Looking for Christmas gifts? Here are 5 books that would make perfect gifts for music lovers.
Wales: 100 Records – Huw Stephens (Y Lolfa)
Welsh music obsessive and BBC 6 Music DJ Huw Stephens has sifted through the archives and his own record collection to bring his selection of 100 records – both notable and obscure. From pop to punk, techno to traditional, rap to rock and everything in between, sung in both English and Welsh, he assesses and shares stories of each record and artist to create an information-packed treasure trove of some of the very best in Welsh music.
International Velvet – How Wales Conquered the 90s Charts – Neil Collins (Calon)
The 1990s changed everything. While Wales was already known for Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Male Voices Choirs, but bands such as Catatonia, Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics and Super Furry Animals exploded into the charts and showed the UK population the breadth of what this small but inherently musical nation could offer. Featuring fresh analysis and new interviews, International Velvet charts the UK in a decade in which ‘Cool Cymru’ won over the masses and shows how it inspired the still-vibrant Welsh music scene into the 21st century and beyond.
A Casual Life in Six T-shirts – Euron Griffith (Seren)
An avid music fan from a young age, A Casual Life is centred around six particularly memorable band T-shirts owned by Griffith as he grew older (but not necessarily wiser). From the disastrous first (and last) gig by his debut band, through to his eventual deal with a major label, from life growing up in pre-internet north Wales (when even pop radio couldn’t make it past the mountains) to the smoky clubs of Soho, this is a story of how music gets into the soul and how it helps us cope with all life throws our way.
Slingshot – Andrew Ogun (Lucent Dreaming)
Andrew Ogun is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on poetry, music and creative direction. His debut collection features poetry rooted in the tension between where we are and where we want to be. For Ogun, Slingshot has been a process of healing but also a process of unmasking and showing the world what really happens in his inner life.
Tell Me Who I Am – Georgia Ruth
Life for Jude Lewis a self-described ‘former musician’ has been rather disappointing. Achieving success as a young man with his debut album, the intervening years have not been kind. Stage fright and self-loathing render him unable to perform and gradually, he disappears. What happens to ‘lost’ musicians? The novel coincides with Georgia Ruth’s latest album Cool Head. The album and the novel are bound together by one song: the haunting Tell Me Who I Am, written by the novel’s main character, Jude, and sung by Georgia on the album.
Available now from your local bookshop.
