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AmeriCymru: Hi David and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. Care to introduce the community of Cwmbwrla for our readers? Where in Wales is it and what is its history?
David: Cwmbwrla is a district of Swansea, on the South Wales coast. It’s home to 8,000 people and has produced some of Wales’s most celebrated sporting figures and artists. In particular, it’s well known as the birthplace of John and Mel Charles, Ivor and Len Allchurch and Mel Nurse, five of Wales’s finest footballers. But it’s the people who aren’t so famous that I admire the most. The people who quietly find a way to make other people’s lives better and never expect any thanks for it. There are a lot of them in Cwmbwrla.
AmeriCymru: How has the coronavirus pandemic affected Cwmbwrla?
David: The pandemic had a notable effect on small businesses in the area, forcing their prolonged closure and jeopardising their futures. People who were forced to socially isolate found it difficult to cope with the lack of human contact and many families found themselves in an awkward financial position. Luckily we have community leaders who’ve worked tirelessly to address these problems, led by Emma Shears, a Local Area Coordinator who has done a remarkable job of bringing people together to support those in greatest need.
AmeriCymru: What gave you the idea for this book? What inspired it?
David: On the May bank holiday this year, my neighbours and I gathered outside our houses to share a socially distanced drink and reflect on the unusual turn the year had taken. One of my neighbours mentioned that their mother, who had lived in the area all her life, had interesting stories to tell and shared one or two anecdotes. I then shared some examples of the good things that local people were doing to help each other through the lockdown. It occurred to me that these anecdotes were worth documenting. People’s stories are worth telling.
AmeriCymru: The book consists in large part, of personal and family histories. How did you go about collecting these? How willing were people to participate?
David: I brought the idea to a group that had previously come together to organise local events and we compiled a list of people we thought would have interesting contributions to make. We also shared the idea on social media and encouraged people to share their stories. It was then a simple matter of picking up the phone. When you spend time talking to people – and more importantly listening to them – their stories emerge. People were happy to participate but many of them initially protested that “I haven’t really got anything to tell you” or “I’m not really doing anything to help”. It didn’t take me long to realise that they were being far too modest. And talking about family histories made it clear that Cwmbwrla us a place where children are proud of their parents and parents are proud of their children. That’s certainly something worth celebrating.
AmeriCymru: Do any of these personal reminiscences stand out for you? Are there any interviewees/stories that you would like to highlight?
David: It’s difficult to single anyone out because I interviewed almost 40 people and I ended up admiring all of them. But if I had to choose two I would nominate “All Heart” and “Finding our Way Home”. “All Heart” is about Colin Lightfoot, a small business owner who has run a local greeting card shop for the past 40 years. He treats customers as friends, he does everything he can to make people happy and never puts himself first. Earlier in 2020 he was admitted to hospital with a heart problem, and he’s still there now. People love him, they miss him and they want him to know how much he means to the community. Hopefully the book will make it clear. “Finding Our Way Home” tells the story of a remarkable group of women who started up an emergency food resource. They realised that many local families would struggle to put meals on the table in 2020 and they set about building up a supply that could be shared with those who needed it. The need still exists, so the food resource is still active. People are taking care of each other.
AmeriCymru: You also have a section titled 'Covid-19 Heroes'. Care to tell us a little about these?
David: I’m in awe of the local people who’ve stepped up to help their neighbours at this difficult time. These aren’t wealthy people, they’re working women and men with their own problems to solve and their own families to support, but they’ve chosen to give their time, effort and resources, cooking for their neighbours, shopping for them, collecting their medication, just picking up the phone and talking to them. A lady named Lisa Challenger comes immediately to mind. She told me it breaks her heart to see neighbours, many of them older and vulnerable, not having cooking facilities and never sitting down to a good hot meal. Her response has been to cook hundreds of roast dinners, all at her own expense, giving people something to look forward to, giving them sustenance and keeping them healthy. And Lisa will tell you that she isn’t doing anything special. She’s doing something very special, and she’s just one of the COVID-19 heroes who make me proud to live in Cwmbwrla.
AmeriCymru: Where can people buy the book online?
David: The book is available in paperback and ebook form on Amazon. I hope people with Welsh roots will recognise the warmth and inclusiveness of this community. I hope it will remind them of the best of Wales. Circling the Square: Cwmbwrla, Coronavirus and Community
AmeriCymru: What's next for David Jones? Future plans?
David: Now that I’ve seen how much it means to people to have their lives and their work acknowledged, I’ll be pursuing similar projects in 2021. In February I’m helping my friend Jeff Phillips, a local artist, organise “Swansea Past, Present and Future”, a celebration of arts and culture through the ages in our city. I’m planning another “people’s book” to accompany this event. I feel privileged when people share their stories with me, and I’ll try my best to do them justice.
Can you possibly imagine, being no more than a child?
To be pulled from your bed, and dragged off to work as you cried
At an age where all you want to do is play
Not to be dragged down a coal mine, for a pittance of pay
Used in seams so damp, wet and narrow
Where even the pit ponies wouldn’t go
Crawling on your hands and knees, harnessed like an animal
Soaking with sweat, clothes ripped to shreds. Is this natural?
Or left all alone for hours on end, guarding the ventilation doors!
Alone, for ten hours or more?
In the darkness, silence and gloom, the time seems endless
The cold, biting into the young bones, terrified, scared witless
Childhood, the most important years!
They should be cherished, not sent down a mine in tears
Shackled to a coal haulage implement, in places so wet and so low
Clinging on with fingers bruised and bleeding, scared to let go
Some working fourteen hours a day, seeing very little day light
Dragged off to work in the middle of the night
Coming home, sometimes with little to eat or a place to bathe!
Their young lives passing them by, to the mines they were slaves
The coal mines, where the word safety didn’t exist
Many of the children, to be put on an early deceased list
Children taken to the mines by their father
Fathers mostly unable to read or write, never knowing any better
The families were all very poor
If they don’t work, no money was coming through the door
Sometimes the whole family went to work in the mines!
Still they barely survived, even when their money was combined
The younger children who worked there
Would be pushing the heavy wooden tubs of coal, often in pairs
Back breaking work for those so young
Pushing heavy tubs of coal to pit bottom, not out playing having fun
The hurriers harnessed to the tubs, like small pit ponies
Thrusters, pushing from behind, children hands so small and bony
Children, many catching illness’s, they were unable to be saved
These children, who had no childhood, destined for an early grave
A life where puberty can be thwarted
Legs, knees, spines and feet horribly distorted
Girls, who develop pelvic deformities
That could later life cause childbearing difficulties?
Collapse of the digestive organs was also common
Diseases of the heart, causing inflammation
Stomach pains, cramps, diarrhoea and vomiting
Caused by contaminated water drinking
Those who were lucky enough to survive, by God’s grace
Would be sent to work in the coal face
Working with a candle or a safety lamp
Hot, cramped, squalid conditions, many perishing with the firedamp
Firedamp or methane, call it what you may
No taste, no smell, but in a flash, it would take you away The
silent killer, always lurking in the coal mines
No mercy, no warning, not understood in Victorian times
So, as you watch your children playing happily in the sun
Try to imagine these children, lives over barely before it’s begun
Sitting in the cold and the damp, behind wooden doors
Dark, dinghy, foul smelling, sitting on a sodden dirty floor
Waiting all day in the dark, as a door keep
Frightened to fall asleep
If they did, they may be beaten, and their meagre pay docked
Just sitting in the boredom, waiting for the door to be knocked
Victorian times, where the factories were flourishing
Where the workers were like slaves, working for next to nothing
Those days, when there was no such thing as electricity
Where coal was a much sought-after commodity
And the mine owners were quick to see
Give the parents a job, the children work almost free!
The mine owners generating vast wealth
Not caring about the worker’s health
Uneducated people to them, only fit to work underground
Cheap labour to them, with very little work to be found
Except the mines and the factories, all owned by the paymasters
Living in depressing squalor. The paymasters houses full of laughter
Where children on the Sunday, the Lords day, day of rest
Would stay in their beds, not go out to play, they had no energy left
The modern day mines we thought, were hard and uncompromising
Nothing like the Hell these children endured, not living, just existing
Sunday morning a day of solitude and creativity
Alone but not alone, at home with my privacy
I listen to a young woman’s voice
A rich mellifluous voice, in which many will rejoice
I sit at my desk, filled with ineffable sadness
Trying to imagine people living in loneliness
People in a lonely uninhabited place
Where you can see the sadness in their face
The young woman’s lyrical, melodic tone tells of isolation
Of people living in desperation
People who have to live alone in seclusion
Some mentally unstable, in a state of confusion
Not seeing another person, since who knows when
Wondering if they will ever see someone again
The rich tone of her voice, mellow and euphonious
As the plight of confinement, reaches out to us
Confinement that can lead to paranoid delusion
Clinical depression, anxiety and illusions
As the young woman continues to relate to us
An ineffable beauty descends upon us
But these words of indescribable beauty
Are really a lament of brutal reality
Of how people are being let down
In our own cities and towns
People, who are being forced to live in isolation
As a viral infection causes untold devastation
People who are being forced to self-isolate
Elderly people who need help, before it’s too late
As I look at the images of masks and coffin lids
Again and again she talks of Covid
A virus causing people to isolate behind four walls
A virus that we must tackle, before it kills us all
So, as the mellifluous voice may be sweet on the ear
It is also makes it ineffably clear
That if we don’t challenge this viral infection
We face the prospect of more solitude and isolation
In 2020 the people of Cwmbwrla came together in the face of an unprecedented health crisis to put smiles on each other’s faced and food on each other’s tables. Neighbours became friends, and together they showed Swansea at its best. We believe their stories are worth telling, and contributors including Brynhyfryd-born Mal Pope, local author David Brayley, MP Carolyn Harris and Councillor Peter Black agree.
“ Circling the Square: Cwmbwrla, Coronavirus and Community” tells the stories of individuals, families and groups whose acts of kindness and quiet courage have improved the lives of those around them, year after year. In particular, they’ve improved people’s lives this year, just when it mattered most. The book introduces readers to women and men who stocked up an emergency food resource, created art and craft packs to keep children entertained, cooked, shopped and cared for their neighbours and provided vital medical and social care no matter what the barriers or risks. It introduces readers to the best of Swansea, the best of Wales and the best of people.
“ We believe the people who’ve breathed life into these streets through wartime and peacetime and made their neighbours feel safe and valued throughout the coronavirus crisis have made their own history.”
Royalties will be reinvested in the community that inspired the book, with all revenue going to Cwmbwrla Community Events , a nonprofit group that funds entertainment and sports activity for children and adults across Cwmbwrla, Manselton, Brynhyfryd, Gendros and Landore.
“ Circling the Square: Cwmbwrla, Coronavirus and Community” is available in paperback ($7.95) and ebook ($3.99) from Amazon and also at a discounted rate from selected local retailers. Be a part of the Welsh community success story of 2020 and buy this book.
BUY IT HERE -
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Circling-Square-Cwmbwrla-Coronavirus-Community/dp/B08NDXBFTC
The EP is a flurry of recent work, with reflections on recent situations. 'Take Me With You' dives headfirst into the current feeling and situation. It asks for salvation in a time of threat, uncertainty, division and chaos. The chant of "lockdown, lockdown, lockdown" is an angry cry of frustration amongst a distorted diatribe against powerfully overdriven beats. “What My Monster Looks Like” haunts with its warning “you’d be out of sight if you knew what my monster looks like” and repeats “never mind” in an all too familiar apathy. Pulsing bass and looped samples push the track forward.
'Gander’ is brutally melancholic at first, echoing and duplicating as it emerges from one theme, the monotonous loop and cycle of not being able to move forward or do something. It then transforms into a dance beat - evoking freer times - before exposing the original theme again, losing the memory for reality. An acoustic guitar evokes sweet resonance on "As It Goes" under the raw honesty of a final argument at the end of a relationship. The structure also grounds it in the Groundhog Day feeling a lot of people have been experiencing this year.
The EP winds its way through both jarring and soulful transitions as well, capturing a state of mind that bounces between chaos and serenity at whim.
Minas is the project from Cardiff producer James Minas alongside drummer Greg Davies and bassist Bob Williams. The songs tell stories of a chequered past over a mix of deep melodic soundscapes and loud, aggressive stanzas. Covering subjects from personal struggles with mental health to finding a place in the society we have. As a producer James is working to build a new sound for the South Wales scene with a number of artists and genres (such as Luke RV, Dead Method, Dan Bettridge, Razkid and more) but as an artist he presents brutal honesty going against his natural defenses to present the most open and vulnerable self for anyone who wishes to listen.
Minas grew up in the circus with parents who were heavily involved in the 1980’s Punk scene and then moved to secondary school in the Welsh Valleys, with the boredom and misbehaviour that came with it. Minas aims to create music that discusses these things and ends with an empowering feeling of hope, something we all need in right now.
Quiet Marauder new 'Tiny Men Parts' EP out 27th November on Bubblewrap Collective
By Ceri Shaw, 2020-11-20
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For Fans Of: The Burning Hell; Half Man Half Biscuit; AJJ; The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band
Seven years on from its initial release, Cardiff-based Quiet Marauder are set to unleash a contemporary reimagining of their record-baiting, format-stretching debut album MEN. Cut back from its original guise of 111 tracks and nearly five hours, its sister EP, Tiny Men Parts, clocks in at a much more manageable nine songs (and just over 25 minutes). Released at the end of November, Tiny Men Parts is a celebration of Quiet Marauder’s live band over the last few years, stepping away from the lo-fi, bedroom aesthetic of their debut and embracing the bombastic rock conjured by the group as a whole.
Recorded in Rat Trap Studios with Tom Rees (Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard) at the helm, the remit was to channel the sweaty joviality of a dive bar gig - something even more poignant in the context of coronavirus. This feat was accomplished with aplomb on the punk-rock bassy, bangy scuzz of previous single Eggs! and is repeated throughout via tracks such as The Business Deal, Lucky Tonight and I Want A Moustache, Dammit. Naturally, these tracks and the EP as a whole, share the same thematic and lyrical concerns of its longer predecessor; a study in the darkness of toxic masculinity, lad banter and the insidiousness of gender inequality.
Tracklisting
1. The Business Deal
2. I Want A Moustache, Dammit
3. Roda And The Bunker
4. It Wasn’t Me, It Was The Moon
5. The Internal Monologue Date
6. Lucky Tonight
7. The Animals Are Spying On Me
8. Eggs!
9. I Want A Moustache, Dammit II (Dance Remix) . .
...
Released by Bubblewrap Collective, Tiny Men Parts will be preceded by digital single The Animals Are Spying On Me on 28th October, lyrically about human capability for irrational and yet somehow intractable paranoia. Following that the full EP will come on 27th November, arriving in limited edition heavyweight white ‘fried egg’ vinyl with accompanying ‘real man’ temporary tattoos. ...
This record is a celebration of the longest-serving live incarnation of Quiet Marauder, as well as a reimagining of our ridiculously long debut album, MEN. Way back when, seven years ago in 2013, a lot of that album was recorded by one man banging a frying pan on an inflatable mattress in the Cardiff suburbs. As fun as that was, fast-forwarding to 2020 and the tender touches of Tom Rees in Rat Trap Studios capturing our innate rock rawness was one thousand times more rewarding. Huge thanks to Tom and Ed Truckell for their tracking and mastering, Bubblewrap Collective for still indulging our whimsy and to the kind souls reading this who, we assume, have not stolen this or in the midst of destroying it...and of course, the Quiet Marauder players responsible for making the fundamental noises in the tiny grooves of this disc: ...
Quiet Marauder are:Simon M. Read: Vocals, acoustic guitar
Ian Williams: Vocals, electric guitar
Rowan Liggett: Vocals, bass guitar
John Whittles: Drums
Francesca Dimech: Vocals, trumpet, melodica
Kadesha Drija: Vocals, percussion ..
Many of these songs chart the darkness of masculinity and human behaviour - its lack of logic, its danger and the spectrum underlying that on which we all sit and should be conscious of. Beyond the dark, there's more often than not some light. Be and stay kind.
She's Got Spies shares new video 'All Outta Tears' filmed in Moscow, lifted from her new album 'Isle of Dogs'
By Ceri Shaw, 2020-11-20
She's got Spies has shared the new video for her track ' All Outta Tears' filmed in Moscow, Russia in 2012, watch/share it below. This lovelorn tune is lifted from her new album 'Isle of Dogs' which is out now.
She’s Got Spies’ second album ‘Isle of Dogs’ refers to an area of London, Laura Nunez’s hometown, as well as the state of turmoil of the island of Britain. The follow up album to her debut Welsh language album ‘Wedi’, ‘Isle of Dogs’ features songs written over the last decade. She’s Got Spies is the project of Laura Nunez and her cast of collaborators. She spends her time between Cardiff and London, she’s multilingual and can sing in Welsh, English and Russian.
I listen to and learn from the eulogy
for a poet from my village recognised in his death
this awaits me or vice versa
or verses versus verses
a book is not its cover
but a chimera to ward off stereotypification
a taxi ride among a cavalcade of red tail lights
to where the bokeh is okay
I met Billy and his grandson Ryan in the x-ray waiting room
his eyes had red circles around them
as if he'd spent a lifetime crying
he joked he'd been hiding behind a tent
at the siege of Rorke's Drift
and that I'd limped with a different leg on leaving
not much chance to use the old language here
where Iolo Morganwg tells me to buck up
in a minaret multi storey car park
named after our patron saint
our capital city its smart centre
the ordinary radiating roads
(who are they named after?)
the tarmaced-together suburbs
their Chinese supermarkets and eateries
the heirs of the enquiring minds
that dreamed up gunpowder navigation and printing
I sniff around the outskirts of the spirit skirt
and the gaps in people
some good gaps some not so
but do the flatlands feel the imprint
of the inundations of their moulding?
From the moment we read the above intro to Matthew G.Rees' 'Smoke House' we are aware that we are in for a strange journey. Readers of Matthew's debut collection 'Keyhole' will perhaps be better prepared for the bizarre and other worldly tales recounted in these pages.
In contrast to 'Keyhole', in which all the stories were set in Wales, the tales in this collection are set in America, Russia, France and a number of other locations around the globe.
In 'Smoke House' we are invited to consider the fate of Fort Tinder, an American village which has long been served by an unconventional 'medical practitioner'. The arrival of jobbing plumber Michael Maguire reveals a conflict in village life which ultimately leads to tragedy.
'The Glass' transports us to the frozen steppes of Russia where Grigor Grigoriev has arrived to repair the stained glass windows in the church at Krasyansk Cathedral. He takes a proper pride in his work and the congregants seem to appreciate it too, but who are they and will they let him leave.
There is also 'An Exhibition' which examines the predicament of a gallery attendant who hates modern art and in particular the work of a local much lauded artist whose work is on display. She plots vandalism and sabotage but do her plans come to fruition or does the artist ultimately triumph?
A worthy successor to 'Keyhole' we have no hesitation in recommending this collection to anyone with a taste for the macabre and bizarre or indeed anyone who appreciates exquisite story telling.
Smoke House & Other Stories is AmeriCymru's Book of the Month for November 2020.
Matthew G. Rees on AmeriCymru
Keyhole - An Interview With Welsh Author Matthew G. Rees
Keyhole - A Stunning Debut From A Major New Talent
Simon Howells Reads 'Dreamcoat', A Short Story By Matthew G. Rees
As The Meadow Ends By Matthew G. Rees
A reading of 'As The Meadow Ends', a short story by Matthew G. Rees, author of 'Keyhole' and 'Smoke House & Other Stories'. Matthew G.Rees is a critically acclaimed Welsh fiction writer and playwright in the fields of folk horror and fantasy.
'Smoke House & Other Stories' is AmeriCymru's Book of the Month for November 2020.
Matthew G. Rees on AmeriCymru
Keyhole - An Interview With Welsh Author Matthew G. Rees
Keyhole - A Stunning Debut From A Major New Talent
Simon Howells Reads 'Dreamcoat', A Short Story By Matthew G. Rees
Smoke House & Other Stories By Matthew G. Rees - A Review
