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.

After our little Slovenian tour as "Worldwide Welshman & The Floating Castles" (a tour which was much reduced due to the pandemic, but still a lot of fun), I came back in the car with my German-based bandmates to Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg. As you're probably aware, I love it here! Cedric was applying to live in Lichti, so I applied too. There were a lot of people wanting a room, so I hinted that they shouldn't take me, seeing as my studies will be in Wales. So he got the room, and I became a "friend of the house."

Here's a little clip from our rehearsal in the garden of Lichti, playing a Bulgarian folk song called "Майка Калина Думаше" which I learnd from Vladamir Vladimirov in 2017.
Cristóbal, Cedric and I were joined by Cedric's new housemate, Ivo, on tapan.

One day out busking in the old town, I bumped into Bayram Agushev and his band, and we jammed together. Bayram invited me to join them for a concert in a Stuttgart beer garden the following day.
So I joined Bayram's Balkan/Macedonian/Roma band!!! That was fun (photos to follow)

I've got this very special cream... it comes from a river near Truške.
Here's a clip from our concert in that aforementioned village

This summer, just after the lockdown eased and the borders opened, I snuck off to Slovenia for a secret summer mini-tour, where I joined the Etno Histeria World Orchestra, along with my specially created summer tour band - "Worldwide Welshman & The Floating Castles":- Jonas, Lotte, Cedric, Angelika, Gaja, Vilma & Sami. We got on Slovenian National TV!

The next morning, we gave "Goldfish" is first radio airing, performing it live on Slovenian National Radio!! The WWW tour band were joined by Toby, Matija, and Ajda, the Etno Histeria Orchestra leaders (no clip of this, sorry).

A few days later, the Histeria team organised a variety-show style concert for us in the local village. I was honoured to accompany my dear friends Vilma & Sami AND the phenomenal musical sensation that is CLAUDIA SCHWAB as a guest guitarist in their sets. All in a days work for Worldwide Welshman! (I felt like I was going up in the world :D)
Video by Ajda Zupan:

I was invited to perform in the Treehouse Festival online edition. So I decided to make it extra special by reuniting the Treehouse Band for a few lockdown videos.

The Treehouse band came together in an epic fashion for one night only in the Treehouse Festival of summer 2019. I arrived in the festival alone, somewhere in the countryside between Oxford and Bristol, with no bandmates. So I was very happy when my friends Ernie and Luke showed up! I know these two from gigging at Biddle Bros in London. I asked if they'd like to accompany me for my set, and they agreed. I said, "we still need to find a drummer". The band on before us where a jazz-rock trio fro Newcastle called A Horse Named Gring0. I asked them if they'd like to stay on for one more set, and so the Worldwide Welshman Treehouse Band was born! (or we could be called Worldwide Welshman & The Limited-Edition Treehouse??)

The first lockdown single features the additional voices of Hannah Boer (from the Red Transit Van) in Amsterdam, Alice Morita & Sam Pascall in London, and my sister, Ciara, who's locked down with her boyfriend at the other side of our village. It's a crowd favourite, and I changed the words a bit to fit the situation ;)

Here's a song I've been working on... I think it's perfect for lockdown!

It's based on an idea that came about over a year ago on the Red Transit Van trip to Porto. Jonas Malfliet added a cool riff on the piano, and my brother, Sion, and I co-wrote the lyrics.

Remember when we used to go on roadtrips, and have dance festivals?
Red Transit Van, where are you now?