Fresh from his success in leading the Severn Tunnel Band to victory in the Third Section of the Welsh Regional Championships, young Cornish composer Christopher Bond is busy preparing six local bands, together with a choir of over 150 school children from nine primary schools, for the premier performance of his work ‘The Puffing Devil’.

Fitting

Fittingly, for the young conductor who led a band with such a rich railway history to success at Swansea, the work will form part of the 30th ‘Trevithick Day’, a one-day festival of free entertainment held in Camborne each year to celebrate the life and work of the famous Cornish locomotive inventor Richard Trevithick.

Camborne, Camborne Youth/Brass, Lanner & District Silver, Helston, Pendennis Brass and Heyl will also play a new march entitled, ‘Trevithick’ through the town before coming together with the choir massed premiere performance.

Exciting project

Christopher told 4BR: "It's an incredibly exciting project to be involved with, not just because of the nature of the event, but the sheer number of performers. There are over 300 on the day, so it should sound terrific!"

The new work also commemorates the man who pioneered the invention of the first locomotive train to carry coal and passengers at Penydarren in Merthyr Tydfil in 18044BR

First locomotive

‘The Puffing Devil’ is the second work to be commissioned by the event organisers, with Goff Richards writing his atmospheric 'Mythic Trevithick' back in 2001.

The new work also commemorates the man who pioneered the invention of the first locomotive train to carry coal and passengers at Penydarren in Merthyr Tydfil in 1804.