Gai Toms, born Gareth J Thomas in Bangor

Bangor

- United Kingdom :* Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland** Bangor ** Bangor , until 1800* Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales, after which most of the ex-colonial Bangors are named....

, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 on 14 September 1976, is a Welsh singer songwriter and performer. In 1992 he co-formed the popular Welsh language ska rock band, Anweledig

Anweledig

Anweledig are a band from Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales; their style is a mixture of funk, reggae, ska and rock. The band consists of Ceri Cunnington , Gai Toms , Iwan 'Oz' Jones , Rhys Roberts , Alwyn Evans , Joe Buckley , Edwin Humphries , Barri Gwilliam , and Arwel Davies .The band became popular in...

 with two school friends Michael Jones and Rhys Roberts. Between 1997 an 2007 Gai Toms performed using pseudonym Mim Twm Llai. He has worked as an actor and also writes music for TV and Theatre.

His latest release was an eco concept album titled Rhwng y Llygru a'r Glasu 2008, this album brought him another two BBC Radio Cymru

BBC Radio Cymru

BBC Radio Cymru is BBC Cymru's Welsh-language radio station, broadcasting throughout Wales from studios in Cardiff, Bangor, and Aberystwyth on FM since 1977. At the time of its launch it was one of the few FM-only radio services in the UK...

  RAP Awards to his collection, one for best songwriter, the other for best artist. The album was recorded at his home in Blaenau Ffestiniog

Blaenau Ffestiniog

Blaenau Ffestiniog is a town in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It has a population of 5,000, including Llan Ffestiniog, which makes it the third largest town in Gwynedd, behind Caernarfon & Porthmadog. Although the population reached 12,000 at the peak of the slate industry, the population fell due to...

, Gwynedd using clean energy, drums salvaged from junkyards and the album artwork and packaging from recycled material. All songs contain issues on sustainability, questioning our existence and purpose in the world today. Music styles range from 'inferno' blues to 'junkyard' rhumba. The album was the first release on his own label, Sbensh.

Gai Toms mainly performs in his first language - Cymraeg Welsh. Occasionally, he devises a theatrical performance of his repertoire combining elements of acting, music and projections.

Background

Gai Toms was raised in the slate quarry community of Tanygrisiau near Blaenau Ffestiniog. Son of ex-quarryman / heavy goods / bus driver Robert Meurig Thomas, and school caretaker Margaret Gwenda, younger brother of Elaine. On his thirteenth birthday, Gai had a Spanish guitar and chord book, he quickly taught himself to play.

He was also a keen footballer and played for Blaenau Ffestiniog juniors and youths. He was selected to trial for Manchester City and Wrexham FC. Unfortunately, he was sent home from both.

At secondary school, Gai always thought he'd be a Sport's teacher, but... music quickly overtook his passion for sport and dropped the gym bag for a guitar case. Gai and friends were musically motivated by the bands of the time... especially Welsh language bands e.g. Mistecs, Cylchoed Hud, Ffa Coffi Pawb

Ffa Coffi Pawb

Ffa Coffi Pawb was a band that is commonly acknowledged to be the prototype of the Super Furry Animals. They were signed to top Welsh music label, Ankst....

, Hanner Pei, Aros Mae, Y Gofodwyr Piws. Mainstream popular bands also influenced Gai and friends e.g. The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses are an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s...

, Happy Mondays

Happy Mondays

Happy Mondays are an English alternative rock band from Salford, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1980, the band's original line-up was Shaun Ryder on lead vocals, his brother Paul Ryder on bass, lead guitarist Mark Day, keyboardist Paul Davis, and drummer Gary Whelan...

, ACDC, Guns'n'Roses. With these popular influences, Gai and friends decided to form a band.

Anweledig was formed on Boxing Day 1992 because two friends - Michael Jones and Rhys Roberts had received guitars as Christmas presents. They arranged a jamming session at Rhys' parents Top Garej (A room above the garage) as soon as possible. Gai soon saved up to buy his own electric guitar.

Anweledig

Gai played a major role in Anweledig, especially from a songwriting and visionary point of view. Most of the time he'd come up with the lyrics, chords and the odd bass line, the rest of the band would then mold the ideas to create the Anweledig sound. At first, Anweledig was a blend of heavy rock and early 90's indie music, that soon changed when they started listening to reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

, dub

Dub music

Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...

, drum'n'bass, and progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

. Having left secodary school, Gai spent a lot of time jamming

Jam session

Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...

 with then Mistecs member Kaz Bentham, (now of Estella

Estella

Estella may refer to:*a female given name, variant of Estelle*Estella Havisham, a character in Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations*Estella-Lizarra, Navarre, Spain*Estella, New South Wales, Australia...

) son of Ben Bentham from the Welsh electro dub outfit Llwybr Llaethog

Llwybr Llaethog

Llwybr Llaethog are an experimental Welsh language band that effectively mix such varied musical genres as rap, dub, reggae, hip hop, and punk in their music....

. Kaz had a vast array of obscure L.P.'s, one of them by the band Back to the Planet

Back To The Planet

Back To The Planet are an anarcho-punk band from London, England.-History:Back To The Planet formed while squatting together in Peckham, London in 1989, and attracted a following throughout the early 1990s. They played four consecutive Glastonbury Festivals and played many free festivals,...

, this had a profound influence on Gai's input to the Anweledig sound. Gai and Kaz actually formed reggae band called Dub Dimension with drummer Phil Jones, they only played once in Barmouth and soon disbanded. Back to the Planet combined all of the musical styles that Gai and friends had been listening to since school days, including the more experimental styles The rest of Anweledig's members also found Back to the Planet inspirational, this helped pave the way to Anweledig being a really different sounding band to what was going on in Welsh language scene at the time.

Rhys (bassist), Alwyn Evans (drummer) and Jo Buckley (keyboard) became interested in the 'left field' music styles of the 90's e.g. drum'n'bass, trance and acid funk. These influences are noticeable in many Anweledig material, especially when performing live. The band's lead singer, Ceri Cunnington brought attitude, presence and political subversiveness to their live performances while Iwan Jones (guitarist) kept the band sane with ACDC style licks on the guitar! Having all these characters and musical styles in one room required a creative 'project manager', Gai was that person. He was able to visualize and hear a song out of these many influences. This is not to say that other members did not contribute, but you could argue that Gai was the 'egg' in the Anweledig 'cake'.

Having done many musical styles with Anweledig, one style captured Gai's imagination more than the rest. This style was the simplicity of the folk ballad - words and guitar. Having bought most of Meic Stevens

Meic Stevens

Meic Mortimer Stevens is a Welsh singer-songwriter often referred to as "the Welsh Dylan" and has been compared favourably with musicians like Syd Barrett. Stevens's songs have a mystical, faintly psychedelic flavour, and are mostly sung in his native Welsh language...

' back catalogue, Gai started writing songs on his own, mainly influenced by Meic Stevens. Some songs evolved into the Anweledig sound, some stayed as they were... these new songs needed another form of outlet, and that's where Mim Twm Llai comes in.

Mim Twm Llai

Gai's father was known as Mim Twm, a local variant of Meurig Thomas. Their neighbour, Kevin 'Princey' Evans, started calling Elaine (Gai's sister) Mim Twm Bach (Mim Twm Junior) as a joke. Soon, Gai was called Mim Twm Llai (Smaller Mim Twm). Gai used this name as an outlet fro his folk material and soon got signed up by Rhys Mwyn's Crai label, the same label as Anweledig.

Influences

Meic Stevens

Meic Stevens

Meic Mortimer Stevens is a Welsh singer-songwriter often referred to as "the Welsh Dylan" and has been compared favourably with musicians like Syd Barrett. Stevens's songs have a mystical, faintly psychedelic flavour, and are mostly sung in his native Welsh language...

, Bob Delyn a'r Ebillion

Bob Delyn a'r Ebillion

Bob Delyn a'r Ebillion are a folk-rock group from Wales, singing both in Welsh and Breton.Fronted by the Prifardd Twm Morys, Bob Delyn a'r Ebillion played a major part in the Welsh folk revival of the early 1990s...

, Tom Waits

Tom Waits

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...

, Manu Chao

Manu Chao

Manu Chao , is a French singer of Spanish roots . He sings in French, Spanish, English, Italian, Galician, Arabic and Portuguese and occasionally in other languages...

, Super Furry Animals

Super Furry Animals

Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band that lean towards psychedelic rock and electronic experimentation. Since their formation in Cardiff, Wales in 1993, the band has consisted of Gruff Rhys , Huw Bunford , Guto Pryce , Cian Ciaran and Dafydd Ieuan Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band...

, John Prine

John Prine

John Prine is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.-Biography:...

, Django Rheinhardt, Old Crow Medicine Show

Old Crow Medicine Show

Old Crow Medicine Show is an old-time string band based in Nashville, Tennessee. Their music has been called bluegrass, Americana, and alt-country, in addition to old-time. Along with original songs, the band performs many pre-World War II blues and folk songs...

, Devendra Banhart

Devendra Banhart

Devendra Obi Banhart is a singer-songwriter and visual artist. Banhart was born in Houston, Texas and was raised by his mother in Venezuela, until he moved to California as a teenager. He began to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1998, but dropped out to perform music in Europe, San...

Mim Twm Llai Discography

2006 Yr Eira Mawr (L.P.) Crai

2005 Straeon y Cymdogion (L.P.) Crai

2002 O'r Sbensh (L.P.) Crai

Anweledig Discography

2004 Byw (E.P.) Crai

2001 Low Alpine (E.P.) Crai

2001 Gweld y Llun (L.P.) Crai

2000 Scratchy (E.P.) Zion Train

Zion Train

Zion Train are a British dub reggae ensemble . Initially formed in Oxford as a sound system in 1988 by Neil Perch and Ben Hamilton, Colin Cod and Dave Tench joined in 1990 upon relocation to London. The line-up was added to with vocalist Molara in 1992...

 collaboration. Crai

1999 Cae yn Nefyn (E.P.) Crai

1998 Sombreros yn y Glaw (L.P.) Crai

Other releases

2006 Dan y Cownter 2, Compiled by Huw Stephens

Huw Stephens

Huw Stephens is a radio presenter currently broadcasting shows on BBC Radio 1.-Early life and career:Stephens was born in Cardiff, Wales, the son of the author and literary journalist Meic Stephens...

(1 song as Mim Twm Llai)

2006 Llythyrau Ellis Williams. (sings Dilyn Gorwelion)

2005 Dore, Bob Delyn a'r Ebillion (Played bass)

External links

• http://www.gaitoms.com