Alex Dingley
Name: One Size Fits All
Artist: The Alex Dingley Band
Length: 4:59
Preview:
» Download the full track [4.8mb, MP3]
Biography
Alex Dingley hails from Llansteffan in Carmarthenshire and is a former member of Welsh language group Texas Radio Band. His debut album 'I Lost My Honey In The Grass' was recorded by Mr Huw in the shadow of Snowdon in the spring of 2007, the mandate being to provide 'an antidote to overproduced, generic and cynical music'. The album was recorded with a DIY ethic and sounds on the record include Dictaphone samples, blenders and Hoovers (as well as various other household appliances).
The Alex Dingley Band was formed later that year and includes Welsh starlet Swci Boscawen, lead guitarist Rhys Martin (of Plant Duw), Cardiff artist Nigel Bowles and Rod Stewart doppelgänger Alun 'Jinx' Jenkins. They have supported acts as diverse as Dirty Pretty Things and Billy Bragg and their sound has been described as 'Jagged Folktronic Rock' (NME) and 'Ramshackle Country Pop' (Huw Stephens).
The featured track 'One Size Fits All' was recorded and mixed partly on-site at the Drefach Woolen Museuem and partly in a converted attic space by Carmarthen producer Recall. Recall is Iwan Morgan. “A purveyor of dense music, in thrall to old echo boxes and slightly 'off/skewed' productions, heavily sample based yet full of live instruments.” He joined electronic noise pop pioneers Zabrinski and went on to produce 3 albums with the band, tour the UK and score an Italian film. Since retreating to his studio Recall began producing other artists in 2005, commencing work on Richard James (Gorky's Zygotic Mynci) debut solo record "The Seven Sleepers Den", and Texas Radio Band's "Gavin". As Scott Walker said : "I am definitely not a recluse....I am low key".
More information on The Alex Dingley Band can be found at: www.myspace.com/alexdingley whilst further examples of Recalls work can be enjoyed at: http://www.myspace.com/recallmusic.
The Alex Dingley Band Are:
Mared (Swci) Lenny: Vocals/Keyboards
Alex Dingley: Vocals/Guitar
Alun (Jinx) Jenkins: Drums
Nigel Bowles: Bass
Rhys Martin: Lead Guitar
Inspiration
This song was inspired by the woollen industry in Wales and the National Wool Museum at Drefach Felindre.
A very Welsh industry
During the late 1800s and early part of the next century, the woollen industry sustained the Welsh rural community.
Cambrian Mill, at Dre-fach Felindre in Carmarthenshire, was one of the largest woollen mills in west Wales. Having run a small gallery at the Mill since the mid-seventies, in 1984 the Museum purchased the whole site to create a national museum to tell the story of the industry and its people.
By the time the former Cambrian Mills became a visitor attraction, it already had a long, distinguished history of employment and textile production.
Wales’s woollen industry, pioneered by Cistercian monks, was one of the country’s most important employers by the thirteenth century. But that was only the start. It was to become the most widespread of Welsh industries.
Huge expansion began with the arrival of the power loom in 1850. The Teifi Valley in west Wales had the largest concentration of the country’s woollen mills, with the area within five miles of Dre-fach Felindre seeing twenty-one factories built between 1860 and the end of the century. The trade found a ready market in south Wales as the mines and steelworks prospered.
The Teifi Valley factories produced much fine flannel for shirts. Other products included blankets, tweeds and yarn. Typically, they employed between fifty and 100 people and were situated near road or rail links.
It was at Dre-fach Felindre in 1902 that the first Cambrian Mill was established. David Lewis built it on the site of a small water-powered weaving workshop at Doldywyll (‘Dark Meadow’), on land rented from the Llysnewydd Estate. He was from a well known and respected local family, which already owned many of Teifi Valley’s large mills.
Today, the National Wool Museum at Dre-fach Felindre recalls how people depended on spinning and weaving for their livelihood and exhibits national collections relating to the industry.
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