"It was a culture shock"

Artists and bands often like to talk about establishing a DIY culture, but rarely is it quite so evident as in the case of the Welsh reggae scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Finding themselves geographically and musically isolated from London's reggae culture, Cardiff-based musicians took to heart that old adage about being the change you want to see in the world.

Not for the first time, Daniel Dylan Wray has excavated a hidden history for the Guardian, revealing how Black artists fought against marginalisation, hostility and racism to create something they could call their own - and be proud of. Integral to the scene was the legendary Casablanca Club, as featured in an episode of ITV's Vanished Wales and the subject of a BBC Radio Wales documentary (not currently available), but sadly no longer in existence.

Wray observes that "there's an overwhelming feeling that more could be done to celebrate and preserve this vital strand of Black and Welsh culture". The National Museum Wales isn't oblivious to such histories - see for instance the recent exhibition on hip hop - but Welsh reggae definitely deserves better. The closure of the Butetown History and Arts Centre, which could have told these stories, remains an absolute travesty - a symptom of the troubling distaste for Tiger Bay's colourful, rowdy and multiracial past and preference for the Bay's bland, corporate, enshittified present.

Wray's article is also evidence that his forthcoming book about Sheffield's music scene(s), Groovy, Laidback and Nasty, will be well worth a read.