Show #2569 - Saturday 25th November 2023
Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales, Sat 25h Nov 2023: Rob from Junior Bill interview / Zac & the New Men One Track Find / Reem Muhammed selects…
Listen again via BBC Sounds here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001ssb2
In a rush? Aim for:
1'11'00: Zac and the New Men 'One Track Find'
1'26'00: Junior Bill Interview
2'48'44: Reem Muhammed selects Mirari
There are those (I’ve met them, and been bored by them in the pub on too many occasions) who bemoan the lack of protest in contemporary music, as if the already maligned and zero-contracted youth of today are - somehow - more apathetic than the kids who marched against apartheid or the poll tax, back when I didn’t creak when I got out of bed in the morning.
Here in Wales, Manic Street Preachers, Minas, Aleighcia Scott, SageTodz, SZWÉ, Carwyn Ellis, Chroma, Skindred, No Choice, 9bach, Gruff Rhys, Jon Langford and Cian Ciaran are a short / off-the-top-of-my-head list of artists whose songs and lyrics occasionally bristle with intelligent and poetic defiance against contemporary injustices.
The politicised nature of these artists’ songs is more subtle than a soapbox, and - I’d argue - all the more powerful for that. ‘Show / not tell’, is rarely more true than when it applies to protesting in music. When I fathomed what ‘A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall’ or ‘Ghost Town’ was about, or even ‘One In Ten’, those songs politicised me for life far more effectively than party political broadcasts.
The latter two examples, reggae and ska-infused protest songs from the Midlands during the desperate Thatcher years of the early 80’s, are a fitting prelude to the work of my interview guest this week, Rob Nichols from Junior Bill.
Rob talks about how their new album - ‘Youth Club!’ - is both nostalgic and a reflection of his current concerns, about the fate of the community he grew up in in Cardiff (Cathays). We’re not being hectored, here, though. Rob doesn’t hammer us over the head with heavy-handed polemic. The politics are in the images and stories behind the lyrics, snuck in, in brilliant pop song Trojan horses.
It’s Junior Bill’s third album, but it’s by some distance their finest. I think the long gestation period for the album gave Rob scope to explore lots of different sounds and approaches. Reggae and ska are just two of the sonic hues his band paint the songs in. Our conversation is worth your time, I think (he’s a fascinating guest), but the album is - to my mind and tastes - essential listening. If you only have time for one or the other, choose the album and you’ll probably want to catch up with the conversation later, anyway.
Swansea’s Zac and the New Men are recipients of this week’s One Track Find. They’re either still in school, or just out of education. They’re an unashamed love letter to the power of a guitar-toting band. I can hear Hendrix, The Bluesbreakers, Led Zeppelin, Queens of the Stone Age and Royal Blood zig zagging through their pentatonic thunder. But their assimilation of those inspirations isn’t over-reverent. It’s the swagger of youth, the love of their sources, and their own gift for a memorable riff and song that makes them stand out. Bright. And their singer’s voice. You can hear ample evidence of excellence on their debut album ‘Reinvent Me’ that came out in May, an album that has barely registered amongst the alleged taste-makers and music-intelligentsia of Wales. Shame on us. They played The Royal Albert Hall a couple of weeks’ ago. They’ll win a landslide of attention and adoration with or without our help. Best get aboard, now.
Reem Muhammed is back with us towards the end of the show, bringing her knowledge and passion for music, and a new track from Mirari, who also has a brilliant album out this week that - I confess - I would have completely missed if it wasn’t for Reem.
Stay warm. It’s brass monkeys this next week, by all accounts.
Next Saturday night’s show - 2nd December 2023 - is a wall-to-wall celebration of recordings I haven’t played so far this year. Great music that fell between the cracks of my 30th anniversary programmes. I think you’ll hear a lot of new names to fall in like with, at the very list.
Thanks for reading and listening / diolch yn fawr iawn am ddarllen a wrando.
If you’ve heard anything new that you love - and that’s Welsh - that hasn’t figured in the show, please let me know in the comments below.
THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST
DON LEISURE WITH AMANDA WHITING
The First Chant
THE FAMILY BATTENBERG
Rocket Dustbin
SIULA
Ischia
RICARDO AUTOBAHN
The Hands Of Porsche (Helen Love Remix)
PENNY RICH
PC (Radio Edit)
ADWAITH
Addo
JUNIOR BILL
Youth Club
CEITIDH MAC
Bulldog
MUDMOWTH
Kokoro
FABIAN MAZUR
Lost & Found ft. Sage Todz
CONTINENTS
Gaslighter
HANA LILI
Small Talk
BREICHIAU HIR
Penseiri
HOLLY BLACKSHAW
Way Out West
DAVE EVANS
Only Blue
ZAC AND THE NEW MEN
Say It
ANGEL HOTEL
Un Tro
MALI HâF
Araf
RAZKID
Daim Bars
INTERVIEW WITH JUNIOR BILL
JUNIOR BILL
David
JUNIOR BILL
Boys From Jungle
JUNIOR BILL
World I Used To Know
STEVEN WILSON
Economies Of Scale (Manic Street Preachers remix)
SHELL
Give Yourself Away
THE PEOPLE THE POET
I Used To Dream
JON LANGFORD & THE MEN OF GWENT
Honest Ken
STEREO CLUB
Letting Go
MACY
Third Person
NICKI WELLS
Sidelines (Kit Carpenter remix)
UNTIL THE RIBBON BREAKS
Nature Mother ft. Emoni Wilkins
TRITONE
2AM 2STEP
TURNING MONTANA
Uber Drive By
PRIVATE PARTY
bahama mama
SHIMMER
I'll Sleep When You're Dead
SYBS
Gwacter
REEM MUHAMMED SELECTS...
MIRARI
First Class
DON LEISURE WITH AMANDA WHITING
Peace Of Mind ft. Deborah Jordan
SHOW STATS
1407 diff songs/ 1818 Total. 693 Artists in 45 shows since 1st, Jan '23 (~Songs per:40, Unique artists per:15) Welsh:97% Cymraeg:13% (feat. lyrics in Welsh); Source: Uploader:29%, Direct:17%, Bought:14%, Plugger:30%, Commission:9%
Comprehensive Session / Interview List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1w-rIPj0l0QhUcbEm08PUPLUWh-416mwlteG_8wpNWtQ/edit?usp=sharing
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Diolch o galon,
Adam Walton
PLEASE NOTE: This isn’t an official BBC / BBC Wales post. All words / opinions expressed here are my own.