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Artist
Galwad Y Mynydd
12+ albums
folkwalesFinders Keeperscelticwelsh love
about
Formed by brothers; Alwyn (17) and Eifion (16) Daniels, their Camarthen grammar schoolfriend Derek Brown (18), and Camarthen technical college student Mike Harries (19) on drums; Galwad Y Mynydd (The Call of The Mountain) ticked all the right boxes in their quest to deliver, in their own words 'a new style of contemporary Welsh Folk music.' Choosing musicality over volume, beauty and heartache over protest and politics they were a young anomaly in Welsh language pop. Songs such as Can Cadwaladr were aimed at the dancefloors of a new breed of Welsh language pop sound system that mushroomed in the 1970's led by the charismatic bearded DJ Mici Plwm. GYM clearly understood their audience and were winners of the pop group competition at the 1972 Pontrhydfendigaid eisteddfod. Galwad Y Mynydd however were never to achieve their ambition of becoming a fully formed professional outfit, rather they were the opening act of a scene of bands that eventually morphed into smooth folk rock college super group, Hergest. Bonding at a holiday camp run by Urdd Gobaith Cymru, a league of youth that is a near enough compulsory rite of passage of a Welsh language education, the future members of Hergest were drunk on the euphoric possibility of 12 string guitars, mandolin and autoharp - their eventual career as Aberystwyth's answer to The Eagles belying the promises of Derek's Galwad Y Mynydd, Geraint Davies's spooky Gwennwyn (Poison) and Delwyn Sion's Madog. Although Derek continues to release
