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On Sunday morning, March 21st, my Dad heard journalist & Chaplain, Debbie Thrower speak on Radio 4 about a Grandmother who'd told her that she has "hungry arms" for her grandchildren, whom she hadn't been able to hug since the first lockdown. This inspired him to write "Within My Hungry Arms". He showed it to me, and we recorded it with my zoom. It was conceived, written and recorded in one morning. He is struggling to play guitar these days due to his neck and back problems, so I played guitar on the song for him. A few days later, my sister, Ciara, filmed us in the garden and edited together this excellent video clip. Love the retro filter! She is really getting good at her new trade. Trade secrets: We used the audio from the original Sunday morning recording. This is because outdoors you hear some car sounds and dogs barking which might have disturbed the recording. But next time, I will probably record the audio outside too, because I like the outdoor quality of the sound (to try and replicate this, I recorded some birdsong on that spot and we added it to the audio mix on the video).
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It was gonna be a big one, it was gonna be the BEST ONE EVER.... but, we had to postpone it because of a certain virus...(see song below) 
There's an old winter tradition in parts of Wales whereby a horses skull on stick is taken door to door and her bearers demand entry through the medium of song. My brother and I wrote a song about that. Wnaethom ni ffilmio a recordio'r gan wreiddiol hon mewn hen stabl yr ardd, adref ym Metws-y-Coed. Gynhyrchwyd y fideo gan ein chwaer bach, Ciara. Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda! This time last year I was busy preparing a New Year's Eve extravaganza for my set at Folk Marathon Ghent, to celebrate the dawn of a new glorious decade in which we move towards a renewable-energy based circular econonmy; a world where the people of all nations, ethnic & economic backgrounds, geneders and sexual orientations are valued and respected equally.  Preparing for the show: this is the tech-spec I made for Muriel and Pieter-Jan, the gorgeous sound engineers. 
Friday the 23rd of October, Ghent: the night curfew was already in full swing and a second lockdown loomed on the horizon. I was due to take my train back to North Wales, and two weeks of self-isolation, in two days time.
But before I left, we transformed the Robinialand living room into a socially-distanced home studio and recorded this song:
The co-writer, Hannelore, was sad that she couldn't be there for the recording session, but she was able to join us virtually, in post-production, through the fibre-optic cables from Estonia (as you can see from the sketch).
The song was written on a Sunday in Brussels. It was the 15th March, 2020 and Belgium had just gone into lockdown. I was due to take a bus back to London that evening, and Hannelore would fly back to Estonia the following morning. But we didn't really want to leave, and we didn't know when we would all see each other again. She especially was making a fuss about this, and I, sat at the piano, started making up a mock-tragic song about it. Judging from the voice notes on my phone, this must have been at about 11.40am. A few hours later, we'd finished the song and filmed a little video. I returned to Belgium in September to perform at BOM festival in Bij De Vieze Gasten, Ghent, where we gave this song its first (and so far, last) Belgian public appearance. I ended up staying in Ghent for a month with my bandmates in their shared house, delaying the inevitable two weeks of mandatory self-isolation which I would undergo on my return to the UK. A friend suggested I record See You After Quarantine which she remembered from our performance at the festival. I'm very glad she made that suggestion! This one goes out to her.
New single, recorded just under 4 weeks ago in Ghent, a few days before I headed home to Wales for my two weeks of self-isolation. The song was written in Brussels back in March, weekend that Belgium entered the first lockdown.
Here's the original live video of the song, featuring co-songwriter Hannelore Karmel.
It's become a tradition to write my hitsongs in Belgium, in March, in collaboration...(see Goldfish)
Be sure to keep your eye on my Instagram for updates! (i.e. the next trailer) I usually post them here first.
I started making this in May during the first lockdown, after I was invited to perform in the Treehouse Festival online edition. I invited last year's spontaneous Treehouse Festival band (a comination of London's Erni & Luke, and Newcastle's A Horse Named Gringo) to make a lockdown video with me.
I didn't manage to finish the video it in time for the gig, but the audio was ready, so I used that.
Welcome to the Worldwide Welshman blog & website. I'm currently re-organising this website. I've decided to replace the static homepage with this blog page, and I will be gradually updating this page with historic content that was previously elsewhere on the website, as well as, more importantly, the latest news. You can also check out the menu on the top left to see links to the bandcamp (online music shop), art portfolio, bio and contact page. Enjoy!
WHERE IS WORLDWIDE WELSHMAN?
I'm currently in Ghent, Belgium. I had a gig here last week, and now I'm staying in the spare room in Robinialand. I've started studying a masters in Green Building at Centre For Technology, by distance learning currently (due to the corona situation). I will be posting updates about that soon! And about the recent summer trour to Slovenia with my German band. In the meantime, here's a clip from last week's lovely concert at Bij' De Vieze Gasten, where we performed to a masked, seated & socially-distanced but extatic audience of BOM Festival-goers. 
UPDATES COMING SOON
Mae gen i duo newydd gyda fy mrawd, Sion. Naethom ni creu y video yma yn ystod y lockdown cyntaf. Ond naethom ni ei gorfen a rhyddau yn mis medi. Can hen yr ysgrifenyd gan Sion a Rob, nol yn ein dyddiau ysgol. It's a song that Sion and Rob (our best friend) wrote back in our school days. He was in Cardiff, I was in Betws-Y-Coed. A few months later I was in Ljubljana with my band "Worldwide Welshman & The Floating Castles". We were staying in Anca's place after performing in Floating Castle festival and Tivoli Park (there were bandmates in every room, and in tents in the garden). I recorded Sami on the pandero. I went back to Tubingen with them (staying in our bubble) and there I recorded Nabil on the bongo. |
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
March 2024
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