Encounters of the Welsh Kind

Lleuwen sent me a youtube of Ryan & Ronnie; that and 'The Telegramme' looking for the Breton of the year got me thinking how fortunate I've been in my encounters. Before I left Cymru/Wales in 1979 when I was 28, my son's age now, I'd met and chatted to and in most cases drank with (this is off the top of my head): Ryan Davies; John Charles; Carwyn James; Meredith Edwards; Gwynfor Evans; Phil Williams; John Tripp; Eurfyl ap Gwilym; Ffred Francis; Dafydd Iwan; Emrys Roberts; Professor Sir Bernard Knight; Hywel Francis; Hywel Williams; Harri Webb; Glyn James; Cayo Evans; Meic Stevens; Robert Griffiths; John Jenkins; Claude Stanfield; Terry Mahoney; Winifred Ewing; Margaret Bain née Ewing; Philip Madoc; Huw Jones; Elinor Bennett; Dafydd Wigley; Dafydd Elis Thomas; Max Boyce; John Osmond; Hywel Davies; Owen Money; Eddie Thomas; Howard Winstone; Bleddyn Hancock; Phil Richards; Vaughan Roderick; Gareth Meils; Aled Eurig; Gareth Foster;  Syd Morgan; and Ray Smith. This may be to you an apparently flagrant exercise in name dropping but for me each name has a context that brings back memories of my early adulthood and a different life, not to mention one that turned on a different axis. In Cymru/Wales my balance was political/cultural/social, here the balance is social/cultural/political, couldn't be anything else really my being a professional barman of 30 years; I've met Alan Stivell; Alan Simon; Dan ar Bras; Glenmor; Youenn Gwernig; les Freres Morvan; Soig Siberil to name but a few iconic Breton musicians who have passed through the portals; plus a small number of regionally active politicians; with one old friend/customer who has successfully made the journey to Paris & Brussels currently employed in Hollande's camp doing his best to oust Sarkozy. Knowing that I'm Welsh he once told me that he liases with Julie Morgan on the European stage, they being in the same Labour/Socialist bloc it's to be expected, but as I consider her Party not to stand up for my country, my politics are defended in Europe by a different Welsh lady whom I once met through Syd Morgan in Mortagne-sur- Gironde and whose name is Jill Evans.