Fresh out of Bro Myrddin Welsh Comprehensive, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci are currently the strangest and most exciting thing happening in the Welsh underground. Having only formed last year, they have already bypassed the usual indie tropes in favour of a chaotic, lo-fi brand of psychedelic punk that sounds like a collision between a primary school music room and a Captain Beefheart rehearsal.
While they have yet to release a proper studio album, their self-released cassette 'Allumette' has been causing a stir, featuring skewed tracks like Siwt Nofio and Dafad Yn Siarad.
Rumour has it they are currently recording more material in various bedrooms and local studios, further developing a sound that is as bewildering as it is beautiful. With the Welsh-language scene finding its feet through labels like Ankst, these teenagers seem poised to lead the charge with their own brand of "Zygotic" madness.
Here they are in session on Roger Hill's BBC Radio Merseyside show
My last gig in my hometown of Rhyl was in 1993 and if you were of a cynical mindset, could be viewed as the key as to why I’ve left it so long…
In the early 90s we’d book ourselves gigs under different names (a necessary task as we sure as hell were never ever going to get booked again). This time we’d booked ourselves in as ‘Fantastic’ a reggae band from Prestatyn. We were due to play the Mermaid, the roughest pub in Rhyl. When I say rough, I mean fucking ROUGH! The week before one unfortunate soul was stabbed in the eye with a chisel. This should have been a sign… but if it was, we certainly didn’t heed it.
Armed with only a bunch of half songs and riffs (our one rehearsal was spent somewhat unwisely getting pissed and having a laugh). We turned up to find the support band wasn’t happening and also our lead singer had bottled it. Us being us, we decided the show would go on regardless. A bunch of rowdy bikers had turned up intent on causing as much trouble as possible. We decided to delay the show by an hour until we were suitably drunk enough to play.
We knew as the first notes rang out that this was quite possibly the worst decision we had ever made when Johnny Napalm, our newly appointed singer got slapped by one of the bikers. Wearing shades and a flasher’s coat, he didn’t see it coming. We ploughed on… We lasted a total of 15 mins before we had to abandon the show due to numerous fights breaking out and as the launching of numerous projectiles in our general direction began to land (the last straw for me was a pint glass smashing right by my feet).
Johnny and myself made an attempt to escape through the back only to be confronted by 2 rabid Alsations. We then realised the only feasible way out was to make our way through the fighting taking place in the narrow bar in front of us. Tony the punk kindly and politely stopped taking one of the bikers apart to let us through with our gear. Amazingly, we managed to escape with all of of our body parts intact. We made it to the safe haven of the Bistro only to be met with angry punters who demanded their money back and one deliriously drunk dude who thought we were the best thing he’d ever seen.
Unsurprisingly, this was the last show I ever did in Rhyl. We were rumbled big time. No-one would ever host us again after this. We held the dubious accolade of being the only band to have ever been banned from the Mermaid. That was ok though as I really had no intentions of playing there ever again. Steve Rastin, a local journalist managed to immortalise Fantastic and published this surprisingly kind and accurate review. Now I don’t know about you, but reading this… this is a show I’d LOVED to have watched!
Released in time for the Christmas market, Standards serves as a summation of The Alarm’s 1980s output — a decade of big-hearted, big-sounding rock anthems that aimed for the rafters and often reached them. Rather than a new studio record, it’s a compilation of the band’s defining moments, drawing together hits like “Sixty Eight Guns,” “The Stand,” and “Spirit of ’76,” alongside a few fresh touches: the newly recorded “The Road,” a reworked “Unsafe Building,” and a rubbish cover of “Happy Christmas (War Is Over).”
It was a stop gap between last year's Change (their fourth studio album) and next year's swansong Raw. As a collection, Standards captures what made The Alarm distinctive — their mix of punk earnestness, folk-rock idealism, and stadium-scale ambition. Tracks like “Sixty Eight Guns” still carry a raw, uplifting energy, and “Spirit of ’76” remains a stirring anthem of youth and resilience. For newcomers, Standards is an accessible entry point: it distills the band’s most recognisable songs and presents them in a single, cohesive-enough package.
Yet hearing these songs side by side also exposes some of The Alarm’s limitations. Their grand, impassioned delivery sometimes teeters into over-earnestness, and without the momentum of a live performance, the production can feel a bit heavy-handed. The compilation lacks the narrative flow of a proper album, moving instead through snapshots of different sessions and producers across the decade.
Still, Standards succeeds in its main goal — to remind listeners of a band that, for a time, stood shoulder to shoulder with the likes of U2 and Simple Minds in their drive to fuse passion, politics, and melody. It’s not their most subtle or unified record, but it’s a strong, heartfelt portrait of The Alarm at their most anthemic. For anyone curious about the band’s legacy, this is where to start.
Shortly after their Peel Session and the release of their debut, the band ran into legal trouble. The Disney Corporation famously filed a complaint regarding their name.
[taken from link2wales.co.uk]
Deeside based punk-grunge band (1987-89), feat; Mark Cooper (gtr,voc), Prud (bass) (feat on a V8’s video shoot, sadly died of septicemia), Scott Preece (drms). Another former drummer Barry St.Clair formed Dearly Beheaded in 1992 and original drummer was Tash (Steve Gorst) (later Carnage, Cousin Grace) who recorded 'Why Not' with them until he broke his wrist. They released a number of records (incl; LPs Bomb Everything (05.89) and Nail Mary) under this name until they were contacted by a lawyer / representative of Disney who while telling them they couldn’t use the name, actually said: “We are not a Mickey-Mouse company”! (They changed their name to Bomb Everything) This sounds like an urban myth but it did happen.
Scott went on to play for hardcore punks GBH. Bomb Everything was produced by Robert Heaton and Justin Sullivan of New Model Army.
This was the year those crazed motherfuckers hit our shores in an acid-crazed frenzy like no one had seen before. August 5th, 1987 — the Butthole Surfers rolled into Newport's Riverside Suite like a derailed freight train from the underworld, dragging LSD, feedback, and naked nihilism in their wake.
Fresh off the back of the album, Locust Abortion Technician, they weren’t just playing gigs — they were conducting psychic surgery on every town they hit. Gibby Haynes was wielding a megaphone like a flamethrower, sometimes a shotgun. Paul Leary's guitar sounded like it had been dragged through a swamp full of broken teeth. Behind them? Smoke. Strobes. Film loops of surgery and car crashes. And yes, Kathleen Lynch, the infamous bald, topless dancer twisting through it all like some deranged shaman.
Support that night? The Darling Buds, Caerleon’s own jangly pop hopefuls, still in the glow of their earliest shows — and I bet Andrea and co were wondering what alternate dimension they'd stepped into once the Buttholes kicked off.
If you were there, you probably don’t remember all of it. And if you weren’t — you’ve probably still heard the stories. Newport was never the same.
The Smiths were scheduled to perform at the Astra Theatre in Llandudno on 28 October 1986, but the gig was cancelled due to an incident at the previous night’s show. On 27 October at Preston Guild Hall, Morrissey was struck on the head by an object thrown from the audience, sustaining a wound that required medical attention.
As a result, the band was unable to travel to Llandudno and perform the following evening. The cancellation was noted in tour records and gig archives, marking the date as cancelled.
The incident highlighted the challenges of live touring, where an injury at one venue could immediately impact subsequent shows. While The Smiths resumed other dates after Morrissey’s recovery, the planned performance in Llandudno never took place, and the venue remained empty on that scheduled night.
Sion Sebon – Guitar/Vocals, Rhys Mwyn – Bass, Dewi Gwyn – Guitar, Hefin Huws – Drums/Backing Vocals
At the time Anhrefn received very little support or coverage through a very conservative Welsh media. This was the Bangor band’s first of three John Peel Sessions broadcast on BBC Radio One, and paved the way for other Welsh language Peel Sessions / airplay. This particular session was aired three times on the show during the latter half of 1986.
During a visit to London to promote the band and their label (of the same name), Anhrefn’s bassist (and acting manager) Rhys Mwyn introduced himself to John Peel;
“I was told that John was in a wine bar around the corner; as I entered the bar and caught Peel’s eye he greeted me with; ‘You’re not a mugger I hope,’ which kind of says a lot about him. I explained about the compilation of new ‘underground’ Welsh-language acts and a couple of days later he played Rhywle Yn Moscow by Anhrefn, which at the time felt like we’d actually made it!”
John Peel, who had Welsh connections himself through being in boarding school in North Wales and his father lived in Rhosneigr, was about to discover the Welsh scene. Rhys Mwyn sent him some demo tapes of his bands, and Peel began to realise that Wales had a music scene all of its own which was very much alive and well.
“Rhys had put together and sent me two worthwhile compilations on his own Anhrefn Records,” he remembers. “They were quite primitively produced in their way, because of the financial constraints the bands faced. However, when I eventually met Rhys, he was such a persuasive and dedicated person – the sort who just couldn’t be ignored – that he started me off on Welsh music. Before that I had zero interest.”
Sion (pic above) introduced each song in Welsh then translated them into English, explaining what they were about for the Radio One listeners
Tracks aired – 1. Action Man / 2. Dawns y Duwiau /3. Defaid /4. Nefoedd Un (also called, Teimladau) Recorded: 1986-07-22. Broadcast: 04 August 1986. Repeated: 20 August 1986 and again, 22 December 1986.
