Cool Cymru

Cool Cymru
Manic Street Preachers performing in London. The band were one of the pioneers of the era for Welsh music.
Native name	Cŵl Cymru
Stylistic origins	Britpop pop rock Cool Britannia alternative rock
Cultural origins	Music of Wales
Regional scenes
Music of Wales
Local scenes
Music of Cardiff Music of Newport
Other topics
Welsh Music Prize Welsh Language Music Day

Cool Cymru (Welsh: Cŵl Cymru) was a Welsh cultural movement in music and independent film in the 1990s and 2000s, led by the popularity of bands such as Catatonia, Stereophonics and Manic Street Preachers.^[1]

The term Cool Cymru (Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales) is derived as a Welsh alternative to Cool Britannia (itself a pun on the British patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!"). Cool Britannia described the revival of British art and culture in the 1990s centred on London (as celebrated in a 1996 Newsweek cover headlined "London Rules"), emphasised British culture and used British symbols such as The Union Jack.^[2]

By 1998 many Welsh cultural figures were gaining prominence within the UK, at the same time the use of the term Cool Britannia had become maligned by some cultural commentators as a ubiquitous term for any part of British Culture.^[3] As such the term Cool Cymru gained popularity for the cultural figures and phenomena which were specifically Welsh or Welsh in origin. The term continues to be used by Welsh and British commentators long after the term Cool Britannia has fallen out of favour.^[4]

Commentators have alluded to both Cool Britannia and Cool Cymru as by-products social and economic issues that dominated the UK in the 1970s and 1980s. In Wales, this included the rejection of a devolved Welsh government in a 1979 referendum, the economic policies during the Premiership of Margaret Thatcher (which led to the 1984 Miners' Strike) and the eventual closure of collieries throughout the UK which resulted in the south Wales Valleys unemployment rates ranking amongst the highest in the whole United Kingdom well into the twenty-first century.^[5][6]

1997 United Kingdom general election in Wales saw the rise of New Labour across the UK. In Wales the election saw a landslide victory for Welsh Labour, winning of 34 out of 40 constituencies, a result which also saw the Welsh Conservatives lose all of their Welsh MPs, leaving them without representation in Wales for the first time since the 1906 general election.^[7][8] The new Labour government had promised devolution for Wales in its manifesto, with a referendum being held on 18 September 1997. Resulting in a narrow win in favour of a new Welsh Government^[9]

Five months after referendum, the band Catatonia released their album, International Velvet, and would perform the album's title track at the opening ceremonies of both the new government and the 1999 Rugby World Cup. The contemporary anthem would also be used by the BBC for sports trailers and was used to illustrate a post-referendum national confidence by academics and commentators both inside and outside of Wales as an example of Cool Cymru.^[10][11]

Other cultural impact of political developments included the Broadcasting Act 1990, which saw a wider remit given to the Welsh language TV channel S4C, commercial sponsorship of the National Eisteddfod of Wales reaching over £1 million for the first time, the establishment of the Newport Riverfront Arts Centre and a number of redevelopment projects in Cardiff that saw the construction of the Millennium Stadium, Wales Millennium Centre and the redevelopment of Cardiff Bay.^[12]

The economic decline of Wales in the 1980s was mirrored in the era's music. While artists such as Shakin' Stevens achieved great success and became the UK's top selling artist of the decade,^[13] his persona and musicality were a deliberate attempt to evoke nostalgia in an older generation, familiar with the music of 1950s America.^[14]

This changed in the 1990s when acts from the two popular music traditions in Wales (which until that time, had both been equally ignored by the British mainstream press) emerged onto the UK anglophone market under the banner of "Cool Cymru". Iain Ellis describes these two traditions as "self-consciously Welsh Acts" (such as Super Furry Animals, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, and Catatonia) and "neither eschewing nor celebrating Welsh Acts" (Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, and Mclusky). Outside of the UK, Welsh music was still associated with "old-fashioned crooners" such as Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones, both of whom would reinvent themselves as part of the Cool Cymru movement.^[15]

In 1997 Shirley Bassey released History Repeating in collaboration with the English electro duo Propellerheads. The single reached No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart and No. 10 on the US Dance Club Songs chart, marking Bassey's first top ten appearance on any US chart since 1973.^[16] This was followed in 1999 by Jones' own career resurgence following the success of his Reload album, which saw Jones collaborate with other musicians, many of whom were already established part of "Cool Cymru". The album was commercially successful across the UK, becoming Jones' first number one studio album in thirty years.^[17]

As such, any popular Welsh act under the "Cool Cymru" label could now share their own understanding of Welsh identity "beyond their own borders", regardless of the language, musical style or influences they brought.^[15][18]

The Stereophonics' debut album, Word Gets Around, was released in 1997; the band drew attention when they became the first to sign for Richard Branson's V2 Records.^[5] The album went on to receive acclaim, with its asking of potent questions for 1990s young people in Wales, including the line from Traffic:

"Is anyone going anywhere?

Everyone's got to be somewhere."

Stereophonics - "Traffic"^[19]

Tackling the topic of youth unemployment was also a focus of the era:

"I don't live to work,

I work to live,

I live at the weekend."

Stereophonics - "Last of the Big Time Drinkers"^[19]

Writer Griffin Kaye described Stereophonics as "proud, unapologetic Welshmen who serve as the anchormen of the Cool Cymru sound, helping carry the sound from one generation to the next."^[20]

Ellis describes Gruff Rhys' psychedelia driven art as "the heart and soul of the "Cool Cymru" movement",^[15] yet he acknowledges it was the act's resonance with the "London-based Britpop movement and its attendant media" which helped its growth, thanks to their dissonance with the more standardised acts of the era such as Oasis. The group famously reached number 11 in the UK charts with Mwng in 2001, to much surprise given the presence of a full ten Welsh language songs on the album.^[21]

Pooh Sticks lead singer Huw Williams, who helped raise the profiles of 60 Ft. Dolls and Catatonia,^[22] co-founded the Welsh Music Foundation, a now defunct Government supported organisation which in the Cool Cymru era was praised for raising the profile of Welsh music internationally and at home.^[22] The organisation is credited with individual successes such as the growth of Lostprophets and Mclusky,^[22] as well as bringing BBC Radio 1 on its first visit to Wales for Sound City in Cardiff.^[22]

Amid the growth of Welsh Language Music Day, Horizons Gorwelion, Sŵn Festival, Tafwyl, and the wider proliferation of contemporary independent Welsh musicians, the BBC has asked whether Cool Cymru is back.^[23] Huw Stephens addressed the idea in his BBC Radio 4 programme, Cymru Rising.^[24]

Wales in the 1990s was enjoying a particular period of international prominence. Its reputation was heightened by the performances of sporting individuals such as Joe Calzaghe, Ryan Giggs, and Scott Gibbs,^[5] as well as the notorious headlines generated by figures like Howard Marks.^[5]

Actors of prominence included Ioan Gruffudd,^[5] who appeared in Solomon & Gaenor (nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 72nd Academy Awards), as well as Rhys Ifans and Anthony Hopkins^[5] who both appeared in the Chekhov tale August, and Llangefni born Huw Garmon who starred in the Oscar nominated Welsh language film Hedd Wyn.

House of America (about a dysfunctional family in a Welsh mining town) was released in 1997; in that same year Newport-born director Julian Richards released Darklands (the "first home grown Welsh horror film").^[25]

The Kevin Allen-produced black comedy Twin Town, which holds cult status^[26] in Swansea and internationally, showed Wales' second city in a then-controversial light of "excessive profanity, drug-taking and violence as the order of the day",^[26] and provoked the outraged response of Liberal Democrat MP David Alton who railed against the film as "sordid and squalid, plunging new depths of depravity."^[26]

The Guardian in a 2004 review of Cool Cymru described a road map of the scene as a "proud nation of footballer Ryan Giggs, movie star Catherine Zeta-Jones, clothes designer Julien Macdonald, rappers Goldie Lookin Chain and, to a lesser extent, Rhys Ifans and Huw Edwards."^[12]

Terry Morris' 2006 book and photographic exhibition, titled Cool Cymru, was launched at the Wales Millennium Centre and opened by Charlotte Church.^[27] The series later became a three-part television documentary by Llanelli-based Tinopolis.^[28]

Throughout the 1990s hurdler Colin Jackson became one of Great Britain's most successful athletes, but was also notable for waving the Welsh flag after every win for Great Britain. Jackson would later acknowledge that he had become more aware of his identity due to Anti-Welsh sentiment during this period, stating "I felt the discrimination was because I was Welsh more than anything else."^[29]

Jackson's success and open pride in being Welsh saw him idolized in Wales, and he became an early icon of Cool Cymru, with Jackson winning BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year three times and being invited to present the Best British Group Award to fellow Welshmen, The Manic Street Preachers at the 1997 Brit Awards.^[30]

Rugby union is often viewed as a "cultural signifier" in Wales,^[31] with the National team's fortunes often seen as mirroring the economic and cultural state of the nation.^[32]

Wales were arguably at their lowest ebb in 1998, when they suffered their biggest ever loss in a test match against South Africa. As such Wales appointed a new Head coach in Graham Henry. Henry would lead Wales to a dramatic turn-around, winning a record ten straight victories within his first year as Head Coach including a first win in Paris for 24 years, a first ever win over South Africa and a close victory over England at Wembley.^[33] Henry became "a national icon" appearing on chatshows and in a BBC Wales cartoon before being dubbed "The great Redeemer" (an allusion to "Guide me O thou great Redeemer", the opening line of the traditional Welsh hymn Cwm Rhondda).^[34]

With a much fancied England aiming to complete a Grand Slam in 1999 they looked by far the better team for much of the game, but only lead Wales by 6 points with 3 minutes left. With Wales' final attacking play, Scott Quinnell passed the ball to Scott Gibbs who memorably scored one of the most celebrated tries in Welsh rugby history. Man of the match Neil Jenkins kicked the conversion to win the match by a single point. Gibbs's try has since become one of the most celebrated in Welsh history, being replayed at many events such as that year's Stereophonics concert at Morfa, Swansea.^[36]

BBC Wales had trailed their coverage of the match with a song written and performed by Kelly Jones entitled "As long as We Beat The English." The song detailed Wales' recent losses and suggested that the losses would be forgotten with victory over England, and was viewed by some commentators in England and Wales as antagonistic or jingoistic.^[37] However, the song also received praise as showing the pride Wales was now displaying in the BBC's "year of Cool Cymru". The build-up to the match also featured Tom Jones and Max Boyce as well as traditional Welsh choirs.

With rugby becoming a professional sport in 1995 and Wales winning the bid to host the 1999 World Cup, the Welsh Rugby Union was able to finance redevelopment of the old National Stadium. The project was costed at £121 million and was partially funded by £46 million from the Millennium Commission, as such the new development was named the Millennium Stadium.^[38][39]

The project was completed by June 1999 in time to host the opening ceremony of the World Cup and seven matches including the World Cup Final. The development also foreshadowed more redevelopment in Cardiff and Cardiff Bay. The development was a major part of Cardiff's urban renewal. The stadium has contributed between £100m-£135m to the city's economy every year since its construction.^[40]

In 2021, Matthew Rhys spoke about his belief that Cool Cymru had a positive impact on the acceptance of the Welsh language, adding that he wished to emulate that affect in his own career.^[41]

• Cool Britannia
• Culture of Wales
• Post-Britpop
• Welsh pop and rock music