It’s sweet harmony between Wales and world’s rock royalty

Wales can boast having had its fair share of awesome bands over the years, from Man to Manic Street Preachers and Stereophonics to Super Furry Animals. And, in addition to all that homegrown musical talent, the country can also lay claim to having little

JOHNNY CASH

BY the 1980s country legend Johnny Cash had seen his star fade, but this forgotten man of the music industry would end up having his career reignited by a punk from Newport.

Mekons’ singer Jon Langford had been a life-long Cash fan when he sneaked backstage at the Manchester Apollo in 1988 to tell his idol he and some friends were planning to make a tribute album to him.

With the help of ex-Fall guitaristturned-radio DJ Marc Riley, the homage – entitled ’Til Things Are Brighter – featured the eclectic likes of Michelle Shocked, Marc Almond and Gaye Bikers on Acid, and the proceeds went to the Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity.

Cash loved the album and US journalists dubbed the hook-up “Johnny Cash Meets the Hip Britons”, preempting the new-found coolness the singer experienced throughout the ’90s under the guidance of influential Beastie Boys producer Rick Rubin.

VILLAGE PEOPLE

Newport can boast all kinds of rock and roll links, from nurturing The Clash’s Joe Strummer in his first steps in noise-making to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain sipping a pint at the now defunct TJs nightclub.

And in the late noughties, one of the infamous Village People lived in the ’Port.

Victor Willis, AKA the one who dressed like traffic cop, moved to South Wales after being released from custody in the US on drugs charges, having married a lawyer who originally came from the area.

Whether it was the dockside location that attracted him we don’t know, but we gather he’d always had a keen interest In The Navy.

BOB DYLAN

The folk music legend’s 1966 tour became infamous for being the one where he switched to electric guitar and enraged his hardcore following.

Stopping off at Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre, however, saw him hook up with a very well oiled looking Johnny Cash - in town to play Sofia Gardens the very same day - in the backstage changing rooms.

Both look totally out of it in a clip from the bootleg documentary Eat the Document, but that only lends their cover of Hank Williams’ So Lonesome I Could Cry a kind of ramshackle loveliness.