L?AUFORD CRIPPS
The new trio for 2022/23 of Wynford Jones, Laurence Eddy and Geoff Cripps has musical connections and roots which stretch back into the last century and in particular their involvement with the folk/rock band The Chartists.

The Chartists were originally formed in 1979 to work on Wynford Jones’ retelling in song of the original Chartists’ march on Newport in 1839 – working men from the valleys protesting and demanding democratic rights that many now take for granted. This concept piece became an album and was broadcast in entirety on BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio 2. It also became the soundtrack in 1984 of the BBC Wales documentary film of the striking miners’ reconstruction of that march. Fittingly The Chartists’ second album “Cause for
Complaint” , released in 1985, was their reaction to that strike which changed forever the valleys communities which had informed their art and creative work. “Cause for Complaint” was licensed to Hypertension Records Germany and the band toured there to promote the release with one date being the support act to Melissa Etheridge in Stadtpark Hamburg.

The Chartists disbanded in 1991 and Wynford, Laurence and Geoff went on their own musical journeys – including Wynford & Laurence running The Platform Folk Club in the Ynysddu Hotel and performing together as Lauford. Geoff was one of the founder members of Allan Yn Y Fan in 1996, with whom he toured extensively in the UK and internationally, whilst releasing six acclaimed albums between 2003 and December 2018.

At the start of 2022 they rekindled their friendship and their mutual respect for each other’s music making skills. Thirty-one years on from when they last performed together, they are delighting in giving a new focus to the many fine original songs composed by Wynford, and the response to these songs from audiences in folk clubs across South Wales and beyond.