Blogs

Right Hand Left Hand' s new single  'Chacabuco'  released on the 27th of September 2019, features former  Estrons front-woman Taliesyn Kallstrom on vocals. A simmering, brooding post-rock dark cloud full a gathering menace, the taught rhythms and an extraordinary vocal performance swirling into explosive crescendos. ‘Chacabuco’  is a Chilean ghost town set up to house workers for a nitrate mine, but was abandoned 14 years later as synthetic nitrate became widespread and decimated the industry. Decades later, Pinochet used it as a concentration camp and surrounded it with landmines that are still there. It is in the process of being restored by its sole inhabitant. 

Right Hand Left Hand  are back with a brand new album. Following on from their self-titled, Welsh Music Prize-nominated second album, their third offering,  ‘Zone Rouge’  released on the 15th of November, tells the story of humanity's contempt for the earth beneath us, the air above us and the people around us.

Our fractured planet lays the groundwork for the 11 new tracks on  'Zone Rouge'.  Each referring to a location on Earth where something bad has happened: An act of corruption against the planet, an act of evil against fellow humans and occasionally both. 

Recorded and produced by  Charlie Francis  ( Future of the Left, REM, Robyn Hitchcock ) at Cardiff’s Musicbox Studios,  Andrew  Plain  (drums/ guitars) and  Rhodri Viney  (guitars/vocals/ drums) continue to build and develop their trademark sound: looped and layered guitars and driving powerful drums that are intercut with atmospheric ambience. 

’Chacabuco'  is available to buy and stream digitally on 27th September. The album will follow on 15th November, 2019. It will be available digitally, on CD, and on limited edition double clear vinyl.

VOICES FROM WALES – THIRTY OF FIFTY-TWO, Introducing The 'Tin Shed' Experience

On June 4th, 2011 after 18 months of hard work by a small team of enthusiasts, an old derelict zinc garage in Laugharne was transformed into The Tin Shed Experience and opened to the Public. In a short space of time the museum became number one attraction in Carmarthenshire and at one point, number two museum in Wales.

Run by Seimon Pugh-Jones and his partner Meinir (Min) Evans, its popularity and reputation grew. It became a much-loved venue for music, the arts and history, with its unique and quirky style.

Its charm was based on the concept of being the opposite of most museums. Recycling and low carbon footprint was a major aspect of its development and also its low-tech approach, with interaction and visitor care a priority.

We concentrated on the period between 1914 to 1945.

The Tin Shed was just not a museum, it was also a venue for music events, its exhibits were used in film and TV and regularly loaned to theatre groups and other historical events/displays, some of which provided funding for the upkeep of the museum.

We achieved the Hall of Fame with trip advisor with amazing reviews. We've appeared in national newspapers. Our exhibits along with myself have appeared in a number of TV shows, TV dramas and radio shows.

In addition to normal daily visitors we worked closely with a number of schools and various groups including:

• Womens Institute
• Charitable Organisation
• Dementia Support
• Alzheimers
• local businesses in bringing over 40,000+ visitors to the area. We helped create a feel-good factor within Laugharne.

Future Plans
Due to the success of the previous museum our aim is to relocate the 1914 - 1945 museum to a new site. To integrate the museum into the community, to work with people with similar historical interests, schools and various charitable organisations.

VOICES FROM WALES – TWENTY NINE OF FIFTY-TWO, CILGERRAN CORACLE RACES

The Coracle Races are part of the Cilgerran Festive Week, an annual celebration bringing together the whole village in a number of activities from children’s sports to fancy dress and carnival. The main event is the traditional coracle racing which took place on Saturday August 24th 2019 on the River Teifi not far from the Castle ruins in Cilgerran.

The coracle is a small, rounded, lightweight boat traditionally used for net fishing of Atlantic salmon and sea trout known locally as sewin in the rivers of Wales. The tradition is kept alive by fisherman on the River Towy and Teifi.

The races give opportunities to novices and experts throughout the day

Super Marine release their debut single ‘Decadent Flowers’ on the 4th of October 2019. A supercharged power pop-rock anthem, laced with glistening riffs, singalong refrains, energetic percussion and arms aloft choruses that recall to mind the anthemic work of the Foo Fighters, the melodic hooks of Jimmy Eat World and Ash and the rhythmic urgency of The Gaslight Anthem. 

Super Marine are a four-piece band from Blackwood, South Wales. Their music incorporates gutsy guitar-driven melody lines infused with classic vocal hooks.  In the spring of 2019 they started working with notable music producer Rich Jackson (Pretty Vicious, Future of the Left, SFA) and will be releasing their first single 'Decadent Flowers' on Friday 4th October 2019. 

Currently working with the Forté project this ambitious young band are cutting their teeth in the studio perfecting their sound, and playing a run of shows this autumn including a hometown single launch at the Blackwood Miners’ Institute and a slot at Swn festival in Cardiff,  that will prove they are a coming force in Welsh music. 

Super Marine say: "We’re extremely happy with how this track turned out and can’t wait for people to hear it. Working with Rich Jackson was fantastic, he really helped us bring this song to life. We’re excited to get out there and play this track at our upcoming shows."  

TOUR DATES

10 Feet Tall, Cardiff – 26th September

Cwmaman Festival – 29th September

Blackwood Miners’ Institute (single launch) – 5th October

Hardies Merthyr – 13th October

Swn Festival – 19th October

Fuel Rock Club, Cardiff - 27th October

Hangar 18 - Swansea - 8th November

McCann’s Newport - 22nd November

The Patriot, Crumlin - 29th November 

SOCIAL MEDIA 

https://www.facebook.com/supermarineband/

https://www.instagram.com/supermarineband/

https://twitter.com/supermarineband  

WEBSITE 

https://www.supermarineband.com/

Doesn't it ever stop raining? thought Mali as she gazed through the small kitchen window.  The mountains were covered in a grey wet mist, and the rain trickled miserably down the window pane, grimed with the black coal dust that was everywhere. There was a bucket placed in the middle of the lean to they called a kitchen, a steady drip could be heard filling the rusty bucket.  The roof was leaking, and there was no money to repair it.  She was on her own, left while Owen her husband had swanned off to Spain on some brainless socialist ideal to fight in that bloody War.

She had waited for hours, sitting in the sparse kitchen with Beth. There was a small fire burning.  She could no longer keep the house warm on the pittance she was receiving from the Parish.  Mari still wore the baggy old cardigan under her wraparound pinny for extra warmth.  Her hair once so beautiful was dull and lank, her mother said due to malnutrition. 

“Leave him” said Mam. 

“I love him” replied Mari. but now it was too late.

The evening meal was spoiled.  Bethan was upset her Dudda was absent again.  That bloody Union Lodge all they ever talked about was Revolution.  And now this thing in Spain, some sort of peasant uprising.  But with heavy political overtones, that's what Owen had told her.   Just what they had been waiting for so they could save the bloody world,  What about the peasants in the valley who were being starved out by the coal owners?  If it wasn't for Mam they would have no tea today.

Finally Owen appeared.

“Where have you been?”  she snapped.

“Oh don't start again Mari.  I've had a long day.”

“Yes, arguing the toss with that lot at the Lodge.  You need a job not ideals.  Owen you are useless.”

“Is it my fault they've offered us starvation wages?” he replied.

“Mam is feeding us.  Me and Bethan would go hungry if we depended on you.  
You know you won't get a better offer, than the one on the table.”

2

“The Union will back us.  We'll stay out until we get what we want.”

“Thats all bravado.  What about that bloody useless Mining agent.  He gets fatter by the day.  He's in the pocket of the owners.  Until you get rid of him you can pass as many resolutions as you like,  while the children in the valley starve, and you lot form committees.  We used to be so happy before this all started.”

In a moment of resignation Owen looked at her

“ Mari do you think I like this?  With thousands of us out.  Our kids going hungry and the soles of their shoes getting ever thinner?  The valley is on the bones of its'
arse.  Because of those overfed bastards at the big house squeezing every penny out of us.  The only recourse we have is with the Union.”

“The bloody Union, is that all you ever think about.  Committees and resolutions, its' a bloody full  time job for you.  We used to be so good together.” She said softly as she moved towards him, but he pulled away.  “Another pregancy won't solve anything.”

“Don't you want me anymore?”

There was no answer.  The silence chilled her bones.  It was an answer in itself.

“Is there no future?” asked Mari quietly.

“Not while we're in this state.  I'm a free man, who can make his own decisions.”

“And me and Beth are free to starve.  Are we?  You are free to scavenge the tips for coal.  Where is the dignity in being free?”

He moved further away from her.  His face became pale.

“Why did you go there ?   She said.  Was it a 'man' thing?  Because you were the Lodge secretary?  Did you feel you had to?   Peer pressure?  Were you afraid you had to prove yourself a man?  Tell me .“ she screamed.

“There were people being oppressed, starving, massacred.  They needed our support.”  replied Owen.

Dont talk such rubbish.  There are hundreds in this valley being starved and oppressed, and you have the solution.  Negotiate.  But out of male chauvinist pride, you won't give yourselves the opportunity to get around the table.  Then you go off to that bloody war.  You left me and Beth without a word.  Some bloody hero.”

He stared  as though not seeing her.  It was as if she was'nt there.  He looked at her strangely

“What the hell is the matter with you Owen David?  Her voice rose in anger. 

“Why don't you answer me?”

He just sat there as if neither of this world or the next.

“I want to know why you did it Owen.” said Mari.

“Were'nt me and Beth enough for you?  You left us in the middle of the night, man! 

How could I explain it to Bethan?”   The tone of her voice betrayed her hopelessness.

Owen replied almost as if in a dream.

“You know I loved you and Beth.  It all happened so quickly.  I knew the call would come.  We had to meet at Cardiff at 6.00 the following morning to get the boat train to France.  We walked over the Pyrenees into Spain, where we were met by Manolo.

“You left me and Beth penniless.  There was no note.  We didn't know where you were.  Then of course, there was Manolo.”

“But Beth I was injured pretty early on.  Manolo looked after me.”  

“Bloody Manolo”  snapped Mari..

“Why do you talk so negatively of him?” asked Owen.

“If it was'nt for that man hundreds of us would have died.  You didn't know him Beth.”  replied Owen.

“I know what he was”  she said bitterly.

“He loved me.”

“It was obscene.  You were lovers.”

“They came for him Beth, he would not tell them about me – about us, or where we were hiding.  They tortured and finally shot him.  Such a beautiful human being.

Owen became ever more distant.

“The Brigaders who came back gave me the news that tried to rescue him. On your own of course.  You bloody fool Owen.  Now I'm a widow and you are buried god knows where..................” 

Sonny Winnebago is the moniker of Welsh-Australian troubadour /musician Harvey Jones, who's spent the entirety of 2019 living out of his battered suitcase and beloved camper van, all whilst feeding other people's cats and dogs. He was born with hypermobility syndrome which allows him a heightened flexibility, creating a very dynamic and unusual performance style. His infectious music embodies a 'melody is king' approach to pop writing, drawing inspiration from 1970s figures Harry Nilsson &  Cat Stevens .

Following a string of profiled support slots, including Michael Kiwanuka & Joel Baker, Sonny Winnebago will be releasing his anticipated debut single  'Take Me For A Ride' . It is one of four tracks he'll be releasing with the support of Welsh artist development scheme 'Forté Project', enlisting the skills of producer Charlie Francis (R.E.M, The High Llamas), featuring session musicians Davey Newington (Boy Azooga), Matt Evans (KEYS) and Steve Black (Sweet Baboo).

Harvey says that Take Me For A Ride  was written from a place of restlessness, following the event of a long-term friendship going south."It's a true story, and a relatable one too, with strong themes of detachment and self-empowerment" Backed up by an uptempo rhythm section and bright, choppy chords, 'Take Me For A Ride' ultimately engulfs the listener with feelings of summer abandonment and child-like joy.

VOICES FROM WALES – TWENTY EIGHT OF FIFTY-TWO, CARMARTHENSHIRE WATER SAFETY PARTNERSHIP

Within Mother Bear Productions we are finding that we have raced ahead in our challenge of one video a week for Americymru. Prepared videos are being held up from being released for weeks after they are ready to be published. So we now intend to release videos once they are ready. It may be that some weeks we’ll release two videos.

This week we concentrate on the Carmarthenshire Water Safety Partnership and the extremely important work that Adam and other charity workers do towards water safety awareness in the county and all over Wales.

Thanks for watching and please share away.

FASHION IN WOMEN'S DRESS FROM 1914 TO 1938 AND THE SOCIETY THAT CHANGED THEIR CLOTHES AND THE ROLE OF WOMEN

The women of Wales have a gritty and courageous story to tell.  Expressed in terms of fashion the tale is outlined by the changing social and historical forces which influenced what they wore. And in turn influenced who they were and what they became.

At the start of the First World War in 1914, society in Britain remained much as it had always been since the beginning of the twentieth century.  Britain was rigidly class ridden between the aristocracy the middle classes who formed the professional and blue collar workers such as doctors, lawyers teachers and scientists etc., Then there were the working classes, manual and factory workers, miners, iron foundry workers, also dock workers, and those who maintained the railways.  Generally these were the men who maintained the fabric of society.  Skilled and semi skilled workers who earned a living in the heavy industries with their hands and their strength.
 
Working class women and girls were mainly wives, mothers, and home makers.  Their role in society had not changed since Victorian times.  Once married they were expected to look after their husbands and sometimes very large families.  Birth control was not generally used, and these women often had very large families, some had a dozen or more children.  

In the mining valleys of South Wales, as well as cooking and cleaning, women had to provide hot baths for their husbands and older sons who worked in the pits, and who came home at different times of the day. There were no pithead baths provided until the 1930’s.  Sometimes women worked almost 24 hours a day!

From the early part of the 20th century, there was controversy over pithead baths which would enable the miners to bathe and wear clean clothes at the end of their shift.  This would take a great deal of strain off women who provided this facility at home.

Some companies did not want to install them.  Sometimes the miners paid for them out of small weekly donations from their wages.  Gradually during the twenties and thirties pit head baths were installed. Thus relieving the heavy chores housewives had to undertake to provide daily bathing for sons and husbands using zinc baths and lifting gallons of hot water which had been heated over the kitchen fire. The majority of miner’s cottages had no hot water and no bathrooms.

There were some young middle class women who had gained entrance to University but this was a very rare occurrence.  It was practically unheard of, and very controversial in the male dominated society of the time.  Middle class educated women usually who wished to work outside the home used their talents in charitable works, or the church, and were considered 'suitable' for these purposes, by their fathers and husbands.

Working class women were mainly employed in 'service' in the great houses and as maids working in middle class houses.  Many young Welsh women and girls migrated all over England to serve in menial domestic capacities.  Some were treated well others just used as family drudges, washing cooking and cleaning for sometimes quite a number of people of the household. 

Women were also employed as seamstresses, and some young women were 'mobile' who would take their sewing machines and work wherever needed, becoming very early female business owners.  Others were employed as shop assistants, or worked on farms as dairy maids and farm servants.  A lot of these jobs were very poorly paid.

Women could not own property in their own right.  

PROPERTY RIGHTS OF WOMEN

There was some movement however to improve the lot of women.  During the 1800's laws were passed that made it possible for married women to own property in their own right the same as unmarried women and widows.

SUFFRAGETTES.

One of the prominent women’s movements was the Women's Social and Political Union known as the WSUP formed to campaign for Votes for Women, which originated in England in 1903.

This was a highly controversial movement, because the women took the view that the Suffragist movement who campaigned through peaceful means and through their male dominated Parliament were ineffective. The WSUP in 1906 start to used violence to advance their cause.  The majority of the Suffragettes who formed the WSUP were mainly educated upper middle class women.

Many of them were arrested and jailed for their activities.  They went on hunger strikes in prison, and a cruel method called force feeding was employed, whereby a tube was forced down the throat and food and liquid poured directly into the digestive system.  

Women had to be held down in order for this process to be carried out.  In certain instances their health was badly affected, and they were released from prison only to recover and be re-imprisoned.  This process was made legal under legislations which came to be called The Cat and Mouse Act passed in 1913.

Some very wealthy Welsh women were involved in the Suffragette Movement.

WORLD WAR 1

Significantly, with the advent of WW1 in 1914 Suffragette activities were curtailed.  After the first draft of Volunteers to France there was suddenly a shortage of labour in areas which men had been traditionally employed. i.e.,  farming, industrial work, manufacturing even the Post Office.

Miners were, for a time in a ‘protected’ occupation, but as the war advanced conscription was brought in, and some of the soldiers who were conscripted were taken from the mines.  It was the unpleasant duty of the Lodge Secretary to name the men selected for active service.

Initially there was some prejudice to women being employed in jobs which men had traditionally held. The fact that the war machine took millions of volunteers to France left Britain without enough labour to maintain Great Britain.

WOMEN CALLED TO REGISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT

During the month of March 1915 women were called to register for employment at their local Labour Exchanges.  Within a short time women were filling jobs traditionally occupied by men in the clerical, shop work even bus conductresses and taxi and vehicle drivers.  Nurses were employed in hospitals and many went out to France to serve in hospitals close to the Western Front.  The casualties were enormous, 20,000 were killed or wounded in ONE DAY, during the battle of the Somme.

Women were needed in factories and industry.  In Wales where munitions factories were established. Thousands of women were employed producing shell casings.  There were three factories in Wales which produced high explosives.   Young women were employed in filling the manufactured shell casings with highly dangerous and volatile material which caused accidents.  In one case in Swansea a fatality occurred where the young woman had a funeral with her coffin draped in the Union Jack, accompanied by and escort of munitionettes clad in their working gear.

The emancipation of women had begun.  Through employment and higher wages (although still not equal with men).  Women began to find a life outside the home.  They took responsibility, gained independence and above all realised that they could do almost anything that men could!

WOMEN’S FASHION 1914 -1918

Because of the variety of jobs which women were called upon to perform, a radical change came about in the lives of millions of women, and the way they dressed.   The constricting long skirts and elaborate gowns of the Edwardian era were replaced with more practical clothes.  

Women needed garments which were suitable and safe for their employment.  Sometimes Breeches were used in conjunction with an overall with a skirt which was knee length and heavy duty boots were worn completing the uniform.  This was a great departure for the female workforce who worked in the farming and munitions areas of work.  

Every day wear also became more practical with a variety of working ‘suits’ being worn which comprised of a straight skirt, fitted jacket and a blouse, often cut on very masculine lines. The necessary alterations in fashion began to reflect in the increasing independence and self reliance of the female population. 

VOICES FROM WALES – TWENTY SEVEN OF FIFTY-TWO, BOSWORTH DAY AT ST PETER’S CHURCH CARMARTHEN

The Battle of Bosworth, the last battle of The War of The Roses is celebrated/commemorated in Carmarthen in August annually. The battle took place on 22 August 1485. The House of Lancaster was victorious over Richard and the House of York. Henry Tudor was crowned King, it was the beginning of the Tudor dynasty.

What’s Carmarthen got to do with Bosworth?

Sir Rhys ap Thomas was a Welsh soldier and supported Henry at Bosworth. It is believed that Rhys was the man who delivered the fatal blow to Richard III. The warrior poet of the time, Guto’r Glyn described the death of Richard as a vicious blow to the head with a battle axe, "killed the boar, shaved his head."

He was supposedly knighted on the battlefield and in return for his loyalty to Henry VII he was rewarded with titles that made him one of the most influential men in Wales.

Sir Rhys’s tomb is now situated in St Peter’s Church Carmarthen.