My name is Adam Thomas Walton. My surname means 'settlement of the Welsh' or 'settlement of the slaves' depending on who you listen to. Ironic, then, that I have made a living for a good proportion of my life, as a bloated leech on the belly of Wales' considerable musical talent.

I am, you see, a radio presenter, [former] newspaper columnist, [almost ex] smoker, father, rabid Liverpool FC supporter ['We won it five times, in Istanb-uu-ll, we won it five times! - I was there, I feel qualified to gloat!], occasional web designer, frustrated writer, even more frustrated musician, and slow-moving 5-a-side footballer who presents a radio show I call the musical mystery tour for BBC Radio Wales [more details below].

I DJ every Friday night at Telfords Warehouse in Chester, NW England, and have done since 1997.

I was born on 31st May 1971 in Davenham, Cheshire. Shortly afterwards, I was taken across the border to beautiful Nannerch in Flintshire. I went to primary school in Nannerch; secondary school at the Alun in Mold, and scratched through a degree in English Language and Literature in Liverpool.

I lived in Wales for the first twenty-eight years of my life. I only have a nationalistic inclination when it comes to the later stages of football competitions.

I don't regard myself as either English or Welsh. I'm a child of man, an internationalist. Those of you with your pride, your silly plastic flags and your petty divisionism frighten the hell out of me.

It's a radio show that is broadcast every Sunday night between 10pm and 1am on BBC Radio Wales

After haranguing a local radio celebrity [Mr Alan Daulby - now occasional 'producer' of my show]in Kings Wine Bar in Mold because the station he worked for [BBC Radio Clwyd - formed when Shotton Steel Works was shut down to help give out job information] wasn't supporting any of the local musical talent [She Said, Want On Thought, Akimbo, Daisychain, Goodnight Said Florence, Baby Milkplant, Dr. Phibes, Girohead - such talent!] and was, in my own well chosen words, "shit", I received a phonecall from the then station manager, Tony Todd, who invited me to come and do something about it. That'll learn me to open my big, fat mouth.

I presented my first radio show ['Burst'] in the summer of 1991. That was a 6 week pilot for BBC Radio Clwyd in Mold. The first record I ever played on the radio was 'Indian Rope' by The Charlatans. I had to buy it off Woofer's stall on the indoor market in Mold. The BBC said that they liked 'Burst', but it still took them over two years to ask me to do another radio show for them.

In the Autumn of 1993, I started presenting a show on BBC Radio Wales every Tuesday and Thursday night between 10pm and midnight. That show was called 'Revolution' and was the first show on Welsh radio that actively supported new Welsh music, regardless of the language that it was sung in and always mindful of the quality of that music.

'Revolution' chronicled the rise of the supposed "New Seattle" in Newport, giving incredible bands like 60ft Dolls, Flyscreen, Novocaine, Rollerco, the 5 Darrens, Dub War etc. their first radio airplay.

Thanks to the unalloyed ambition of my producer at the time [Jane Morris, who went on to conceive and produce the Session in Wales and became a senior producer at BBC 1Xtra who doesn't talk to any of us anymore because she is too important] 'Revolution' got to visit and work at every British festival between 1993 and 1996... and I do mean work. Highlights of this period included one of Oasis' first ever interviews; interviewing Damon Albarn when Blur played Manchester Academy in support of 'Parklife', when we were accompanied to the venue by none other than Liam Gallagher; being backstage at Oasis' legendary gig at the Tivoli in Buckley in the summer of 1994, when I got to watch Evan Dando make a complete shithead of himself; interviewing Public Enemy, the Verve [when Jane told a suddenly very meek Richard Ashcroft off for playing his ghetto blaster at very high volume while I was trying to ask my 'probing' questions; Terry Bickers from Levitation visiting our Mold studios to record an acoustic session, going to get some fresh air before he started, and never coming back... ahhhh... there's an Almost Famous-like filmiography in here somewhere!

I digress. A lot. At the same time that the world decided to turn its fickle nose away from the fumes rising up from the Usk, many other Welsh bands were starting to break through. 'Revolution' was one of the first shows to interview a still-at-school Gorky's Zygotic Mwnci. We gave Catatonia one of their first studio sessions, and gave Stereophonics their first ever airplay, when Huw Williams - former singer with the Poo Sticks, manager of 60ft Dolls and regular contributor to the show - brought in their first demo tape, and we played a nascent version of 1000 trees.

If only we had known what we were starting, we might have left that demo tape on our car seat on a very hot sunny day.

Almost every other Welsh band of note - and some of no notes - got their first airplay on the show. That's the lifeblood of the programme. I've been lucky to be around during a very exciting and developmental time for Welsh music. When 'Revolution' started in 1993, there was only a handful of Welsh record labels; there were few venues in Wales brave enough to stop milking the dance cash cow for a night and put snotty, young bands on; there was very little funding around to help young musicians get their music to the people...

In the last ten years, that situation has changed markedly. Millions of pounds has been spent on Welsh music. Some of it has, even, been spent well. We have seen the development of the Welsh Music Foundation, Sound Nation magazine [now defunct]; the inception of brilliant record labels like My Kung Fu Records, Machine Records, FF Vinyl Records, and a handful more...

So, the Welsh music industry has never been in a fitter or healthier state. But the industry - just like my show - relies on exciting and innovative new bands upon whom we can feed. All of the new quangos and labels, fanzines and venues, doesn't mean that there are more, great new bands around... a lot of these organisations have actually increased the noise to signal ratio, meaning that there are a lot more inadequate and mediocre bands doing the rounds, convinced by label bosses' wielding badly-allocated grants that they're the next big thing... BUT - before I start ranting - this is where my radio show comes into its own...

I play the new Welsh bands... you get to hear them... you get to make your mind up whether they're any good or not. No bullshit. Just a bit of waffle. I'm sorry - it's a hereditary condition.

If you live in Wales, you *should* be able to receive it via a DAB or analogue radio on the following frequencies 93 - 96 & 104FM, 882 / 657 Khz MW
I say "should" because, due to the geographical diversity of Wales, there are significant pockets and communities in Wales where they find it difficult to receive our signal. Please don't complain to me about that. If I could erect you your own personal aerials in your back garden, I would... but I can't.

For full information on the various ways you can hear the show, please visit the BBC Wales How to Listen pages.

I play the best new Welsh music that arrives in my inbox / drops through the letterbox. The majority of music I play is guitar-orientated and, I suppose, would fit under the 'alternative' umbrella... but I don't believe in umbrellas / genres / pigeonholes... I think I saw an umbrella once, but apparently it was just a fuzzy photo of a hubcap.

I like to think that I will play anything, as long as it's GOOD!. Everything from the more inspired commercial pop that comes out of Wales, to the avant garde, explorative shit that comes out on brilliant labels like High Quality Recordings and r-bennig.

The GOOD thing is, admittedly, a little on the subjective side. I'll be as honest as I can be to myself in regards to this. Some crap will seep through, every now and then, but it will be the exception rather than the rule. Well, that's the plan.

First off, make sure it's good. Being in a band, you're going to think it's good anyway. The magic of creating something frequently clouds the creator's judgement.
Ask yourself some hard and probing questions about the music before you send it. Would you want to hear it on the radio if it wasn't you playing on it? Would you? Really?
Right... if the answer's 'yes', you're either right, or delusional. If you're delusional, don't waste your breath insulting me when I offer you a contradictory, but honest, viewpoint on your music. I haven't got it in for you. I want to play good music on my radio show, is all. If I don't think you're good enough, you won't get on. No amount of phony hotmail accounts or letters in green ink is going to change that. Save yourself the effort. If I don't like your music, I will tell you. Dishonesty and politeness have no place in this business.

However, remember that I am faraway from being the only person in Britain with a radio show, or an outlet for your music. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean it won't find a receptive audience somewhere. So, rather than giving me a hard time about not liking you, use your energies to find someone who will. If you can't, become a teacher,a nurse, or a doughnut-maker... something we can all benefit from.

Okay, that's the negative shit out of the way. Send me 2 or 3 track demos - no more, please! - with a minimum of promo bumf. I don't need photos - they're pretty useless for the radio, you know;
I do need you to MARK CLEARLY any tracks that feature swearing or content of an explicit or inflammatory manner ESPECIALLY IF YOU SING IN WELSH.
I am learning Welsh [Dw i'n dysgu Cymraeg] but I am nowhere near fluent! So - since an infamous incident with Afallon and a track called 'fani ffestiniog' - I will not play anything that I don't understand that I think might cause offence to the listeners. I understand that for those of you who feel strongly about the subject, this might feel like a galling compromise to have to make to get an English DJ to play your music on the radio. I'm sorry about that. If your music is good, I want to play it on the radio regardless of the language that it is sung in. Please help me to support your native tongue. Diolch yn fawr iawn!

Just as important in that jiffy bag with the CD is a short biography so I know where you are from - if it fits inside the CD case, all the better... it's less likely to get lost that way. Do also - and this is important - include a contact number or e-mail address on the CD itself. I receive anywhere between 25 and 100 demos a week. It's easy to get all of those Verbatim CDR's muddled up you know.

Post your jiffy bags [with a return address marked clearly on the back, in case the post office cock things up] to:

Adam Walton,
BBC Radio Wales,
Library and Arts Centre,
WREXHAM
LL11 1NF

Another yippity way of sending me music - and certainly the quickest and least likely to end up with some light-fingered postal worker or library employee lifting your work of genius because they think that the jiffy bag might contain the new Celine Dion album - is to e-mail it to me as a high quality mp3. Please don't send it to me in one of Apple or Windows' horrible, proprietary formats, riddled to bummery with Digital Rights Management or a terrible sounding encoding codec... use ogg vorbis, flac or LAME encoded mp3's... please!

In all honesty, the digital format you send it on doesn't make a blind bit of difference, it's just a pet peeve of mine. Soz. However, do make sure that the music file you send is at your chosen format's CD quality setting [i.e. 128kbps+ for a constant bitrate .mp3].

When you have your digital music file hot, steaming and ready, please e-mail it to themysterytour@gmail.com.

DO NOT I repeat DO NOT send it to my BBC e-mail address. I know I sound like a fussy, demanding, pompous bugger with all of these conditions, but I ain't. I just want your hard work and dreams to end up with me as safely and securely as possible. If, for example, you had accidentally e-mailed it to my BBC e-mail address, I would never see or hear it. The size limit of our BBC inboxes is quickly exceeded when people send text e-mails almost as long as the answer to this question [it's not the QUICKLY answered question section, though, so I don't feel too guilty... ;0)

Suffice to say GOOD LUCK, and I can't wait to hear your work. Most of the best and most affecting music I have heard since I started the show arrived - initially - in demo form: the soft-hearted scientists, 60ft dolls, derrero, gintis, prolific noise, sick note, victorian english gentleman's club, klaus kinski, hot puppies, applefish etc. etc.

YOUR MUSIC IS THE LIFEBLOOD OF THIS PROGRAMME. SEND IT TO ME. WE CAN HELP. A BIT.

I do get a lot of demos. They all get listened to; but I only respond to the ones I really like, or the ones where I feel I might have a useful, constructive criticism to make. I haven't got the minutes in the day, or the inclination, to be telling yet another band that sounding like a Funeral For a Friend tribute act is probably a bad idea.

By all means drop me an e-mail at my BBC e-mail address to make sure that I've received your recordings. I'll get in touch if you excite me, or if I have something to say that might benefit you.

I'm not allowed to use a pen or a pencil, and I ate all the crayons.

I value the music that you send me; but I haven't got time to fill in your sheets. Sorry. Call me instead. Monday afternoons are good. You should already have my number.

We get official RAJAR figures for Radio Wales listenership every quarter. However, I am cynical that they offer an accurate way of gauging the listenership of a specialist music show like mine. I believe that the RAJAR figures are derived from cross samples of people who are given diaries in which they detail their listening habits over a given period. I don't know anyone in my age bracker who has been offered one of these diaries, ever.

Suffice to say that the RAJAR figures that I have seen for the show fluctuate anywhere between 5 and 40 thousand listeners [through the Radio & in Wales only].

Still, it is listened to by a lot of the people who do the best work in the Welsh music industry, and by industry A&R over the border.

The Minister for Cool Welsh Pop's position was retired with him in 2006.

Rumours are that he was the son of Dire Strait's drummer, Terry Williams.

I can neither confirm nor deny that.

This is Soundhog

Som Bom -- providers of our monthly, techno mix [Cian from Super Furry Animals, Kev formerly of Big Leaves, and friends].

Peppermint Patti -- promoters of excellent, leftfield music made by women in Cardiff.

Lews Tewns -- Swansea based luminary of the Welsh hip hop scene.

*KC* -- very talented MC and clothes designer from Newport.

Ectogram -- Ann Matthews is the guitarist and vocalist with Wales' finest experimental band, Ectogram.

DJ Fuzzyfelt -- DJ Fuzzyfelt enthuses about his favourite new tracks in the S.R.G. [Welsh language scene].

I DJ there every Friday night between 8-ish and 1:30am. I'm probably in danger of getting into trouble with the Trade Description Act if I say that what I do is DJ'ing... I get a rash when I see vinyl, and think that 'beat matching' is putting my Gerry and the Pacemakers CD's next to my Searchers' CD's. However, I do put a lot of effort into it. Infact, I spend a good proportion of the whole week scanning the world for top tunes I can play that will tickle your feet as well as the hairs on your brain. However, most of the time this is a complete waste of effort because I still get harassed for fucking Kasabian, some wanky, old Stone Roses, or a blast of the bollocking Killers. Asking a DJ if he has a record by any of these bands is like asking a carpenter if he has ever thought about using a hack[neyed] saw. The point about my DJ sets in Telfords, you see, is that I would rather chop wood with the contents of my dangly scrotum than appease popular demand. Which might explain why we don't get many hen nights in.

Having said that. Once I've given you an earful of abuse, you'll generally find that I'll play the bloody track anyway. Best leave me to it, though. You would nae want ta interrupt me drinking.

The music policy in Telfords on a Friday night is 'anything goes' - Cole Porter, Clifford Curry, Cutting Crew, the Cookie Crew, the Cure, Can, the Carpenters, Cat Stevens err... hang on... - obviously, I'm trying to impress you with my catholic and daring taste in music; with my irreverent and maverick, genre-jumping attitude to aural stimulation. This scattergun eclecticism is merely a ruse to disguise my painfully inadequate DJ'ing skills.

Most Fridays we're full and people have a very good time. Sometimes I am rude to them; but that's only because they ask me for records that are rubbish, obvious or unsuitable. Your favourite record always sounds better if you have to wait for it a little. If Jez had wanted to let the people choose what got played in Telfords, he would have installed a jukebox. He didn't. He employed me to play what I want, knowing that I have an unparalleled passion for music from all denominations, and that I want to share that passion with you. Playing the Killers, the Arctic Monkeys or the Wombats for you, on demand, isn't part of that equation.

If you fancy coming down to Telfords, I recommend you check the website. Sometimes they put wedding bands on. Some other times, though, Jez - the fish-gobbling owner - let's me stick some of my favourite shit on, which is why I've been able to book 60ft Dolls, Coldplay, Mclusky, Murry the Hump, Sons of Thunder, the Soft-Hearted Scientists, the Pipettes, bravecaptain, the Crimea, the Hot Puppies, Crosbi, Khagool, Akira the Don, glow, the Mams, the Automatic, the Keys etc. etc. over the years.

It's free to get in on a Friday before 9pm, and somewhere in the region of £4.00 afterwards. It's probably got a slightly older audience than most venues... but I like that. The grey-haired bastards invented punk, rock and roll and hip hop. Remember that the next time you diss a balding, slightly over weight, hairy-armed DJ for not playing the Ting Tings, won't you?

You can find playlists for the Friday nights at: myspace.com/petsoundsuk

Yes. But I'm not ever doing a wedding again. Not after I ruined my mate Chris's. That was Dave Doubledecks' fault for hiring me a faulty P.A. though, but I will shoulder the guilt, and the memory of the beautiful bride's tear-stained face, for the rest of eternity.

My only proviso when it comes to DJ'ing gigs is that the audience you're booking me to play in front of have broad musical tastes. I'm quite likely to play Chicago, the Clash, Curiosity Killed the Cat, Caravan and Captain Beefheart. You may have noticed by now that I have, what some might call, a strange musical affectation, in that I only DJ bands and artists beginning with the letter 'C'. Other DJ's specialise in their chosen genres; I specialise in a chosen letter. It's my 'thing'.

I'm very keen to get out and DJ some new places this year [2008 for those of you reeling in shock at the update]. I'm not expensive and I am good. In fact, the beat-matching thing in the previous answer is more or less out of date, when I choose it to be so. If you're interested in booking me, please e-mail me at:

themysterytour@gmail.com

You will rue the day you ever asked me that! Oh, you didn't ask me, did you? I'm actually asking myself... err... how sad.

The Immediate were the band that I played guitar and sang for between 1992 and early 1997. I tell everyone we were shit, but - deep inside - I keep hoping that someone will try and kickstart a revival... James, the landscape gardener? Barry from Crewe? Ophelie... beautiful Ophelie? Nah, no one was interested then, and they still ain't interested now.

You don't get away that easily, though...

Here's a brief-ish potted history.

In the beginning was a rehearsal room in Back Alley Music in Mold. A spry, young thing called Duncan Farmer, under the illusion that he was a 'drummer', knew that he could get some cheap rehearsal time there because he worked downstairs in the record shop. He also lived with one of the owners. A man called Ernie. I think he still owes Ernie a lot of backdated rent. Duncan didn't have any friends, apart from a keyboard playing goon called Simon Penketh who used to tuck his shirt into his trousers.

Duncan and Simon were vaguely aware that some of the people who had bullied them in school played proper instruments like the 'guitar' and 'bass guitar'.

Stop! STOP! STOP!!!!

You know one thing that really pisses me off, now, in my grown-up life, working for the man? It's no mark bands who send me extensive biographies that they think will be so amusing, they will distract from the fetid shiteness of their music; and, here I am, doing exactly the same thing. Baaaah! Baaaah!

It's not like we did anything remotely interesting in the seven years we were together. However, once I've finished this website, I will make a little Immediate mini-site... just cos I want to, okay? But I won't burden you with it now. Deal? Good.

Here's a couple of our tunes. They're not entirely without merit.

Praying for Sunshine
Seagull

Well, I'm here, aren't I? Richard Harrison who used to play the bass, lives with his wife, Hayley in Prenton, home of Half Man Half Biscuit, and Duncan - the drummer - has just recently returned from living in Ireland and is now engaged.

So, you see, there is life after rock 'n' roll... just not a very exciting one.

I - genuinely - get asked this a lot. Doing a job like mine almost disqualifies you from answering the question. You get that much new, free music that it's difficult to build up the kind of relationship a normal punter will forge with an album that they have bought.

Anyway, in no particular order, and with no concession to cool:

Michael Head and the Strands - Introducing the Strands
Dusty Springfield - Dusty in Memphis
60ft Dolls - the Big Three
the Soft-Hearted Scientists - Uncanny Tales From the Everyday Undergrowth
the Zombies - Oddesey and Oracle
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
Miles Davis - a Kind of Blue
Mclusky - Mclusky do Dallas
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
the Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane
various - the Harder They Come O.S.T.
N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton
Teenage Fanclub - Grand Prix
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Super Furry Animals - Radiator
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
the Cure - Disintegration
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
the Clash - London Calling
Four Tet - Pause
Echo and the Bunnymen - Ocean Rain
the Jam - All Mod Cons
James Brown - Live at the Apollo
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Boo Radleys - Giant Steps
Beatles - Revolver

Ha! Ha! I see that in times gone by I was trying to flog you albums via Amazon. Didn't work, you know. In the last couple of years, I have developed great affection for Future of the Left - Curses, Soft-Hearted Scientists - Take Time to Wonder in a Whirling World, Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac, Van Morrison - Moondance, Caribou, Wire, Akira the Don, The Breeders, XTC, Patti Smith... and a welter of contemporary pop singles I'm too embarrassed to mention here!