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Christian Saunders follows Rachel Trezise on tour with Midasuno

Dial M for Merthyr
On Tour with Midasuno
Rachel Trezise


Parthian
£7.99 Paperback
ISBN 1905762127


Part autobiography, part social commentary, part music business exposé and part revealing insight into the slipstream of modern post-industrial south Wales, this is the latest offering from award-winning novelist Rachel Trezise. The primary subject-matter here is young, highly-rated Merthyr Tydfil rock band Midasuno, who made such an impression on Trezise when she saw them play in a Rhondda club that she went on a ‘toilet circuit’ (i.e. very small, no-frills venues) tour with them and wrote a book about the experience. For an unsigned band to have a book written about them by an established writer (or by anyone, for that matter) is rare, but if anyone deserves the treatment it is Midasuno. Despite sharing stages with the likes of successful Welsh exports Lostprophets and Funeral For a Friend and making noises in all the right places, they have yet to achieve more than modest, underground success, and still lack any kind of major-label backing. By all accounts this is more the result of internal wrangles, ill-advised business moves, and plain bad luck, than any lack of talent or work ethic. In their honour Trezise has managed to produce a warts-and-all account of the struggles faced by a group of
small-town boys trying desperately to make good.

   The prose itself is full of Trezise’s trademark grittiness, unflinching
criticism and scathing wit, and is perpetually tinged with an air of self-deprecation that regularly belies her pride in her working-class roots. She explains how her disaffected youth, love of rock music, and yearning to escape the oppressive sense of isolation and alienation so prominent in Valleys life led her to become a writer in the first place, in the same way as those very things led the members of Midasuno to pick up their instruments and start a band. In her words, ‘at its most basic the quest to become a celebrity – a rock star, a big-time writer or artist – is an escape route out of the domicile of the taskmaster’.

   Trezise is obviously a devoted fan of Midasuno and their music, so at times her objectivity can be questioned. She also seems just a bit too eager to blow her own trumpet on occasion, informing us several times that she is, in fact, an award-winning novelist. She even helpfully provides us with the blurb from her aforementioned award-winning novel, along with a brief synopsis, and indulges in name-dropping wherever possible. Unfortunately her celebrity acquaintances are hardly rock gods, and come in the form of Justin Hawkins from The Darkness and Ginger from The Wildhearts. Also, some of her facts are slightly skewed. A prime example of this appears as early as page 13 where she knowledgeably informs us that Bon Jovi’s breakthrough album Slippery When Wet was their second opus, when it was, in fact, their third (following 7800 degrees F and their eponymous debut, fact fans), before going on to describe the state of New Jersey as ‘the band’s densely industrialized hometown’. Which is a bit like saying that the Manic Street Preachers hail from Gwent, an ex-mining village.

   It is clear that Trezise likes to nurture a rebellious image, and inexplicably, she delights in recounting the tale of her desperate mother approaching her local paper for help after Trezise ran away from home as a teenager, resulting in a ‘Come Home Rachel’ front-page headline, of which Trezise ‘was impressed by her own anarchism’, bizarrely comparing herself in a positive light to Duff McKagan of Guns ‘n’ Roses fame. Most disturbingly, elsewhere she revels in describing her experiences of self-harming. This is one of the things that makes Dial M for Merthyr appear cynical and slightly contrived in places, as if the author was trying just a little too hard to be a bona fide misfit rock chick. With scars to prove it.

   Minor grievances aside, this remains an entertaining and powerfully written journey through the rock scene’s dark underbelly as seen through the eyes of a true rebel. Trezise and a handful of hardcore fans firmly believe that Midasuno are destined for greatness. The rest of the rock community, and, it appears, the band themselves, remain unconvinced. Only time will tell. But ultimately, this isn’t a book about Midasuno, it is a book about Rachel Trezise, who is without doubt one of the finest young writers to emerge from Wales in recent years.