Mawr y rhai bychain: Dafydd Iwan

I had seen that Dafydd Iwan would play Neuadd Ogwen. Dafydd Iwan! Anyone who wonders who that is, and Googles a few of his songs, might be surprised I give that an exclamation mark. It's not normally my genre! But he is a veritable Welsh hero. He already went to jail for having vandalised English-only road signs in 1970. He has campaigned for housing in Wales, and co-founded the first record company for Welsh language music. He has been the President of the Welsh nationalist party. And I don't think he is anywhere near done campaigning for the Welsh language and for Welsh independence! There recently have been some marches in support for that idea, and at the last one he was there, of course, singing to the crowds.

Arguably the most famous thing he has ever done, though, was writing, performing and publishing the song ‘Yma o Hyd’; it's seen as some sort of alternative national anthem for Wales. It's an inescapable song. Not too long ago, it’s got some extra international recognition when he sang it in the stadium where the Welsh National football team was about to play a World Cup Match. They don't qualify very often! And I'm sure half the stadium belted along. Every Welsh-speaking Welsh person knows this song, and can sing at least the chorus.

The song title means ‘Still Here’. The chorus goes as follows: we are still here, we are still here, in spite of everyone and everything, in spite of everyone and everything, in spite of everyone and everything we are still here.

Around the time of the World Cup match there was attention to this song in the Welsh class. We delved into the rest of this song! And it starts with the Romans leaving Wales. You would think it is a very long song; he then has about 1600 years left to describe. But he takes big steps! In the second verse he just describes that everything is awful. There is no particular time mentioned. And then in the third verse, the Welsh rise up and everything becomes marvellous again! So he is painting with a rather wide brush. But it definitely touches the hearts of quite many Welsh people! You can find a rather evocative version of it here, with nice pictures, in case you wonder. 

This was a rather long introduction to my Saturday  evening. But I knew he was coming to Bethesda. And I sort of figured I should be there. The man is 79; he is not going to keep singing forever! It seems that for the last 20-odd years he has already been ruling out serious touring. And then, on the actual day, I got an email saying they were still tickets. And that was the kick in the bum I needed. I bought one! I'm sure they would have let me in without a ticket but I was showing my support here. 

On the actual evening, I first did some things that needed doing. I didn't expect the support act to start anywhere near the time the doors opened. And when I came in, they had already started. The support act was a band from Brittany: Dièse3 & Youenn Lange. They were quite good!

The support act

When they were done, I popped outside for a bit. Where I bumped into Michael. We had a little chat! He confessed to not knowing the man or much about the song Yma o Hyd, in spite of having lived in Wales for 20-odd years. I suppose it struggles to reach the non-Welsh speaking community. But he thought he knew exactly which song it was. My guess is that he was right!

I walked back in, and lingered a bit on the side, but then decided to take a seat. And I was grabbed by Dani who was there too. That was nice! She and her friends moved one seat up and then I joined them. 

The raconteur in action

I was quite impressed with how he was doing! His voice was holding out in spite of his age. And he didn't act old. He was quite the raconteur! Between the songs, he did a bit of chatting with the audience. He explained  some things about the songs, talked of the demonstration he had attended, and told some  anecdotes. He did mention that once he was in a pub in Cardiff, and that some man came up to him and asked "excuse me, are you That man who sings That song?" He was. And that tells you most of what you need to know about this song.

I liked some of the songs better than others, but everybody know that the sung that would get the best audios a response was, well, That song. And it was! People stood up, waved their hands in the air, belted along. And he even did another song after that. Brave! And then after that, he ended with the actual national anthem. I'm glad I learned that!

Then it was almost 11 and he had to stop. He stayed behind a bit; I saw him happily posing for pictures with local children. I think I wasn't the only one who thought we needed to get our Dafydd Iwan shot while we still could! But I wanted to go to bed. So I left.

I am glad I have seen the legend himself! And I should make sure I memorise the verses a bit more. This won't be the last time I hear this song in public, and it really lends itself to communal singing along!