# Coolest person to visit Wales?



## Brockway (Jan 31, 2006)

For me it's a toss up between Gloria Swanson, Montgomery Clift, John F Kennedy and Kraftwerk. How about you?


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## zenie (Jan 31, 2006)

I visited Pwhelli(is that how you spell it?)  in 1992 and 93 therefore the coolest person has already been


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## RubberBuccaneer (Jan 31, 2006)

Bob Marley

Velvet Underground.

Jesus ( well Glastonbury was West Wales at the time )

Charlie Chaplin.


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## Brockway (Jan 31, 2006)

You can chuck in Prince Buster as well.

I thought the Velvet Underground non-appearance in Cardiff, where they had to fight their way out, didn't actually involve any of the original members of the group. This fag end version of Velvet Underground played Lampeter University too.


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## RubberBuccaneer (Jan 31, 2006)

Brockway said:
			
		

> You can chuck in Prince Buster as well.
> 
> I thought the Velvet Underground non-appearance in Cardiff, where they had to fight their way out, didn't actually involve any of the original members of the group. This fag end version of Velvet Underground played Lampeter University too.



I seem to remember a bootleg saying they performed at St.Davids early 70's ;late 60's. 
It could of course have been anywhere , just going for the Welsh market.


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## llantwit (Jan 31, 2006)

Paul Robeson's gotta be on the list.


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## Brockway (Jan 31, 2006)

llantwit said:
			
		

> Paul Robeson's gotta be on the list.



My favourite black icons to have visited Wales are Marcus Garvey and Jimi Hendrix.


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## RubberBuccaneer (Jan 31, 2006)

llantwit said:
			
		

> Paul Robeson's gotta be on the list.


I just finished a book about Cardiff and the Spanish Civil War and he sang a song at one of the IB funerals  ( in Cardiff )

Marcus Garvey - Way?


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## Gavin Bl (Jan 31, 2006)

Surely we are a net exporter of 'the cool'.


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## Brockway (Jan 31, 2006)

Gavin Bl said:
			
		

> Surely we are a net exporter of 'the cool'.



I'd say that as a nation we are heroically uncool.

Other cool visitors:

Marlene Dietrich lived in Cardiff for a week in 1973 at the Angel Hotel.

Roy Orbison did a week of gigs at the Double Diamond club in Caerphilly in 1975.   

_Psycho_ star Anthony Perkins got busted for possessing drugs in Cardiff in 1989.


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## rhod (Jan 31, 2006)

Did anyone catch the Robeson exhibition when it toured last year? I saw it at the old library in Cardiff & it was a very moving experience. I hadn't appreciated just how gifted he was in college both academically & in sport. The level of racism he had to endure (often from his own team) was quite staggering. He is rated as one of  the best college football players of all time. All this before he made his mark internationally as an actor, singer and peace activist.

Damn cool !


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## Gentleman Taff (Feb 1, 2006)

Am I being sooo verrry obvious and uncool in suggesting that Nelson Mandela should get a big shout ('n ting).......... and obviously Robeson ("we are all black underground"- I'm paraphrasing of course - natch) is a good shout.......

(What is it about us educated, liberal North Cardiffians and our rispeck for black icons eh, spa? )  

(Pint Tone, when you're ready?)


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## Sweaty Betty (Feb 1, 2006)

What about the pope  

And while we are at it......Mr Glitter  I held his hand at the tender age of 5


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## Gentleman Taff (Feb 1, 2006)

haylz said:
			
		

> What about the pope
> 
> And while we are at it......Mr Glitter  I held his hand at the tender age of 5




Fuckin'  hell how old are you?  Glitter's got to be about 60 aint he?


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## Sweaty Betty (Feb 1, 2006)

Gentleman Taff said:
			
		

> Fuckin'  hell how old are you?  Glitter's got to be about 60 aint he?



Im old enough to be his daughter  

Note to self... refrain from using the word Tender and daughter with refernce
 to glitter


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## LilMissHissyFit (Feb 1, 2006)

Brockway said:
			
		

> I'd say that as a nation we are heroically uncool.
> 
> Other cool visitors:
> 
> ...



Thre double diamond... flippin eck. People still talk about that place


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## rhod (Feb 1, 2006)

Brockway said:
			
		

> Roy Orbison did a week of gigs at the Double Diamond club in Caerphilly in 1975.




Roy Orbison?

Pah - I saw Alvin Stardust at the DD - now there's a legend!


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## RubberBuccaneer (Feb 1, 2006)

If we're having sports and music icons you can have George Best and Gene Vincent and Kurt Cobain.

But I'm fascinated by this Marcus Garvey thing ( tell us Brockway, tell )

Did he nip into a local Spar for some black bin liners and think....mmm...I've got an idea. All started from a small shop on City road.


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## Sweaty Betty (Feb 1, 2006)

LilMissHissyFit said:
			
		

> Thre double diamond... flippin eck. People still talk about that place



You been there too you old tart  

What about the camelot, complete with sticky carpets


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## LilMissHissyFit (Feb 1, 2006)

I dont actually know where it is/was  
I only moved here a few years ago


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## ZIZI (Feb 1, 2006)

Whlst we are on the subject of clubs in Cae, the checkmate is still going and hasn't changed one bit, although I hear now they have a 'pole' for all the up for it gals to do their stuff.    

On the subject of coolest person to visit Wales-Charles Darwin visited  in 1821? year subject to correction. Now there was a cool guy.


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## LilMissHissyFit (Feb 1, 2006)

Ive not been in there either but its still open ( just) they are knocking the whole building down at some point to redevelop the area but theyve been banging on about redeveloping it for the past 5 years and due to form as with everything in Caerphilly nothing ever happens.


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## Brockway (Feb 1, 2006)

RubberBuccaneer said:
			
		

> But I'm fascinated by this Marcus Garvey thing ( tell us Brockway, tell )
> .



Don't know much about it other than he worked on the ships down the docks. Cardiff had its own branch of UNIA by 1919 (whether this was before or after the race riots, I don't know).

Another cool black icon to have visited Wales is Ralph Ellison, the novelist. His book _Invisible Man _ is one of the key African-American texts of the twentieth century. He spent time in Swansea during WW2 whilst serving in the merchant marine and even wrote some short stories with a Welsh setting including: _The Red Cross at Morriston, Swansea S.W._ and _In a Strange Country_. I've read them, he goes on about relating to the Welsh working class more than his fellow white American soldiers.


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## Brockway (Feb 1, 2006)

Talking of writers:

Henry 'Crazy Cock' Miller visited Corwen.   

Allen Ginsberg dropped acid in Wales and then wrote a godawful poem called 'Wales: A Visitation.'

John Steinbeck toured Wales in the Fifties.   

And talking of escape artists:

Houdini escaped from a police cell in Newport in 1905. And he jumped off a bridge in Newport in 1915 and was promptly arrested.


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## RubberBuccaneer (Feb 1, 2006)

Brockway said:
			
		

> Houdini escaped from a police cell in Newport in 1905. And he jumped off a bridge in Newport in 1915 and was promptly arrested.



Nathan Blake did that in 1997


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## RubberBuccaneer (Feb 1, 2006)

Liz Taylor - arguably the most beautifullest woman in the world.

Bollocks she is, it's Sophie Loren being rescued in Blaina.


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## Mrs Magpie (Feb 1, 2006)

Haile Selasse went to school in Swansea.


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## RubberBuccaneer (Feb 1, 2006)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> Haile Selasse went to school in Swansea.



You've set me off now, Garvey, Selasse, Bob Marley, Bob Marleys dad ( ok mot proven ), lost tribe of Israel. It's all coming together.


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## ddraig (Feb 1, 2006)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> Haile Selasse went to school in Swansea.



blydi el!
so i could have been right last night rb


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## ICB (Feb 1, 2006)

Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson during his tour with the Hamiltons in 1802


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## ddraig (Feb 1, 2006)

wow!
byfaith 
about 3 quarters down the page




			
				The Visit of the Emperor of Ethiopia said:
			
		

> One of the first intercessions that came upon the College as a body was when in 1936 Mussolini intended to invade Ethiopia. The College saw what lay behind this scheme of the enemy. Ethiopia, through the influence of the Emperor, was opening in a new way to Evangelical Missions and there was a prospect of widespread evangelisation in many areas.
> 
> If the country was captured it would be the end of the Protestant Evangelical witness there. The college was led into a path of deep intercession for the country. On May 5, 1936, Addis Ababa fell, and their emperor became a fugitive and refugee.
> 
> Although the country was captured, the college never lost faith. The Emperor came to Britain, and then, of all the unlikely things, came to the college








_On your left is Mr and Mrs Howells and their son Samuel, with the Emperor at the Penllergaer school camp._



> The Emperor was moved to hear how Mr.Howells had been called to help the Jewish refugees because as he said, "I am a refugee myself". A few days later he wrote:
> Haile Selassie I
> Elect of God, Emperor of Ethiopia.
> 
> ...


what a tale!


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## RubberBuccaneer (Feb 1, 2006)

Buffalo Bill nmay have had some cool chiefs with him.

Charles Dickens on a speaking tour 

and Oscar Wilde.
* Oscar Wilde visited the Queen Street Hall Exhibition rooms in 1884, but his lecture was " somewhat marred by the Philistine demonstration of some well-known dock boys".


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## Hollis (Feb 1, 2006)

I'm sure Bob Dylan's been to Wales.. so you have your winner.


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## ZIZI (Feb 1, 2006)

LilMissHissyFit said:
			
		

> Ive not been in there either but its still open ( just) they are knocking the whole building down at some point to redevelop the area but theyve been banging on about redeveloping it for the past 5 years and due to form as with everything in Caerphilly nothing ever happens.



Apparently, the indoor skateboard park at the market! has had £350k spent on it! even though they knew the building was going to be knocked down for the 'new top of town redevelopment'. And also if you park anywhere in the town 'illegally' and you see an approaching 'traffic warden' you can literally shake your===== at them cause they can't book you because the mickey mouse outfit that call themselves the council have messed the traffic order up and the police won't book you  because the traffic order is illegal.   anyway, there is a lot to be said about the puppets that are running the council and maybe I will leave that for another thread.


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## ZIZI (Feb 1, 2006)

Hollis said:
			
		

> I'm sure Bob Dylan's been to Wales.. so you have your winner.



No, really, Kylie, has got to be the clear winner.


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## LilMissHissyFit (Feb 1, 2006)

ZIZI said:
			
		

> Apparently, the indoor skateboard park at the market! has had £350k spent on it! even though they knew the building was going to be knocked down for the 'new top of town redevelopment'. And also if you park anywhere in the town 'illegally' and you see an approaching 'traffic warden' you can literally shake your===== at them cause they can't book you because the mickey mouse outfit that call themselves the council have messed the traffic order up and the police won't book you  because the traffic order is illegal.   anyway, there is a lot to be said about the puppets that are running the council and maybe I will leave that for another thread.



Tell me about it and now apparently they cant actually use it anyway  
and do you know they took away the paddling pool in morgan Jones park becuase they didnt want to pay a lifeguard so they put in this 'water playground' but it doesnt work properly becuase the water capacity underneath it is only sufficent to spray for about 30 secs every 10-15 minutes
Yet theyve chucked away a good few thousand turning an ordinary path into the jokingly named 'Tommy cooper walk of fame'

Caerphilly is basically a heap of steaming crap becuase of the ineptitude of the council


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## King Biscuit Time (Feb 1, 2006)

.


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## Brockway (Feb 1, 2006)

RubberBuccaneer said:
			
		

> Buffalo Bill nmay have had some cool chiefs with him.
> 
> Charles Dickens on a speaking tour
> 
> ...



Buffalo Bill visited Rhyl.

Charles Dickens read from _A Christmas Carol _ at the Victoria Hall, Newport in 1869.

Re Oscar Wilde: they waved sunflowers at him.


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## Brockway (Feb 1, 2006)

Hollis said:
			
		

> I'm sure Bob Dylan's been to Wales.. so you have your winner.



He was here in May '66. Came on stage half an hour late, then played a 2 hour set. The first hour was amplified and was greeted with bemusement and a few boos. The second hour was acoustic and appeased the folkies.

How can Bob Dylan be cooler than Gloria Swanson or Haille Sellasie?


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## ddraig (Feb 1, 2006)

don't listen to hollis


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## Hollis (Feb 1, 2006)

Brockway said:
			
		

> He was here in May '66. Came on stage half an hour late, then played a 2 hour set. The first hour was amplified and was greeted with bemusement and a few boos. The second hour was acoustic and appeased the folkies.
> 
> How can Bob Dylan be cooler than Gloria Swanson or Haille Sellasie?



He just is.. It doesn't really matter what he does on stage.


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## Brockway (Feb 1, 2006)

Hollis said:
			
		

> He just is.. It doesn't really matter what he does on stage.



He's a Woodrie Guthrie impersonator but that's another thread.

Some uncool people who have visited Wales: 

Ronald Reagan was in Cardiff in 1948   

Idi Amin went swimming in the Empire Pool, Cardiff, when he was here training with the Ugandan Commonwealth team.   

Rudolf Hess was banged up in Abergavenny.


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## davesgcr (Feb 1, 2006)

The Beatles went to Bangor along with the Maharishi in (I think) 1964 - film "A hard days Night" 

As for uncool - John Redmond / William Haigh ?


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## lewislewis (Feb 1, 2006)

What a great thread!

Bob Dylan is my personal favourite visitor.

Paul Robeson, wow what a guy. 

Idi Amin! 

Haile Selassie!

I had no idea whatsoever, that's crazy.


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## 1927 (Feb 1, 2006)

I think we can now offcially declare this thread closed!


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## Col_Buendia (Feb 2, 2006)

Shame yous have all missed the correct answer, but I'm prepared to share the wisdom with you all now.

Mark Lanegan.

And this thread is NOW officially closed.

(And the over-40 ex-Soul Crew brigade will just have to google it )


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## RubberBuccaneer (Feb 2, 2006)

Col_Buendia said:
			
		

> Shame yous have all missed the correct answer, but I'm prepared to share the wisdom with you all now.
> 
> Mark Lanegan.
> 
> ...



Cheeky fecker, I've ahd the album a *full* one day before it was released (Yeah, 24 four fucking hours )  .

Actually that  is the coolest thing I've done for 25 yrs


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## Col_Buendia (Feb 2, 2006)

RubberBuccaneer said:
			
		

> Cheeky fecker, I've ahd the album a *full* one day before it was released (Yeah, 24 four fucking hours )  .
> 
> Actually that  is the coolest thing I've done for 25 yrs



Fair enough grandad, but was you at the Queens of the Stone Age gig, and did you see him *in person*??

If not I maintain that the thread is closed.


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## RubberBuccaneer (Feb 2, 2006)

Col_Buendia said:
			
		

> Fair enough grandad, but was you at the Queens of the Stone Age gig, and did you see him *in person*??
> 
> If not I maintain that the thread is closed.



QOTSA...the new Quo????  and you call me grandad!


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## ZIZI (Feb 2, 2006)

Ahem!


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## Col_Buendia (Feb 2, 2006)

RubberBuccaneer said:
			
		

> QOTSA...the new Quo????  and you call me grandad!



Fucken fighten talk.

Outside now!

Oh alright then, if you've not heard anything between QOTSA and Quo, it's a fair bet your cool nephew gave you Songs for the Deaf as a Xmas present playfully making fun of your invisible in-ear auditory device...


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