If you grew up in North Wales in the 80’s, as I did, it was hard to really find anything that touched you, whatever your language, it was, as fellow Welsh musician Ann Matthews said so well on her solcial media yesterday, really hard to find anything, you looked elsewhere, you journeyed to Manchester or Liverpool, you thought nothing of travelling that hundred miles to find somthing that you could connect with, and then well…

“Ti’n Gymraeg, yn yr 80au, ti’n ceisio dod i delerau Chymru yn ei holl ystrydebau ac yna ti’n darganfod Datblygu sy’n gwneud synnwyr yn y ffordd orau bosibl. Mae hynny’n aruthrol ac rhyddedol. Diolch Dave. RIP”.

“You’re Welsh, it’s the 80s, you try to to come to terms with Welshness in all its everydayness, cliches and soundbites and then you discover Datblygu who make everything make sense in the best way possible. That is immense and freeing. Diolch Dave. RIP”

David R Edwards, frontman of Datblygu passed away a couple of days ago, sad new indeed, if you grew up in North Wales you owe him a big thank you, you might not know it, but you do. Even if you weren’t always sure what he was singling – I could get by – you really did have to look it up, work it out, he made you wanr to. The band and those lyricS really were that good. As a band Datblygu pulled so many things together, yes, I had left by the time they broke through (there weren’t any art schoold in North Wales), but it really was obvious they they were showing so many people that so much was possible. There was all kind of things going on, suddenly therewas life. Yes you could say they were the Welsh Fall but no, that is to short change everyone and everything even if you happen to love The Fall, as someone else said, he was the best frontman in the best Welsh band, and the news yesterday was indeed sad.. Datvlygu made growing up in Wales far more of a thing than it might of overwise been for so so many, they were a damn fine band. (sw)

“The greatest living Welsh artist has just become the greatest non-living Welsh artist” Alan Homes (Ectogram/Fflaps)

There’s a rather good piece here on the Guardian website

Stop press, 5th July, we really should add this one, a short film just made by le Collectif international pour le développement du Wolf Lingo Bingo –