Cerys Matthews at Union Chapel

Tonight I went to see Cerys Matthews play at the Union Chapel up in Islington. I've never seen Cerys before although I've enjoyed her music both with Catatonia and her solo work. I like her voice, her phrasing, her words and I like that she sings in Welsh as well as in English. She's promoting her excellent new album, 'Don't Look Down' which was released in both an English and a Welsh version ('Paid Edrych I Lawr') which, she proudly told us, went straight to No 1 in the Welsh chart. I always had good intentions of learning God's language when I lived in Wales but learned a mere four words so I, naturally, got the English version of the album.

Cerys came on stage alone, sat down ('hope you don't mind' she said) with her guitar and started singing an old Irish folk song followed by a Welsh song. She said she was going to play music in rough order through her life, starting off with the folk songs she learned as a young girl through to the present day, and that's what she did. She was joined on stage by two other musicians playing various instruments, with Cerys on guitar. She mentioned she'd been in a band and travelled the world but didn't mention the name, Catatonia, and the '90s were represented by 'Road Rage' - I'd secretly hoped for more Catatonia songs, but was happy with her powerful version of the song.

She then took us to Tennessee where she recorded her first solo album, 'Cockahoop', and then songs from 'Never Say Goodbye'. Chatting away between songs, telling us she was going to do lots of name-dropping because she didn't do enough of that, Cerys came across as a very down to earth person, proud of being Welsh, telling us about doing a poetry programme for the BBC and dropping in a reference to being in the jungle (she was on 'I'm A Celebrity' a few years back). And then she was joined on stage by two additional guitarists and she stood up to sing songs from the latest album. These worked particularly well and showed a nice progression from the earlier albums. She then left the stage and returned for the obligatory encore that started off with another Irish song before segueing into the glorious 'Strange Glue' from her Catatonia days (one of my favourites) and finished with 'Arglwydd Dyma Fi' from her first album.

I'm quietly delighted that I've now seen Cerys Matthews live. She's a lovely lady and played a good selection of songs - kudos to her for playing old folk songs that (probably) no-one in the hall knew rather than just playing songs from her albums, but she pulled it off with her voice and personality. Favourite songs were 'Road Rage' and 'Strange Glue' (I feed my demons as well, Cerys), 'Chardonay', 'Ruby' and, from the new album, the great 'Arlington Way' and 'A Captain Needs A Ship'.

After the show Cerys was doing a signing so, along with a load of other people, I hung around for the chance to meet her and get her to sign something - I'd bought her 'Moon Songs' ep of out-takes from the latest album when I'd arrived at the chapel so that will do perfectly. And meet her I did. She signed the sleeve of the ep for me, worried for a moment that she'd spelled my name right when I said I wasn't Welsh, and was very nice.

If you get the chance to see Cerys on this tour, go along and have a great evening out - I'm still smiling. I will definitely see her again when she next plays London. Thank you for a great show, Cerys!