Was there a South Wales R'nR sound?

[Cyclops]

You know how it is.
Youtube filters recognise that you like a subject and constantly load videos for your listening pleasure.
Over the last few months, Micky Gee videos keep popping up.
One is a superb rocking show from CIA in 1998 (link below).
Wish I had been there - what a great sound!
Among the players are Arran Ahmun, Dave Edmunds, Andy Fairweather Low, Micky Gee, Pino Palladino, Henry Spinetti, Geraint Watkins.
During the tape a guy says that many of the performers had not played together before, but they all slotted right in because they came from South Wales and they had a particular 'sound'. Or words to that effect.
Is/was there such a thing?

[Vindec]

Re: Was there a South Wales R'nR sound?

I knew several of these guys in the 1960's and early 1970's. Mickey Gee (RIP) taught me how to play harmonics and a few chords which really were a legacy of the past (in the 1960's at least) such as 9ths but he was a fine musician. The last time I saw Henry Spinetti he had hair and Andy Fairweather Lowe has come a long way since he hung around the former Barratts music shop then in the Morgan Arcade later moving to St Mary Street and now closed I think.

I disagree with the statements saying that musicians in South Wales all play the same way and complement each other. They don't in my view. Basically the music at that concert was based on 3 chords with different music played in different keys to avoid the monotony. When you play music like that it is very easy to improvise with no need to have to rehearse together for very long.

So, in answer to the question asking if there was a particular South Wales sound, I doubt very much whether such a thing existed although would defer to others with more recent experience.

Having said all that I have been totally out of touch since the early 1970's but I doubt very much whether anything much changed between then and 1998 when the concert in question was filmed.

[NYCBlue]

Re: Was there a South Wales R'nR sound?

Most of these "scenes" are made up by journalists and historians. The truth is, that although some members of a band splinter off and form other groups, or sometimes collaborate, most bands don't care about other bands in a so-called scene or what they sound like. They're just focusing on their own band and their own sound.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Was there a South Wales R'nR sound?

I used to attend lots of Man, Deke Leonard's Iceberg and Sassafras gigs and also saw Racing Cars, Lone Star and many other South Wales rock bands doing the rounds in the 70's. Can't say there was a particular sound that characterised them though.

[Cyclops]

Re: Was there a South Wales R'nR sound?

... most bands don't care about other bands in a so-called scene or what they sound like. They're just focusing on their own band and their own sound.

"I disagree with the statements saying that musicians in South Wales all play the same way and complement each other."

I'm going to question these comments.
There was a Liverpool Sound and to a certain extent even a Manchester Sound.
Several guitarists in London, like Jeff Beck and Jimi Page, sought each other out to swop ideas and bounce chops.

And the comment made about being able to play together so easily came from one of the players. I accept what you said about the basic nature of the music, but even within the confines of R'nR there are nuances