Catatonia (band)
Catatonia were an alternative rock band from Wales who gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1990s. The band formed in 1992 after Mark Roberts met Cerys Matthews and Kirsty Kennedy. The first major lineup featured Dafydd Ieuan of Super Furry Animals on drums, Paul Jones on bass, and Clancy Pegg on keyboards. With this line-up the band recorded two EPs, For Tinkerbell and Hooked.
For the Swedish metal band, see Katatonia.
Catatonia
Cardiff, Wales
Alternative rock, post-Britpop,[1] indie pop, indie rock, Britpop[2] (early)
1992–2001
Cerys Matthews
Mark Roberts
Stephen Jenkins
Guto Pryce
Dafydd Ieuan
Paul Jones
Clancy Pegg
Aled Richards
Owen Powell
Pegg was fired prior to work on their first studio album, Way Beyond Blue, and during the recording of the album the band was joined by drummer Aled Richards, replacing Ieuan, who left to focus full-time on Super Furry Animals. During the live promotional appearances for the album the band was joined by guitarist Owen Powell. This latest incarnation of the band lasted until its dissolution in 2001. The single "You've Got a Lot to Answer For" received radio airplay and became the band's first top 40 single in the UK Singles Chart in September 1996. Their breakout success came at the start of 1998 with the International Velvet album and the release of the single "Mulder and Scully" some two weeks apart. The album went to number one in the UK Albums Chart, and sold more than 900,000 copies being certified triple platinum by British Phonographic Industry, while the single reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart, the highest any Catatonia single would chart.
The follow-up release, "Road Rage", reached number 5 in May, and was nominated for best song at the Brit Awards and the Ivor Novello Awards, winning at the Q Awards. The title track of the album International Velvet received additional attention, and the band performed it at the opening of the opening ceremony of the 1999 Rugby World Cup on 1 October in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. While in Catatonia, Matthews collaborated with Space on "The Ballad of Tom Jones" in March 1998 and with Tom Jones on a cover of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" in December 1999. Their final top ten single came in April 1999 with "Dead from the Waist Down" off the following album, Equally Cursed and Blessed. Rumours began to circulate about a breakup, but a further album, Paper Scissors Stone was released in 2001 following a two-year break from live performances.
Matthews' drinking had long been reported in the tabloids and gossip columns, and she entered rehab in mid-2001 for drinking and smoking. The tour to support Paper Scissors Stone was cancelled, and a month later, the band announced that they were breaking up. Matthews has subsequently released solo albums, while Powell has become a radio presenter and joined the supergroup The Stand to release a charity single. Critics have highlighted the use of metaphors in Catatonia's work, and songs have been compared to poetry by critics.[3] Writing duties had been shared across the band, although had been led by Matthews and Roberts. They disagreed with being labelled an indie band, with Powell saying they had only ever sought to write pop music. The band form a key part of the 1990s Cool Cymru movement.
History[edit]
Formation (1992)[edit]
The story that Catatonia were formed after Mark Roberts spotted Cerys Matthews busking in Cardiff in 1992 was an invention for the media in order to give the band a newsworthy biography. While the duo did go busking, they did not meet this way.[4][5] Matthews had been a fan of Roberts' previous band Y Cyrff.[6] They began dating as well as writing songs together at the end of 1991.[7][8] For four years after this they remained in the relationship, many aspects of this being played out publicly in their lyrics.[8] They took the name of the band from Matthews' experience working in a mental health facility as well as 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".[9]
Roberts and Matthews routinely encountered Owen Powell during this time, who played guitar in the band Colour 45. Both bands entered a band competition to play at the Cardiff Bay Music Fiesta, and while Colour 45 came tenth and was given a place on the bill, Sweet Catatonia placed 45th. Roberts and Matthews hired a drummer, Stephen "Frog" Jenkins from the band U Thant, and continued to record bilingual Welsh/English tracks. The band began to play live, with Matthews and Roberts busking to support their income. They were spotted by the girlfriend of the lead singer of the band The Pooh Sticks, who thought that Matthews would make a good female voice for the group. But after seeing Sweet Catatonia perform, the band members did not agree and so Matthews remained with Catatonia. Further recordings were made, with Guto Pryce joining the trio. This session included the track "Gyda Gwen" which attracted the attention of Rhys Mwyn at Crai Records.[10]
The Crai EPs, "Whale", and "Bleed" (1993–95)[edit]
The band line up changed as they signed to Crai, with Jenkins and Pryce departing for other projects. Mwyn arranged for Matthews and Roberts to be joined by Dafydd Ieuan on drums, former Y Cyrff member Paull Jones on bass, and Londoner Clancy Pegg (who had befriended Roberts and Matthews after moving to Cardiff) on keyboards. It was at this point that the band shortened its name to "Catatonia". Mwyn used his contacts to get Catatonia onto Welsh language television, and strove to move their live performances away from Cardiff so that they were not simply playing in front of their regulars the entire time. They had their first overseas gigs in Germany, support Mwyn in his punk band Anrhefn. 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.[11]
Despite being signed to Crai, this was more as promoter than as a record label itself. It was only when Roberts suggested that Catatonia record some extended plays (EPs) after two months with the label that Mwyn made the arrangements.[12][13] The first, entitled For Tinkerbell, had a cover photo taken by Roberts and Matthews' housemate Roland Dafis.[12] Mwyn successfully got the record on BBC Radio 1 after sending a copy to radio presenter Mark Radcliffe. After Iestyn George heard the release, the journalist named it as the record of the week for the magazine NME.[14] For Tinkerbell contained some early tracks, including a version of "Sweet Catatonia".[15] Matthews later explained that while she had liked the songs on the EP, she felt that she was not good at performing live at the time.[13] They signed to Nursery Records to release the single "Bleed".[16] Catatonia's first national interview was published following the release of "For Tinkerbell", a 300-word piece appearing in Melody Maker.[17]
They held their first London gigs in support of the EP, under the advice of George and The Pooh Sticks lead singer Huw Williams. After warm-up gigs in Cardiff and Birmingham, the London performance took place at the Samuel Beckett pub in Stoke Newington on 13 November 1993 alongside Anrehfn and Margi Clarke. Further Welsh radio and television appearances followed, as did an interview for NME. When George arrived for the interview, Matthews asked if he'd be interested in becoming the band's manager. He politely declined, saying that he did not have the experience.[18] On 19 and 20 February 1994, the band's follow-up EP, Hooked was recorded in Llandwrog, Gwynedd, and produced by Ken Nelson who they had met on Radio Wales. A performance was set up at the Falcon 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. Just prior to going out on stage, they began taking cocaine, the result of which was a terrible performance later lamented by Roberts. The trip became a sobering experience, as they made no money from it and were only paid £50 for a gig at Kingston University a day later. Matthews later recalled that they'd needed to borrow money from a fan to pay the toll on the Severn Bridge on the way back to Cardiff.[19]
The band returned to the Falcon, where they played a still shambolic, but better gig in front of record executives.[20] Meanwhile, George had put the band in touch with their first manager, Richard Lowe from MRM management.[21] They made further appearances on Welsh television to support the release of Hooked in May,[22] but another drunken performance followed, this time in Newport.[23] MRM sent them on a short tour in France during the second week of May, and then started their first UK wide support tour to the band Salad. When due to perform at the Cnapan Music Festival in Wales on 2 July, the band ran into some difficulties. The security team refused to let Matthews in as they did not recognise her. It was only after the intervention of one of the fans of the band, actor Rhys Ifans, that she was allowed in.[24]
Mwyn departed the band when the band's time with Crai came to an end, and a few weeks later MRM sought to remove Pegg, leaving it to Matthews to tell her. Pegg was upset, and refused to discuss it with journalists.[25] After her departure, the single "Whale" was published on the Rough Trade Records label. The band had rushed to record it, having only been given a month's notice by the label that one of their songs would be released as a single in September 1994. "Whale" was named the NME single of the week, as For Tinkerbell had been the previous year. The band appeared in the mainstream press for two incidents, the first was when they were thrown off a train at Swindon as they were travelling to London after arguing with a train guard about punk rock, and the other when they swore at the bouncers in Welsh at the Underworld club in Camden and were banned.[26] A further single, "Bleed" was recorded the following November,[27] and was released in February 1995 on Nursery Records. Geoff Travis, who had released "Whale" for his Rough Trade Records, offered the band £350,000 to sign for Blanco y Negro Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records. They duly signed.[28]
Way Beyond Blue (1996)[edit]
The band began work on a debut album, alongside producer Paul Sampson. Ieuan introduced Sampson to Aled Richards, who later replaced him as Catatonia's drummer when Ieuan left to join the Super Furry Animals.[29] The label wanted to market the band, and so at some expense, had photographer Gered Mankowitz conduct a photoshoot with Matthews. She, the band and their management all hated the photos, but the label wanted to use them in order not to write the cost off as a loss. In order to have some photos, a series of black and white photos of Matthews drinking a bottle of wine while wearing a Pepsi T-shirt were taken by one of the press agency staff. Warner Bros liked the images and authorised their use.[30] The band had a recording session at Sawmills Studios, Cornwall, which saw some disagreements during recording between Matthews and Roberts. Afterwards, Sampson was removed as producer following a row over the arrangement for "Sweet Catatonia".[31]
Music reviewers responded with surprise when the band began to perform live while sober. Meanwhile, the release of "Sweet Catatonia" as a single was pushed back to January 1996 due to the issues with finding a new producer.[32] The first time he met the band was when they arrived to record at the Maison Rouge Studios in London. They found working with him far easier than Sampson, as Matthews later explained that he took their ideas into account. Ieuan left during the recording of the album to join Super Furry Animals, and was subsequently replaced by Aled Richards. They returned to live performances after completing the recording of the album,[33] and decided to actively look for a second guitarist. They ultimately hired Colour 45's Owen Powell, who by this time was working as a music technician for the Super Furry Animals, to this role.[34]
Side projects and collaborations[edit]
While working on International Velvet, Matthews was approached by Tommy Scott of the Liverpool-based band Space to perform on the single duet "The Ballad of Tom Jones". They had met while on tour two years prior and had kept in touch. She joined them on tour for several dates to sing the duet live. Matthews said of the song, "It's great. I feel like Nancy Sinatra because it's a superb ballad."[13] She went on to duet with Tom Jones on a single for his album Reload. It was a cover of the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside", which was released as a Christmas single in 1999.[90] She was credited as "Cerys from Catatonia".[91]
Musical style and influences[edit]
Matthews said that they did not have any particular influences in their music. However, she said that her family had always been singing along to BBC Radio 2. She held the ambition to have the band appear on Radio 2, as due to poor levels of radio reception in Wales they had been unable to listen to other stations. She attributed the style of Welsh music as never attempting to be cool as they would not have been aware of what was in fashion at the time. 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.[3]
All members of the band were involved in the writing of songs, and there may have been more than one person's set of lyrics appearing in a single release. 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 more evenly."[62] 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."[62]
The style of music played by Catatonia changed slightly over time. An article in The People newspaper described International Velvet as the "purest pop".[92] By the time that Paper Scissors Stone was released, the band were using country music influences in some of their songs according to Fiona Shepherd at The Scotsman. She compared the music to that of the Scottish band Mogwai, while elements of "Nightfall" were compared to Arab Strap.[93]