Success should be music to our ears

NOW into its eighth year, the Welsh Music Prize is a surefire signifier of the prodigious range of contemporary music being produced in Wales.

This year’s prize was awarded to Cardiff band Boy Azooga – an outfit whose star is very much in the ascendancy – as the awards yet again helped showcase a complete raft of exciting talent.

It is two decades since Cool Cymru – that epochal moment a new wave of bands led the charge of the Welsh brigade across the Severn and into the hearts of an international audience.

When the likes of the Manics, Catatonia, Super Furry Animals, Stereophonics, 60ft Dolls and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci broke cover, it marked the moment when a cultural renaissance swept the country and we looked forward with a renewed confidence.

Now all the signs are we stand on the verge of another defining moment in our cultural history.

While the nascent Cool Cymru uprising two decades ago saw Welsh bands singing in English breaking through onto a global stage, now musicians in both languages are flourishing concurrently.

It is fabulous to hear. Another key point of difference is that back in the 1990s there wasn’t a music industry in Wales as such, so while those flag bearers may have put the country on the global map, it’s only in the intervening years that anything approaching an infrastructure has been put in place.

Today there is a community of like-minded individuals working for the common good – be they record labels, studios, rehearsal spaces, festivals and venues.

The “new wave” of Wales isn’t defined by one sound or language. Labels such as Bubblewrap, Libertino, Country Mile and Popty Ping are releasing songs of many hues and different flavours, while bands such as grime crew Astroid Boys, would-be stadium rockers Himalayas, glam rock ’n’ rollers Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard and indie doyennes Estrons look set for the great leap forward.

But that’s not even scratching the surface – there is so much more to discover; a rich seam of musical talent ready to be mined.

It is yet more evidence that as a country we may be small in size and population, but we continue to prove that musically we punch way above our weight.

This – for the sake of our culture, economy and ambition – should be music to all our ears and encouraged and supported by all.