Liam on tour in Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg. Photo by Sofia Melia, 2018
The Rickard brothers at Ethno Catalonia, 2018
Ethno Flanders, 2017
Ethno Germany, 2019
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Who is Worldwide Welshman?
Worldwide Welshman is Liam Rickard, a Welsh singer-songwriter & illustrator on a mission to save the world. This has proven rather difficult, so in the meantime he's been collaborating with a host of international musicians to entertain audiences around the world with his multilingual musings on modern life.
"Humour is an integral part of my artistic output, as is celebrating diversity of language & culture, and trying to do something different that challenges the mainstream but also appeals to a wide range of people." Liam comes from a rich musical heritage on both sides of the family – his father is a singer-songwriter from Lancashire and his maternal grandmother was a Russian-Jewish folk singer, herself the granddaughter of the famous cantor, Yankel Der Heizeriker Gottlieb. Liam & his brother, Siôn, got into alternative pop & rock music in their teenage years, forming the folk-rock band Naughty Magic Simon with their best friend, Rob. They were soon joined by guitar whizz, Rico, and later by Gareth, Tom and Dafydd. In 2010, Liam went to university to study architecture, and formed his second band, Timestealers, with uni friends Nick, Adam, Jess & Paul (check out Paul's solo project here). In 2015 Liam moved to London, and Worldwide Welshman & Beyond were formed out of the jamming scene of East-London. During this period, he discovered "Ethno" - a global music network - and became a regular participant of international folk music exchange camps*, performing in festivals throughout Europe and beyond (traveling by land as much as possible). Through this network he joined London's Flotsam Orchestra, and Eamon Coughlan's international party band, IPA Collective. In 2018, Worldwide Welshman released a demo album, a mixture of live tracks and studio tracks recorded in London, Wales, Oxford, Italy and Algeria. In 2020 he released a live album recorded on New Year's Eve in De Centrale, Ghent, with a 20 piece jam band. Also in 2020, Worldwide Welshman released four singles - Goldfish, See You After Quarantine, Easy to be Happy (lockdwon version) and Community Garden (lockdown version). In 2022 he released a collaborative single, Tori Jaaun re Jaaun re, with Indian classical singer Aakriti Bhatt and tabla player Maneesh Rawat. Goldfish and Tori Jaaun re were featured in Fresh on the Net's "Fresh Favs". The Rickard brothers' most recent project is the Welsh alt-folk duo Lo-Fi Jones, formed in Cardiff towards the end of 2019, and debuted at Folk Marathon Gent in Belgium and St Canna's Ale House in Cardiff. In 2021, Lo-fi Jones made their TV debut on S4C's Noson Lawen. Worldwide Welshman's festival appearances include Floating Castle (Slovenia), Tandem Festival (Oxfordshire), Treehouse Festival (Oxfordshire), Festival of Jim (Lewes), Lambeth Country Show (London), the Edinburgh Fringe, Karnival Der Kulturen (Berlin), Klangfolk (Tübingen), Folk Marathon (Ghent, Porto & Brno), and Smallworld Festival (Kent). With other projects, Liam has performed at Dranouter (Belgium), Festival Piranea Sur (Spain), Andanças (Portugal), Botanical Beats (Bangor), Oxjam (Nottingham, London) and more. In addition to his artistic exploits, Liam has worked as an Architect Intern at SHiFt in New Delhi, volunteered with Servicio Internacional Britiancio in La Paz, and worked as a teaching assistant and special needs music teacher in London. Prior to the great lockdown of 2020, Liam was working as an IT hardware support assistant at UCL. In 2020 Liam moved back to Wales and began studying a masters in Green Building at the Centre For Alternative Technology. In 2021 he moved to Machynlleth where he is now based. He is active in the local folk scene, and performs with various musical outfits. *International folk ensembles Ethno Family (Pazin), 2022 (as artistic mentor) Ethnofonik, 2021 (Paris) Etno Histeria World-Orchestra, 2020 (summer, during the easing) Talve Eesti Etno, 2020 (Feb, just before the pandemic hit Europe) Ethno Germany, 2019 Folktrepo (Italy) 2018 & 2019 Ethno England 2016-2019 Ethno Algeria, 2018 Ethno Portugal, 2018 Ethno Catalonia, 2018 Mini-folk marathon Pazin (Croatia), 2018 Rila Music Exchange (Bulgaria), 2017 Ethno Flanders, 2017 |
Ethno Portugal, 2018
