Born 80 (yes, 80 – how old does that make you feel?) years ago today was John Cale, the most interesting and musically gifted of the Velvet Underground (among many other things). He was born in Garnant, Carmarthenshire, in the Amman valley, to an English-speaking coal miner and a Welsh-speaking primary school teacher. Something of a musical prodigy, he was playing viola in the National Youth Orchestra of Wales at the age of 13, and that was just the beginning of a long career that has taken in rock, classical, avant garde, experimental and electronic music. Here, to mark his 80th birthday, is one of his most overtly Welsh pieces, the rather beautiful Child's Christmas in Wales, inspired of course by Dylan Thomas, but we can forgive him that. Listen out for Lowell George's slide guitar...
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And he's touring the UK in July...
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