User:Brwynog/sandbox

Keltia Rok is a compilation LP, released on the Welsh Recordiau Sain label. It is notable for being the first (and up to 2020) the only LP to include contemporary rock and pop songs in all six Celtic languages. It includes the first ever rock songs released in the Cornish and Manx languages. The album was released to coincide with the National Eisteddfod in Porthmadog in August 1987. It was distributed as a vinyl LP (Sain 1412M) and as a cassette (Sain C612N) and was distributed by Revolver / The Cartel of Bristol.

Background and recording
The record was organised by Davyth Fear, who at that time was General Secretary of the Celtic League. The reverse of the LP cover contained a number of advertisments for Celtic language organisations, which helped pay for the pressing. The front cover contains an image of the Welsh rap group Llwybr Llaethog, who also recorded for Recordiau Sain.

Reviews
The album was reviewed by a number of music magazines and journals. Dulais Rhys in the Welsh weekly newspaper ‘Y Faner’ thought it an interesting selection with an excellent cover. Adrian Tierney-Jones in the NME highlighted it as a contemporary record, with some songs ‘warming the cockles of the Celtic heart’. ‘Ultimately’, he said, ‘the record’s real significance is that these languages are alive and not dead museum fodder’. According to ‘Keltoi – a Pan-Celtic Review’, the release of the record helped to connect the rock movements in the Celtic languages. According to the journal ‘Welsh Music History’, it was a great step forward for comtemporary culture in the Celtic nations.

Links with other bands / notes

 * 1)  Glawogydd was produced by Gorwel Owen, the husband of Fiona Owen, the lead singer. He has produced LPs for the Super Furry Animals and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci.
 * 2)  Brian Webb was a leading figure in the Cornish language movement who unfortunately died in December 1986
 * 3)  This song was written by Colin Muinzer and James Clenaghan, previously members of the Irish rock group, Cruella de Ville.
 * 4)  Mona Jaouen was a founder member of the seminal Breton group Storlok.
 * 5)  Na Fíréin’s most famous song is an Irish version of the Welsh language title song from the rock opera ‘Nia Ben Aur’.
 * 6)  Ragamuffin won the Pan Celtic Song Contest with their song ‘An Wrannen’ (The wren) in 1984.
 * 7)  Dazont were formed by members of the Breton diaspora in Paris.
 * 8)  Ny Slommaghyn were the first rock group to sing in Manx. The lead singer, Greg Joughin, later went on to form a folk band, the Mollag Band.
 * 9)  Two members of E.V.. the brothers Jari and Harri Perche, were from Finland, and the group sang in Breton, French and Finnish.
 * 10)  Davyth Hicks was a member of Lavolta Latoka, a British post-punk band, and later of Revenge with New Order bassist, Peter Hook.
 * 11)  Bernez Tangi, the lead singer, was also a founder member of Storlok.
 * 12)  Blasket Sound’s fiddle player, Maire Breatnachh, would later arrange and perform a Celtic version of the music to Final Fantasy IV.
 * 13)  Noel Eadie, the bassist, was a member of the first ever Scottish Gaelic pop group, Na h-Oganaich, who won the Pan Celtic Song Contest in 1972.
 * 14)  Yr Anhrefn’s lead singer, Rhys Mwyn, was the manager of Catatonia during the 1990s. Yr Anhrefn were championed by John Peel, and recorded three sessions for his programme.