Super Furry Animals’ Keyboardist to Play Gig on Top of a Wind Turbine

Cian Ciaran, welsh musician and keyboardist from the Super Furry Animals (actor Rhys Ifans’ old band), has decided to play the first performance of his new solo album from the top of a wind turbine.

This Wednesday, the musician will perform his album to a select audience of seven people, limited by the size of the viewing platform on the 67 metre tall turbine located in Swaffham, Norfolk, to show his support for renewable energy development and his protest against the continued development of nuclear power.

The only remaining nuclear power plant in Wales, at Wylfa in Anglesey, is finally set to be shut down in the next couple of years, but the government has sold the rights to Hitachi to build two new reactors at the site for £700 million. It is just one of various new reactors that the British government is considering building as part of its attempts to reduce reliance on fossil fuel power plants and decrease its carbon emissions in line with targets.

Cian Ciaran from the Super Furry Animals.

Large energy projects are determined by the government at Westminster, the Welsh assembly has no input, and Ciaran believes that the reactor at Wylfa should be the last to exist in his country.

“Yes, definitely, it should be the last nuclear power station in Wales, without a shadow of a doubt. We don't need them. The scaremongering, that the lights would go out, is a myth.”

To any advocates of nuclear power, who claim that it is a vital source of low-carbon energy, such as the British energy secretary Ed Davey, Ciaran replies that, “we have a myth that nuclear power is green. It is bullshit in my opinion. You have to mine the uranium, enrich it, get it here, not to mention all the concrete that goes into building it [the reactor]. It is by no means green.”

Related article: German Elections Seal Fate of Renewable Energy

EDF, the French energy firm, plans to build reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset, and is currently negotiating a contract with the government to agree the price of electricity for 40 years.

“How can you justify subsidising – however you want to sugarcoat it – paying EDF with taxpayers' money, locking us in for the next 40 years to high electricity bills?”

Wind Power “is the cleanest source of energy, becoming cheaper to produce, is as competitive and is in endless supply. I can't just sit and watch as they continue to miss opportunities that will make a difference environmentally and economically.”

The gig on Wednesday will be the first live performance of the album ‘They Are Nothing Without Us.’

By. James Burgess of Oilprice.com