Catatonia (band)

Catatonia
Background information
Origin	Wales
Genres	Alternative folk/rock, guitar-led pop, Britpop,indie-folk
Years active	1992–2001
Labels	Vapor Records, Blanco y Negro, Fierce Panda, Crai
Past members	Cerys Matthews Mark Roberts Paul Jones Owen Powell Aled Richards Dafydd Ieuan Guto Pryce Clancy Pegg Stephen Jenkins

Catatonia were a Welsh alternative folk/rock band formed in 1992 by Cerys Matthews and Mark Roberts. The band dissolved in 2001 leaving four albums of shimmering guitar pop, laden with inventive songwriting.

Catatonia began as a duo with Matthews and Roberts' first songs Difyrcheulyd, Gyda Gwen and Dimbran. These were made into music videos for the Welsh language channel S4C and played on Welsh radio.

Early Collaborators were bassist Guto Pryce and drummer Dafydd Ieuan of Super Furry Animals, also bassist Paul Jones, keyboardist Clancy Pegg.

The debut single For Tinkerbell was NME single of the week in 1993. An EP Hooked followed in 1994, also via Crai a subsidiary of Welsh language label Sain.

The debut album Way Beyond Blue was released in 1996 to rising airplay, and Catatonia's single You've Got a Lot to Answer For reached no. 37 in the UK singles chart.

The now established line up was Matthews, Roberts, and Jones on bass, with Aled Richards on drums and Owen Powell on guitar. This line up would remain until the end. Together they toured intensively and recorded the sophomore album International Velvet which was released in 1998 and went straight to no. 1 in the UK Albums Chart.

The supporting singles Mulder and Scully and Road Rage went to top 5. The LP was certified triple platinum by British Phonographic Industry selling more than 900,000 units. (It continues to sell consistently).

In 1998, gathering international interest, Catatonia signed to Neil Young's label, Vapor Records with Elliot Roberts (manager of Joni Mitchell, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan) at the helm.

The single Road Rage was nominated for best song at the Brit Awards and the Ivor Novello Awards, and won the Q Awards. The band performed the title track of the album International Velvet at the opening of the opening ceremony of the 1999 Rugby World Cup on 1 October in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. It has since become an unofficial Welsh Album.

While in Catatonia, Matthews had further chart success with Liverpool band Space. The Ballad of Tom Jones reached top 4 in March 1998 and her duet with Tom Jones, Baby, It's Cold Outside was one of the tracks from Reload Jones' highest selling album of his career, which topped the charts in several territories and twice in the UK in 1999 and 2000.

Catatonia's third album Equally Cursed and Blessed was released in April 1999 and again went straight to the top spot in the UK album charts. It was supported by top 7 single Dead from the Waist Down.

Rumours began to circulate about unease within the group, indeed Cerys and Mark's personal relationship had floundered.

Still Catatonia continued, becoming known for their inventive songwriting and the charismatic vocals of Cerys. Against a sea of largely English male fronted Brit-pop sound waves, they stood out.

Their final album Paper Scissors Stone, produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley in London, was released in 2001 and entered at no. 7 in the album charts.

But all was not well. The tour to support Paper Scissors Stone was cancelled, Matthews entered rehab and the band parted ways.

The story that Catatonia were formed after Mark Roberts spotted Cerys Matthews busking in Cardiff in 1992 was made up as a joke. The duo did go busking, they did not meet this way.^[1][2] Matthews had been a fan of Roberts' previous band Y Cyrff.^[3] They had been dating and writing songs together since 1991.^[4][5] Aspects of their five year relationship being played out publicly in their lyrics.^[5] They took the name of the band from Matthews' experience working in a mental health facility when training to be a nurse in London, as well as from the novel The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley. They believed it to mean a sense of extreme pleasure and sleep, and wrote the song Sweet Catatonia, subsequently naming the band after the song. As "Sweet Catatonia", Matthews and Roberts recorded a series of demos at the city centre youth project in Cardiff, nicknamed "Grassroots".^[6]

The music videos and radio play from Catatonia's early days garnered so much interest including that of punk rock musician Rhys Mwyn who was keen to help out and arranged for them to play outside of their adopted home town of Cardiff. This included overseas gigs in Germany, supporting Mwyn's punk band Yr Anhrefn. Catatonia were hired by political party Plaid Cymru to headline a Welsh language concert at Builth Wells in August 1993, but they performed in both Welsh and English.^[7] They were from the beginning consciously a multi-lingual band.

They signed to Crai, recorded a single For Tinkerbell, which was picked up by BBC Radio 1 after a copy reached radio presenter Mark Radcliffe. It became record of the week for the magazine NME.^[8]

They signed to Nursery Records to release the single "Bleed".^[9] Catatonia's first national interview was published following the release of For Tinkerbell, a 300-word piece appearing in Melody Maker.^[10]

They held their first London gig at the Samuel Beckett Pub in Stoke Newington on 13 November 1993 alongside Mwyn's band Anrehfn and Margi Clarke. Further Welsh radio and television appearances followed, as did an interview for NME with journalist Iestyn George. On 19 and 20 February 1994, the band's follow-up EP, Hooked was recorded in Llandwrog, Gwynedd, and produced by Ken Nelson whom they had met on Radio Wales. A performance was set up at The Falcon, Camden, and the Splash Club in London where several music executives were to be present. The band drove down from Cardiff in a Ford Transit with their equipment and then spent the afternoon drinking, the result of which was a terrible performance, later lamented. The trip became a sobering experience.

The band returned to The Falcon, where they played a still shambolic, but better gig in front of record executives.^[11] Meanwhile, promoter Paul Buck had put the band in touch with their first manager, Richard Lowe from MRM Management.^[12]

The single Whale was published on the Rough Trade Records label in September 1994. Whale was named NME single of the week.

A further single, Bleed was recorded the following November,^[13] and released in February 1995 on Nursery Records. Geoff Travis, who had released Whale for his Rough Trade Records, signed the band to his Blanco y Negro Records, a subsidiary label of Warner Bros. Records.

The band began work on a debut album, alongside producer Paul Sampson in Coventry and at Sawmills Studios in Cornwall, which saw some disagreements during recording between Matthews and Roberts.

Producer Stephen Street came on board to replace Paul Sampson and owrk continued in London at the Maison Rouge Studios. During this time songs, Blow the Millenium, Blow and Beautiful Sailor were released on vinyl and sent to the new fan club formed following the single Bleed.

On 18 January 1996, Sweet Catatonia was released,^[14] the band's first foray into the charts - it peaked at no. 61.^[15]

A compliation The Sublime Magic of Catatonia.^[16] was released and the Band toured the UK, supported by Liverpool-based band Space,^[17] critics reacted positively when the band performed sober. During this tour, on 22 April Lost Cat was released reaching 41st in the national charts. As part of the tour, they appeared at Reading festival, Phoenix and at Madstock! 3 in London.^[18] alongside Toots and The Maytals, Desmond Dekker, Pulp and Madness.

Radio Exposure and Catatonia's profile continued to grow - the next single You've Got a Lot to Answer For which entered the top 40 in September 1996 at no. 37.^[9][15] Their debut album Way Beyond Blue was released on 30 September.

Catatonia toured with fellow Welsh band The Manic Street Preachers, and the label released the compilation Tourist EP in Japan.^[19] They began recording demos for a new album in Cardiff at the start of January 1997. Many of the songs would allude to the now failing personal relationship between Matthews and Roberts.

Songwriting duties, melody and lyrics, were shared - sometimes one song might feature lyrics written by both main songwriters giving different perspectives.

At this point they performed for the first time in the United States, supporting The Boo Radleys in New York. They went on to perform in Austin, Texas and Los Angeles during March. The following month, they conducted a ten-night tour of the UK, in which songs such as Mulder and Scully made their first public appearances.^[20]

In June a recording session for the second album was booked at the Monnow Valley Studio in Rockfield, Monmouthshire with Tommy D as producer. It was a good fit, the new songs were strong and Catatonia were on top form as a performing band after so much touring.

The first single off the album had intended to be Mulder and Scully, but the label insisted that I Am the Mob was released instead. As with previous works, this was delayed, and Catatonia performed at festivals during the summer of 1997 while they waited for the release. They were booked for the Glastonbury Festival, but upon arriving they were told their allotted stage had sunk in the mud so weren't able to perform.^[21]

The new album was further delayed as Warner Bros ordered the removal of the six-minute-long anti-Warner track That's All Folks. Meanwhile work continued on I Am The Mob with a video shoot directed by Kevin Allen^[22] and filmed in Scotland. The single was released on 6 October and entered at number 40.

Warners replaced That's All Folks with My Selfish Gene, and agreed to release Mulder and Scully in January 1998 and International Velvet some two weeks later.^[23]

Mulder and Scully launched them into the mainstream public consciousness when it was released on 19 January 1998.^[24][25] It entered the charts at number 3; and International Velvet charted at number one in the UK Album Charts, and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize 1998.^[26]

The title track of the album, International Velvet, featuring the line "Every day when I wake up I thank the Lord I'm Welsh" and Welsh language verses, received additional attention from the media. Matthews explained in an interview that she wanted to invert the idea of being Welsh from an apparent negative into a positive. "Hopefully, by now people realise that Wales is brimmed full of talent and we're great people with massive brains."^[27] In front of 70,000 spectators, Catatonia performed International Velvet at the opening ceremony of the 1999 Rugby World Cup in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.^[28] On 2 June 1999 in Groningen, The Netherlands, Catatonia supported the Rolling Stones in front of 120,000 people.^[29]

Following the success of International Velvet, and the heavy touring that followed, the band were pleased to return to the Monnow Valley Studio to record a third studio album.^[30] On the recommendation of TommyD, the band had been recording sample tracks onto a DPS12 hard disk recorder in their tour bus while on an American tour and they returned to Monnow Valley to record them properly.^[31]

In January 1999, the band announced their new album, Equally Cursed and Blessed. The title was taken from a line from She's A Millionaire, a song on the album. Preceded by the first single, Dead from the Waist Down on 22 March, Equally Cursed and Blessed was released on 12 April.^[32] The album, like International Velvet, reached the top spot in the UK charts. Catatonia were so popular at the time that in April 1999, Way Beyond Blue, International Velvet and Equally Cursed and Blessed were all in the top 40 of the UK Albums Chart.^[33]

Dead From The Waist Down got to number seven in the UK singles charts. Londinium reached number 20, while Karaoke Queen entered the top 40 at number 36.^[34]

In May, they played two outdoor concerts at the Llangollen International Pavilion in front of 6,000 people on successive days.^[35] This was a warm up to their largest concert so far, held at Margam Country Park near Port Talbot - headlining in front of 30,000 fans. Catatonia supported R.E.M. on two European dates in June.

The band had wanted to release Karaoke Queen as the second single off the album, but the record label forced them to release Londinium instead. Matthews was also equally angry that the cost for the video for the single was higher than the cost to produce the entire album.^[36] A month later, Barry Cawley, a member of Robert's and Jones's earlier band, Y Cryff, a lifelong friend and roadie of Catatonia was killed in a road accident in North Wales. Cawley had been cycling when he was killed by a driver in a Fiat Punto.^[37] It was a huge personal loss to the band.

They had been scheduled to make appearances on American television shows such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Photographer Rankin was commissioned and indeed took cover shots of Cerys for Allure magazine, and interviews were scheduled with the media. But all was not well and plans were taken off the table. Rumours began to appear in the press that the band was about to break up.^[38] Performances did however take place in Japan, Australia and New Zealand.^[39]

The band took a break from performing live between the NetAid charity concert in October 1999 and 2001. They returned to the stage for a further charity gig on 28 April, in support of Unison's campaign for a living wage at the Manchester Evening News Arena. Matthews said prior to the performance that "It's a cause I think's really important and it just seemed to be the right time for us to come back – it's a long, long time since we played live. It should be really great. We're really looking forward to what they (the new songs) are going to sound like live. It'll be good to get back on the old live circuit again". They played several tracks from their upcoming album, at that point entitled It's What's Not There That Makes What's There What It Is.^[40] By May, it had been renamed to Paper Scissors Stone. Matthews was looking forward to the new releasing, explaining to NME that "I think it's stronger than the last album, a bit more avant garde, [Equally Cursed and Blessed] was all over the shop stylistically, I think it's a bit more focused. And I think it's a bit more impassioned".^[41]

Catatonia went on to headline the NME stage at the T in the Park festival on 7 July, having conducted a warm up concert at The Lighthouse, Glasgow.^[42]

The media reported that Matthews entered drug rehabilitation for drinking and smoking in mid-2001, with the singer stating that she was also suffering from depression.^[43] As a result, the tour to support Paper Scissors Stone was cancelled at the start of August.

On 21 September it was announced that they were breaking up with the record label releasing a statement which said "Their decision has been made entirely amicably, and there are no details at present as to their future plan".^[43]

Tributes came in for the band from a variety of sources, with BBC Radio 1 presenter Huw Stephens describing them as "international superstars", and adding "I always thought they were one of the best Welsh bands. They were not just a throwaway pop band – they had real, meaningful songs". Iestyn George, editor of the magazine Maxim at the time, praised the influence that Matthews had through Catatonia in the later 1990s, saying that "Around 1998 and 1999, Cerys was in the papers every other day". He also referenced that she had never intended this role as Catatonia had thought that they had already peaked prior to International Velvet.^[43]

Matthews released solo works with the Rough Trade label, and continues to release solo projects on her own label. Cockahoop was released in May 2003.^[44] Her second album Never Said Goodbye was released in May 2003, a pioneering celebration of country and US rural folk music, recorded in the hills of Tennessee when she was living at the studios of Bob Dylan's pedal steel player, Bucky Baxter.^[45]

Matthews has also authored books: Sunday Times best selling singalong book, Hook Line and Singer; folk cook book with music playlists - Where the Wild Cooks Go; both on Penguin. Children's books: Tales from the Deep and Gelert; a new collection of Dylan Thomas poems - Out of Chaos Comes Bliss on Pushkin; a National Poetry Day anthology - Tell Me the Truth About Life, and lastly a Carnegie Medal nominated children's illustrated edition of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2022.

Matthews has since 2008 been a radio DJ, documentary maker and music programmer at the BBC. Her shows on BBC Radio 2, Radio 6 and Radio 4 have picked up all the top awards including, most recently, the Prix Italia and Prix Europa in 2022.

In 2014 she was awarded an MBE for services to music, and the St David award for culture in the same year. Other interests include being patron of the John Rae Society, Dylan Thomas Society, Ballet Cymru, and president of Gwalia Male Voice choir.

Mark Roberts continues to write music and songs, release solo works and perform live, previously as founder and member of Y Ffyrc and Sherbet Antlers and currently as "Mr.".

Owen Powell has gone on to write songs, including for Duffy,^[46] and from 2007 onwards has presented a Welsh language show on Radio Cymru.^[44] He also replaced drummer Stuart Cable from the Stereophonics, following his death, in the supergroup The Stand. They released a charity single in 2010 to fund construction of a statue of Welsh footballer Fred Keenor in Cardiff city centre.^[47]

On 17 April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Matthews confirmed^[48] that Catatonia were aiming to take part in a #timslisteningparty for International Velvet. Matthews appeared as a guest on Tim Burgess' Listening Party radio show on Absolute Radio in 2023, where the album was played in its entirety, marking its 25th anniversary.

On 3 June 2023, Matthews announced on Twitter that a new retrospective collection of music titled Make Hay Not War: The Blanco Y Negro Years would be released by Cherry Red Records.^[49] A vinyl reissue of International Velvet was released in 2023 by Warner Music.

As of 2026 Cerys Matthews is composing music for an Under Milk Wood ballet for Ballet Cymru.

Catatonia frequently used metaphors in their songwriting, such as Road Rage which references emotional anger. The line "If it turns to blue, what are we going to do?" in the single You've Got a Lot to Answer For from Way Beyond Blue references a pregnancy test. Other works from International Velvet were compared to poetry by Katharine Viner in The Guardian.^[50]

While the two founding members of the band remained the main songwriters, both Powell and Jones offered song and arranging input. Owen Powell, a talented writer in his own right, contributed many great titles - for example Don’t Need the Sunshine, Nothing Hurts, Beautiful Loser.

Powell said that "It's quite interesting to have two people's viewpoints within the same song. I'm not sure how many bands actually do that. In most bands, the guitarist writes the music and the singer writes the lyrics. We tend to share things out." He also criticised the attachment of an indie pop label to the band, saying "We're seen as one of the indie bands. But we've always just tried to make pop music. Even if it is pop music with a hard edge and quite a twisted little view of life. We've always seen ourselves as a little bigger than an indie band".

• Christmas '95 (1995, fan club vinyl record)
• Tourist EP (1996, Japan EP)
• A's & B's of Catatonia (1998, Promo EP)
• Storm the Palace EP (2000, Japan EP)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Catatonia (music act).

• Catatonia discography at Discogs