Cosmic karma

Bored of travelling to the same towns, playing gigs in the same venues booked by the same unimaginative agent, the musician Gruff Rhys began the tour for his 2007 album Candylion off the beaten track in South America. It was a decision inspired by an ulterior motive. While journeying through the Brazilian rainforest to Patagonia in the south of Argentina, Gruff was trying to track down his distant relative René Griffiths, the elusive Argentinian gaucho who enjoyed brief cult fame in the 1970s by arriving on stage on horseback before playing a traditional Spanish guitar, singing mournful Latin American love songs with Welsh lyrics.

A documentary of Gruff’s adventure, Separado, was released in 2010, in which the Super Furry Animals frontman traces the history of Wales’ roots in Patagonia, gets chased by an armadillo in the desert, and travels through time and space wearing an old Power Rangers helmet. Writing that sentence makes about as much sense as writing that Neil Warnock was once so desperate to sign Steve Morison for Leeds, he gave Norwich £200,000 and Luciano Becchio in return for Morison’s services — whatever they were. So maybe Gruff’s film is as good a place as any to look for some answers as to what the hell Colin was thinking.

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