Following on from their recent concert involvement of the 30 year anniversary of the Miners’ Strike in Wales, Tredegar made the 430 mile round trip to Yorkshire to keep a good-sized audience in another proud coal mining area of the country thoroughly entertained.

Tasty wrappers

There were no test pieces or major works from the welcome visitors (who are attracting a fair old following on their visits to these parts) - just lots of tasty, well wrapped sweeties that Ian Porthouse had judiciously chosen to tickle the taste buds of a receptive audience. 

Although there were no clues as to what their forthcoming Brass in Concert programme was to be, the stirring march ‘Old Comrades’ (played in their appearance in the film ‘Pride’) got things off to a bright start.

Morley is not the biggest of venues, with a stage just large enough to fit a band on, so Tredegar’s usual slick choreographed presentation was a little restricted on the night.  

Fizzing

This didn’t detract too much from the overall effect though, with a fizzing ‘All Night Long’, rather quicker than I remember, getting the front row ‘trumpets’ and the euphonium/baritone sections on their feet.

The soloists of Matthew White (a superbly frenetic ‘Neath Dublin Skies’), Danny Winder ( a warmly hued ‘When She Loved Me’) and Dewi Griffiths (a note-perfect, quick-fire ‘Glorious Ventures’) all delivered their contributions with classy ease, but it was horn player Hannah Drage who certainly caught the ear with her own reflective composition ‘View from the Summit’.

Moving

Ken Downie's arrangement of ‘Myfanwy’, produced warm timbres, especially from the basses who brought to it an intense richness, whilst ‘Gresford’ saw some audience members standing for the Miner’s very own ‘National Anthem’ - a moving spectacle that I’ve never come across before.

A ten-piece arrangement of Burt Bacharach’s ‘Close To You’ was a captivating highlight, with Mark Winstone’s bass trombone sounding as if it had come from crepuscular depths of a south Wales mineshaft. It was an inspired piece of arranging that would have had The Carpenters nodding with approval. 

Well satisfied 

With Dean Jones’ ‘Glorifico Aeternum’ bringing proceedings to an apparent, thunderous close, there was just time for a quick run through the encore ‘Nobody Can’t Do Me Like Jesus’ to send Yorkshire punters home well satisfied with the evening’s entertainment from their Welsh visitors.

They certainly got to their beds earlier than the band.

Steve Jack