Cerys Matthews is a musician, author and broadcaster. She is a columnist for the Guardian, a roving cultural reporter for the BBC’s One Show and hosts and programmes an award winning radio show on BBC 6 music every Sunday.
Cerys co-founded the Good Life Experience festival with Charlie and Caroline Gladstone in 2014.
She has curated for theatres and the Tate Modern and was artistic director for the opening ceremony of the World Music Expo 2013.
She was awarded an inaugural St David Award for her services to culture from the First Minister of Wales in 2014 and was awarded an MBE last November for her services to music.
On Sunday 13th November 2016 I was invited by the Western Front Association to read ‘In Memoriam’ by Ewart Alan Mackintosh at the Cenotaph in London. The Western Front Association was formed in 1980 to maintain interest in the First World War.
It will always remain an honour and privilege to be involved, to pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives and to those who continue to risk everything for our safety and peace.
The Good Life Experience 2016 was a blast. A huge thank you if you came and ,if you didn’t, then please feel warmly invited to see what the fuss is all about in 2017! Michael Rosen has already signed up for a very rare live appearance and DJ Norman Jay MBE is taking the slot so ably filled this year by Gilles Peterson on the Saturday night. Pencil the dates in your diary now: 15th, 16th, 17th September 2017. It’s a 2 hour train ride from London and less than an hour from Manchester and Liverpool .
The ethos is simple – fill your brains in the great outdoors. Be uplifted and inspired in the company of like-minded people, who are endlessly curious about this wonderful world of ours. Find goodness in ‘them’ rolling hills of Flintshire and comfort sitting around camp fires. Enjoy a craft beer or well brewed coffee whilst listening in to music from Senegal, the Balkans, Magnetic North, Hooton Tennis Club or a local Male Voice Choir.
… if you don’t fancy camping, there are plenty of hotels, guest houses and B&Bs nearby. Chester is the nearest big town, just over the border and an 8 minute taxi ride away.
5000 festival goers relished the treats we had in store for them in 2016 : From performances by Dr John Cooper Clarke, Jeremy Vine and explorer Ben Fogle to stories from Michael Morpurgo and Amy Liptrot. Pit building and cooking with Damian Clisby and Thomasina Miers and bushcraft by Axe and Paddle. Endless free vintage fair rides, axe throwing and abseiling and a Max Richter performance on the Sunday which ended in a standing ovation.
We visited MP Mark Tami at the Houses of Parliament to tell him all about our festival The Good Life Experience which happens every year in his own constituency of Flintshire.
If you haven’t already been then I promise it’s great value for money and an unforgettable experience ! Suitable for all ages and even for those who wouldn’t normally think of themselves as ‘Festival Goers’ !
On Tuesday November 8th we took the train to Cardiff , drove up to the Vale and landed in the lovely hotel, Vale Resort South Wales, where we celebrated at an awards ceremony with the leading male and female teams from the Welsh football league. It was, of course, the perfect opportunity to pay tribute to the squad who did us so proud in the Euros this year.
And what a summer it was! I’ll never forget it, not least the juggling of work and children and hell for leather runs across the channel. Totally worth it to catch these #togetherstronger players in full flight. Great too, to meet so many fans , and teach my son, John Jones more songs and dances from the terraces to add to his Luton Town Football Club chants and ditties (Nathan Jones Barmy Army natch).
The Euros 2016 was the stuff of legends, more especially for Iceland and Wales, and as a thanks, I thought it would be fun to revisit the famous legends of Wales, the Mabinogion, and re write them for Wales 2016. You can see the results on You Tube if you want…be warned it’s a full 8 mins…I think the team enjoyed a little deep literature in the middle of the awards ha ha. Then I sang a medley ending with…Don’t Take Me Home…of course I did… and even wrote a new verse (not that it needs it). Who doesn’t resort to repetition when on the sauce?!! Not that many of us were drinking that night – bodies being temples and all, and the Serbian game looming on the horizon.
Now then, if you want a refresher vis-a-vis these stories, let me remind you : The Mabinogion are the earliest prose literature of Britain. The stories were compiled in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions by medieval Welsh authors. Beyond their origins, first and foremost these are fine quality storytelling, offering high drama, philosophy, romance, tragedy, fantasy, sensitivity and humour; refined through long development by skilled performers.
Perfect then for revisiting with the Welsh football team and Manager Chris Coleman in mind.
And, if this has whetted your appetite, I can utterly recommend Sioned Davies translation.
On Monday 14th Nov BBC Radio 3 will broadcast a programme entitled ‘An Introduction to the Mabinogion’. Professor Sioned Davies, Chair of Welsh at Cardiff University and author of the first new translation of The Mabinogion for thirty years, will reflect on the ancient tales. It will continue to be available after the broadcast as is, from time to time, the documentary I made on the subject for BBC Four in 2014, with the help of Sioned, which is also worth diving into on a cold winters night, even if I say so myself.
Adios for now, with a huge thanks to all at FA Wales for the everlasting warm welcome.
