Cerys Matthews OBE

Recognition for a broadcaster who is about so much more than music

“Services to music” is what Cerys Matthews is being recognised for as she is elevated to OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours, having been awarded an MBE back in 2014. And indeed her services to music have long been estimable, both as performer and broadcaster.

But as a keen listener to her Sunday morning show on 6 Music, full of fantastic music as it is, the contribution she makes that really counts for me lies elsewhere. It’s the opportunity she gives to guests who might otherwise have slipped under the radar and who invariably have something interesting and valuable to say.

I’m always intrigued to hear who Cerys will be talking to because her taste is quite left-field and she likes ideas-led people who generally invite one to look at the world a bit differently, and maybe more positively. To that extent I can’t think of a broadcaster who’s a greater force for good than Cerys Matthews.

From recent months I’m thinking of guests like Alice Boyd, a sound artist who uses field recordings to create compositions reflecting the natural world. There was writer Garth Cartwright talking about his book about Romani-Gypsy musicians. The 82-year-old Brazilian musical virtuoso Marcos Valle had extraordinary tales to tell as he looked back on his tumultuous life.

I’m not sure any such figures would have found so prominent an outlet had it not been for Cerys. She has better-known invitees too: I really enjoyed hearing sustainable food pioneer Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall talking about his new book. Ian Leslie was on talking about his John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs, perhaps the most original Beatles book I’ve ever read.

The chat is leisurely, spread over a number of tracks, as befits the laidback Sunday vibe that Cerys is so good at creating. The interest she takes in her guests strikes me as completely genuine. It all comes from the heart.

I was interested to hear about Cerys from an insider and turned to Jerome Weatherald, producer of the Radio 4 music show Add to Playlist, of which Cerys was one of the original co-presenters, with Jeffrey Boakye, back in 2021.

“I hadn’t met Cerys before she came to the 7^th floor of Old Broadcasting House that first morning to script and record the first episode of the programme,” Jerome told me. What quickly became clear was her “astonishing expert guidance, experience, and above all, outstanding encyclopaedic knowledge of – and passion for – literally every kind of music created at any time all around the globe”. She was soon bonding with her wingman Jeffrey, a relative broadcasting newcomer.

“For two years while she was on Add to Playlist,” Jerome recalled, “we and the show benefited from her endless enthusiasm, her commitment to music, and her love of something that drives her and fills her life with joy and new adventures.”

By the time she moved on to pastures new, Cerys had left the show “well set up for the future”, Jerome said, and it continues to flourish, with Jeffrey now having Anna Phoebe alongside him.

“It was simply the most joyous experience working with the loveliest and most professional of all broadcasters,” Jerome said. “Congratulations on the OBE, Cerys! You’re a star!”

I’d second that. I hope Cerys isn’t too modest to give herself a shout-out tomorrow, when the show’s eclectic flavour looks particularly strong. She’ll be talking to the great saxophonist and band leader Kamasi Washington, and also to former Irish diplomat Daniel Mulhall about James Joyce’s Ulysses. Cerys really is about so much more than music.