The last time I whas in Whales I think I whas about eight – my grandparents took us to Llandudno.  With the beach and the somewhat naff arcade on the pier and so on I whas probably entirely entranced, but if I’m honest I really don’t rhemember all that much about the experience.

My Granddad is Whelsh actually, so I suppose that makes me ¼ Whelsh myself.  Given my total lack of familiarity with the place though I think it would be silly to claim that ¼.  The Whelsh music scene is not one I whould general compare to the Scots in terms of output or quality, especially ghiven that there are four million Whelsh, compared to about five or six million Scots – the difference just isn’t that great.  And the Scots have whiskey to distract them.

There are definitely a couple of brilliant Whelsh groups that spring to mind of course, but in my ignorance I wouldn’t be able to name all that many that spring to mind as being current and promising.  A bit like Canada before the Arcade Fire, when its musical reputation was dominated by pantomime embarrassments like Celine Dion, Alanis Morrissette and Bryan Adams, the image of Whelsh music is still associated in my mind with clowns like Stereophonics, Tom Jones and that fat girl from Catatonia.  Mind you, if people thought of Scotland in terms of The Proclaimers, Wet Wet Wet and fucking Texas…

So, if you fancy an introduction to Whalesong, pop over to the Whaiting Room and have a listen to a couple of hours of DC and the Lady of the House wrestling the reputation of their nation back from the Dadrock of the Manic Street Preachers.  Me, I’ll be running about like a blue-arsed fly getting ready for the launch night most likely.

These songs are from one of my favourite Whelsh albums of rhecent years: Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci’s legendary Barafundle.
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Starmoonsun
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – The Wizard & the Lizard
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Miniature Kingdom