Show #2583: Saturday 2nd March 2024 - Janice Long tribute / Campfire Social / Catatonia
Show #2583: Saturday 2nd March 2024 - Janice Long tribute / Campfire Social / Catatonia
Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales, 2nd March 2024: Janice Long Tribute Concert at Focus Wales / The Long Song - Campfire Social / Behind The Track - Catatonia 'Strange Glue'
Listen again via BBC Sounds here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001ww5q
PLEASE NOTE: This isn’t an official BBC / BBC Wales post. All words / opinions expressed here are my own.
This week's show was brought to you by the letters A, C and E, a much-missed legendary music broadcaster, and the number 39.
I've been in the process of writing a piece about Catatonia which I was hoping to have finished by today but the fates - and a plucky mancold - have delayed me. That piece would have been pertinent this week because for Behind The Track in Saturday's programme, Owen Powell - guitarist and co-songwriter in the band - throws some light on 'Strange Glue', a song that has particular resonance for me, as will become clear when I publish the longer Catatonia piece later this week.
Janice Long was a great friend and a legend of music broadcasting. Working with Janice from 2017 onwards - as a co-producer / occasional contributor to her BBC Radio Wales evening shows / and her unworthy understudy - was the great professional privilege of my life. She was one of the all-too-rare breed of presenters with a passion for music that overrode careerism and being compliant in towing the playlist-party line. This made producing her programmes - sometimes - a challenge. She flatly refused to play anything on air she didn't have respect or affection for. Which led to some interesting face-offs behind the scenes and at least three ulcers.
Her integrity and genuine passion for music were one of the reasons that Janice was so widely loved by artists, both international and local.
When she was announced as the new presenter in the evening slot on the station I was beside myself with envy and cynicism. I thought the job would have been better served by someone else much closer to Welsh music... i.e. me, but my former partner persuaded me to apply for the production role and work with Janice, rather than carping against her from the sidelines, and it was sage advice that changed me and changed my life for the better.
Presenting on Radio Wales wasn't the cushy option for Janice that I had assumed. She was naturally hungry, curious and enthused about the new Welsh artists she now had an opportunity to celebrate, but - again - only wanted to feature the artists she rated. And she was always prepared to get her hands dirty, catching gigs when she could (hard when you're working 7-10pm Monday-Thursday) and listening well beyond the music that was served directly onto her plate (although most of her listening was done around the kitchen table at home, into the early hours with her husband Paul).
What she brought to those artists that she did feature, above and beyond her unaffected enthusiasm, was the kudos and gravitas of having been played on the radio by Janice Long. The editor who hired her - Colin Patterson - recognised this and the kudos for the station of having a national institution on its airwaves. Read about Janice's history on Wikipedia. She broke down so many barriers as a broadcaster and worked with some of the biggest international artists of all time (Paul McCartney / The Rolling Stones / U2 / Elvis Costello / The Cure / Echo and the Bunnymen et al), on some of the most legendary and popular music broadcasts of the 20th century (her groundbreaking Radio 1 shows / the first female Top of the Pops presenter / Live Aid etc.)
James and Nicky from the Manic Street Preachers were hugely appreciative of Janice's support and integrity. I can't think of a single artist Janice played who didn't recognise her kinship with them, her innate understanding of how to communicate their magic without resorting to trite, empty hyperbole.
Janice and I bonded properly on drives back to the train station in Chester after her show has finished in Wrexham. In the summer months, when the station pub was open, the barman would have a gin and tonic waiting for Janice when she arrived, so she had time to drink it and catch up on railway gossip, before she caught her connecting train to Liverpool. She knew the stories of every one of her regular late night fellow passengers, a genuine curiosity in other people that made her programmes genuinely warm and human.
Those drives to the station were often hilarious. Janice saw through so much of the artifice at supposed music radio, because too often she'd been badly-treated by managers and marketeers. It wasn't bitterness that fired her frustration, it was the experience of fronting programmes where she had been limited to choosing one spot play an hour, or show, a constraint that was always going to make her unhappy because her musical love couldn't be reined in. BBC Radio Wales gave Janice a freedom that she relished and revelled in.
Janice always put the artists first. Any reflected glory - for early plays of UK music's mainstays: people like Amy Winehouse and Adele - was purely incidental. She strongly disliked the commodification of music, especially in recent years, where branding too often steals the spotlight from the creative souls who keep the industry's wheels spinning.
I was devastated when Janice died on Christmas Day 2021: devastated over the loss of a great friend, but also devastated for her family's much more profound loss. Janice's family was her joy, her foundation, her everything.
On Saturday May 11th, Wrexham's Focus Wales Festival have given us an opportunity to pay tribute to Janice, in the form of a live outside broadcast from Ty Pawb. We've curated a bill that reflects some of the Welsh artists that Janice loved who would be commensurate with the festival's philosophy and ethos of celebrating new musical talent from Wales and beyond. It's not at all inconceivable that Mr Costello, Mac or Arlo Parks would have taken up the invitation to play the festival in her honour, but a bill of unsigned artists feels more fitting.
So, as announced on Saturday night's programme, Kidsmoke, Pixy Jones, Cara Hammond and Laura J. Martin will perform live sets on BBC Radio Wales between 10 and 1 on Saturday 11th May in tribute to Janice.
Janice loved Kidsmoke. They were one of many Welsh bands who came in for live sessions and interviews on Janice's show, who appreciated - and benefited from - her patronage.
Janice loved Pixy's solo recordings, and one of her favourite Welsh bands, in all the time she broadcast on the national station, was Resolven's consummate psychedelic revivalists, El Goodo (Pixy's band before they split a couple of years ago).
Cara Hammond - a brilliant singer / songwriter from Wrexham - was a new name to Janice but someone she wanted us to book in for a session before our shutters had to come down for lockdown. Tragically there were no further opportunities for us to rebook Cara in for a session after our studios re-opened fully.
And Liverpool's Laura J. Martin shared more than just a home city with Janice. Janice was a fan of Laura's individualistic and wonderful music... one step to the left of the mainstream, so right in Janice's wheelhouse.
I miss her every week (the regular feature on my show The Long Song, is an ongoing celebration of Janice's legacy.) This event and broadcast is a fantastic opportunity for us all to raise a glass to Janice and enjoy some music she would have been first-out-the-gate to shout about, without talking over the intros.
There will be other tributes on the night, from a host of sources. Tickets for Focus Wales are available at: http://focuswales.com
Before we change the subject, The Long Song on this week's programme comes courtesy of North Wales / Chester's Campfire Social. They're beams of Frightened Rabbit and The Beach Boys fired through a prism of surging musicianship and poetry, a thoroughly 21st century rainbow of genre-spinning playlists that encompass everything from The Get Up Kids to The Postal Service / Paul Simon to Belle and Sebastian, and the new single - ‘Swim Swam Swum’ - is the finest crystallisation yet of their empathetic, crafted songwriting. Their debut album is imminent on the Popty Ping record label. I'll be the pinging like crazy the minute I have a copy to share with you.
Last Friday - St David's Day - Green Man unveiled a significant proportion of their line up for this year's festival. It's always an exciting and hopeful day, a first glimmer of summer after a long, trying winter. Of course there are a slew of headline-grabbing, erm, headliners... Sampha / Big Thief / The Jesus and Mary Chain / Arlo Parks... and - as always - a finely curated selection of essential new Welsh artists. I've put together a playlist on the show featuring a recording from each of the homegrown artists who were announced on Friday, but expect many more to join the bill between now and August.
Hopefully you'll be able to join us in the Black Mountains in August either on the site itself, or on air, or - after the fact - via some of the brilliant sessions that the festival record at the site and then make available for you to enjoy throughout the rest of the year.
Finally, Reem Muhammed is back with us, selecting a new recording from Newport's Fernquest. His rhymes and delivery are second to no one, another artist of great vision who's not brilliant at shouting about - or branding - himself, which should never diminish his art or his power to move us. Janice would - most definitely - have approved.
THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST
Monet - 'Welcome'
Swansea
http://linktr.ee/monetbanduk
Monet - 'Bone Man'
Swansea
http://linktr.ee/monetbanduk
Worldcub - 'Back to the Beginning'
Llanrug
http://worldcub.bandcamp.com
Fred again... Lil Yachty & Overmono - 'stayinit'
London / Monmouth / Georgia
http://www.fredagain.com
Douvelle19 - 'U Could Be Mine ft. Catching Cairo'
Newport / London
http://www.douvelle19.com
WRKHOUSE - 'Snow'
North Wales / Cardiff
http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092008124615
Malika Blu - 'Slow Down'
Cardiff
http://instagram.com/Mblue333
Spin Spinna - 'Street Vybez'
Ely, Cardiff
http://instagram.com/sp_spofficial1
Pen Dub - 'Killed The Devil ft. Xiim and Mr Balls'
Morfa Nefyn
Private Party - 'funky wunky'
Swansea-ish
Teddy Hunter - 'Daylight'
Cardiff
http://teddyhunter.co.uk
Cara Hammond - 'Borderlines'
Wrexham
http://facebook.com/carahammondmusic
Pixy Jones - 'Maureen Dreams No More'
Resolven
Kidsmoke - 'Take Me To The River'
Wrexham
http://kidsmokemusic.bandcamp.com
Laura J. Martin - 'Prepared'
Liverpool
http://laurajmartin.net
Y Dail - 'Silly Boy'
Pontypridd
http://ydail.bandcamp.com
THE LONG SONG #034... CAMPFIRE SOCIAL 'SWIM SWAM SWUM'
Campfire Social - 'Swim Swam Swum'
Chester / Newbridge
http://campfiresocial.co.uk
Burum - 'Hiraeth Am Feirion'
West Wales
Sallix - 'Hunker'
Tonyrefail
http://linktr.ee/sallix
Enabling Behaviour - 'Paracetamol'
Cardiff
http://linktr.ee/enablingbehaviour
Rona Mac - 'Links Like Fists'
Pembrokeshire
http://facebook.com/RonaMacMusic
EYE - 'In Your Night'
Cardiff / Wrexham
http://eye-uk.bandcamp.com
Bird - 'She’s Like a Rainbow'
Wales
http://birdofficial.com
Shale - 'Green Light Red Light'
Cardiff
http://instagram.com/samuelwilliamshale
GREEN MAN 2024 WELSH ARTISTS PLAYLIST
Das Koolies - 'Masters of Mankind'
Cardiff
http://daskoolies.co.uk
Georgia Ruth - '25 Minutes'
Aberystwyth
http://georgiaruth.co.uk
Gillie - 'Llawn'
Llangadog
http://facebook.com/GillieMusic
Islet - 'Euphoria'
Radnorshire / Cardiff
Slate - 'St Agatha'
Cardiff
http://instagram.com/slatecaban
Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog - 'Halltu'r Dydd'
Llyn Peninsula
http://crhb.bandcamp.com
Cerys Hafana - 'The Bitter Withy'
Machynlleth
Pys Melyn - 'Cywiro'
Pen Llyn
Luke RV - 'Great Advice'
Neath
http://instagram.com/lukervv
The Honest Poet - 'Make Me Stronger'
Chepstow
http://facebook.com/TheHonestPoet8/
Phoebe Platt - 'Get Out My Way'
Pembroke Dock
Kurios Oranj - 'Mind To Blow'
Cardiff
BEHIND THE TRACK #003... CATATONIA ‘STRANGE GLUE’
Catatonia - 'Strange Glue'
Cardiff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatonia_(band)
REEM MUHAMMED SELECTS…
Fernquest - 'Soul'
Newport
http://facebook.com/fernquestmusic
Rebecca Hurn - 'Constellations'
Porthcawl
http://rebeccahurn.com
SHOW STATS
300 diff songs/ 337 Total. 245 Artists in 9 shows since 1st, Jan '24 (~Songs per:37, Unique artists per:27) Welsh:99% Cymraeg:12% (feat. lyrics in Welsh); Source: Uploader:43%, Direct:18%, Bought:14%, Plugger:22%, Commission:3%
Comprehensive Session / Interview List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1w-rIPj0l0QhUcbEm08PUPLUWh-416mwlteG_8wpNWtQ/edit?usp=sharing
Subscribe to my Substack: https://adamwalton.substack.com
Adam Walton