The Pro’s Playlist: Pendulum’s Guitarist, Rocking out to riding flat out
Welcome to episode three of The Pro’s Playlist a series where we usually delve into the musical tastes of the peloton’s more musically minded riders. Where we chat about how maybe, just maybe, music and cycling collide. From how music can either fire them up for racing or calm themselves down after a day that’s disappointed, to how a good tune can bring back memories of an epic day out. In this episode, though, we chat with someone outside of the pro peloton, but someone who many will know of partial to a bit of loud music or Welsh language Tour coverage.
Ain’t Twitter brilliant at times! That’s not a question; well, it is, but a rhetorical one. As much as any of the social media sites can be a place of whinging, moaning, and negativity, they can also turn out to be one heck of a helpful resource and, on the odd occasion, throwing up the quirky, unexpected delight. Including connections, you’d never expect to make. Twitter delivered precisely that a few weeks back after we here at CyclingTips, I posted the first installment of the The Pro’s Playlist series.
In that inaugural episode, Lukas Postlberger included a couple of Pendulum tunes in his list. A few tweets and likes later, the lead guitarist, Peredur ap Gwynedd of the aforementioned Australian drum and bass group, agreed to have a chat and build a playlist too
I can hear you now; why the heck would the lead guitarist in an international adored band give two hoots about throwing a playlist together for a cycling site. Well, those who live in Wales and are keen on watching cycling will probably already know. For the rest of us, it probably comes as a surprise that Perry’s part-time gig is as a commentator for Welsh language TV when the Tour and Giro roll around each year. Yep, Perry’s love beyond getting on stage to thousands of Pendulum fans is cycling.
I’m going to go on record as saying I absolutely loved recording this interview; as good as it is chatting to pro riders, it was an absolute blast to speak to someone who I would have previously thought outside the bubble of cycling. Perry is clearly one passionate cyclist; his turbo set up amongst his platinum and gold discs shows where his love of cycling lies within his life.
Perry’s stories of leaving the tour bus and his bandmates behind to ride thousands of miles between gigs while on Tour in Europe made me smile, his giddy exuberance of how eight years on from his first Tour de France, he still can’t believe quite what he does during July. It was a pleasure to spend what turned out to be well over an hour just geeking out.
As for his musical tastes, as you may guess, it’s pretty eclectic. I’m sorry to say that there aren’t any Natalie Imbruglia (an artist he used to back for) tracks included, but there is one by Scottish legends My Bloody Valentine, which in my book makes any playlist that much more blinding. This is a playlist worth downloading, sticking on and using to pump yourself up to for that bike ride, race or turbo session.
Huge thanks to Perry for his time.
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