What was Cool Cymru?

Cool Cymru - Britpop

Short Answer

Cool Cymru was Wales finding its voice in the 1990s. What a voice it was.


Long Answer

Cool Cymru was Wales stepping out of the cultural back row in the 1990s. While England played dress-up with Cool Britannia, Wales built something quieter but stronger. It didn’t need Downing Street photo calls or ice cream tie-ins. It had the Manics. It had Catatonia, Super Furry Animals and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. Bands that didn’t just sound different. They were different. Sharp. Political. Bilingual. Often weird. Proudly Welsh without apology.

The name came later, a half-joking nod to its louder English cousin. But where Cool Britannia was all surface, Cool Cymru had depth. Albums like Mwng, International Velvet and Everything Must Go weren’t background noise. They were declarations. Of identity. Of place. Of being sick of being overlooked.

It wasn’t just the music. Films like Twin Town and House of America showed Wales as it really was. Messy. Funny. Angry. Stoned. The Millennium Stadium went up. S4C expanded. Devolution passed. For once, Welsh culture wasn’t a footnote. It was the headline.

Some acts leaned into Welshness. Others barely mentioned it. But that was the point. They didn’t have to explain themselves anymore. Whether it was Colin Jackson waving the flag or Cerys Matthews switching languages mid-verse, it all said the same thing. We’re here. We matter.

So what was Cool Cymru? It was Wales, turned up. Not a moment manufactured by press officers. A moment built in valleys, pubs, rehearsal rooms and proper graft. And it still holds up. Because it never pretended to be cool in the first place.

Previous
Previous

What was Cool Britannia?

Next
Next

Who is Brett Anderson?