David Sylvian was the singer in New Romantic 80s pop band Japan. RS Thomas was Wales's premier poet from the 1940s until the early 90s (Dylan Thomas having bought one too many rounds in the 1940s). He was famous for: being a clergyman who mourned the absence of God and for his vehement support for Welsh cultural and political nationalism, particularly blaming Anglophone Wales for selling the pass.
How are they connected?
Sylvian, who's taken the Scott Walker route from pop fizz to auteur obscurity, has recorded an album inspired by Thomas, named Manafon after Thomas's first parish, a quiet little place just inside the border in North Wales. Weirdest cultural encounter ever?
Oddly though, Sylvian describes Thomas as 'the British poet', which would infuriate RS - one of the grumpiest people I've ever met. Sylvian's interest seems to centre on his perceived similarity to the former pop star, as a man who went his own way and pursued his interests without concern for 'mainstream' culture. Whether it's any good, I shall have to discover. I don't suppose anyone's bought it for me as a Christmas gift! Here's a taster - RS is the craggy-looking chap at the end.
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