In the Words Of

by Carl Marsh

I do hope you are all enjoying your summer? For me, it’s been a tough one as my good friend Alan Coulthard passed away in August. And then only this morning (when typing this up), I heard my best friend’s Mum has died overnight. So I want to avoid my usual little reviews section and what I have done this month to dedicate the column to Alan, my go-to guy for all things Cardiff. I have two interviews on the next couple of pages, but the rest of this page will be about Alan Coulthard, but my thoughts are also with my best friend Carl’s family since losing their Mum.

Alan was many things careerwise, but one of his best bits was being involved with the DMC and was the first ‘mixer’ for them. He has remixed so many of these ‘megamixes’ in the charts in the 80s & 90s that it is probably easier to name the few he wasn’t involved in!

Coming from Barry, he worked hard at school to get a first-class law degree from UCL, and I am sure he went to Oxford after this. After that, he worked as a Lawyer and Barrister whilst still doing the music!

He also had a flair and skill for writing reviews (some done for Cardiff Times) and often came with me to gigs or musical productions to write the review. He was better than me. Look after yourselves,

Carl Marsh

I last saw Alan only a few months ago; he popped round to my house to tell me he was standing in the Welsh Elections. I voted for him. He got a tremendous vote but didn’t win. He told me then that he had to have a medical procedure. I wished him well, and Kevin J Saunders too, as I know he was Alan Coulthard’s rock.

Sending my love and regards to his partner, Kevin J Saunders and the rest of Alan’s family. I’ll miss you, you talented man.

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The Toll is an incredible little ‘Western’ type film that was filmed and set in Wales. Starring Michael Smiley, Iwan Rheon, Paul Kaye and Annes Elwy, speaking to one of these was a must for me. So I got to chat with Iwan, perhaps one of Wales new wave of already established actors.

Carl Marsh

Although your character has an unpleasant ending, I liked the film, perhaps not on a par with the one you had in Game of Thrones where dogs destroyed you! [Laughs]

Iwan Rheon

Yeah, yeah, he had a rather fitting, grisly end. He really deserved it! [Laughter].

Carl Marsh

What sort of challenges did you have filming The Toll here in Wales, and also, what things did you love?

Iwan Rheon

It was pretty challenging filming in Pembrokeshire in November. Basically, because of the weather, anyone who knows Pembrokeshire will know that it can get pretty windy down there. It was sideways rain and all that stuff. [Laughs] But, it was also one of those lovely things as it gave it that real sort of beautiful scenery, you know, to see Wales being showcased in that film. You get a sense of the area and how wild it is, in a way. I mean, it is the Wild West out there, pretty much. You do feel like that when you’re out there. It was absolutely stunning. So the hardest and the best thing about it was the location itself.

Carl Marsh

The film was filmed back in 2018, so have you seen it recently to reacquaint yourself with it all?

Iwan Rheon

I watched it probably about six months ago. But I will watch it again as they’re playing it at the Green Man Festival [August 2021]. I’m going to watch it then, but I find it quite difficult to watch myself these days. I’m getting worse at it. I used to be okay. I used to find it quite interesting and learn quite a lot from it. But now I just sort of cringe quite a lot and hate it - especially in a room full of other people. It’s not so bad for you on your own because you can be a bit more critical and be like, “that was rubbish. I’m not doing that again!”. But when you’re in a room full, I find it quite embarrassing, to be honest with you. [Laughs]

Carl Marsh

It’s not like you can sit there with a pen and paper making notes about what you maybe didn’t like. Can you?

Iwan Rheon

Yeah, it’s quite a harrowing experience to be in, especially if you haven’t seen it. But you know, I think the films come out really well, exactly like how it was written. It’s kind of that fascinating, nonlinear storyline, where the characters get a lot of screen time, even though it’s a very, very short film, and the scripts very short. I remember the script being really short when I read it the first time, but you get a lot of intrigue and slow character development. But in a concise space of time, if you know what I mean. And I think the way the story is told is very clever. And there are lots of really interesting reveals. So you never really know what’s going on until right at the end, which is excellent storytelling.

The Toll is in cinemas and on all Digital Platforms.

Cardiff through and through, Captain Accident creates his unique blend of roots reggae, ska and rocksteady at his studio in our capital. His latest album [Bad Press] is out now, and with a hometown gig not until Friday 18th February 2022 at The Globe, I thought that I could not wait any longer to chat with this outstanding artist.

Carl Marsh

Reggae music can be quite politicised, yet there is always a message in the lyrics even though the funky melody is there. So, when you write the songs, do you always aim to write about something detrimental in the press or around politics?

Captain Accident

I haven’t always written as openly politically. I think it’s in the last five to eight years. The last album, Wake & Break [2016] that had a few political nods on it and this one [new album] also have about the same ratio of heartbreak songs and upbeat songs about other things and stuff. I think with the climate we’ve had in the last five to eight years, it’s been impossible to not write about politics, and I think it’s been quite hard to avoid. I think it’s something that we all feel so strongly about at the moment. It’s impossible to not let that flow into my songwriting, I guess.

Carl Marsh

On the album, you’ve got a track called ‘Run Rabbits Run’; for me, it’s something I think is written about all the press scaring us too much about all what’s been going on these last 18 months?

Captain Accident

I actually wrote that song around the time of the Brexit vote. It was very much prose to how The Sun newspaper had very much turned a lot of people that may have been on the fence or that they’ve not understood anything about Brexit. So, I think it [The Sun] turned a lot of those people to vote for something that we didn’t maybe want. They did the same thing in a General Election where they had a picture of Jeremy Corbyn dressed up as a Russian spy. It’s all about that stuff, but I was a bit worried as the album is coming out now, and since I wrote that song, Covid has happened! And I had a sort of anxiety that people might think that I am suggesting that Covid is not a real thing, but I wrote this song over three years ago. And I’m not saying Covid is a lie! [Laughter]

Carl Marsh

I get what you say about the press, though, as I think George Orwell wrote in 1984 about the media being controlled by the ‘Party’ or something like that. So if I can change momentum here, how does a guy from Cardiff end up making the reggae music that he does?

Captain Accident - Adam

I was brought up by hippies in Cathays. And the music that was constantly on - when I was growing up, my family - was always reggae music. So I suppose that’s why I got into reggae in the first place. I’d also go to the Bute Town carnival. Cardiff has a really rich and diverse culture, so growing up around that has influenced reggae music to be my chosen music. I feel with reggae that you can feel the rhyme and the vibe, and it’s the music that feels right for me to be writing and performing.

Captain Accident has announced a belated hometown album party at Cardiff The Globe on Friday 18 February 2022 for his fourth album, the highly acclaimed Bad Press, which was released last week.