Catatonia are one of the freshest sounding and exhilarating bands on the current British music circuit. The type of music they produce would be pigeonholed into Indie-Rock (even though the band would want to be classified as pop), although this may given the wrong impression.
Cerys provides the dynamic lead vocals and her singing is instantly recognisable. Her vocal style is a mix between Bjork, for its range, and Isabelle Montiero, for its depth, making a luxurious and captivating cocktail.
The band members all come from Wales, mainly Cardiff (Aled's a Llanelli lad), and released their first record 'For Tinkerbell EP' in 1993 - acheiving an NME Single of the Week.
Cerys and Mark first got together when Cerys used to busk outside Debenhams in Cardiff. Mark joined in and a fledgling Catatonia was born. All the band members except for Cerys had been in previous bands. Mark and Paul had been in 'Y Cyrff', Aled in 'The Hepburns' and Owen in 'The Crumblowers' as well as 'U Thant'. Catatonia itself has undergone a few member changes since 'For Tinkerbell', the first release. The original members, as described by the 'For Tinkerbell' inlay were:
C. Anazapela, M. E. Zaun, D. Ieuan, P. Jones, C. Pegg,
C. Anazapela was Cerys, M. E. Zaun was Mark , and P. Jones was Paul. Dafydd Ieuan was the first drummer, before Aled joined the band, and Dafydd now drums for the Super Furry Animals. C. Pegg is Clancy, and she played keyboards for the band, and is now with the Welsh language band Crac. The band remained the same for their next record 'Hooked'.
The release of 'Sweet Catatonia', first included Aled as a member of the band, both Dafydd and Clancy having left. Owen joined the band just before, or just after, the release of 'Sweet Catatonia' (since his picture is not on the record sleeve, yet he was present at a Mark Radcliffe Session just prior to the release, and he toured with the band to promote the record).
The release of 'You've Got A Lot To Answer For' provided the band with their first reasonable amount of public exposure, from both extensive radio play of the record, TV use of the tune, and an extensive tour (including a Radio One roadshow). The result of this was the entry of the record into the Charts at number 35, although it dropped out of the top 40 the next week.
Their debut album, 'Way Beyond Blue', was released on September 30th 1996, and although it received high praise from the majority of music critics, it only entered the charts at number 40.
The close of 1996 saw Catatonia re-releasing their most renowned-underground record - Bleed (after its initial 1995 release), which was packaged with several live tracks from Catatonia's storming previous Reading Festival slot. The single, amazingly, didn't chart in the Top 40.
Late 1997 saw the release of the first Catatonia single for sometime. Initially the single, 'Mulder and Scully' was to be released over the summer, yet was never released due to complications. Instead of a summer release, Catatonia had to be content with an autumn release of 'I Am The Mob', which was the first single to be taken from the soon-to-be-released album 'International Velvet'.
Despite almost minimal publicity (except for being Mark Radcliffe's final Worm of the Week) and air-play (certain stations deeming it to be non-radio friendly, unlike songs such as 'Smack My Bitch Up' by the Prodigy...) it charted at Number 40, and fell out of the charts the next week.
January 1998 saw the release of 'Mulder and Scully', at last. No complications this time, and its promotion onto the Radio One play list meant that the record took off. TV shows, and huge amounts of radio play, pushed the record into the faces of the general public.
Sunday 25th January 1998, and 'Mulder and Scully' entered the UK Charts at Number 3.
37 places above the previous entry.
The world around Catatonia had literally changed overnight. A week later the album 'International Velvet' was released and entered the charts at number 11.
The next release 'Road Rage' moved onto the A-list on radio, and again TV got behind the release, which meant that the record entered the charts at number 5. The release of 'Road Rage' helped push 'International Velvet' up the charts, and finally it reached Number 1.
Following on from 'Road Rage' was 'Strange Glue', which only charted at number 11. A bit disappointing perhaps, but for a 3rd single release of an album it wasn't too bad. The good news, however, was that the album rose back up to number 3.
The fifth and final release from International Velvet was 'Game On' - although the fans would have prefered 'I am the Mob' to be re-released, and the band would have prefered not to release anything at all. This release clearly stretch some fans' loyalty too far, and charted at Number 27. Not even sales of the album were rescued by the single's release - dropping to around the 40s. It was clear that few people were interested in yet another single, and were just waiting for new material.
In December 1998, Catatonia toured with the Manic Street Preachers in what was their first Arena Tour. They used this tour to introduce new songs into their live set, and this continued in their first ever tour of Australia and New Zealand in February 1999. The new songs were brief snippets of the new album 'Equally Cursed and Blessed', which was still being mixed and its production complete during Catatonia's Autralian tour.
The first single release from the new album was 'Dead From the Waist Down', which was the most successful radio-play record the band have ever had - it was on several A-play lists 6 weeks before the single's release. The week of it's release (22nd March) was a bad timing since there were a number of 'novelty' records released at the same time. As a result, it entered the charts at a slightly disappointing Number 7.
However, the album was to be released two weeks later, so expectation was still high. With all the excellent publicity Dead From the Waist Down had proved, would 'Equally Cursed and Blessed' enter the Charts at Number 1?
It did, although only staying there for a week, before it was knocked off the top by ABBA Gold.
The next few weeks and months saw great confusion over the identity of the second single. Initially it was to be Karaoke Queen - indeed, it reached promo stage where all the artwork had been done and a run of promos had been pressed. But, under advisement from the industry, Karaoke Queen was dropped in place of Londinium. A surprising and brave move, considering the (albeit tongue-in-cheek) poke at London which ran through the song.
Airplay for the single was, however, not great and the hype which had surrounded Dead From the Waist Down wasn't there for Londinium. The second single from Equally Cursed and Blessed charted in the beginning of July at a very disappointing Number 20. Perhaps Karaoke Queen would have been a better choice after all....
The beginning of November finally saw the release of Karaoke Queen - in a remixed version from that of the album. In a similar fashion to Londinium, air play and promotion for the single was pretty minimal. The band were hardly in the UK to promote it since they were on tour in Australia or Japan. The single entered the charts at Number 36, which by a band the size of Catatonia was a flop - indeed You've Got A Lot To Answer For, released a few years earlier (and which many would argue was a better song) actually entered the charts one place higher, at 35. This disappointing show in the charts coupled with the cancellation of the December UK arena tour meant that Catatonia were no longer in the UK public eye at the end of 1999. However, their overseas touring was proving successful, as they completed tours of Australia, Japan, and various places in Europe.
To increase their hibernation over the winter months, the to-be-Christmas Single, Nothing Hurts, was pulled and not released. Several reasons were behind this, but one of them almost certainly was to avoid a clash between the duet of Cerys and Tom Jones. Perhaps Catatonia, as a band, were in senescence, but Cerys was still attracting all the headlines and attention at the turn of the Millenium.
