Cerys Elizabeth Matthews
(; 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
.
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CERYS MATTHEWS TICKETS
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Biography
The
daughter of a
surgeon, Matthews was born in
Cardiff and 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 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
Mark Roberts. She currently resides in
london with her two children Glenys Pearl, and John-Jones.
Catatonia
The band 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 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" in a 1999 readers' poll in the now defunct
magazine,
Melody Maker
.
[1]
Catatonia's split
After Catatonia's rise to fame with their second album
International Velvet
, and subsequent success with third release
Equally Cursed And Blessed
, Catatonia returned in 2001 with their fourth studio album
Paper Scissors Stone
. During promotional appearances for this album it became clear that Cerys was not coping well with the increased pressure, suffering from anxiety and nervous exhaustion which resulted in the cancellation of several tour dates and a deterioration in the relationships between the band members. On September 21, 2001, the band officially split.
[2]
Sali Mali
Cartoon Series
In December 2001, Cerys Matthews returned to the recording studio for the first time since Catatonia split up in September 2001.
She went back to the studio to record a song in English and in Welsh for the pre-school cartoon series
Sali Mali
.
Nashville
Matthews moved to
Nashville, Tennessee 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,
[3] 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.
[4] [5]
In spring 2006, Matthews with a new band introduced material from her upcoming album at
SXSW in
Austin, Texas.
Never Said Goodbye
album
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
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 her farm in Pembrokeshire.
[6] [7] [8]
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 '
Al Murray's Happy Hour' in December 2007.
NME Shockwaves Awards and Big Gig 2008
Matthews joined Welsh band
Manic Street Preachers on-stage at
The O2 on February 28
th 2008 to sing the female vocals of 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 at the following 'Big Gig' live show (within The
O2 arena).
In 2008 Matthews became the Vice-President of the Welsh homelessness charity
Shelter Cymru, telling
Big Issue Cymru
in June that year, "They are one of the main people I work with right now. I just think that a person’s home, to feel safe and secure in their own place, is the most basic need. It’s through bad luck, bad health that people end up in this situation."
She also happily accepted a role of Performing Arts Ambassador for Linden Lodge School, Surrey in the same year.
Her 2007 release
Awyren=Aeroplane
won her the prestigious 'Contemporary Composition' award in the National
Eisteddfod- the award being resurrected and presented for the first time since 1986.
Radio
In April 2009, Matthews presented George Lamb's slot, and in May 2009 she presented the
BBC 6 Music show "A Month of Sundays With... Cerys Matthews". She now presents her own show 'Cerys on 6" weekdays between 1 and 4 p.m on BBC 6 music.
Dont Look Down
Album & Tour
Cerys Matthews will release her first CD in two years on September 28th 2009. The album, entitled
Don't Look Down
will be released in two versions, one in English and the other in Welsh. It was recorded in Providence, Rhode Island, Nashville, Seattle and London and coincides with a two week UK tour in October. Using two of her US musicians, the show will be split into two full performances, the only date with a support act will be at the London's Union Chapel show with Alessi's Ark on 21st October.
After covering Glastonbury for both BBC TV and BBC Radio 6, she has recently started her daily 6 Music show (‘Cerys on 6’) with her eclectic mix of contemporary and roots music. She recently wrote and presented a BBC2 primetime programme on Celtic Poetry and documentaries on the singer
Dorothy Squires and music of the Mississippi river.
Discography
Albums
- Cockahoop
(UK #30, 5 weeks on Chart) (Blanco y Negro - 2003)
- Never Said Goodbye
(Rough Trade - 2006)
- Awyren = Aeroplane
(mini-album) (My Kung Fu 030 - 15 October 2007)
Compilations
- Brand New Boots and Panties
(2001) - contributed "If I Was With a Woman"
- Songs for the Young at Heart
(2007) - contributed "White Horses", the theme song to The White Horses
- Listen to Bob Dylan: A Tribute
- contributed "I Believe in You", a Bob Dylan song from Slow Train Coming
, 1979
- Over the Rainbow
(2007) - contributed "Secret Love"
Singles
- 1998 "The Ballad of Tom Jones" (with Space) UK #4
- 1999 "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (with Tom Jones) UK #17
- 2003 "Caught In The Middle" UK #47
- 2005 "1-2-3"
- 2006 "Open Roads" UK #53 (Released August 7, 2006)
- 2007 "Some Kind of Wonderful" (with Aled Jones) (Universal Records, rel. 10 October)
References
- A star is reborn The independent
- Troubled Catatonia split up BBC News
- Cerys arrives for wedding on tractor BBC Wales - 22 February, 2003
- http://www.jmcreative.net/ "1-2-3" download
- http://www.jmcreative.tv/result/videoitem/105.jsp?v=7&n=62 "1-2-3 (For a Very Good Reason)" commerci
- Divorced Cerys returns to Wales BBC Wales - 15 October 2007
- Cerys and Marc in Pembrokeshire
- Cerys Matthews: 'My marriage is over. I'm coming home'