Tredegar Town Band

Conductor: Ian Porthouse
Porthcawl Grand Pavillion
Saturday 12th June

There was a time when the vast South Wales coalfield stretched from the anthracite mines in the west past Llanelli, to the bituminous seams of the east in Blaenavon.

Sophia Gardens

And every June Bank Holiday from 1953 onwards, the colliers and their families, whose lives were indelibly bound to the industry, would decamp to Sophia Gardens in Cardiff to enjoy the splendours of the South Wales Miners Gala.

There they would relax on beer and pop, home made sandwiches and welsh cakes, playing rugby, enjoying ‘the shows’, and listening to choirs and brass bands in the huge Sophia Gardens pavilion.

Open to all

Due to the ‘open to all’ ethos of the competitions, that meant that even when bands where playing, people could come and walk right up to the stage (many with screaming babes in arms) to have a gander at what was on offer.

However, they had to sit quietly in their seats when the big wigs of ‘The Fed’ (the all powerful South Wales Miners Federation) or great socialist orators such as Nye Bevan, came to make their speeches.

Fitting venue

Following the crushing reprisals of the 1984 Miners Strike, the Gala became no more, although in 1998 the South Wales Miners Eisteddfod was resurrected in Porthcawl (a fitting venue given that the great Paul Robeson once sang there in support of the miners via radio network from America after being denied a passport due to his political affiliations)

Over the past 13 years the event has grown in stature, but with further budgetary cutbacks in its local authority support, the event is in need of a bit of a financial boost.

The 2010 champion (and eight times winners) Tredegar therefore came to town to help raise funds for the 2011 event, with the help of Tony Award winning actor Owen Teale, a smart 6 piece harmony group called ‘Silk’ and the children of the local West Park Primary School.

Great night

Although the Grand Pavilion wasn’t packed out, it was a great old night of entertainment, compared by the excellent Dave Hayward, with Tredegar clearly showing why they are enjoying a formidable season of success under the baton of MD, Ian Porthouse.

The band took the opportunity to flex its concert muscles with a cleverly chosen, easy listening programme that included solos from their talented stable of lead players, Dewi Griffths, Chris Davies, Zoe Hancock and Stephen Sykes.

Each displayed their full range of skills on ‘Tico, Tico’, the ‘Finale’ from Mendelssohn’s ‘Violin Concerto’, ‘Children of Sanchez’ and ‘I Loves you Porgy’.

Skills

In between the band also utilised the skills of its composer in residence, Matt Hall, in the breathless ‘Activate’ opener through to the atmospheric and lyrical ‘The Smile’.

Changes of mood and style were also neatly portrayed in ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ overture, ‘Swinging Matilda’, ‘America’ and ‘The Joybringer’ in the first half as well as ‘Folk Festival’, ‘Sleep’ and the encore ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’.  

The evening musical climax however came when the band gave ample demonstration to why they are currently enjoying such competitive success, with a thumping ‘Heroic March’ from ‘An Epic Symphony’ – the piece that recently saw them just miss out on their fifth successive victory of the contesting year at the Masters in Kettering.

Well clapped hands

With the additional contributions from the guest artists (with Owen Teale’s wonderful readings a real reminder of the written treasures that were once common place at Gala Day events throughout Wales) it was a night of warm memories and well clapped hands.

The great Gala days may well be a thing of the past, but hopefully the 2011 event will take place once again thanks to a fine night’s entertainment.

Dave Banwell

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