Ym mis Ebrill, mi nes i rhyddhau albym newydd, sef Stuck in Belgium // In April, I released a new album, Stuck in Belgium.
Dyma hi / here it is!
I will share some behind the scenes photos and write a bit about it... in the meantime, here's the press release I wrote:
Worldwide Welshman – Stuck in Belgium – Press Release - May 2025
Worldwide Welshman is the alias of Liam Rickard, Machynlleth-based singer-songwriter and artist, originally from North Wales. Over the past ten years, Worldwide Welshman and his ever-evolving band have been entertaining audiences in cafés, clubs, pubs, festivals, community gardens, canal boats, pirate ships, squats, living rooms and pavements across the UK, Europe and beyond with their multi-lingual mix of tragi-comic folk pop ballads, party bangers, improvisations, Welsh & international folk, and dark comedy. Worldwide Welshman’s performances touch upon a wide diversity of themes from face-cream to climate change to space tourism, and his music has been featured on Fresh on the Net, and played on Radio Dyfi, Resonance FM, Radio Cymru, and maybe even on 6 Music (at least once??). “Stuck in Belgium” is Worldwide Welshman’s first full length studio album. Most of the songs in this collection were written between 2018 and 2023 in London, Ghent, Brussels, Edinburgh and Machynlleth, except for "Waltz with me Darling" (2014, Betws-y-coed) and "Streaker" (2007, Betws-y-coed). In 2015, Rickard moved to London and lived there for 4 and half years. Rickard formed the band Worldwide Welshman & Beyond out of the jamming scene of East London. “Special cream” is one of the songs from this period, made-up in a garden at a house party in North-East London. Another song from this period is “Ble Mae Fy Nghalon i?” which was written with fellow Welsh person in London, Ffion Aynsley. Worldwide Welshman has collaborated with musicians from all over the world and has participated in many international folk music camps. The first such camp he attended was the 2016 edition of Ethno England which happened in Oxford. Here, he made friends with Jonas Malfliet, an accordion player and jazz pianist from Ghent, Belgium (Jonas is playing piano on track 2). Through this connection, he visited Ghent and met Jonas’s crew of lovely and talented musicians. They went on to play many gigs together. Rickard composed a number of songs in Belgium, many of which feature on this album. The title of the album comes from the song "See You After Quarantine" (track 2) which was composed in Brussels with Estonian singer Hannelore Karmel, the day after Belgium went into lockdown. “Stuck in Belgium” was recorded in Our Lady Studio, Borth, except "See You After Quarantine" which was recorded in Ghent, and "Goldfish", recorded in Cardiff and Ghent. After a gap of a few years, Siôn and I will be heading back to the Folk Marathon! this time, it's in Vienna. We can't wait. Here's a clip from our set at the last folk marathon we went to, in Ghent (2019/2020): Ar y 6ed o mis Rhagfyr, daeth y gymuned at ein gilydd yn y Tabernacl i codi arian tuag at y pobl yn Gaza, trwy'r elusen One Nation UK. On the 6th of December, the community came together to raise money to pay for humanitarian aid for the people in Gaza, via the charity One Nation UK. What a vibe there was in the room!! Wnaethom codi dros £2300 o bynnau. we raised over £2300. Diolch yn fawr pawb! ![]() Dyma fideo bach o'r berfformiad. Here's a little video of our performance. Y canneuon / the songs: Community Garden, Waltz With Me Darling, Christmas in Yiwu, Beard and a Poncho.
The song got 284 streams already since I uploaded it a month ago, with a private link! Thanks so much, everyone! Please keep sharing the song. Lets get the message out there!
My new single "Retrofit" is out today on all streaming platforms! It was written after a conversation I had in the pub with a coursemate about the seemingly never-ending eco-renovation project that she and her husband were undertaking to improve the energy efficiency of their flat.
As you must have noticed if you live in the UK, our housing stock is generally pretty shoddy and inefficient. As well as being wasteful, cold and damp houses seriously effect people's health and quality of life. Also, existing buildings are responsible for about 27% of annual global CO2 emissions (and rising), according to the International Energy Agency (2022). That's due to heating, cooling, lighting, appliances, etc. That percentage goes up to around 37% if you include the emissions due to construction (cement, steel, glass, PIR, transportation, heavy machinery, etc) (UNEP, 2022) (or 42% for the built environment as a whole, according to Architecture2023, 2023). The UK government would save a lot of money elsewhere (most obviously in the NHS) if they would take this problem seriously and invest in the training and resources required to retrofit the UK housing stock (UPDATE: check out the Welsh government's optimised retrofit programme). This seems like a fairly no-brainer way to reduce our CO2 emissions. It’s not simple; it requires time, investment, people, training schemes, sustainably sourced materials and supply chains. There isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ solution, because there are many different housing typologies, so different strategies are appropriate for different building types, and this varies from place to place. But it’s very much achievable, and there’s loads of research showing us how to do it, using environmentally benign materials. We just need investment and regulations to make this happen (that's easy to say in a sweeping statement, but challenging to implement in real life). The track was recorded by Mike West in Our Lady Studio, Borth. and features excellent musicians from Wales, England, Brittany, Nigeria and Nicaragua. Go to your preferred streaming service now to listen to the whole song! This song is the first single from a batch of songs I recorded in Mike West's studio last August with Ffion River Wild, Michael Ekeghasi, Archibald Schwartz Marmaduke, Rolando Bertrand Ruiz, Ben MacCoed and David Spivack. Between us, we speak 8 languages, and we come from 5 countries, and 3 continents. I've got a few more to record after my dissertation. I hope to share the album with you in October! In other news, next week I'm going to the Pan Celtic Festival with my other band, Lo-fi Jones! Our latest single "Ffwl" will be out on April the 1st, with "Llethrau" to follow, and at EP coming in July.
The video isn't quite ready. As with a retrofit project, its taking longer than I expected.
In the meantime, here's a little "teaser trailer": [English below]
Haf diwethaf, es i ar y rhaglen cerdded boblogaidd, Am Dro! Cafodd y rhaglen ei ddarlledu wythnos ynôl ar S4C. Roedd o'n bleser i gyfarfod pawb ac i gymryd rhan yn y rhaglen. Cawsom ni teithiau braf a diddorol yn Llangollen, Llyn Ogwen, Machynlleth a Sir Benfro, gyda hanes, natur, cerddoriaeth a chwmni da. Fedrwch chi wylio'r rhaglen ar clic neu iPlayer. Dwi'n meddwl ma' rhaid i chi fod yn y Deyrnas Unedig i'w wylio. *** Last summer, I took part in popular Welsh walking show, Am Dro ("for a walk"). It was broadcast last week on S4C. It was a great pleasure to take part and to meetmy fellow contestants and the TV crew. We had a facinating history-filled and sunny walk in Llangollen, a dramatic and atmospheric stroll around Llyn Ogwen near where I grew up, a drizzly musical amble along the Glyndwr Way above Machynlleth, and an amazing coastal nature walk near St Davids. You can watch it on clic or BBC iPlayer. I think you have to be in the UK to watch it. This song will be released on 29/03/24! |
Croeso i'r blog a wefan Worldwide Welshman! Diolch am ymweld a ni.
Scroll down the blog for musical adventures! You can also check out the menu on the top right to see links to my bandcamp, selected videos & music, art portfolio, bio and contact page. Its a bit chaotic, but its a work in progress. Enjoy! AuthorLiam Rickard is a musician & illustrator from North Wales performing multilingual, global-alt-pop, party music and comedy under the name Worldwide Welshman, and as one half of the Welsh folk-rock duo, Lo-Fi Jones. Archives
June 2025
Categories |