Cultural highlights of 2024: Welsh Words – Gigs for Cymraeg Connoisseurs and Botchers

Julie Brominicks

Julie Brominicks

I’m a learner with oh so much baggage. I understand enough Cymraeg to hear speakers’ pain at its loss but not enough to help much, I often feel guilty about being English. Yawn.

But sometimes I come across musicians (like the World Wide Welshman) who slip between lingos with ease and caprice. A kick up the jacksie can be so refreshing.

John Mouse

Machynlleth Comedy Festival is the place to learn how to climb out of your arse. Regard the wizardry and kindness of Cymraeg-learner Kiri Pritchard-Mclean, who, live on air simultaneously corresponds with the producer, people phoning in, guests on stage and the audience; all the time whilst being funny! Music-wise Sweet Baboo is a fixture, and this year, I give you John Mouse.

Last seen (by me) accompanied on stage at Devauden Festival by ‘The Pigeon’. Apparently the pigeon is 14 now and doesn’t think Mouse is cool anymore.

Pigeon. Your Dad is an uninhibited genius. No one rocks a shellsuit with such gusto. Best of all, his hits ‘When Wales Play Away’ and ‘Welsh Words’ are anything but worthy.

Mr Phormula

Shouldn’t he be strutting round the stage with a mic, posturing and working the crowd? I saw him do that last year, but was too far away to see his face. This year, in the bar at Magic Lantern (Tywyn Cinema) Mr Phormula followed the Belfast film Kneecap about the Gaeilge-speaking hiphop band (it’s brilliant – go see).

Mr Phormula, wreathed in smiles, swung between Cymraeg and English. He got people to hold up random objects and wove them into an ad-lib rap. He twiddled knobs and rhymed and rapped like your best mate in his bedroom. Never will you see someone so gleefully glad to perform. Mr Phormula is a beat-boxing bi-lingual smile factory.

Elin and Carys

November. Hey do you know about Arts-Council funded Noson Allan? It reduces the financial risk for both registered performers and venues. Y Braich Goch in Corris, run by Columbian Javier and London-Columbian Maria, pulled a joyful night out of the bag by booking Elin and Carys; Powys sisters keeping traditional Welsh tunes alive. (Especially the ones about hunting wrens.) In this inclusive international environment, introduced in Cymraeg by Rolando from Nicaragua, Cymraeg-learners Carys and Elin conjured up exquisite harmonies, humour and musicianship that was proper cosy, Cymraeg and completely baggage-free.

A potted history of Ewenny Pottery

Rhiannon Lewis

For me, this year’s cultural highlight was hearing Gwyneth Evans giving a fascinating talk on the history of Ewenny Pottery to Cymreigyddion y Fenni. Gwyneth and her late husband, Ieuan, collected Ewenny pottery for over 30 years, from utilitarian jugs to striking and elaborate decorative pieces. Gwyneth brought many of these pieces along for us to see.

Ewenny Pottery, near Bridgend, has been in the same family for an astonishing eight generations. The earliest manorial record for a pottery on the site is from 1427. This and other potteries in the adjoining villages of Corntown and Hernston were well placed to take advantage of the local deposits of boulder clay, limestone and glaze materials necessary for the industry.

The Ewenny dynasty began in the early C19^th with Evan and Mary Jenkins, and it remains a family business in the hands of Caitlin Jenkins RCA and her father, Alun Jenkins. Each piece of pottery is still hand made and the maker’s mark is inscribed with an old six-inch nail. In Caitlin’s words, ‘If it works, why change it.’ The area around Ewenny was once home to fifteen potteries and although Ewenny Pottery is the sole survivor, visitors come from all over the world. For information on the pottery, visit: ewennypottery.com

Ewenny, Potteries, Potters and Pots by Gwyneth and Ieuan R. Evans, the definitive account of Ewenny potteries, can be purchased directly from Gwyneth at [email protected] for £45.

Cymreigyddion y Fenni was established in the Sun Inn, Abergavenny in 1833, its aim was, and still is, to promote Welsh and Welsh culture in Monmouthshire.

For more information about its great programme of events why not visit the website cymreigyddion.cymru