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An evening with… Neil Collins
2 October 2024 @ 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
£10.00 – £18.00
Join us for an evening with Neil Collins, in conversation with Jude Rogers, to discover how Wales conquered the ’90s music charts and celebrate ‘Cool Cymru’.
If the story of Wales in the 1990s was a movie plot, it would all seem so far-fetched. Thankfully, it was all true….
The 1970s and ‘80s were a bleak time for much of Wales: the closure of steel works and coal mines led to mass unemployment while the country’s culture and language was disregarded by politicians and the music industry alike. Some bands even travelled across the Severn Bridge to make sure their records arrived at the London offices sporting an English postmark.
The 1990s changed everything. Wales was already known for Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Male Voice Choirs. But suddenly bands such as Catatonia, Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Super Furry Animals 60ft Dolls and Gorki’s Zygotic Mynci exploded into the charts and showed the UK population the breadth of what this small but inherently musical nation could offer. Meanwhile, S4C – the Welsh-language television channel – became increasingly prominent and a new Welsh Assembly was on the horizon…
Featuring fresh analysis and new interviews, International Velvet charts the UK in a decade in which ‘Cool Cymru’ won over the masses and shows how it inspired the still-vibrant Welsh music scene into the 21st century and beyond.
Neil Collins is a Cardiff-based writer and co-host of Welsh Music Podcast. He is the author of the Liverpool FC books Make Us Dream and Red Mist.
Neil will be in conversation with Jude Rogers.
Jude has been a journalist for the Guardian and Observer for over 20 years, interviewing stars including Elton John, Adele, Paul McCartney, Debbie Harry and the one and only Rick Astley. Her critically acclaimed memoir, The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives, was a Telegraph Book of the Year and nominated for the Welsh Book of the Year and the Penderyn Music Prize.
