Pussy Cat – A History of Dubious Taste

Be Llŷrious

This post was prompted by a message from mine and Llŷr’s old mate Martin.

“Got any old French music I can listen to? I’d usually ask Al but he’s not logged in anymore.”

Al or Alun was how many people referred to Llŷr; it was mentioned at his memorial service that he had this dual identity, and Alun was the name by which I was first introduced to him.

He used Alun at work because he couldn’t be bothered with having to spell or explain the name Llŷr, and so that’s how many people knew him.

When I last went to Glastonbury and met up with all the people he had met there previously, they all called him Alun or Al.

“Do none of you call him Llŷr?” I asked.

“Why would we call him that?” they replied.

Realising what he’d done, I didn’t try to explain either.

In his younger days, Llŷr had spent some time living and working in France; as such he was pretty fluent in French, and had, of course, jumped at the chance to learn about their musical heritage whilst he was there too. Hence him being the touchstone for those of us, like Martin, who wanted to know more.

A former friend of mine, a teacher, once asked if we could put together a CD of French music for her to play to her class. When she called me to remind me she needed it the next day, I hastily cobbled together something which included Edith Piaf, Vanessa Paradis and Kylie’s Je ne sais pas pourquoi. Llŷr was furious when I told him, and I don’t doubt for a second that he’d have done a far, far better job than I had.

Which is why Martin now has this gaping hole into which Llŷr would feed la musique Francais, and my ability to assist can be seriously and legitimately questioned.

But I do have some stuff, not least an album of the finer moments of a band called Pussy Cat called, simply, and brilliantly French-ly, Boof! The Complete Pussy Cat 1966 – 1969.

Here’s something from it which bears more than a passing resemblance to The Small Faces’ Sha-La-La-La-Lee: