ABSTRACT
The movement from skiffle to electronic rock music in Wales was somewhat difficult and halting, due in large part to the involvement of the chapel in popular music-making in Wales. Despite the centrality of the language movement to the development of Welsh popular music, the linguistic border-crossings which began at the end of the 1960s were not perceived as a threat to the future of the Welsh language. Live performance had been a vital tradition throughout the development of a Welsh pop, and in the 1960s, as that tradition moved from the chapel to the dance hall and to the National Eisteddfod; one band in particular was of central importance: Y Blew. The majority of Y Blew's live set was translations of English hits, but their self-managed publicity campaigns were unlike any Wales had seen so far and as a result they drew consistently large audiences on the two tours they took through Wales.
