Kate Williams (1875 – 1946), sometimes called Kate Roberts, better known by her stage name Vulcana, was a Welsh strongwoman born of Irish parents in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire.
With strongman William Hedley Roberts, better known as Atlas, she toured music halls in Britain, Europe and Australia; the couple performed as The Atlas and Vulcana Group of Society Athletes.
Kate Williams was born to a popular local preacher, and worked at a tannery in Abergavenny. She met William Roberts at the local women's gymnasium he ran in 1890, when she was fifteen. They fell in love; in spite of Roberts already having a wife and family, they left town together and were never parted for the rest of their lives.
Williams's first professional appearance was as a replacement act at a fete hosted by Roberts in Pontypool, Wales. They began to bill together as Atlas and Vulcana after they began to appear in London in 1892. In 1903, Vulcana and Atlas were engaged by Harry Rickards and toured Australia.
Come on in, sweetie-pie! Have an apple, have some lye...
Leave your friends, righteous and pathetic, standing at the door.
On the books, all your bets favor head-bands and cassettes,
Cigarettes, suffragettes, and bores.
What to do?
Sweetheart, you'll find mediocre people do exceptional things all
The time.
Oh, the ruin will do in your talented mind...
Could've been a genius if you'd had an axe to grind.
When we moved to the city, it seemed the competition got so much
Less pretty
But the mirror's never failed you like this before.
So your revenge on the world will be pencils through your curls
And if wanting ever taught you anything, it's wanting more.
(and more and more and more...)
What to do?
Sweetheart, you'll find mediocre people do exceptional things all
The time.
Oh, the ruin will do in your talented mind...
Could've been a genius if you'd had an axe to grind.
What to do?
When that day finally nears, you'll at least have made it clear
That compassion's just a nicer way of looking down your nose.
It seems that all the people want to do is crowd the streets of
Amsterdam (Pamplona, too),
But the bulls have already come and gone and bellowed all their
Lows.
Now nobody knows
What to do.
Sweetheart, you'll find mediocre people do exceptional things all
The time.
Oh, the ruin will do in your talented mind...
Could've been a genius if you'd had an axe to grind.