Cerys is the lead singer of the excellent Welsh band, CATATONIA.
Catatonia first started back in 1993, when Cerys was spotted by Mark Roberts (guitarist/songwriter) busking
in Cardiff high street. Mark happened to have the same guitar gauge as Cerys was missing, they got talking,
and Catatonia were started.
Their first release was the "For Tinkerbell" EP, in September 1993. They then released
"Hooked", in May the following year. The next one was in August 1994. They recorded "Whale",
for the Rough Trade Singles Club. They went on to release "Bleed", on the Nursery label, followed
by a fan club only, limited edition of 1000 copies single at Christmas 1995 (A side="Blow The Millenium, Blow", B side="Beautiful Sailor")
By this time they had signed up to Geoff Travis' label, Blanco Y Negro. They went
on to release "Sweet Catatonia", "Lost Cat", "You've Got A Lot To Answer For", and "Bleed". These
reached 61st, 41st, 35th and 46th respectively. The debut album "Way Beyond Blue" was released between these,
and peaked at no.40, a slightly disappointing postition
for the band, but they wern't to give up hope of making the big time.
Although gaining praise for their excellent live
performances, the band were still yet to make the big breakthrough in the charts, and were more
renowned for Cerys' excessive drinking habits, rather than her fantastic voice.
September 1997 saw the release of yet another great single, "I Am The Mob". This reached no.40, still
a lower postition than the band knew they could achieve.
But the January release of "Mulder And Scully" changed everything. The single gained massive amounts
of radio play, and reached an excellent position of no.3 in the British charts. The success of the single
set them up nicely for the imminent release of their 2nd album, "International Velvet". It arrived
on the 2nd of February, and was extremely popular, although it didn't immediately top the charts. The next single,
"Road Rage", which reached an impressive no.5, encouraged more sales of the Brit Awards nominated album, and it
eventually shot to number 1. By the end of the year, Catatonia had well and truly established themselves as
one of the best bands in Britain, and Cerys as the face of 1998.
The releases of 2 more singles from the album, "Strange Glue" and "Game On" further enhanced their
reputation, and the expectation levels have risen for 1999, which will see the March 29th release of the next single
"Dead From The Waist Down", and the new album "Equally Cursed And Blessed" on April 12th.
She was born on the 11th of April, 1969.
Cerys is pronouced "Kerris", and is a Welsh name meaning "love".
She speaks Welsh, English, French, and Spanish fluently. She also speaks "a bit" of Catalan.
When Mark first met Cerys, she was playing "Llorona", a Spanish folk song.
On the 2 Crai singles, "For Tinkerbell" and "Hooked", Cerys was billed as "C Anazapela".....
.....She claims that Anazapela was her childhood imaginary friend.
Cerys picked up the Catatan while she worked as a nanny in Spain.
She supports Cardiff's number 1 team, Manchester United. :-)
She has A-Levels in Typing and appliqué, Biology, French and Welsh.
In between earning her A-Levels, she spent a while studying Psychiatric nursing.
Her father was a doctor, in orthopaedics, at Morriston Hospital.
