Well... there was one startling revelation that I could hardly believe. Oh yes!
He said ... I kid you not ... that in his box set of Datblygu CDs ( Wyau, Pyst and Libertino) there was ... wait for it ... have a stiff drink ready .... there was ...
A booklet with all the lyrics translated into English !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Beth yn y Byd !!! Briwsion !!!! Rarglwyd !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have written at length about the dire lack of what I like to call "the words" for Welsh songs, which I have proved completely with a terrific and ingenious bar chart made of actual Welsh CDs and CDs in English, French, Spanish, German and Russian.
I also developed a stunning theory about it ... I think, wait for it .. that the writers of Welsh-language songs don't want us poor Welsh Learners to know what they are singing ... they want to keep their language to themselves. Hah !
Of course, I could be wrong.
So ... I was utterly stunned to hear that Datblygu, of all the bands in the world, should have ... I'm going to write it again.. included a booklet of English lyrics.
I had to go onto the net to see if this was true... after a bit of a lie down... ... you see, I bought Wyau and Pyst, but not Libertino....us Northerners can't really afford the massive lump sum required to buy box sets of things...and if it ever got out that we had such things we would be shunned and ostracised by our fellow Northerners.. so I haven't got that amazing booklet. I feel a right fool now! Anyway, here's what I found in a review by James W Roberts ...
The grainy photo of David R. Edwards on a ramshackle stage in front of six punters speaks volumes. The leader of Datblygu chose defiance as a career option and stuck to it, thankfully producing five albums, three of which are available here in one lushly packaged box with translated lyrics booklet.
Datblygu's legacy is well documented and 1988's Wyau is where their uncompromising aesthetic was set. The album has shards of No Wave clattering amidst the eerie claustrophobia of Edwards' commanding and strangely graceful rant.
Released two years later, Pyst continues the bleak, social analysis of Edwards, with the band's sound fleshed out by the funeral strings of Mas A Lawr and the poppy Fall-esque Cymryd Mewn Sioe. With a myriad of unique styles and sounds lurching from the chaotic to the sparse country tinged beauty of Ugain I Un, Edwards' beguiling lyrics prove a gem for Welsh and non-Welsh speakers alike.
Datblygu's swansong Libertino brims with vitriol and seemingly a clash of every musical sound the band ever witnessed. Edward's rants are superb, increasingly stirring as the music gathers momentum on Gazpacho, or the eloquent synth-driven Can I Gymry.
Musically, Libertino possesses more focus than Wyau and Pyst, including the excellent political surrealism of Maes E and Hei George Orwell.
This reissue is a superb introduction to a band that don't simply fulfil a quota, but emerge as on of Britain's most inventive and unique bands. It also serves as both necessary posterity and a blueprint for the future.
So .. it's true !!! But there's a big but ... maybe my theory will still hold true ... perhaps a clever trick has been played. Could it be that these so-called translations are nothing of the sort ... merely a load of old tripe that have nothing to do with the actual Welsh lyrics ... the review doesn't actually say that the Welsh words were there as well. What a brilliant thing to do. As it happens, I've worked out what quite a few of Datblygu's lyrics actually are, so all I have to do now is get hold of the translations and expose the entire April Fool sort of thing to the waiting nation. What scoop for the Western Mail.
And here's another thing ... what sort of word is" lushly " ?
I'll have to ask for the bloody thing for my birthday, if I ever reach it, and package the 3 CDs separately in old GZM sleeves to avoid detection. It's the only way I'm going to find out the truth and get my own copy of the magic, almost mythical booklet.
I suppose a bit of Datblygu music will be good now ... helbulon ... and just in case you haven't noticed, I do actually love them really ... yes, I'm a soppy old Hector !