Jon Tregenna
In 1999 I sold a car to writer Alan Bennett who came into a VW dealership in St John's Wood, London looking for, ‘...a four door automatic car, small enough for town, big enough for the country, with a boot big enough for a picnic hamper.' Mr Bennett bought a VW Polo 1.6GL automatic in sage green which matched his raincoat. The fact that I was, albeit briefly, a car salesman was a clear indication that my indie pop career was on the wane. A few years earlier my raffish band, Fur-lined had John Peel and Radio One plays, were reviewed in the NME (Love Is Dead was described as 'baffling and oddly enjoyable'), and Liam Gallagher danced at our gigs. Further back in the 1980s I had a similarly fitful career as an actor, the highlight being a rave review from the Guardian critic Nick de Jongh for my performance as an apple salesman in a play (The Scam) in London. I also went down in history as the first body to be cut from a car in Casualty, and played the character Julian in the classic Welsh TV comedy, C'mon Midffild.
I moved back to my home town of Llanelli in 2000 after a hungry young BBC script editor (who later morphed into the celebrated playwright Gary Owen), found a script I'd written in a slush pile. This led to several years storylining and writing scripts for drama series for BBC, ITV and S4C, as well as a period spent story-lining the BBC's longest running soap, Pobol y Cwm.
Cowbois Ac Injans, based on my experiences in the car trade, was a Celtic Film Festival and Welsh BAFTA-winning S4C series. Co-created and written with my sister Catherine Tregenna, it ran for 2 seasons in 2006-2007. Between 2009 and 2012 I created over 100 videos for the David Garland Jones Youtube comedy channel.
Cowbois Ac Injans, based on my experiences in the car trade, was a Celtic Film Festival and Welsh BAFTA-winning S4C series. Co-created and written with my sister Catherine Tregenna, it ran for 2 seasons in 2006-2007. Between 2009 and 2012 I created over 100 videos for the David Garland Jones Youtube comedy channel.
In 2010 I relocated to Laugharne, the 'strangest town in Wales' as described by Dylan Thomas. I scripted an eBook Dylan Thomas: The Road to Milk Wood (BBC 2014); contributed an essay to Dylan Thomas: A Centenary Celebration (Bloomsbury 2014), and co-created (with artist Marc Rees) Raw Material: Llareggub Revisited (National Theatre Wales/BBC 2014, pic above), which was subsequently developed into a Digital Arts project for The Space in December 2014. Raw Material made The Guardian's Alfred Hickling's 'Top 10 Theatre Of 2014'.
In 2014, I acted for the first time in many years appearing as Sinbad Sailors in Under Milk Wood (BBC 2014, directed by Pip Broughton) & 4th Drowned in the big screen version directed by Kevin Allen and starring Rhys Ifans (Ffatti Ffilms 2014). Click the pic above to see the trailer.
I also created the Laugharne Lines website (click pic below)... full of curious tales, which won a grant in 2021 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
I also created the Laugharne Lines website (click pic below)... full of curious tales, which won a grant in 2021 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Back to the present...
I create digital and video content for Penderyn Distillery and help run the Penderyn Music Book Prize. I've also written a number of viral videos.
I create digital and video content for Penderyn Distillery and help run the Penderyn Music Book Prize. I've also written a number of viral videos.
Hail Cremation! is a wild Welsh 'psychedlic musical odyssey' based on the life of Dr William Price (above) for National Theatre Wales.
It was set for production in the Newbridge Memo in March 2020 and directed by Adele Thomas. However due to Covid, it's now waiting in a cave with princes and goats, ready to rise again when the shitstorm is over. All info here.
Since May 2020 I created a 'furious, bleakly funny and often offensive' project with Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson called Plague Songs. We created 3 albums, 52 songs and worked with 25 performers. A CD has been released.
Director Ken Loach called it, 'Power stuff. Words and music as angry and disturbing as these present times.'
And Jon Gower in Nation Cymru called it, 'Art as public enquiry.'
And to hear 'Tory Scum, Tory Scum, you are not Tory Scum' on the BBC made it all worthwhile.
It was set for production in the Newbridge Memo in March 2020 and directed by Adele Thomas. However due to Covid, it's now waiting in a cave with princes and goats, ready to rise again when the shitstorm is over. All info here.
Since May 2020 I created a 'furious, bleakly funny and often offensive' project with Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson called Plague Songs. We created 3 albums, 52 songs and worked with 25 performers. A CD has been released.
Director Ken Loach called it, 'Power stuff. Words and music as angry and disturbing as these present times.'
And Jon Gower in Nation Cymru called it, 'Art as public enquiry.'
And to hear 'Tory Scum, Tory Scum, you are not Tory Scum' on the BBC made it all worthwhile.
Thank you for reading. If you want to get in touch, please use the contact page or email jontregenna1@gmail.com
Jon Tregenna
Laugharne
March 2021
Jon Tregenna
Laugharne
March 2021