...in which a very bored-sounding Gruff refuses to answer pretty much every question with more than two words. Listen to Jonathon Ross struggle to make the interview interesting as he hears his listeners disappearing in their thousands, mildly insulting and interrupting Gruff again and again in the process.
The Jonathon Ross Show is a normally very entertaining Saturday-morning show on the BBC's Radio 2. Gruff was invited to take part, but it sounds like 10am was too early for him.
[Listen to this interview (streaming audio)]
Producer: ...you know me, I'm a northern soul fan.
Jonathon Ross: Yeah, yeah. Let's ask Gruff, Gruff Rhys is with us from the Super Furry Animals. Gruff, are you a soul fan?
Gruff Rhys: Uhh, aye.
J: Well you're a soulful kind of guy, I can tell from the sideburns.
(Gruff laughs unsurely)
J: You've got the sideburns of a trubador if you don't mind me saying so.
G: Ah, thank you very much.
J: It might be because you're sitting there with a guitar. You're going to play for us live in just a minute, do you want us to play a track first, so you can get the sound..?
G: Ah, go on then, aye.
J: OK. What are you going to play for us then?
G: I'm going to play song called Fragile Happiness off the album. But I'm afraid it's over two minutes long...
(Jonathon Ross was earlier waging a one-man battle for singles to be shorter than two minutes.)
J: Well that's OK, I'll make an exception for you because you're playing live and you don't have a band with you.
G: OK, It's not a single or anything...
J: But you know what I'm saying about that long single deal, don't you?
G: Aye, totally. We've had... I think we've had two... hits under two minutes...
J: Yeah well that's good, that's to be encouraged. Maybe I'm being too stern, maybe three minutes would be better. You know, it's like the movies drag on for too long, and don't you think sometimes, "This is just self-indulgence?"
G: (Sounding bored) Ahhhummm. You know. Pfffff... um..
J: You don't have to enter this, don't worry, it's alright, I know you're worried know that you're going to get tied down to something here and people are going to say, "He said he would keep them under two minutes and now he's broken his promise..."
(Laughter)
J: We were debating your name earlier, because we weren't sure how to pronounce it, and we wanted to be... sensitive to that, because I realise you guys are quite fiercely proud of your Welsh roots, aren't you?
G: Um... we'd be proud of being anything. We happen to be Welsh.
J: Yeah... but... to the extent that... the Welsh language issue, which we kind of talked about earlier on, we had a woman on the phone from Cardiff - was that Joy? No it was Julie from Cardiff - but I noticed, I didn't realise you had bands called... there was a band called Ffa Coffi Pawb. Is that right?
G: Almost.
J: How do you pronounce that?
G: Um, you don't really want me to pronounce it on radio.
J: Come on, why, why not? (Suddenly realises) Is it a rude word?
G: Yes...
J: I didn't realise that! OK, I apologise... What about the Welsh techno underground thing An-harrafin (Anhrefn)?
G: Um, no, that was a punk band, we weren't in that... uh, Guto was in it actually...
J: How do you pronounce that?
G: (mumbling about Guto)... Anhrefn.
J: Anharefn. And what does that mean?
G: Disorder.
J: See, it's a great language, if only you can work out which words are swearwords. And what does Pawbyl Cwym (?) mean?
G: Um... (laughs)
J: That was like a daytime soap was it?
G: Yeah...
J: Was it "People Come" or something like that?
G: Um... yeah... I mean, the actual meaning's pretty bland.
J: Gruff, can I just stop you there, do you actually speak Welsh or are you just faking it, because I get the feeling you're being deliberately evasive here.
G: Yeah... it was just a good career move.
J: I understand what's going on here. He doesn't want to be known just for his welshness. It's like if we had Graham Norton on, we wouldn't just talk about gay issues, would we. You know, people don't want to be defined just by the one thing.
P: He's known for his music...
J: Of course he is! But I was just... I'm curious, I'm always keen to learn, and I was thinking maybe the Welsh isn't beyond me.
P: It's like you have a big stick and you're poking him.
G: I was brought up speaking Welsh, so.
J: And do your family, when you're alone together with your family, do you mainly speak Welsh, is that the first language at home?
G: Absolutely. And in the band as well. And, you know, with my girlfriend.
J: Is it still, I mean, how popular, how widespread is the Welsh language there in Wales, beacuse I had the feeling that it was slowly dying out.
G: Um, I mean it's very tough, because there's a lot of social problems intertwined with the language issues, you know. It's around a fifth of the population that still speak Welsh.
J: Obviously I'm not saying this is something you would disagree with, but it would be such a tremendous shame if it isn't given a spark and kept going because it's such a wonderful thing. To have another language.
G: Absolutely, we need to, it's still not an official language within Wales, it needs a proper Welsh language act.
J: Well let's get our weight behind it! I'll be there for you. I can't help but think I would damage the cause, but I would be very glad to sign any petition you care to bring in next time you come in.
(Plays a George Harrison record)
J: Ah, you can't beat a bit of George Harrison. We've got Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals with us, he's going to play live right now... but just chatting to Gruff, I didn't realise the album had come out on DVD...
G: Oh aye.
J: How many films are there on there?
G: 18 films, 16 remixes, held together by 40 wormholes, so you have to travel through these wormholes, and you get a piece of music-
J: Maybe I'll stick to the CD version! Maybe I'm not ready for that yet, that's for the youngsters.
(Gruff plays "Fragile Happiness")
J: Wow, not just a great sound, but also, hats off for the whistling at the end there! That takes a degree of courage that we don't normally see.
G: It's hit and miss really.
J: Yeah, I'll bet it is, but well done! I was surprised, you just went into it like that. I thought there'd be someone coming in to whistle with you.
G: It was fairly short as well, I don't know how long it was.
J: It sounded great, it was fantastic. Where are the rest of the band today?
G: Um, probably in bed.
J: All in bed. Will they be listening in? Would you like to give them a big "shout out" as they say?
G: Well, a big shout going out-
J: How do you pronounce these names? Is it Daffyd?
G: Daffyd, Cian, Guto...
J: Is Guto german or something? It sounds like a german name.
G: No, Guto is another form of Gruff.
J: Oh, okay, and Huw.
G: Huw, yeah.
J: Wow. All listening at home. We hope so.
G: Aye, it's a long shot.
J: Who does the whistling when you're onstage? Do you do that?
G: I try to, yeah. It's pretty tough, you know, over those loud guitars.
J: That means you're a multi-instrumentalist, you know that.
G: Um.
J: Well, thanks for coming in, we're big fans of the band. I know you're going over to the states later this year, so good luck there. I hope it works well for you. Thanks for coming in.
G: Cheers.