ROSC Márta 1973

How Huw Jones 'waxes' in Welsh

le Pól Ó Duibhir
Huw Jones is best known in Wales for two of his protest songs - PAID DIGALONNI (Don't Lose Heart) addressed to Dafydd Iwan in prison, reminding him that he was not alone in his struggle, and DWR (Water) which describes the feelings of a Welsh­man returning to the valley where he was reared only to find his people had been expelled and the valley flooded to make a reser­voir to supply water to English cities. Huw now spends most of his time working for SAIN, a re­latively new recording company which has specialised mainly in protest songs.

ROSC: How did you start in the recording business?

HUW JONES: Our company SAIN was set up in1969. Up to then Dafydd Iwan and I had recorded on Welsh Teledisc, but we had become unhappy with the quality of the records. I was working on DWR at this time and I went to London and made a tape. We then formed SAIN to release it, the two of us and a financial backer. We are responsable for the quality of the tapes, but we don't cut our own discs , although we have now got to the stage where we are thinking of this. I am running the company from my own house at the moment and I couldn't take on any more work.

ROSC: How big is the business?

HUW JONES: So far we've released thirty discs, mostly EPs , some singles, and just recently two LPs. The main artists who have recorded for us include Meic Stevens and Heather Jones, who've both been on Teilifís Éireann, and the Hennessies, who are second generation Irish from Cardiff.

ROSC: What is your biggest problem?

HUW JONES: Although our market is small we have to pay competitive rates for facilities. In a situation like this it's great to have someone like Dafydd Iwan who sells.

ROSC: Just what scale of costs are you talking about?

HUW JONES: They vary quite a lot, depending largely on the size of the backing and the sophisti­cation of the studio set-up needed. For example, PAID DIGALONNI was done in a bit of a hurry and we only had to lay out £10 for studio costs Dafydd's PAM FOD EIRA cost £200 between paying iinstrumentalists and studio time. A middling expensive record would cost up to £450 and we would need lo sell nearly 1,000 to clear this.

ROSC What are your sales like?

HUW JONES: Like the costs these vary a lot too. Our biggest sellers have been PAM FOD ERA (6,000) , PEINTIO'R BYD (4,000), MYN DUW and MAWREDD MAWR (3,500), and PAID DIGALONNI and DWR (3,000).

ROSC: Are you full time on this work?

HUW JONES: I spend most of my time on it, but I don't get any money from the company. So far I have been living off TV earnings, a show culled DISC A DAWN and a children's series. Dafydd lives mainly on concerts and occasional TV appearances, although he is a qualified architect he does hardly any of this type of work.

ROSC: Does the company con­fine itself to protest songs?

HUW JONES: Not at all; the artists I mentioned earlier cover a wider field and we have lots of other artists and groups who are not protest Our latest LP, CANU'R WERIN, is a collection of Welsh folk songs. It's a new line for us, but we think it is filling a gap in the market.

ROSC: Have you any more num­bers in the making yourself?

HUW JONES: I'm working on a new number at present, GWAS BACH Y PEIRIANT PRES. It is addressed to young people who are wasting their time frantically trying to make money in the city, and it encourages them to partici­pate in the task of going out into the countryside and rebuilding Welsh Wales. It's not an appeal to return to the old ways of life as such, but there is an awful lot to be done in the countryside to build a new Welsh community.