Cerys Matthews | My Camden

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Cerys Matthews

Profession: Musician
Place/Date of Birth: Cardiff, 11 April 2020
Associated with: I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here

Undaunted, the band went away to write songs for their second album. A new single, the boisterous ’I Am The Mob’, was released in October 1997 but disappointingly just crept into the charts at Number 40. Its cause wasn’t helped by radio refusing to play it because of its title.

However, 1998 saw the arrival of Catatonia in a big way. First up was the single ’Mulder And Scully’, with a video featuring look-alikes of the eponymous duo from the TV show ’The X Files’. That crashed into the charts at Number 3. The album, ’International Velvet’, followed in February and showed Catatonia could really write a catchy pop song (or 12). And the title track included the memorable refrain, "Every day when I wake up I thank the Lord I’m Welsh".

Cerys was back in the charts the following month on a duet with Space called ’The Ballad Of Tom Jones’, which reached Number 4. It was success all the way as the single ’Road Rage’ reached the Top 10 while they played sell-out tours of the UK. Two more hits with ’Strange Glue’ and ’Game On’ rounded off a highly-satisfactory year. Crai also got in on the act by compiling their early EPs on the compilation ’Catatonia 1993/94’.

Having been writing on the road, the next album came around rather quickly. Preceded by the slow, almost windswept single, ’Dead From The Waist Down’, ’Equally Cursed And Blessed’ was a much more gritty affair than its predecessor. Having said that, there were still moments of humour like the single ’Karaoke Queen’, which was written after Cerys discovered some Catatonia tracks on a jukebox in Ibiza.

The second single from the album, ’Londinium’, described the pressures of inner-city living, which the band said was the result of being on the road. The pressures were starting to get to the band members as well though. A UK tour at the end of 1999 was cancelled due to overwork, which Cerys admitted later had led her to the verge of a nervous breakdown.

2000 was a quiet year, although the band were stunned by the sudden death of one of their roadies in July. They spent some time on a farm in Wales writing new material and a new album release is projected for May 2001, with a concise working title of ’It’s What’s Not There That Makes What’s There What It Is’. They return to the live stage with a headline appearance at the Unison benefit concert at Manchester Evening News Arena at the end of April.

Courtesy of www.dotmusic.com