Conquer the World Wales in the Nineties


Conquer the World

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The 1990s was a golden age of rock for Wales,

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when the likes of Catatonia, Stereophonics and the Manics

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rose from obscurity to become the pride of the nation.

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It was ambition that got them there.

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The thing is, just to get things moving

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is to get things changed in Wales.

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Get that cultural landscape changed.

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The people of Japan wanted to know everything about the Welsh bands

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and these things were happening because the music was travelling.

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Even though we were saying, Thank The Lord I'm Welsh,

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it was almost more universal than that.

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When we'd play in Leeds and Birmingham and Glasgow,

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people would sing along with, it as well.

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This is the story of the stars of Cool Cymru,

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who inspired a generation in their drive to conquer the world.

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In the '90s, the Manic Street Preachers scored a worldwide hit

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with If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next.

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Their songs put Wales on the map.

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It was a success few would have imagined for a band who grew up in

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the aftermath of the miners' strike.

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# And if you tolerate this

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# Then, your children will be next... #

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Yet they were a part of a new generation of musicians,

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fired by ambition and raw talent,

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who would transform the self-esteem of the nation.

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The Manic Street Preachers came from Blackwood in the valleys.

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Cousins Sean Moore and James Dean Bradfield composed the music,

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while Nicky Wire and Richey Edwards wrote the lyrics to their songs.

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# Motown junk... #

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We wanted to escape our lives and be more glamorous.

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We were incredibly angry.

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We had so much energy and we thought,

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mixed with some little bit of intellect, as well,

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that we, yeah, we were really passionate.

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It was the classic notion of us against the world.

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Richey Edwards and Nicky Wire

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studied politics at Swansea University,

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before the band won a major record deal with Columbia.

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The Manics' first album, Generation Terrorists, took Britain by storm.

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# We're gonna burn your deathmask uniforms... #

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They were inspired by the international avant-garde movement,

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the Situationists.

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Situationism was massively important.

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The idea that there's a secret history out there

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that things lead you on a path

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to a different reality. That was our fight, really,

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that there was such a glorious world

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of music and culture and connections.

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Just the idea that music could be so much more than singing about love.

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# You love us. Oh, you love us... #

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In Blackwood, like everywhere,

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the glamour of Richey and Nicky both challenged and inspired.

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The glamour side, and for me in particular, androgyny,

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it just felt really comfortable.

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And it just felt, after the greyness at times of growing up during

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the '80s, we wanted to be larger than life in the way we looked.

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So, we did really look like aliens.

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And we enjoyed that, you know. We enjoyed that otherness.

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We definitely enjoyed that.

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In the early '90s,

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the Manics were attracting a cult following from all parts of Wales.

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Bethan Elfyn grew up in Newtown, Powys.

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She went on to be a Radio 1 DJ.

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The first time I saw them was around '92 and it was just this incredible,

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huge room with hundreds of people, wearing their fur coats.

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And that gig, I'll never forget,

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I'd borrowed my grandmother's fur coat to go down.

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Thankfully, I didn't have to give it back.

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I loved the glam and I think I was really interested in breaking rules,

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breaking boundaries, but in the same way,

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it was about kind of respecting the difference and respecting something

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really other and, "I'm not going to conform to society,

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"I'm going to do my own thing."

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For over 20 years, the growth of bands that sang in Welsh,

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like Y Cyrff, were celebrated by those involved in battling

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to save the language.

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Anhrefn from Bangor were passionate advocates who blazed a trail across

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Europe with their Welsh-only gigs.

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Bassist Rhys Mwyn also put his energy into managing

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a new bilingual band,

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formed by Y Cyrff's Mark Roberts and Cerys Matthews - Catatonia.

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# O'are seddau gwag

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# Daw'are lleni I fynu byth eto

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# Yn araf deg... #

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It was the magnetic charisma of Cerys that caught

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the manager's attention.

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Cerys, I think, was the first time that a Welsh-language band,

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or partly Welsh-language band, had that glamour.

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It was transient pop.

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It was sexy and disposable,

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it was all those things that Richard Hamilton talked about, you know,

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with pop-art culture.

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And Catatonia went tick, tick, tick. It's all those things.

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Absolutely pop.

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Just so cool.

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# Take a little while before you speak out... #

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Catatonia and Cerys is probably

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the first time that you have that

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absolute glamour and swagger, hand-in-hand with Welsh culture.

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# Now his intentions unfold. They're not what they seem... #

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But as Catatonia started to become successful,

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many in the Welsh language movement

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were disappointed the band's new songs were in English only.

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I never saw the transition,

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swapping to predominantly English-language songs,

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as selling out.

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They'd made their decision That's where they were going to go.

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The effect it has on the Welsh language scene is different,

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cos it now suggests to everybody - success equals singing in English.

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# Cos we ain't got school in the morning... #

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The Ankst record label caused further controversy when it started

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releasing bilingual songs by its artists.

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Emyr Glyn Williams was the co-founder of Ankst Records,

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based in Penygroes, Caernarfon.

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At the very beginning, I would say Ankst were almost

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totally exclusively a Welsh language record label.

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We didn't have to reckon with this question of bilingualism

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or English until the early '90s,

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when a new generation of bands and individuals came up.

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So, basically, young groups like Gorky's Zygotic Mynci were naturally

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bilingual and if we were going to work with them,

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it was going to have to be on their terms, not our terms.

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# She dried her eyes and cried La-la-la-la-la-la... #

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Gorky's Zygotic Mynci,

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from Carmarthen, included Euros Childs and his sister, Megan.

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Many of their songs were in English or Welsh, or a mixture of the two.

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The thing about music is that it connects with people and I would say

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the one band that did that most out of all the Ankst bands we worked

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with was Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and they did it without fanfare.

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They found their audience the minute they started releasing records.

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They were incredibly talented. An exquisite group, in fact.

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# Scattered across the floor... #

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Ankst was one of hundreds of independent record labels

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fighting hard for its artists.

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Emyr Glyn Williams made this video to promote the Gorkys' album,

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Bwyd Time.

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Success for him was a hit in the UK indie charts.

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When the Gorkys hit number one, with their Bwyd Time, it was almost,

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the feeling I had was, like, well, that we deserved it.

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I just thought, "We're a successful record company now,

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"more people are buying this record in all the indie stores in Britain

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"than any other record by any other label."

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So, you know,

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all that hard work does pay off

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and it stayed number one for a long time.

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Whether a small indie or an American giant,

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record labels were keen to promote their artists around the world.

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Every country was a market for selling music,

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as increasingly in the '90s,

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differences in language ceased to be a problem.

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Ambitious bands from Wales suddenly found themselves idolised in far-off

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lands, singing in English or Welsh.

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The Japan thing was particularly interesting with the Welsh bands,

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because the people of Japan wanted to know everything

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about the culture,

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and they learned the language. There was suddenly an interest in Welsh.

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It was really interesting that these things were happening

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because the music was travelling.

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The Gorkys in particular had a cult and passionate following, due to the

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psychedelic nature of their music and I was just incredibly proud

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of a band doing that from Carmarthen to the world.

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# If fingers were xylophones

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# Then, I could play a tune on your fingers... #

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The Manic Street Preachers became hugely popular in the Far East.

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In Japan, particularly,

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they found a strong link with one of their most endearing anthems of the

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early 1990s, Motorcycle Emptiness.

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# Culture sucks down words

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# Itemise loathing and feed yourself smiles... #

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Motorcycle Emptiness was that,

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sort of, broad-sweep, cinematic loneliness.

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And it felt like that mixture of the melancholia of Wales,

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that sort of being drenched in the rain, feeling alone,

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but in a comfortable kind of way.

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And there was a kind of emotional connection with Japan, in terms of

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the sad, melancholy, the neon loneliness of the lyrics.

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It just seemed to translate,

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and when we got to Japan and just, sort of,

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walked the streets in the rain, nothing felt more fitting than

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hearing Motorcycle Emptiness on the radio,

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which you did, everywhere you went.

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# Motorcycle emptiness

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# Under neon loneliness

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# Motorcycle emptiness... #

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# Feels like I'm standing in a timeless dream... #

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In 1996,

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Donna Lewis from Cardiff conquered America with a ballad she wrote in

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a day, I Love You Always Forever.

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It became one of the most popular songs ever charted,

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reaching over 100 million airplays on American radio.

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Donna's success story began when she sent out demos of her song

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to record companies in the UK.

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Then, to her surprise, months later,

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she was told Atlantic Records in New York were trying to contact her.

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I mean, it was so surreal.

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I'd been doing the piano bars for years, trying to get a record deal,

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and suddenly, somebody from Atlantic calls. I thought,

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"Is this for real?"

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I mean, it was like a fairytale.

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So they flew me over and I had to perform I Love You Always Forever

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in Doug Morris' office, who was the head of Atlantic at that time.

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And I'm thinking, "Well, this is where I've got to

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"pull myself together!"

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So I sang two songs and, you know, at the end, he said,

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"Congratulations, we'd like to offer you a record deal."

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# I love you always forever

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# Near and far, closer together

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# Everywhere I will be with you... #

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Donna was a seasoned musician, with a degree at the Royal Welsh College

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of Music and Drama. She perfected her voice and songwriting skills,

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working piano bars across Europe.

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But inspiration for her hit came in a rush.

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I had the intro and I remember, when I wrote the chorus I Love You Always

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Forever, I actually thought to myself, "Oh, my God,

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"that's such a nursery rhyme.

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"I can't... I've got to change that.

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"It's not cool." You know?

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And then... And then, it just didn't work any other way,

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so I kept it like that.

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And, lyrically, I was inspired...

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I was reading a bunch of HE Bates novels at the time and I was reading

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For The Love Of Lydia and so I was inspired just to write

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like a love song.

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Donna's hit came from her first album,

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aptly titled with a Welsh phrase - Now, In A Minute.

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But it was her ethereal chug-along ballad that Americans

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loved to hear on the radio.

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And then suddenly, Donna Lewis from Cardiff found herself on prime-time

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American TV.

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What number is it now?

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Well, I think it is still number one on the airplay chart.

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Our next guest has taken the music world by storm with her new CD,

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Now, In A Minute. Here to perform her hit single, I Love You Always

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Forever, please welcome Donna Lewis!

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That was daunting and I was nervous, of course,

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because I had to sing the song.

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They loved hearing me speak and, you know, they'd say,

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"Where are you from?"

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And I'd say "Wales" and often they'd go... "So, where is that?"

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So, it was fun, you know, the great thing about Rosie O'Donnell, I mean,

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she knew I was from Wales and I think she asked me,

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"Can I say something in Welsh?"

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Sut ydych chi heddiw?

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Sut ydych chi heddiw?

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She said, "What the hell is that?"

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-You know, it was...

-So...

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And I taught her a little bit of Welsh, so it was good to do that.

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It was an amazing time.

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I mean, I think for anybody that's been doing music for a long time,

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trying to get success and, suddenly, you have this song and this record

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that is top of the charts all over the world, you know.

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We just toured everywhere and everybody knew the song.

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It was amazing.

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And I had so many more things I wanted to do in music,

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so it was brilliant, because it gave me the opportunity

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to do those things.

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Donna Lewis followed up her success

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in America with a top-five hit in Britain.

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Meanwhile, something was stirring in the valleys again.

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Three friends from Cwmaman were gearing up to sign a major recording

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contract for their band, the Stereophonics.

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# I get camping eyes in the final hour

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# Last minute shoppers picking cauliflower

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# The fuss they make, you'd swear they were buying a car... #

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In May 1996, the music business was embroiled in a bidding war before

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millionaire Richard Branson won the day for his new label, V2.

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It was a perfect launch for a band

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with great songs, played with passion.

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# There's no mistake, I smell that smell

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# It's that time of year again

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# I can taste the air... #

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The Stereophonics were not alone in attracting the attention

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of big London-based labels.

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Warner Brothers snapped up Catatonia.

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This meant changes for the band,

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like the signing of guitarist Owen Powell.

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It was a dream come true for me because they were a signed band.

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They had a record deal,

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and they were a really good band and I really liked them.

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I really liked what they did and I'd seen some

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of the first gigs that Catatonia ever did

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and been a huge fan of theirs from day one.

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More bilingual bands made the move to bigger labels.

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The Super Furry Animals joined Creation Records and soon found

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themselves on network TV.

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And despite their success with Ankst, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

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signed to Fontana.

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The Manic Street Preachers' third album, The Holy Bible,

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received critical acclaim.

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But it covered a dark period in the band's personal lives,

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that culminated with the disappearance of lyricist

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Richey Edwards. His abandoned car was found at the Severn Bridge.

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The likely suicide left the three remaining musicians

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in the bleakest of times.

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Then, Nicky Wire wrote the lyrics to a song he called A Design For Life.

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I think that's the song that saved the band, really.

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Because it felt like one of the best songs we'd ever written.

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It did actually feel like a natural force.

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We'd had such an odd career already, where we'd been up like that

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and then, Holy Bible was a critical hit, but hadn't sold anything.

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So we'd already experienced massive highs and lows.

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But with Design For Life, we just felt it's now or never.

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The song was a massive hit and a huge boost to the band's popularity

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in Britain and abroad.

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Then, in February 1997, the album it came from, Everything Must Go,

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was voted Best Album at the Brit Awards.

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Winning the Brits, especially with Everything Must Go,

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it did really feel at that point that it was just such a brilliant

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atmosphere for Welsh music.

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At that point, just rediscovering my inner self and my inner core,

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really, and the things that I felt had made me.

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So I put the Welsh flag round my shoulder, just because

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those things just became really important to me,

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you know. In a simple way,

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just having a flag on the amp at the Brit Awards

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just was nailing that home, really.

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By June 1998, with sales of their debut album going platinum,

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the Stereophonics were playing to over 20,000 fans at Cardiff Castle

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and Welsh pride was soaring.

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This next song is dedicated to Catatonia, Super Furry Animals,

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Manic Street Preachers,

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the cast from Twin Town, Pobol y Cwm,

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anybody that's doing anything for Wales, because it's about time.

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CHEERING

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# Get camping eyes in the final hour... #

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The surge in Welsh bands hitting the mainstream at the same time

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was unprecedented.

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It wasn't long before the media coined a phrase for it, Cool Cymru.

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# Cheaper still down the street... #

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You know, when you look at all this period,

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the obvious thing is Cymru became cool and Cool Cymru is far better

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than what we were before, which was uncool Cymru.

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So we flipped the whole cultural language.

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It's now cool. It gives Wales a confidence and a sense of being,

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and unites people.

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# Surrounded by the stock he bought last week... #

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For me, I actually thought it was a great thing because these bands have

0:21:550:21:59

got huge anthems and everybody's belting it out in the crowd

0:21:590:22:03

and it's something that I think Welsh people want to have

0:22:030:22:07

that experience. It's the expression of being part of something.

0:22:070:22:11

# More life in a tramp's vest Ba-ba-ba-ba. #

0:22:110:22:16

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:22:160:22:18

Catatonia achieved the success they craved when their second album,

0:22:230:22:27

International Velvet, reached number one in May 1998.

0:22:270:22:31

It catapulted the band and Cerys Matthews to stardom.

0:22:310:22:35

# It's all over the front page You give me road rage

0:22:350:22:41

# Racing through the best days

0:22:410:22:43

# It's up to you, boy You're driving me crazy... #

0:22:430:22:48

Spent an awful lot of the time in the studio

0:22:480:22:50

making International Velvet,

0:22:500:22:52

and then, as it gradually went up the charts and got to number one,

0:22:520:22:56

it did feel like everything changed, but at the same time,

0:22:560:23:00

everything was the same, because we were still the same people.

0:23:000:23:03

There were a lot more people at the concerts,

0:23:030:23:05

which is really gratifying,

0:23:050:23:06

because that's what you get into it for.

0:23:060:23:09

It's to know that people are buying your records

0:23:090:23:11

and coming to the shows.

0:23:110:23:12

And singing all the words to your songs. That was a new one for us.

0:23:120:23:15

# You should be making it easy on yourself... #

0:23:150:23:20

Catatonia played before 20,000 adoring fans at Margam Park,

0:23:200:23:24

Port Talbot, in May 1999.

0:23:240:23:28

# Racing through the best days

0:23:280:23:31

# It's up to you, boy

0:23:310:23:34

# You're driving me crazy... #

0:23:340:23:36

But though their records were hardly bilingual any more,

0:23:380:23:41

the band did not forget its roots and wrote the title track

0:23:410:23:45

to International Velvet in Welsh and English.

0:23:450:23:49

It became one of Catatonia's most endearing anthems

0:23:490:23:53

in Wales and beyond.

0:23:530:23:55

-CROWD:

-# Every day when I wake up

0:23:580:24:03

# I thank the Lord I'm Welsh... #

0:24:050:24:09

Mark Roberts came up with the line,

0:24:090:24:13

"Every day when I wake up, I thank the Lord I'm Welsh",

0:24:130:24:16

but then thought it would be a really nice...really nice trick

0:24:160:24:21

to sort of have the verses which are in Welsh being...

0:24:210:24:27

not critical of the Welsh language but saying,

0:24:270:24:29

"What a sleepy little nation we are.

0:24:290:24:31

You know, the first line, I think is, "Deffrwch Cymru cysglyd,"

0:24:310:24:35

"gwlad y gan."

0:24:350:24:36

"Wake up little Wales, land of song."

0:24:360:24:38

And so the verses are, sort of, poking fun at ourselves, saying,

0:24:380:24:42

"Look how backwards in coming forwards we are.

0:24:420:24:44

"How slow, how old-fashioned."

0:24:440:24:47

And then, you've got that nice contrast of singing,

0:24:470:24:50

"Every day when I wake up, I thank the Lord I'm Welsh."

0:24:500:24:53

So, I thought that was quite a nice little trick.

0:24:540:24:56

It's light-hearted and it's quite funny, as well.

0:24:560:25:00

It soon took off. Welsh people loved it and then what became a real

0:25:040:25:07

surprise was that when we'd play in Leeds and Birmingham and Glasgow,

0:25:070:25:12

people would sing along with it, as well.

0:25:120:25:14

So, it's almost as if, even though we were saying,

0:25:140:25:16

"Thank the Lord I'm Welsh," it was almost more universal than that.

0:25:160:25:20

CROWD SINGS

0:25:200:25:21

-# La-la-la-la...

-Every day when I wake up...#

0:25:210:25:28

I think we did go out of our way to make a point about our Welshness.

0:25:280:25:33

We are capable of doing lots of things.

0:25:330:25:35

We are capable of being a great country,

0:25:350:25:37

so with a bit more self-confidence, we could do something really good,

0:25:370:25:43

something really great.

0:25:430:25:44

# Thank the Lord I'm Welsh. #

0:25:440:25:59

All right, Cardiff!

0:26:010:26:03

We are Manic Street Preachers! You Stole The Sun From My Heart!

0:26:060:26:11

On the last night of the '90s,

0:26:110:26:13

the Manic Street Preachers staged the biggest concert in Wales,

0:26:130:26:17

at the Millennium Stadium.

0:26:170:26:20

While 66,000 fans packed the Manic Millennium,

0:26:200:26:23

the event was broadcast around the world.

0:26:230:26:27

# Drinking water to stay thin

0:26:340:26:40

# Or is it to purify?

0:26:410:26:44

# I love you all the same... #

0:26:440:26:47

The Manics hit worldwide success with their album,

0:26:470:26:49

This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours.

0:26:490:26:52

It sold over three million copies,

0:26:520:26:55

a remarkable achievement for a band

0:26:550:26:58

from a mining community in the valleys.

0:26:580:27:00

# I love you all the same

0:27:000:27:03

# But you stole the sun from my heart

0:27:060:27:12

# You stole the sun from my heart... #

0:27:140:27:18

This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours is undoubtedly, lyrically,

0:27:180:27:21

our most Welsh album.

0:27:210:27:23

You know, the title comes from an Aneurin Bevan speech that he made

0:27:230:27:26

in the open air in Tredegar.

0:27:260:27:29

It translated a lot of ideas that I never thought could be

0:27:290:27:32

popular, really, like the Spanish Civil War,

0:27:320:27:35

the poetry of RS Thomas, you know, the drowning of a village.

0:27:350:27:41

I think people got out of us more the politics,

0:27:410:27:44

but without us growing up where we did in Wales,

0:27:440:27:47

that wouldn't have been there

0:27:470:27:48

and we wouldn't have been the band we were.

0:27:480:27:51

# Then, your children will be next... #

0:27:510:27:56

In the '90s, Welsh musicians were idolised by a young generation

0:27:560:28:00

searching for a new identity. But global success also helped

0:28:000:28:05

to reinforce their own sense of Welshness.

0:28:050:28:08

Just that alchemy of a few of us at the same time,

0:28:100:28:13

it just gave you a warm feeling

0:28:130:28:14

travelling throughout the world, then,

0:28:140:28:16

that feeling that you were taking something with you.

0:28:160:28:19

And it wasn't a sort of flag-waving nationalism or anything like that.

0:28:190:28:23

It was just feeling comfortable in your own skin.

0:28:230:28:26

That's how it felt to me, really, that we know who we are.

0:28:260:28:29

The Manic Millennium was a fitting climax to a decade in which

0:28:320:28:36

a diversity of gifted musicians

0:28:360:28:38

transformed the morale of the nation.

0:28:380:28:40

Through their endeavour, they conquered the world and gave Wales

0:28:410:28:45

a belief in itself, as never before.

0:28:450:28:47

Next week, we meet men and women who overcame extreme personal challenges

0:28:490:28:54

and changed their lives for good.

0:28:540:28:57

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