Cerys Matthews told Soccer AM about her passion for Luton Town and 16th Century Gregorian chanting!
A woman with many varied passions!
Singer Cerys Matthews has waited 12 years to collect her Soccer AM hat-trick ball, but she was finally able to pick up the coveted signed football this weekend.
Like Trevor Nelson, who also had a dozen years since his last appearance, Matthews has been relentlessly busy in that time.
Since her last appearance she has released eight albums (four solo), become a reality TV star and been voted 'Sexiest Female in Rock'.
Her new album Don't Look Down has also been released in Welsh as Paid Edrych I Lawr - an unusual idea, even for Welsh artists.
"I set up my own record company and I can do what I want now," she explained.
"I decided to release it in English and Welsh. Two different discs in two different languages.
"They are the same songs on each disc. I did have to change some of the sayings but I think it works."
Patriotic
Matthews is, without a doubt, a patriotic Welshwoman.
"I'm born Welsh and passionate about it, like I am about a lot of things that make life different. I love variables, that's why I like a bit of football as well."
Matthews is such a big football fan she has organised her upcoming tour dates so she can still get down to Kenilworth Road to see Luton Town.
"I have got an agent now and I've told him to try and get me shows in places where I can go and watch the football. He has managed to organise it so at Easter I can go and watch Luton Town playing Altrincham."
America
With the San Francisco 49ers' cheerleaders on the show it was only right to ask Matthews about her time living in the States and how sports across the pond compare with football.
"I started going to the sports over there but they do all the tailgating and eating fried chicken and it is more about the event than the sport," she explained. "They keep stopping the NFL and you think 'carry on, carry on!'
"The baseball is like a day out. You sit in the sun watching the Nashville Sounds, eating doughnuts, drinking cheap beer.
"But the sport mustn't be fun enough because they stop the game and get people in the crowd to put on a toilet suit and race around the stadium. It's not football is it?"
As she's such a big football fan we allowed the musician to pick our song for the Premier League goals on the show. You could say her choice was an unusual one...!
"This is an example of 16th Century Gregorian chanting," Matthews said, introducing Crucifixus by Caldara to the bemusement of Max and Helen.
As well as rock, reggae and soul, Matthews has earned a reputation on her radio show for going for playing the unusual.
"I like to go off road when I do the show," she said. "They give me a lot of freedom. I do mainly play reggae and rock and soul, and I love old blues, but this is an extreme form of the music I play.
"In fact when I started I played some 10th Century Hildegard von Bingen. You could hear the tumble weed rolling through the listeners' living rooms!"
Needless to say Caldara's composition made for a memorable highlights reel!
