Interview With Shay Hendrix

Here's a quick interview with delightful Welsh porn star Shay Hendrix to celebrate the launch of her super cool new website: www.shayhendrix.co.uk (you must be at least 18 years of age to visit).

How and why did you first get into the adult entertainment industry?

I was working as an account manager for a web development company, but was struggling to pay the rent so I took up lap-dancing part-time. I met a girl there who turned out to be Welsh porn starlet, Loz Lorrimar. She suggested I try giving porn a go and put me in touch with Killergram (a porn production company). I did my first shoot with them, loved it so much and never looked back!

What are the good and bad points of being a porn star?

There are so many good points!! I thoroughly love my job. I have met some truly wonderful people, travelled the world, I love getting all dolled-up, hair and make up done, and every day is different. I don't see many bad points, but I guess if I had to say one it might be that I have to travel long distances and it gets a bit boring sat in my car for sometimes up to 8 hours a day. But it's a small thing and I can't really complain.

What's the most unusual porn scenario you have been involved in?

Haha! Oh goodness....there have been a few!! I do a lot of fetish work such as ball-busting, face-sitting, cat-fighting, splosh, etc so it's difficult to pick just one! I've done a pet-girls shoot for Television X where I was dressed up as a puppy; have wrapped a man in bubble wrap and sat on his face for half-an-hour; put a plastic bag of beans on my head, so yeah! Haha!

Outside of the industry what are your cultural interests?

I love trying new things, adventure type stuff like sky diving, etc. I enjoy getting lost in a good book, my favourite of all time being The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I like live music and festivals, and when the summer comes round I can't wait to go camping on Shell Island! And most of all I'm happy to just be spending time with my family and mates.

Who would you like to star with in your fantasy Welsh porn film?

Oooh, erm....lets see. It'd be an orgy scene with me, Jason Statham, Eminem and Megan Fox and we'd all be rolling around a big Welsh flag. YUM!

Finally Shay, you have just launched a brand new website - can you tell us a bit about that?

Yes, it's www.shayhendrix.co.uk . I've had so much fun shooting stuff for it, and it's great to have the freedom of choosing what I want to shoot and what I think my fans will like. I've got loads of ideas for future shoots and have got plenty coming up soon. So go check it out!!

John James - Votan

Delighted to see that Neil Gaiman is set to re-publish Welsh writer John James’s all but forgotten first novel, Votan (1966). Described by Gaiman as, “probably the best book ever done about the Norse,” it is the story of, Photinus, a Greek trader who is mistaken for a Norse god. It kind of anticipates The Life of Brian in its theme of mistaken identity and in its irreverent humour (though Photinus is far more knowing than the naïve Brian). James’s skill at inhabiting and subverting a mythological framework is what really sets this book apart from other Dark Age fictions.

James penned a sequel to Votan – Not For All The Gold in Ireland (1968) – which employed the same technique but used the Mabinogion and Celtic mythology for its inspiration. Another much darker book followed, Men Went to Cattraeth (1969), which is based upon Y Gododdin, a Medieval Welsh poem attributed to Aneirin. This is, I suppose, his most ‘Welsh’ book. James went on to write other historical works (Seventeen of Leyden (1970), Lords of Loone (1972)), though they never gained as much attention as his first three novels.

He articulated his preference for writing historical fiction thus: “If you write about the present it is very much more difficult to make things sound convincing. But writing about the past means that you are writing about a situation in which you know at least as much as anyone else.”

Born David John James he was originally from Aberavon. He studied philosophy at St David’s College, Lampeter, before completing an MA in psychology at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He became a psychologist for the Ministry of Defence, lecturing on the selection and training of air crews for the RAF at Brampton. He lived with his wife (a teacher), two kids, and a Siamese cat in St Ives, Cambridgeshire.

*Re-published in the Neil Gaiman Presents series, Votan will include a new introduction by Gaiman outlining his reasons for resurrecting this forgotten gem. Including the influence it had on his own novel, American Gods.

Sophia Loren in Crumlin

The Crumlin Viaduct was a wonderfully impressive structure that once spanned the Ebbw Valley. It was the highest viaduct in Britain and the third highest in the world. Built in 1855 it was made of cast and wrought iron. It closed in 1964 due to maintenance costs which amounted to little more than its seven-yearly paint job. Criminally it was taken down altogether in 1966.

Not long before it was dismantled the viaduct experienced a bit of pop cultural gloss. In the summer of 1965 Sophia Loren and Gregory Peck turned up there to shoot a scene for their latest film Arabesque. It involved them running along the catwalk of the viaduct whilst being shot at, and buzzed by a helicopter (see pic).

Before shooting could begin 10 streets (approximately 200 homes) had to be evacuated in the area to comply with a Ministry of Aviation ruling. 350 Crumlin citizens were moved to emergency centres (2 church halls) where they were given cheese and ham sandwiches and a cup of tea. They also received a £2 “disturbance fee”.

During breaks in filming Loren and Peck signed autographs and chatted to the hundreds of people who had arrived to watch proceedings. One onlooker, a Mrs Nora Beecham, said: “I held Sophia’s hand. This is a wonderful day for Crumlin.” Loren herself, wrapped in a thick blanket and clutching a hot water bottle, said: “The countryside here is beautiful and the people are so kind and friendly – just like my native Naples.”

Today Crumlin is perhaps best-known for being the home of Pot Noodle.

Taking Stock

Just read that legendary Magnum photographer Dennis Stock has recently died. He is best known for having taken a series of iconic photographs of James Dean in the 1950s. I’ve mentioned him before on this blog in connection with his 1962 working visit to Wales. I still don’t know much about his Welsh assignment other than that his brief appears to have been ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’. The above photograph is taken from that set.

*Photo: ©Dennis Stock/Magnum

The Welsh Exam

Ever wondered how to sex up learning Welsh? Me neither, but I think I've stumbled across the ideal solution: you just make the exam process more erotic. Over at the admirable Pin Up WOW! website, which specialises in tasteful erotica, they have come up with a saucy Welsh-language exam scenario. A rather prim-looking, bespectacled, lady stands before a blackboard with "Bore Da, Welsh Exam, Stage 1" chalked on it. She is there to ensure there is no cheating during the examination. Amazingly however, during proceedings, she gets it into her head to remove all of her clothing. Quite what the WJEC would make of that I'm not sure. The star of this ground-breaking item of erotica is glamour model Bryoni-Kate Williams who hails from Beddau, near Pontypridd. To see more pictures from the shoot or to get hold of the HD video entitled, Bore Da, visit the Pin Up WOW! website now.

In Chapters

If you enjoy interesting collaborations between literary types and musicians then In Chapters at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, is the event for you. The idea is to present new work based around a chosen theme - this month it's trains.

Hopping a ride - hobo-like - on this particular thematic express will be Gareth Bonello of the Gentle Good; cellist Lucy Burke; Random Deaths and Custard author Catrin Dafydd; Peter Finch who'll be presenting an actual sound poem; musician and artist Andy Fung; Robert Lewis author of The Last Llanelli Train and Swansea Terminal; producer Iwan Morgan; and Rhys Thomas whose debut novel The Suicide Club was a belter.

The Casey Joneses driving this new concept are writer John Williams and former Gorky's Zygotic Mynci Richard James. Tickets cost a fiver and the In Chapters express departs at 8pm precisely - so make sure you don't miss it.

*In Chapters will take place at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, on Thursday 21 January. 8pm - 9.15pm. For tickets or further information call the box office on: 029 2030 4400.

Dere Mewn

For no other reason than it's a gorgeous song, and that I've just stumbled across this clip lifted from Welsh-language TV music prog Bandit, here's Colorama performing Dere Mewn. It's taken, of course, from last year's excellent mini-LP Magic Lantern Show. And isn't Carwyn Ellis an absolute dead ringer for a young Dave Edmunds. It's uncanny.

The Cardiff Spectator

The Cardiff Spectator was a magazine that ran from 1960 to about 1977. It's a publication that fascinates me because it focuses on a stratum of south Wales society that otherwise, culturally, wasn't especially visible: the Welsh upper-middle classes.

This is all about posh people at play - a kind of Welsh Tatler. It reveals a totally different south Wales to the usual industrialised stereotypes that we have become used to. You’ll find no noble miners, steel workers, or sooty-faced street urchins, here. Instead society events are covered in depth: hunts in the Vale; fashion shows in Swansea; sherry evenings in Llantwit Major; charity balls at the City Hall, Cardiff.

When sport is featured it isn't football, rugby or boxing (far too proletarian!), but rather fox hunting, show jumping and lawn tennis. Luxury items are lavishly advertised: French perfumes, expensive cars, mink coats. There are profiles of Captains of Industry, wealthy merchants, and minor members of the landed gentry.

They also ran a regular feature on Welsh debutantes - daughters of the filthy rich who were about to enter into society or start a course at Oxbridge. Somehow these teenagers all managed to look and dress as if they were in their mid-forties: rigid hairdos, pearl necklaces. In places like Cowbridge it was like rock’n’roll had never happened.

The above advert (December 1961) is typical of the magazine. It is promoting The Princess Charm and Model School - reputedly Wales’s only fashion school - where young ladies could brush up on their deportment, fashion co-ordination, make-up and hairstyling. It was located in Swansea but might just as well have been in Surrey or Berkshire.

An essential element on the road to becoming posh, it would appear, was to thoroughly de-Welsh oneself. Students of a postcolonial persuasion could do a lot worse than flick through its pages for ammunition.