…’.
And above all, there are things that just sound good and sound right, like ‘Gwawr' , like ‘Stomp stomp’ . So we’re releasing them, releasing this album – 2any1 – in '21. Are you listening?
"chuntering machine-driven backing somewhere between early 80s minimal synth and mid-80s electro...expansive array of semi-ambient keyboards and proto-techno rhythms." Buzz Magazine
Socials:
Bandcamp - https://viafantastica.
Twitter: @via_fantastica
Youtube soundcloud.com/viafantastica
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc49ETvVD-xfEtutqljabxg/featured
Facebook: https://www.
AN “EXCITING BLUEPRINT FOR BUILDING A BETTER SOCIETY” – UTOPIAN VISION FOR A NEW INDEPENDENT WALES
By Ceri Shaw, 2021-02-24
The organiser of the AUOB Cymru rallies which attracted thousands to pro-independence marches in Cardiff, Caernarfon and Merthyr pre Covid-19 has written his vision of an independent Wales. Llywelyn ap Gwilym, who is also on the Central Committee of YesCymru, said:
“I’ve supported Welsh independence since I can remember, but without questioning why. Since the birth of my children and moving back to Wales, I’ve thought more deeply about the politics, economics and sociology behind it: I’ve thought more about the ‘why’. Whilst writing The Black Book of the New Wales, I started to think that perhaps I could encourage the discourse to develop.”
The book is an exploration of what a future independent Wales could look like. It is written in the spirit of utopian thinking: its purpose is to question what is, and to envision what could be. Some of the ideas presented are a radical departure from the status quo, while others are becoming part of orthodox leftist thinking. Similarly, there are some precedents in terms of current or former organisations and institutions, others have only been trialled, while some have not yet existed.
The book has been described as “an exciting blueprint for building a better society” by Dan Evans of Desolation Radio and Leanne Wood, Plaid Cymru has said, “For the Indy curious, this is a must-read.”
The percentage of people in Wales supporting independence has almost tripled over the last six years from 12% in 2014 to 35% in 2020. The Welsh Independence movement is gathering momentum, with membership of YesCymru growing from 2,500 to 17,000 during 2020, and now gets regular attention in the UK media as well as further afield.
“I hope that the book will help expand further discussions so that more people start sharing ideas on what our values are, what kind of society we want to live in, and how independence for Wales is the most realistic path in order to achieve these changes. It would be tragic to lose the chance to ensure a better future for all who call Wales home and, on winning independence, just to recreate the inequality and unjustness that’s rife in the UK. The Black Book of New Wales is my contribution to ensuring a better future.”
The Black Book of the New Wales by Llywelyn ap Gwilym (£4.99, Y Lolfa) will be available by 1 st March.
Praise for The Black Book of the New Wales
“Concise, challenging, doable! There are radical ideas for the kind of Wales we can be, but we need independence, and independence of mind, to unlock that potential. It can’t come from Westminster. Better a Good Wales than a ‘Great’ Britain.”
Siôn T. Jobbins, YesCymru Chair
“… a cracking piece of work. Very clear thinking. Good, sound values base. I love the references you draw on – some of my favourites – Raymond Williams, Gramsci, Bookchin, Bell Hook, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, the Preston stuff and Mondragon. And the way you bring all the thinking together… Your book outlines why it is not tenable for people in Wales to carry on as we are and offers an inclusive vision of real independence. For the Indy curious, this is a must-read.”
Leanne Wood, Plaid Cymru
“A small book with big ideas! A welcome addition to the independence debate.”
Cian Ciarán, musician (Super Furry Animals), composer and YesCymru Vice-Chair
“Llywelyn ap Gwilym’s The Black Book of the New Wales doesn’t claim to have all the answers, it weaves together an empowering series of concepts and initiatives that are ready and willing to form new institutions and structures.”
Ben Gwalchmai, Founder of Labour for an Independent Wales
“An exciting blueprint for building a better society.”
Dan Evans, Desolation Radio
“Llywelyn ap Gwilym’s Llyfr Du is an essential contribution to the vision that will liberate Wales from the decaying British state.”
Sam Coates, Undod
Had a bit to drink so I began to think
what had happened to my ancestors
what is happening what has happened
and is likely to happen to me
the right to protect the half memory of half lives
to live and earn a living among one's own kind
to put a brake on the creeping amnesia
that separates us from who we are
who we are from who we were
and where we came from in the longer view
newly arrived faces discovered our legends
animated as though they had known them all their lives
and not told by their mothers as we had been
in places our grandparents sold them
in which we used to play used to laugh
used to love used to dream used to remember
but they are not afflicted by the itch that resulted
nor the scratching that persisted into
the fantasy of growing up
I await analysts to tell me where I have been going wrong
pathologists to reveal my causes
and detectorists to definitively pinpoint me
