Cerys Matthews

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Cerys Matthews

Background information
Born 11 April 1969 (1969-04-11) (age 39)
Origin Cardiff, Wales
Genre(s) Alternative rock
Britpop
Indie rock
Folk rock
Pop rock
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter
Years active 1990s - present
Associated acts Catatonia
Website cerysmatthews.co.uk

Cerys Matthews (pronounced [ˈkɛˌrɪs]) (born 11 April 1969) is a Welsh singer and songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer of the Welsh rock band Catatonia, for her 1999 Christmas duet with Tom Jones and her 2007 appearance on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

Contents

[edit] Biography

The daughter of a surgeon, Matthews was brought up in Swansea and Pembrokeshire and is a fluent Welsh speaker. She has cited her childhood heroes as being Pippi Longstocking and The Wombles due to their love of recycling. She attended St Michael's School in Llanelli, and learned to play the guitar at the age of 9 - teaching herself blues and rude Irish folk songs. After a stint in Spain as a nanny, where she learned to speak Spanish and Catalan, Matthews worked for Pembrokeshire County Council. She later moved back to Cardiff and became involved with the local music scene, meeting boyfriend Mark Roberts. She currently resides in Wales with her 2 children Glenys Pearl, four and Johnny Jones, two.

[edit] Catatonia

The band Catatonia was formed in 1992, reputedly after Roberts heard Matthews busking in a street in Cardiff city centre (this later turned out to be a story fabricated by the band, as Matthews had known Roberts for some time, although they did often go busking). She subsequently sang lead vocals on the band's hits, including "You've Got a Lot to Answer For", "Mulder and Scully", "Dead From the Waist Down", and "Road Rage", and played guitar on the earlier material before second guitarist Owen Powell joined the band. She also performed a single with the band Space named "The Ballad of Tom Jones", which tells the story of two lovers who want to kill each other, but then hear a Tom Jones song that defuses their homicidal feelings. In addition, she collaborated with Tom Jones himself to record a version of Frank Loesser's "Baby, It's Cold Outside" on Jones' album Reload. Matthews was once voted the "Sexiest Female in Rock" by the now defunct magazine, Melody Maker.

[edit] Nashville

Matthews moved to Nashville, United States in early summer 2002. She had already collected seventy-six traditional folk songs with the idea of making an album of folk covers, but meeting Bucky Baxter changed all that. On her arrival in the United States in June, Matthews handpicked Baxter, who had played lap steel guitar for Bob Dylan and Ryan Adams. Her debut album, Cockahoop, was recorded in seven months and appeared on Blanco y Negro in the UK in May 2003. Whilst recording this album she met Seth Riddle and they married in her parents' village in February 2003,[1] and toured the album around Britain but with minimal promotion as she was several months pregnant at the time. Its Stateside release followed in October 2004.

In December 2005, Matthews recorded a new version of Len Barry's 1960s UK top 10 hit "1-2-3" in Nashville, Tennessee. She released it as a download-single with all profits going to a children's charity.[2][3]

In spring 2006, Matthews with a new band introduced material from her upcoming album at SXSW in Austin, Texas, United States. The gig was so well attended that many had to watch from the street outside.

[edit] "Never Said Goodbye"

In July and August 2006 Matthews conducted a short tour of the UK to promote her new second solo album entitled Never Said Goodbye (released in the UK by Rough Trade on 21 August 2006). The new album was preceded by the single "Open Roads" (released 7 August 2006). Band members included K. Teel on guitar, Ben Elkins playing keyboards, Mason Neely on drums, and Jeff Irwin playing bass. She headlined Cardiff's Big Weekend festival on 6 August 2006.

During September and October 2006, Matthews embarked on an extensive UK and Ireland tour, during which she played tracks from her first two solo albums, as well as three Catatonia hits. She also embarked upon a short acoustic Welsh tour in November 2006, before returning to Nashville for Christmas.

Matthews appeared at the live 'Guilty Pleasures' concert at the Hackney Empire, London on the 20 March 2007, performing the Bonnie Tyler hit 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' and the Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers duet 'Islands in the Stream' along with Terry Hall and the BBC concert orchestra.

In an interview on the eve of the launch of her Welsh mini-album Awyren = Aeroplane, Matthews confirmed she had divorced from Riddle and moved back to the family farm in Trefin, Pembrokeshire. [4][5][6]

[edit] I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here (Series 7)

Matthews appeared on the 2007 series of ITV's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, which aired from November 12 to November 30. She was voted off on November 29 one day before the final episode, coming fourth behind Jason "J" Brown, Janice Dickinson and the eventual winner of the series, Christopher Biggins. Cerys also got together with fellow contestant Marc Bannerman after the show, and they appeared together on 'The Al Murray Show' in December 2007.

NME Shockwaves Awards and Big Gig 2008

Matthews joined Welsh band Manic Street Preachers onstage at The O2 on February 28 2008 to sing the female vocals on their 2007 hit Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, (in place of Nina Persson, of the Swedish group The Cardigans, who featured on the studio version), in both the awards ceremony (within indigO2) and the following 'Big Gig' live show (within The O2 arena).

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Compilations

[edit] Singles

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cerys arrives for wedding on tractor BBC Wales - 22 February, 2003
  2. ^ http://www.jmcreative.net/ "1-2-3" download
  3. ^ http://www.jmcreative.tv/result/videoitem/105.jsp?v=7&n=62 "1-2-3 (For a Very Good Reason)" commercial film
  4. ^ Divorced Cerys returns to Wales BBC Wales - 15 October 2007
  5. ^ "Cerys and Marc in Pembrokeshire", BBC, 8 December 2007. 
  6. ^ Morton, Cole. "Cerys Matthews: 'My marriage is over. I'm coming home'", The Independent, 14 October 2007. 
  1. Garvey, Jane (8 October 2007). Woman's Hour (Real Audio). BBC Radio 4.

[edit] External links



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