THE ALTERNATIVE WALES SOUNDTRACK #14
tyla campbell (phil campbell and the bastard sons & the people the poet)
All-time favourite album:
I’m gonna say Counting Crows - Hard Candy. I discovered them mainly by accident as Ben Folds was originally supposed to support them at CIA but he pulled out. But Leon (TPTP singer) was a big Counting Crows fan and I had my ticket so I decided to still go and that concert started a whole journey of musical discovery and they are now probably my all time favourite band.
Favourite Welsh language album:
This might be a bit of a cop out as unfortunately I haven’t listened to much Welsh language music (please forgive me!) but The Joy Formidable released a 10 years anniversary edition of their debut album “A Balloon Called Moaning” and the additional tracks were Welsh language acoustic versions of the original album and they sound amazing! Had the pleasure of seeing TJF many times at festivals back in the day, such an anthem is sound.
Favourite record by a Welsh band/artist:
Manic Street Preachers – Everything Must Go. One of my earliest memories is seeing the Manics with my family at CIA and I think I’ve seen the Manics more than any other band and it’s always a great day out with mates. For a band to completely change direction and come up with an album like EMG after Ritchie went missing and after The Holy Bible album is just insane.
Favourite new Welsh band/artist:
I’m gonna be completely biased here and say Leon Stanford (TPTP singer) haha. He’s just released his debut EP “Fear Is Heavy” and it’s a completely different style from the band. More singer/songwriter and soul and he’s been getting some great support from BBC Radio Wales, make sure you check it out!
3 dream festival headliners:
Prince/Johnny Cash/Stevie Wonder. Been lucky enough to see Stevie Wonder 3 times but I’ve always been jealous of my brother who saw Prince at one of his 02 gigs years ago.
An underrated band/artist:
The Airborne Toxic Event. Again one of my favourite bands who I discovered by accident again as I only went to see my mates band, Cuba Cuba, at Cardiff Barfly as they were the support band. Think me and my mates were like “oh let’s stick around for a couple of songs for the headline act in case they were any good” and they blew our mind! Couldn’t have been more than 50 people there at the time, then a year or 2 later they are on the David Letterman show! They are still around now and their most recent album “Hollywood Park” is both a concept album and memoir about the singers life being brought up in a religious cult called Synanon. Highly recommend!
A song that reminds you of a particular memory:
Bit of a laugh for this one but Frankee – F U Right Back. During the summer last year me and a bunch of mates would meet up at the local field (socially distanced) with a bunch of cans and just get pissed. And one of them randomly decided to chuck this song on which we hadn’t year for literally more than a decade and somehow we all still knew the words and were gleefully singing along. It’s a stupid one I know but we can’t wait to get back on that field when it’s a bit warmer!
Go to album when you’re down:
Sigur Ros – Hvarf - Heim. Considering all their lyrics are in Icelandic and I have no idea what they are singing about, their music is just so emotive. This is coming from one of the most emotionless people you’ll ever come across too.
Go to record to get you worked up:
The Hellacopters – By The Grace Of God. Absolute no shits given high adrenaline rock n roll. I’ve tried running to this and I’ve gotta try my best to not start off too fast paced otherwise I’d run out of gas whilst listening to this album as I’m not the fittest person in the world by any stretch of the imagination!
A lyric that resonates with you:
“And on the streets tonight an old man plays, with newspaper cuttings of his glory days” from If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next by the Manics. The song is a lyrical masterpiece in itself but that one line has always resonated with me. It just makes me think of the possibility of being that old man in the future looking back at what I achieved over the years and being that guy in the pub who talks about glory days. To be honest, I’d take that…as long as the pub serves good beer!
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