Mapping live provisions in Welsh-language rock, 1978–80

Abstract

The article entails an analysis of the Welsh-language live popular music scene in the late 1970s. Composed of amateurs motivated by a desire to promulgate the Welsh language within the linguistic domain of youth popular music culture, Welsh-language popular music of this period was overwhelmingly dominated by rock artists such as Geraint Jarman, Eliffant, and Y Trwynau Coch (The Red Noses), whose pioneering national tours of Wales (1978, 1979, 1980) emulated those of Y Blew (The Hair) ten years earlier, and popularized the notion of touring, as opposed to gigging at weekends, for their contemporaries. Utilizing geospatial analysis techniques, the article examines live opportunities for bands in the period immediately preceding the late 1970s, and advances possible explanations for the observed development of provisions for Welshlanguage youth entertainment.