Remembering John Sicolo and Micky Jones
Post categories: Radio
| 11:15 UK time, Wednesday, 17 March 2010
This week's show was, in some respects, a sombre affair. Welsh music lost two of its most respected figures in the last week: John Sicolo, co-founder of The Legendary TJ's in Newport and Micky Jones, founder member of Man.
Listen again until Sunday.
Listen again until Sunday.
John Sicolo's influence on Welsh music cannot be overstated. The freedom he gave local promoters to book whomever they were most passionate about encouraged a unique musical ecosystem in Newport.
The likes of Cheap Sweaty Fun brought American punk bands to the venue whose only other port of call in the UK was London. Consequently aspiring Newport musicians were inspired by the likes of Girls Against Boys, Fugazi, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Jesus Lizard and Man or Astroman.
It gave the local musicians an atypical musical grounding that was massively influential in making local talent, the likes of 60ft Dolls, Dub War, Flyscreen and Novocaine, sound so fresh and invigorating when they broke through the torpor of the dying days of Britpop and established Newport as the place to listen to, however briefly, in the latter half of the 90s.
Although the venue has been struggling financially of late and has dwindled in importance over the last decade, its legacy is still apparent in the thriving DIY punk culture in South Wales and the exploratory booking policies of promoters like Lesson Number One.
The freedom and sense of community that John encouraged is in direct contrast to the stupefied sanitisation - noise limiters / neon toilets and the like - of the modern music venue. Many thousands of those of us who either played at the venue or witnessed great music there will attest to its uniqueness and how much that uniqueness was down to the garrulous, larger than life, indefatigable spirit of John Sicolo.
Micky Jones' instinctive musicianship was one of the major contributing factors in Man's longevity. Our regular expert on all things old, ace and inspirational, Ben Hayes (aka Soundhog) pays tribute to one of Welsh music's most talented and enduring exponents.
Elsewhere, Pixy and Elliott from Resolven's El Goodo talk about their psychedelically-enhanced, baroque-ish pop masterpiece of a second album, Coyote (out now on Dell'Orso Records).
Huw 'Pooh' Williams delves into Wales' punk past and talks about The Partisans.
Lara Catrin translates Topper's 'Cwpan Mewn Dwr' and I have a lot of excellent new Welsh music for you to enjoy, with debut plays for the likes of David Newington, Pry Cry and David Wager. Plus an exclusive play of the new single from Blaina's The Guns.
Please send any music / gig info / music-related correspondence to themysterytour@gmail.com.
Next Sunday night, Georgia Ruth and John Lawrence & Nia Morgan's recorded at our recent happening at Hendre Hall, Bangor.
The likes of Cheap Sweaty Fun brought American punk bands to the venue whose only other port of call in the UK was London. Consequently aspiring Newport musicians were inspired by the likes of Girls Against Boys, Fugazi, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Jesus Lizard and Man or Astroman.
It gave the local musicians an atypical musical grounding that was massively influential in making local talent, the likes of 60ft Dolls, Dub War, Flyscreen and Novocaine, sound so fresh and invigorating when they broke through the torpor of the dying days of Britpop and established Newport as the place to listen to, however briefly, in the latter half of the 90s.
Although the venue has been struggling financially of late and has dwindled in importance over the last decade, its legacy is still apparent in the thriving DIY punk culture in South Wales and the exploratory booking policies of promoters like Lesson Number One.
The freedom and sense of community that John encouraged is in direct contrast to the stupefied sanitisation - noise limiters / neon toilets and the like - of the modern music venue. Many thousands of those of us who either played at the venue or witnessed great music there will attest to its uniqueness and how much that uniqueness was down to the garrulous, larger than life, indefatigable spirit of John Sicolo.
Micky Jones' instinctive musicianship was one of the major contributing factors in Man's longevity. Our regular expert on all things old, ace and inspirational, Ben Hayes (aka Soundhog) pays tribute to one of Welsh music's most talented and enduring exponents.
Elsewhere, Pixy and Elliott from Resolven's El Goodo talk about their psychedelically-enhanced, baroque-ish pop masterpiece of a second album, Coyote (out now on Dell'Orso Records).
Huw 'Pooh' Williams delves into Wales' punk past and talks about The Partisans.
Lara Catrin translates Topper's 'Cwpan Mewn Dwr' and I have a lot of excellent new Welsh music for you to enjoy, with debut plays for the likes of David Newington, Pry Cry and David Wager. Plus an exclusive play of the new single from Blaina's The Guns.
Please send any music / gig info / music-related correspondence to themysterytour@gmail.com.
Next Sunday night, Georgia Ruth and John Lawrence & Nia Morgan's recorded at our recent happening at Hendre Hall, Bangor.
Adam Walton
Bethan Elfyn
James McLaren
Laura Sinnerton
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