Daf and Gruff continue reminiscing.
Last updated: 21 November 2008
Were you going under the Ffa Coffi name at this point?
Gruff: Yeah, we were playing gigs all the time. It was a very fluid line-up. We didn't really have any instruments. We'd use drills onstage, it was more industrial. We didn't really have songs as such.
We settled on a line-up after a year or two. The four of us became really good friends and started hanging around. Drug buddies, or whatever. And we started writing songs about '87.
Dafydd Ieuan: We were awful live because we didn't ever rehearse. And we were always drunk. Phenomenally drunk.
Would the audience agree?
Daf: Definitely. Well, there were some good gigs...
Gruff: We didn't have any equipment for the first four years. We'd borrow the equipment off the main band. It got to the point where we started to headline, and we were borrowing the support band's gear. I think it was well after royalties started coming through before we bought anything.
We started doing a lot of TV - we were banned, originally, but then a program called Fideo 9 started on S4C. It was a bit more leftfield than most stuff, and they started giving us loads of telly gigs.
Daf: It was a great way of making money because it meant you didn't have to have summer jobs. Do a couple of TV gigs and you get a cheque for £800. I thought, I'm not going to start working for £2 an hour if I can keep doing this.
Why did Ffa Coffi split?
Gruff: When we started out, there was a really healthy experimental music scene in the Welsh language. There were so many bands like that, so we decided to start making pop songs in the Welsh language.
Our second album was explicitly pop, to get what we thought was contemporary, melodic Welsh language pop on Radio Cymru. But Radio Cymru were still playing songs from the '70s. And then there was the third album [1992's Hei Vidal!] which we really liked...
Daf: But we could only print 500, and we'd be lucky to sell them.
Gruff: It was impossible to keep any momentum. There seems to be a three-album limit on Welsh language bands. After you've played in Tregaron 10 times, you notice that people in Tregaron start getting sick of you.
Daf: I think I decided to leave. I remember seeing Emlyn down the pub and telling him.
Gruff: We were really good friends, so it was really tough.
What are your main memories of playing in Ffa Coffi Pawb?
Daf: It was like a backdrop to our late teens, early 20s - nuts.
Gruff: Really hedonistic... just playing gigs where we didn't really know the songs. It was a really weird time. We were making a bit of money, playing loads of gigs in Wales - but we were still completely isolated from the rest of Britain. Anhrefn used to give us gigs; they had loads of international contacts. They helped us out as much as they could. But our music wasn't really in line with the anarcho-punk circuit. We played gigs in squats in Holland.
Daf: Dewi [Emlyn, bass player] broke my ankle on the way over. We were really drunk. I was in a wheelchair, and he rammed me into a wall. We played a minority language festival in Friesland, playing to people with dogs on strings.
Gruff: We played gigs for beer.
Daf: They thought we were just going to have a few pints and go, but they had to change the barrel twice. That was a very Ffa Coffi vibe. Lots of alcohol.
Words: Louis Pattison
