International Women's Day
Tomorrow (Tuesday 8 March) is and we're celebrating on 91Èȱ¬ Wales Music with a dip into the history of inspirational women from Welsh music.
Here are some videos of our picks, and suggestions from our followers on . As ever, feel free to comment, criticise, praise and add your own suggestions at the bottom.
Datblygu's Pat Morgan
Joining David R Edwards and T Wyn Davies in Wales' art/dub/punk threepiece was Pat Morgan. Here's Syffredu by the band - with Pat doing some sublimely aloof post-punk cool:
's Liz Hunt
Exuding an effortless, 60s-inflected cool is Liz Hunt. She fronts The School these days, but made a name in nostalgiafest The Loves a few years back. Here she is with Let It Slip:
The Darling Buds' Andrea Lewis
Poppy indie was the order of the day for The Darling Buds, and Andrea provided the focal point, all effervescent energy and popstar chic. Here they are performing Hit The Ground on Going Live:
's Lisa Jen
Many people in the know asked us to include 9Bach's Lisa Jen, whose sultry vocals adds some soulful vigour to the band's trip hoppy vibes. Here's the band's video for Bwthyn Fy Nain:
Catatonia's Cerys Matthews
No list of inspirational Welsh women in music would be complete without the strident tones of Cerys. Their first album Way Beyond Blue brought her idiosyncratic vocal styles to the indie crowd, but it was the second LP, International Velvet, that made her a household name. Here she is performing Mulder And Scully on Top Of The Pops:
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Young Marble Giants' Alison Statton
Often cited as an influence on the young Kurt Cobain, YMG were post-punks in the classic John Peel mould: all spiky angles and disaffected cool. Alison Statton was the pin-up of, ooh, dozens of indie kids in the 1980s. Here's YMG performing a live version of the title track from Colossal Youth:
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirl wasn't always about diamante wellyboots at Glastonbury. She was the first Welsh artist to have a Number One and she's had a six decade chart career. Beat that. Here she is performing There's A Place For Us:
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Mary Hopkin
These days something of a recluse, Mary Hopkin was a massive chart-topping star in the late 1960s, signed to The Beatles' Apple label and being a household name courtesy of her turn on Opportunity Knocks. Here's her signature tune, Those Were The Days:
Gwyneth Jones
Inspirational women aren't only from the indie/pop side of things of course. Dame Gwyneth Jones is a towering talent in the world of opera. Here she is in 1964 singing an aria from Verdi's Il Trovatore:
The Joy Formidable's Ritzy Bryan
Let's go out in the modern day, with a great frontwoman in the form of Ritzy Bryan. The wall of sound she coaxes from her guitar and the psychedelic-but-tuneful melodies of her band have put them on the lips of the record industry around the world this year. Here's an acoustic version of the single Austere, recorded for Radio Wales:
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Who do you think is an inspirational woman in Welsh music? Feel free to comment! If you want to have your say, on this or any other 91Èȱ¬ blog, you will need to sign in to your 91Èȱ¬ iD account. If you don't have a 91Èȱ¬ iD account, you can - it'll allow you to contribute to a range of 91Èȱ¬ sites and services using a single login.
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At 8th Mar 2011, ratilumanbaum wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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