Biography Wikipedia
Wikipedia:
Cerys Elizabeth Matthews ( /ˈɛrɪ/; born 11 April 1969) is a Welsh singer songwriter,broadcaster and author. She is known as the lead singer of the Welsh rock band Catatonia, her more recent bilingual solo career, for a 1998 Christmas duet with Tom Jones and as BBC 6 music DJ .
Biography
Matthews was born in Cardiff and brought up in Swansea and Pembrokeshire, and is a fluent Welsh speaker and multi-instrumentalist. She has cited her childhood heroes as being Pippi Longstocking and writers WB Yeats and Dylan Thomas. She learned to play the guitar at the age of nine, teaching herself blues and Irish folk songs. After a stint in Spain as a nanny, where she learned to speak Spanish and Catalan, Matthews worked for the 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 children Glenys Pearl y Felin (born 10 August 2003), Johnny Tupelo Jones (born August 2005), and Red (born 23 November 2009). Her son Red was born eight weeks premature.
Catatonia
Catatonia was formed in 1992, reputedly after Roberts heard Cerys 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, and co-wrote the music and lyrics for, the band's hits. Songs she co-wrote included "You've Got a Lot to Answer For", "Mulder and Scully", "Dead From the Waist Down", and "Road Rage". Matthews also 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. Matthews later collaborated with Jones to record a version of Frank Loesser's "Baby, It's Cold Outside" on Jones' album Reload. Matthews was voted the "Sexiest Female in Rock" in a 1999 readers' poll in the now defunct magazine Melody Maker.
Catatonia's split
After Catatonia's rise to fame with their second album International Velvet, and subsequent success with Equally Cursed And Blessed, the band returned in 2001 with their fourth studio album Paper Scissors Stone. During promotional appearances for this album it became clear that Matthews was not happy. On 21 September 2001, the band officially split.
Sali Mali cartoon series
In December 2001, Matthews returned to the recording studio for the first time since Catatonia split up. She recorded a song in both English and Welsh for the pre-school cartoon series Sali Mali.
Mink Car
Matthews provided guest vocals on the track "Cyclops Rock", from US alternative rock band They Might Be Giants 2001 album Mink Car. Her line was originally supposed to be provided by Joe Strummer of The Clash.
Nashville
Matthews moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2002. On her arrival she began playing with Bucky Baxter, who had played lap steel guitar for Bob Dylan and Ryan Adams. She had already collected seventy-six traditional folk songs with the idea of making an album of folk covers. Her debut album, Cockahoop, ended up consisting mainly of her own songs. It was recorded in seven months and appeared on Blanco y Negro Records in the UK in May 2003. Whilst recording this album she met Seth Riddle, whom she married in Pembrokeshire in February 2003. She toured the album around Britain with minimal promotion as she was several months pregnant at the time. The album's Stateside Records 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. She released it as a download-single with all profits going to a children's charity.
In spring 2006, Matthews introduced material from her upcoming album at SXSW in Austin, Texas.
Never Said Goodbye
In July and August 2006 Matthews conducted a short tour of the UK to promote her new second solo album, Never Said Goodbye. The new album was preceded by the single "Open Roads" (released 7 August 2006). Band members included Kevin 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 a 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. She performed 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 temporarily moved back to her farm in Pembrokeshire. Awyren = Aeroplane won her the 'Contemporary Composition' award in the National Eisteddfod. The award had been resurrected and presented for the first time since 1936.
In 2007 Matthews became Vice-President of the Welsh homelessness charity Shelter Cymru. She also accepted a role of Performing Arts Ambassador for Linden Lodge School, Surrey in the same year.
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 12 to 30 November. She was voted off on 29 November, one day before the final episode, coming fourth behind Jason 'J' Brown, Janice Dickinson and the eventual winner of the series, Christopher Biggins. Matthews became involved with fellow contestant Marc Bannerman after the show, but they split four months later.
NME Shockwaves Awards and Big Gig 2008
Matthews joined the Welsh band Manic Street Preachers onstage at The O2 on 28 February 2008 to sing the female vocals of their 2007 hit "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough". She replaced Nina Persson in both the awards ceremony (within indigO2) and at the following 'Big Gig' live show (within The O2 arena).
Radio
From November 2008, Matthews sat in for Stephen Merchant and Marc Riley on BBC 6 Music and went on to present George Lamb's slot in April 2009. In May 2009 she presented show A Month of Sundays With... Cerys Matthews. She then covered for Nemone on 6 Music from July 2009 while Nemone was on maternity leave. Her show Cerys on 6 included virtual radio roadtrips, musical challenges and back-to-school features on subjects including the boll weevil, the Vietnam War, the Bo Diddley beat and Hildegard von Bingen. Matthews began maternity leave from November 2009 and had to finish presenting the show a month early. On 4 April 2010, Matthews returned to 6 Music to present a weekend show on Sunday mornings. She spoke out in 2010 after the (now-abandoned) proposed closure of BBC 6 Music, calling for the decision to be reversed. She produces and presents radio documentaries and shows, her most recent being 'Hook,line and singer', where she shared her love of fishing on Radio 4.
Don't Look Down: Paid Edrych i Lawr
Matthews released her first CD in two years on 5 October 2009. The album, entitled Don't Look Down, was released in two versions, one in English and the other in Welsh (the title of the Welsh edition was Paid Edrych i Lawr). It was recorded in Providence, Rhode Island, Nashville, Seattle and London, and coincided with a two week UK tour in October.
Other
After covering the Glastonbury Festival for both BBC Television and BBC 6 Music, she wrote and presented a BBC Two programme on Celtic poetry, a documentary on singer Dorothy Squires, and music of the Mississippi River. She also wrote and presented a documentary on early blues players such as Memphis Minnie, also a documentary on Pippi Longstocking both for BBC Radio 4. Matthews appeared as a celebrity guest mentor on the first series of the UK version of The Voice for Tom Jones's Team broadcast on the 21st and 22nd of April 2012.
Tir
On 21 June 2010, Matthews released Tir (Welsh: 'territory, land'), a collection of traditional Welsh songs, and of photographs from her family archive from the 1880s to 1940s of people at work and play. They included "Calon Lân", Cwm Rhondda, Migldi-Magldi (sung as a duet with Bryn Terfel), Myfanwy and Sospan Fach. This is the third release on her own label, Rainbow City.
Explorer
Explorer was the title of Matthews' fourth solo album, released on 2 May 2011, through the online store Earthquake. In both selecting and writing the songs she delved into the influence of both the music she has heard round the globe, and the places she had visited. Recorded over seven days, the album from the outset had no pre-determined sound or calculated format. On the album she incorporates a little Spanish, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and American sensibilities, styles, and genres.
On 28 April 2011, a video was released through Matthews' official YouTube Page of the Lead single from Explorer, Sweet Magnolia.
