Episode 2 Wales Unsigned

Take the Bakerloo Line two stops from Paddington

and you arrive here at Maida Vale.

It's one of London's poshest suburbs.

Round here, a three-bed flat costs more than £1 million,

but it's also home to one of the BBC's hidden gems

and it's going to be our home for three days of live music-making.

So welcome to the BBC Maida Vale Studios

and welcome to Wales Unsigned.

I'm Heledd Watkins - that's me right there -

and I played here last year with my band HMS Morris

as part of the Horizons project,

which supports up-and-coming Welsh bands.

This year, there are 12 new acts and so, for our first band on day one,

with musicians from across South Wales led by MC Skunkadelic,

this is Afro Cluster.

# Double trouble

# Say she don't come again

# Double trouble

# Say she don't come again

# Yeah

# Where we met, it's a story for another day

# The friend request came quick there on the page

# These kind of things ain't new to us nowadays

# So I accepted, as she expected

# Hourglass figure, rude if you neglect it

# Seemed to be worth every sly move, time and effort invested

# First name Olivia, half-Nigerian

# With a Greek heritage, hell of a look

# Vision turned sepia

# Hotel for a beverage, this wasn't easier

# Pupils haemorrhage at the glimpse of her

# Like Pepe Le Pew, think I just clocked my Penelope

# Elegantly step in the room

# Coming like a weather balloon

# Filled with laughing gas, her arse bent

# Love muscle nodding like an iguana

# Oh, what a view

# Yeah!

# When I plan my attack, ah-ha

# Wahala, one-two

# Double trouble

# When I plan my attack now

# When I plan my attack. #

That was amazing. I really, really wanted to clap,

but I'm not allowed to, I'm not allowed to make any noise.

Next up in Maida Vale Studio Three,

and now with the addition of a string section,

here's Cardiff R&B artist Reuel Elijah.

# Stressing out

# It's got me tripping out

# That's what it feels like

# I know you know what it feels like

# Feel like I'm chatting to a brick wall

# Hollering for a miracle

# But ain't nobody answering

# They're going to hear me singing

# It's never too late

# One day you'll be free

# Got to make the move before it's gone too soon

# Could you be the one they remember

# They remember

# Forever, forever be the one

# You'll be the one

# Oh

# Make it through

# That's all I want to do

# Make it through

# That's all I want to do

# Be the one they remember, one they remember, one they remember

# Forever, forever be the one

# Be the one

# Hey

# I'm out here dreaming

# I'm out here dreaming

# You're out here dreaming

# You're out here dreaming

# We're out here dreaming

# We're up here dreaming

# Just out here dreaming

# Just out here dreaming

# When they see you running and you're running

# And there ain't no turning round

# You ain't about to stop right now till you have found

# What you've been searching for

# What you've been looking for

# What you've been searching for

# Be the one, hey

# Oh, oh-oh

-# Yeah

-Dreaming

# I'm out here dreaming

# Yeah, yeah, yeah

# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. #

Like all of our acts, Reuel gets to listen back to the recording

and works with the engineers to get the best mix possible.

But today...

'Attention, please. Attention, please.

'Fire in the building.'

This is pretty exciting.

It's only day one of having the Horizons bands here at Maida Vale.

They're already causing trouble. There's been a fire alarm

and they're all gathered here on the pavement.

Hopefully we'll go back in soon.

You are free to go in.

OK, back we go for more live music and the next act

in the smaller Studio Four this time, accompanied by his band,

is Anglesey's Connah Evans.

# Feeling so tired

# I just can't sleep

# Thoughts running through my head

# I drop to my knees

# I'm just so scared of saying something

# I don't know what they think

# It's easy to just hide and then forget everything

# So I run to the ocean

# Cos that's where I'll be, yeah

# Won't you just save me?

# I beg you, please

# So I run to the ocean

# Cos that's where I'll be, yeah

# Won't you just save me?

# I'm begging, please

# So I run to the ocean

# Cos that's where I'll be, yeah

# Oh, won't you just save me?

# I'm begging, please

# So I run to the ocean

# Cos that's where I'll be, yeah

# Won't you just save me?

# I'm begging, please. #

And so the first day comes to an end.

Now, if you want to get to Maida Vale Studios,

the nearest Tube stop is actually a station made famous

by Welsh songstress Duffy.

# When I get to Warwick Avenue

# Meet me by the entrance of the Tube... #

On a beautifully sunny November day,

I got here a little early to have a nose around the building,

where literally hundreds of famous artists have recorded,

including the aforementioned Duffy.

# I'm leaving you for the last time, baby

# You think you're loving... #

As well as the two studios we're in,

there is this massive studio, home to the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

And from this very studio came the first broadcast performance

of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.

MUSIC: Carmina Burana

So Simon Cowell has this place

to thank for that very annoying entrance music on The X Factor.

I always imagined that the world-renowned Maida Vale studios

would be posher than it actually is.

Despite it being a little bit rough around the edges,

you really get the sense that many a musician, radio presenter, conductor

have trodden down these corridors and you really feel the amount

of history within the building.

Well, I've given you a massive build-up now, boys.

This is Fleur De Lys and Paent, which is Welsh for paint,

so put lots of "emulsion" into it!

Sorry.

HE SINGS IN WELSH

Whoo!

HE SINGS IN WELSH

Our next unsigned Welsh act is Castles,

who come from Rhosgadfan near Caernarfon

and on the day that Wales played Serbia in a World Cup qualifier,

bass player Calvin was wearing that unlucky away shirt

and it was a draw.

Just saying.

# Hear the wind through the trees

# You've been away too long

# Hear the wind through the trees

# You've been away too long

# Fading away out of time

# You make away from all the things that hold you down

# You don't hang around

# Picking up the broken pieces

# Letting go of all I know

# I find them

# Nothing really goes

# Nothing really goes without you

# Nothing really goes without you. #

Maida Vale was also home to the BBC's radiophonic workshop -

most famous for recording the theme to Doctor Who and I've been told

that it was recorded in room 13.

I've found room 15 and I found room 12...

(..but I can't seem to find room 13.)

I think it might be in here.

DOCTOR WHO THEME PLAYS DISTANTLY

Oh! Can you hear me?

OK.

Back now to the big space that is Maida Vale Studio 3.

With one of their more gentle tracks, this is Newport band Casey.

# Sleep seems to evade me

# I just spend the whole night pacing

# In the hallway where I used to hear your footsteps on the floor

# I've been so low and maybe I've been thinking about us lately

# But I guess that doesn't matter any more

# I just called to say

# I'm sorry darling, but I've been wasting my time

# Running teeth out of my head

# Trying hard to swallow

# The sweetest sentiments that I can't express

# I know that you told me to leave you alone

# But you're just still the only one I've ever

# Sorry darling, but I've been wasting my time

# Running teeth out of my head

# Trying hard to swallow

# The sweetest sentiments that I can't express

# I know that you told me to leave you alone

# But you're just still the only love I've ever known. #

It's our third and final day at Maida Vale

and the first act in Studio MV4 with a song inspired by time spent living

in Australia and west Wales - this is Danielle Lewis.

# I'll always remember

# The summer in December

# We drove to Burley Head in a car in silver-grey

# Walked out to the water

# Hello, early riser

# Kids take boats to school as the waves begin to break

# Will you keep me warm when I'm back at home?

# South Wales

# The west coast sun where we came from

# The west coast sun where we belong

# The west coast sun where we came from

# The west coast sun That's where we came from

# When I think of Australia

# It's you I remember put colour in my heart

# And sunshine in the dark

# Looking over Newquay from the window I grew in

# Tracing out a path down to Cardigan Bay

# Will you keep me warm when I'm back at home?

# South Wales

# West coast sun Where we came from

# The west coast sun Where we belong

# The west coast sun Where we came from

# The west coast sun That's where we came from

# Will you keep me warm when I'm back at home?

# Now I'm back in old South Wales

# The west coast sun Where we came from

# The west coast sun Where we belong

# The west coast sun Where we came from

# The west coast sun That's where we came from

# West coast sun Where we came from

# The west coast sun Where we belong

# The west coast sun Where we came from

# The west coast sun That's where we came from. #

Next, an act who have surely got the most inspired name

for a Welsh band with a retro electronic sound.

They're called Anelog -

named after a little village right at the end of the Llyn Peninsula.

They themselves come from Denbigh, but it's a clever name all the same.

# Are you scared, are you scared, are you scared

# Are you scared of the future?

# Because it's all up ahead and I think I can make it with you

# Hands on my hips and we're heading out into the stars

# Elevating, creating a world all of ours

# And are you scared, are you scared, are you scared

# Are you scared of the future?

# But I don't care, I don't care, I don't care

# I don't care, I don't care, I don't care, I don't care

# Dance, dance, dance Dance if you want to

# Dance, dance, dance, dance

# And take a chance, chance, chance if you want to

# Dance, dance, dance if you want to

# Dance, dance, dance, dance

# Dance, dance, dance, dance

# Dance, dance, dance, dance

# Oh-h-h

# O-h-h

# Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo

# Dance, dance, dance, dance

# Dance, dance, dance, dance if you want to

# And take a chance, chance, chance if you want to

# Dance, dance, dance, dance if you want to

# Dance, dance, dance, dance. #

So, my three days here at Maida Vale has nearly come to an end.

I'm sure that being in this iconic building

has inspired our bands to perform at their very best.

So, let's have one last performance.

# Hey, tell the world that I'm ready to go

# I'm ready to leave this old town

# Because this day won't end

# You know I've lost it all

# But I'll be fine without you

# Because I'm try-try-try-trying

# To be whatever I was before

# But it's oh-oh so silly before I was yours

# And I'm try-try-try-trying

# To be whatever I was before

# But it's oh-oh so silly cos before I was yours

# I thought I was yours

# I thought I was yours

# Hey, hey, hey

# Don't let me go

# I'm ready to find my own way

# Because when you said to me

# Well, I said goodbye so many times

# I'm caught up in try-try-try-trying

# To be whatever I was before

# But it's oh-oh so silly cos before I was yours

# And I'm try-try-try-trying to be whatever I was before

# But it's oh-oh so silly before I was yours

# I thought I was yours I thought I was yours

# Can't find me anywhere Now you can't find me anywhere

# After all it's more comfortable to sit with a bottle and forget it all

# But I'm a man

# Or am I mine?

# Hey, tell the world that I'm ready to go

# I'm ready to leave this old town. #

HE SIGHS

HE WHIMPERS