EX-FM

First of all, thanks for all the messages of support/concern following the demise of XFM South Wales. If you don't know what's going on, or have spent the last fortnight prodding your radio wondering where we've all gone, check out this article from the Western Mail, which should bring you up to speed.

Although we never really got a chance to do a "last show", the final Roop and Tom Show was a suitably exciting affair... We had One Night Only in doing a session, and Tom managed to win "Charity Shop Challenge" by flogging the Jason Donovan Board Game for a whopping six pounds fifty on eBay. Thanks to everyone who bid on our assortment of tat (or sent bizarre and obscene questions to my eBay account) and indeed to anyone who got involved over XFM South Wales' roller coaster 6 months and 1 day.

Not only has XFM South Wales disappeared, but the old XFM South Wales website has gone too, so there could be a few broken links on the site/blog for a bit... One thing I was pleased to find was that it's still possible to get hold of some of the XFM Podcasts. You can find the best bits of the Roop and Tom Breakfast Show here and once you've got your face around that, only a fool would not move straight on to the podcasts of (the Arqiva nominated!) Rhys and Eggsy. Catch 'em while you can.

As for me, I'll let you know what I'm doing next once I'm doing it...

Thanks for dropping by...

A very quick update to say that I've popped a short Glastonbury festival based clip (taken from the final episode of BBC7's Tilt) over in the Audio section of the site. I think you'll agree, it shows the plus-side of Michael Evis' plans to invite such diverse acts as Jay-Z and Shakin' Stevens to this year's festival.

All going to plan, we'll have more audio to follow soon...

Tilt, Flu, Cheese Grating and more...

I've been slow to update this. I would be able to forgive myself if there wasn't much going on, but we're already half-way through a series I'm involved with so this post is, at best, three weeks late.

Tilt: I've been writing and slicing up audio for this brand new 6-part topical comedy show on BBC7 (Thursday evenings: 11.30pm). At the time of writing, we're somewhere between episodes 3 and 4, but you'll always be able to catch the latest episode if you head to the BBC7 website, and use the the listen again facility.

For more information, do check out the Tilt Homepage. There's even a little bit written by me right at the bottom, where I make the most of the fact I've been given the chance to promote the show, by whinging about the fact I have flu.

XFM South Wales: Don't forget to tune in to the Roop and Tom Breakfast Show, every weekday morning from 6am - 10am on XFM South Wales, where I continue to play the part of "Producer Gareth". Over the last couple of weeks, we've been putting together some podcasts, which you can download from the XFM South Wales Website or via iTunes. Also, if you haven't visited it yet, do check out some of the bits and bobs on the show homepage too, including the human wheelbarrow montage, and a video of me grating a large block of cheese.

On a slightly more technical note, the more observant of you (i.e. the ones who visit websites, right click and hit "view page source"), will notice that despite retaining the bare and stripped down look you've no doubt come to know and tolerate, this website has actually had something of an overhaul. While it's nothing you can see with the naked eye, the whole thing should now be a good deal easier to update, and the little tagline on the top right should keep you informed of my actions with what will hopefully be an almost sinister level of accuracy.

Plus, now we've done all those "back-end" bits we've been meaning to do for ages, we can get on with coming up with something exciting for the "Audio" section on the left hand side. I mention it here because I will then feel obliged to follow it up at some point.

So let's hit "Go" and see if this really is as easy to update as Tom said it would be...

Happy New Year

Hello again

Thanks for visiting. Here's what's been going on since I last updated this...

First of all, I'm now a 4Talent award winner for my radio presenting work. Wow. I know I mentioned this briefly in the last update, but it seems far more official since I've been to London and been handed an actual physical award. It's really quite impressive and glows a blue/purple/pink colour... Well, it did... I seem to have broken it, so now it's permanently a sort of off-white colour. Anyway, it doesn't matter. It's got my name on it and looks nice on my parents' windowsill... And that's the point of awards really, isn't it?

To tie in with the awards, I appeared in Issue 8 of TEN4 magazine. There's an interview with me and everything.

The other big news is that I am now working as producer on the Roop and Tom Breakfast Show on XFM South Wales every weekday morning from 6am-10am. Roop and Tom have their own website which you will no doubt want to check to ensure that I am not mixing with unsavoury types.

Finally, if you're now on the internet with nowhere to go you could do a lot worse than check out Roop and Tom's attempts to break a record.

See you soon

All Manner of Excitement

Hello,

Right, let's cover all the exciting stuff first. Then, once that's done, we'll get onto the apologising about the fact I haven't updated the website in what seems like forever...

Play And Record (BBC7): This is a brand new sketch show with all kinds of things in it - including a couple of cut-ups and sketches by myself. There are 4 episodes, going out Wednesdays at 11pm on BBC7, starting on 31st October.

Listen Against (BBC Radio 4): I'm currently in the process of writing and cutting-things-up for Jon Holmes' brand new show, which is going to be brill. I think it's going to be 4 episodes, the first one of which will be going out at 6.30pm on Wednesday 14th November on Radio 4. There'll be far more information on this project on Jon's website, as he knows what's going on and updates his site regularly, therefore having two distinct advantages over this particular page.

Gareth Gwynn's Alternative Anthems (107.9 Afan FM): I'm still presenting this show on Tuesday Nights on Afan FM, which is going rather well, thanks for asking. In fact, clips from this show (as well as odds and ends from some of my previous radio-based adventures), led to me making the list of this years "4Talent" award winners. There are more details on the Channel Four website as well as in the forthcoming "TEN4" magazine.

And finally, sorry the website is looking increasingly sad. Myself and scary-eyed-internet-ninja, Tom Natt, keep coming up with more and more exciting things we can do with it, each more complex and involved than the last, but then ultimately get distracted by pizza and cake and stuff so never get round to actually doing any of it. But we will. And it'll be great. Promise.

Thanks for visiting. Now off you go to see the rest of the internet...

News

"BBC BackChat" will be going out on 2nd May at 10.30pm on BBC7 as part of the station's "Witty and Twisted" series of pilot shows by new writers. It will also be on the station's "Listen Again" page for a week afterwards. Please listen to this as it is, literally, my 15 minutes of fame.

I am currently presenting Afan's Alternative Anthems on community radio station 107.9 Afan FM from 9pm, every Tuesday evening. If you live in the Neath/Port Talbot area, please support Afan FM as it is a great idea.

Hello and thanks for visiting

Hello. Thanks for visiting garethgwynn.co.uk.

Does it look too corporate?

We ought to explain. We've put this page online long before it deserves to be. My hand was forced into getting garethgwynn.co.uk after idly browsing the internet one evening and finding that garethgwynn.com had been taken. This really shouldn't have been a surprise. I fight for google supremacy with a footballer and a film-maker, and they are equally entitled to a domain name. Fair play to them for getting there first!

Anyway, in retaliation, I got hold of garethgwynn.co.uk. It was then my thoughts turned to what I should put there. Should I just re-direct to a myspace site? Not when one of Bath University's premier web-designers Tom Natt volunteered his web-designing servies for free!

So I "designed" the site on the back of a flyer after a gig in Cardiff, which Tom faithfully reproduced using state-of-the-art internet technology. The strange thing is, what looked fun and charming on the smudged back of a flyer in a dimly-lit stand-up venue looks weird and corporate when rendered in xmms, css and html (I think I've got those right) (he hasn't - Tom).

So rather than bat half-formed ideas back and forth ("Should we make it blue?" etc.), we decided to hell with it, we'll stick it up as it is and wait for the feedback to pour in. Let us know what you think. Although don't suggest colouring it blue. We've tried that.

Also, try checking out some of the links. Primarily to see if they work, and then to see if we've uploaded any cool stuff. Don't be too harsh on us if there isn't anything there, mind. We're still getting going on this.