ILE, tell me about the welsh

most people aren't quite as mean about them as evelyn waugh.

The women are hott

big difference between north and south wales

And West Wales

Alan McGee said he'd rather have his children die in his arms than a Welsh person buy a Creation CD.

What a prick

Scottish cunt

Wow, Alan McGee is a dick.

so, is it comparable to a "redneck" thing here in the states? (ie, Welsh seen as backward, unsophisticated)?

I assume he'd stand by that comment now he can't sell a fucking thing.

I'm awaiting an answer to that with baited breath

The English don't seem to like the Welsh much, but then who do they like? The rest of us are fairly indifferent.

]so, is it comparable to a "redneck" thing here in the states? (ie, Welsh seen as backward, unsophisticated)?

-- swinburningforyou, Thursday, September 13, 2007 2:24 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

not really -- waugh sees them as simple, gentle, slightly devious, rather than coarse.

Essential popular culture for understanding the Welsh:

The Two Ronnies' sketch series "The Worm That Turned"
Dirty Sanchez
The Charlotte Church Show

The welsh (not all, not me), hate the english with a passion

so, is it comparable to a "redneck" thing here in the states? (ie, Welsh seen as backward, unsophisticated)?

No.

Stereotypes = they all sing a lot and work down coal mines. Or else they're lonely hill farmers harbouring unnatural desires for their livestock.

I like the Welsh (I holidayed in Rhyl as a child and base my opinion on this)

I love all Welsh accents and Ivor the Engine.

I like that programme too, whatever it's called.

Pobyl y Cwm?

So, Im watching a clip of the charlotte church show. does it always open with this song?

rule one: dom is bare jokes, bruv

The English don't seem to like the Welsh much

Much more the other way around really. North Wales relies on a lot of income from it's tourists mainly English people, who arrive in their droves during the summer. As an english person myself who visits N.Wales almost regurlarly I have never had any problems from the locals and I likewise don't have any dislike for them.

I did notice this year that their customer focus in resorts has improved vastly, has there been some sort of tourist board crack down ?

I can't say anything about S.Wales having never been there.

Wales is rightly known as "the land of the bards", due to some of the great literature and poetry written there. Here's one of my favourite Dylan Thomas poems:

There's no mistake, I smell that smell
It's that time of year again, I can taste the air
The clocks go back, railway track
Something blocks the line again
And the train runs late for the first time

A pebble beach, we're underneath, a pier that's just been painted red
Where I heard the news for the first time

And all the friends lay down the flowers
Sit on the banks and drink for hours
Talk of the way they saw him last
Local boy in the photograph
Today

He'll always be 23, yet the train runs on and on
Past the place they found his clothing

There's no mistake, I smell that smell
It's that time of year again, I can taste the air
The clocks go back, railway track
Something blocks the line again
And the train runs late for the first time
Today

And all the friends lay down the flowers
Sit on the banks and drink for hours
Talk of the way they saw him last
Local boy in the photograph
Today

He's gone away

I grew up in Worcester so we used to go to S. Wales on holiday sometimes, although I can't remember that much about it apart from that it was better than Weston-Super-Mare (the other place people from Worcester go on holiday to).

And my sister went to uni in Cardiff so I've been there quite a few times and quite like it although it is a bit rough on Fri/Sat night in some parts of the centre.

The only time we encountered any Welsh v English aggro was quite bizarre, we were attempting to buy booze in a 24 hour shop out of hours, and the bloke behind the counter got really irate and started going on about how he was Welsh, for no apparent reason. I think we just said "er, well done, I guess".

cardiff is one of my favourite cities in the world. brains bitter is a quality beer. certain welsh accents (on women) can be alarmingly sexy. i am a huge fan of close-harmony male singing. the word "cwm" is very amusing.

i nearly moved to cardiff back in 1997; i'm glad i chose glasgow, but sometimes i wonder what would have happened.

i'd have had my house burned down by the militant wing of plaid cymru, no doubt.

Cardiff centre has really changed over the last 3 or 4 years, for the better. There's some really good pubs and shop there now, but it cna be rough on weekends. And it's a fucking nightmare getting a taxi after 11pm.

how, exactly, is "cwm" pronounced?

coom

i am a welsh

Actually, no , that's not right. It's more like "come"

and of course closest of all: cum

do many people still speak this language? or is it basically dead?

it's very widely spoken in wales. there is dual signage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_language

And it means Valley. Pobyl y cwm = People Of The Valley

There is great music from Wales also. John Cage is renowned as one of the nation's great musical innovators, a modern-day classical composer who dabbled successfully in rock as a member of the Velvet Underground.

Here is his best song:

He's got a brand new car
Looks like a jaguar
It's got leather seats
It's got a cd player (player player player...)

But I don't wanna talk about it anymore

I think we're gonna make it
I think we're gonna save it yet
So don't you try and fake it
anymore, anymore
Buck Rogers - Buck Rogers

We'll start over again
Grow ourselves new skin
Get a house in Devon
Drink cider from a lemon (lemon lemon lemon...)

But I don't wanna talk about it anymore

I think we're gonna make it
I think we're gonna save it yet
So don't you try and fake it
anymore, anymore

I think we're gonna make it
I think we're gonna save it yet
So don't you try and fake it
anymore, anymore

He's got a brand new car
He's got a brand new car
A brand new car
A brand new car
A brand new car
Buck Rogers

I think we're gonna make it
I think we're gonna save it yet
So don't you try and fake it
anymore, anymore

I think we're gonna make it
I think we're gonna save it yet
so dont you try and fake it
anymore, anymore

Is this you trying to be funny Louis? Please don't.

(dom started it)

Yes but he can can get away with it, that's his style

There's some pics of Cardiff on this thread:

A Day In The Life of ILX

It looks better when its not raining

Goodness - I was in Cardiff the exact day those photos were taken. It pissed down so much that I had to hide in a couple of guitar shops for most of the day. And the market, of course.

Actually it pissed down all week.

Ha, I actually walked past Cranes guitar shop and took a photo of that, but it didn't come out very good. It would be funny if you were inside when I took it!

I was in Gamlins longer - some lovely vintage stuff in there.

everyone can say llanfairpwllgwingyllgogerychwyndrobwchllantisiliogogogoch, they learn when they are childers

but i don't think i spelled it right...

fucking hard to google for

llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

damn i was so close!

It seems unlikely beyond measure that there's another Swinburn on this board that I'm not related to.

What's going on here?

The series of Delius recordings with Charles Mackerras conducting the Welsh National Opera Orchestra are fucking excellent.

Rugby/Fireman Sam/Under Milk Wood/choirs/English people's holidays

Welsh people are stereotypically short, stout, dark haired and perhaps slightly darker skinned than the English; there's a theory that there might be some Moorish blood in Welsh veins as a result of all the Atlantic trading that went on round Western Europe (see also the Kerry Slug found in Ireland, Portugal and Spain).

Hen Fap is welsh for Old Map

Catherine Zeta-Jones is welsh IIRC

Indeed! Jones is a Welsh name, as is Davis/Davies.

Plus the names that come from the tradition of using your dad's first name as your surname: Williams, Evans, Richards, Thomas, Roberts etc.

Oh that's good -- I should have twigged about Evans and Williams.

there's a good line in the blurb on the back of one of the malcolm pryce aberystwyth books about him lampooning "the malevolent kitsch that passes for welsh culture" which is pretty spot on...

'grits' by niall griffiths is a fantastic, bleakly funny book set in aberystwyth

http://www.cwmbran.info/welsh-folk.jpg

well, somebody had to.

john cage isn't really welsh

What about Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat?

Isn't Kevin Ayers Welsh?

Or am i getting confused because the Gorky's people are into him?

shirley bassey Y
tom jones N
sfa Y
stereophonics N
anthony hopkins Y
catherine zeta-jones N
nye bevan Y
neil kinnock N (unfortunately)

etc etc

Did I miss something? What do the Y and N mean in this? ^

"Who would you do?"

probably whether they speak the mother tongue

haha!
yes i like them
no i do not

Icons of Filth Y
The Oppressed Y
The Partisans Y
McLusky Y
Catatonia N
The Automatic N

I'm Welsh and live in Cardiff. I think Ogmore is right when they say:
"Welsh people are stereotypically short, stout, dark haired and perhaps slightly darker skinned than the English"

Because I've lived here so long I can see that some aspects of the stereotypes are right, but really a better way to look at it would be to say there are several very different groups of people, each group its own mini-stereotype.

Starting with Cardiff, there are the people who live there who are a very mixed bag. It is (or was) an important seaport and there are several large universitites or other higher education institutions here so there are a lot of people originally from different places that I don't think really average out to a sterotype, but are probably more cosmopolitan that the rest of Wales.

It's "rough on the weekends" I think mostly because of the people who travel into the capital for a night on the piss, a fight and a kebab. St Marys Street, the main street through town, is pedestrianised for that night and looks like a warzone with police on horseback, rubbish and vomit and people lying in gutters and huge queues to get into the trendy nightclubs. Many of these people come down from the valleys.

These South Wales valleys people when they're back home are nice enough. They tend to be a bit less well-travelled than the average and oddly content with their lot. A generation or two ago most of them would have been miners, but now there's nothing to do there except work in a factory breed or leave.

Another major group stereotype would be Welsh Language speakers, who live mostly in the West, mid wales and parts of the North.
They're more soft spoken and their fashion and music seems a few decades out of date in a comfortable way. Think Super Furry Animals.
Through legislation they probably get more than their fair share of power and that explains a lot of the bilingual signs and the extreme nepotism and pointlessness of Welsh politics - even by political standards.

There seems to be a big resurgence in welsh speaking in Cardiff over the last few years, you can nearly always hear people speaking welsh in bars, cafes, whatever. And they always do it REALLY LOUD, just so you realise that they're proper Welsh, unlike me who can't speak more than a few words and doesn't want to learn.

http://www.surgeradio.co.uk/media/artist-170/4015f3f8-2711-41de-b80b-4fee07373b12.jpg

(I like Wales)

These South Wales valleys people when they're back home are nice enough. They tend to be a bit less well-travelled than the average and oddly content with their lot. A generation or two ago most of them would have been miners, but now there's nothing to do there except work in a factory breed or leave.

otm otm otm!

(this is where i grew up. i chose the "leave" option, just after i turned 16.)

I've been down a mine near Cwmbran (school outing). That is my sole experience of Wales.

http://www.walesdirectory.co.uk/tourist-attractions/images-attractions/Portmeirion.jpg

the best value for money i ever got for food at Glastonbury was a Giant Welsh Oggie, £3 but MASSEV

I've been down a mine near Cwmbran (school outing). That is my sole experience of Wales.

was it called Big Pit?

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/bigpit/

probably

My cousin's husband works in Big Pit, I've been there too.

I'm Welsh but don't speak that language. It's growing but it's still a minority that speak it. That minority is powerful though, and if I did speak it fluently I'm sure I could easily add 25%-50% to my wage. Which is ridiculous. They might as well give you mopre money for being good at tap dancing.

I don't want to learn and I'm actually glad I didn't as a kid cos it seems to lead to a certain mindset or demeanour.

I wish I'd learned Japanese or German, both of which I could get more good use out of!

Welsh people are lovely.

I just wish they'd occasionally turn off the perma-rain.

any country that earns the affection of Kingsley Amis AND B S Johnson must be ok

Yes, I was going to mention Johnson's love for Wales, but then thought nobody would know who he was, so shut up about it. He did seem to slightly over-romanticise the country, mind (his odd mystic side coming up, where I prefer his overly cynical side).

ward, i didn't know you were a fellow BSJ lover. you read the jonathan coe biography, "like a fiery elephant"? if i ever get it back from the friend i lent it to (that being the friend who, er, bought it for my birthday in the first place) i'll give you a lend.

(emil.y: you can borrow it too, but you'll have to come to glasgow to get it.)

I have it - I'm doing my dissertation on him next year as I absolutely adore the man. I have all the novels, I think, including a first edition of Travelling People, woo! Still haven't got around to his poetry, but I tend to prefer prose...

thanks grimly, i own a copy already and enjoyed it v. much - one of my biggest regrets (well, biggish) is passing up on an original copy of The Unfortunates when I had the chance to buy one relatively cheaply (I think I was broke at the time ah well) - but it wld be gd to go for a Glasgow drink sometime soon

yes: i'm not actually in glasgow at the moment, right enough, but once i am and things are a bit more back to normal (hopefully next week) we should be doing exactly that. it's been far too long.

and emil.y: i would very much like to read yr dissertation when it's written!

i'm helping care for my ageing father-in-law at the moment and have been thinking a lot about "house mother normal". good thing the dog died earlier this year ;)

right: thread de-rail over. back to wales.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7484160.stm

A lil' rapey

Thought this was gonna be about

http://M.assetbar.com/uuaft6Lvm.gif

re. thread title: better get the "all downhill after Trainspotting" meme out of the way. There. Done.

When you're surrounded by Welsh people speaking Welsh (as I currently am) you feel as if you should be able to understand them because you're used to hearing that accent speak English.

iechyd da!