Valstumps release Cadwyn EP at Neath Eisteddfod

Valstumps were Huw Roberts – Rhodri Llywelyn – Gareth Roberts – Llywelyn Roberts – Gareth Williams. 

The summer of 1992 was a turning point in the musical experience of 6 boys from Bangor. Even though playing in a group was not a new experience for them, but the use of the unusual name of Valstumps started a new phase for the group. 

The musical backgrounds of the individual members of the band helped them form their unique musical style. They made their first public appearances playing in Bangor’s small clubs & pubs with unusual English-language groups; singing in Welsh added to Valstumps’s originality in the city’s English rock scene. 

Finding a way into the Welsh Rock Scene was the group’s ambition, this was achieved when the group won the main prize in the new groups competition at the National Eisteddfod in Llanelwedd 1993. 

This helped the band’s development – after this, the band started to appear more on stage with the “big groups”, they recorded one of their songs for the Welsh Language Society’s compilation tape called – Oi! Gwrandewch Arna I! (Oi! Listen To Me!). 

They also received a grant to record their own tape in Les Morrison’s studio, the result was this tape, called Cadwyn (Chain), on Madryn Tapes and released in the Neath Eisteddfod of 1994.
After this they disbanded and went off to college.

Smash Apathy 1994

Smash Apathy – was a campaign in the mid-90s led by Rhyl band GMX Stuns & Llanrwst band Meringue to awaken North Wales to the fact that the scene was dying through apathy. Widespread media coverage and countless gigs ensued, and even a 7" single!

The clip above was filmed at the Swallow Falls Hotel in Betws-y-Coed in July 1994 and aired on Inside Out - a TV show that was a 30-50 minute deep dive into specific local stories, replacing the national focus with a purely regional one.

Smash Apathy's goal was to push bands and concert-goers "off their arses" and promote a DIY (Do It Yourself) ethos. The aim was to foster a more vibrant, supportive, and collaborative music community in North Wales. And the core of the campaign was organising an actual Smash Apathy Tour with local bands playing together in regional venues.

Several bands from the area were key to the campaign and the tour, including: 

GMX Stuns

Meringue (an indie band from Betws-y-Coed)

Sigmoidoscopy (from Rhyl)

The Immediate (from Mold)

The Innocents

Mr Grimsdale

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