a b c d e f g h i j McLaren, James (24 February 2011). "Max Boyce: Live At Treorchy". BBC Wales . Retrieved 6 March 2011. World Elephant Polo Association Championship 1985". World Elephant Polo Association. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007 . Retrieved 27 June 2007. Wales take on France in the Six Nations tonight; it’s St David’s Day on Tuesday. I’m feeling pretty Welsh right now. The rugby is on too late for my children tonight. I’ve promised them they can watch it in the morning but in the meantime, we’ve been having a mini-disco filled with glorious Welsh songs, both pop and traditional. Here are some of our favourites. Are there any you’d add to my list?

It means a great deal because it is poignant and it's one of the best things I've written and I've not written anything as good as that in a long time. Max Boyce One of the most beautiful songs I know, I sing this traditional Welsh lullaby to my children a lot… and even my English husband says it brings a tear to his eye. Yet never is it more beautiful than when performed by a male voice choir. I love this version in particular, by Only Men Aloud and Only Boys Aloud. But he told Adrian Masters that the first time his song 'Hymns and Arias' was sung - at what was then the Cardiff Arms Park - and it was compared to the Welsh hymns Calon Lân and Cwm Rhondda, was the point he had "made it". Some of my songs and stories are designed for ‘performance’ and need an audience to give them their ‘life force’. Comedy is always in need of an echo and is constantly being judged by the barometer of applause, which the written word can’t afford. Laughter can never be forced or cheated. I'll carry on as long as my health dictates. I'm pretty good now but I'm getting a bit creaky! Max BoyceMax Boyce was born in Glynneath. His family was originally from Ynyshir in the Rhondda Valley. His mother was Mary Elizabeth Harries. A month preceding Boyce's birth, his father, Leonard Boyce, died in an explosion in the coal pit where he worked. [1] At the age of fifteen, Boyce left school, went to live with his grandfather, and worked in a colliery "for nearly eight years". [2] In his early twenties, he managed to find alternative work in the Metal Box factory, Melin, Neath, as an electrician's apprentice, but his earlier mining experiences were to influence his music considerably in later years. [3] We were honoured to be able to interview Max and find more about his new publication, Hymns and Arias… Following the programme, which Laurie Lee had listened to, we met up in Cardiff, and I was overwhelmed to share a glass of red wine with him and listen to him tell of his reminiscences of the Aberfan disaster, ‘When a Village Lost Its Children’, and hear him read the first few lines of his beautifully crafted essay ‘The Firstborn’, which every new parent should read. Another one to bring a lump to your throat, Myfanwy is a traditional Welsh folk song, where a man asks why his love is so angry. Here’s Rhydian Roberts, Bryn Terfel and Only Men Aloud singing it at Wales Millennium Centre for Children In Need in 2009. After releasing two records on a small Welsh label, in 1973 he recorded his iconic breakthrough album, Live at Treorchy, which went on to sell over half a million copies. Several gold and silver records followed, including We All Had Doctors’ Papers, which went to number one in the UK Albums Chart and is still the only comedy album to attain this feat. He has since toured the world, playing sell-out concerts in some of the world’s great venues, including the London Palladium, Sydney Opera House and the Royal Albert Hall.

Maxwell Boyce, MBE (born 27 September 1943) is a Welsh comedian, singer and entertainer. He rose to fame in the mid-1970s with an act that combined musical comedy with his passion for rugby union and his origins in a South Wales mining community. Boyce's We All Had Doctors' Papers (1975) remains the only comedy album to have topped the UK Albums Chart and he has sold more than two million albums in a career spanning four decades. Honorary Fellowship for Legendary Entertainer Max Boyce". University of Wales Trinity Saint David. 16 July 2014 . Retrieved 5 August 2019. a b c Robert, Trefor (1 February 2007). "Max Boyce's 35 years as a Welsh icon". Neath Guardian . Retrieved 6 March 2011.It is the longest period he has gone without performing since beginning a career in the early 1970s In my early childhood we lived near the miner’s institute in Glynneath. The Welfare Hall was built and paid for by the miners at a penny a week. There are also fine illustrations by Anne Cakebread, Fran Evans, Darryl ‘Gren’ Jones and Rhys Padarn Jones that accompany some of my songs like ‘Close the Coalhouse Door’, ‘Is God in His Paint Shop’, ‘Rhondda Grey’, ‘When Just the Tide Went Out’, ‘The Glory That Was Rome’ and ‘Hymns and Arias’. They have given my work another dimension. His BBC television series attracted over twenty million viewers and merely confirmed Max’s popularity among young and old alike. His exploits following the Dallas Cowboys, the American rodeo circuit and the 1985 World Elephant Polo Championship in Nepal were chronicled in the bestselling book In the Mad Pursuit of Applause.

Boyce first learned to play the guitar as a young man, but he showed no particular flair for the instrument, [4] nor an actual desire to become a performer. In his own words: "[I had] no desire at all to be anything. I had a love of poetry, and eventually started writing songs without any ambition to build a career. It just happened. I started writing songs about local things and it evolved." [1] Nevertheless, in time he became competent enough to perform at local eisteddfodau, one of the earliest known recordings of his work being " O Na Le", a folk tune in Welsh which he played at the Dyffryn Lliw eisteddfod in 1967. [ citation needed] As the debate rages on about whether Delilah should be sung at Welsh rugby games due to its violent and abusive lyrics, I’ll choose another Tom Jones song instead – Green Green Grass of Home. It evokes that Welsh word hiraeth, which has no exact English translation but describes that special longing for home. This version sees Tom singing live in Cardiff in 2001 and even has on-screen lyrics so you can join in too. I’ve really missed live sport throughout these pandemic times, but thankfully the situation has been restored to some normality. New version of Hymns and Arias for Swans home game". Wales Online. 19 August 2011 . Retrieved 12 July 2017. Games are still being cancelled because of some players testing positive, but there have been some matches in fractured leagues.

Many congratulations on Max: Hymns & Arias– tell us a little about the new book & what do you hope readers will take away from it … Helen on 50+ family friendly events in and around Cardiff for half term and the Jubilee bank holiday May/June 2022 Live at Treorchy is a live album by Welsh comedian and singer Max Boyce, first issued in 1974. It was his third album and his first for a major label, EMI Records. The album contains a mixture of comedic songs and poems along with Boyce's interactions with the crowd at Treorchy Rugby Club. The album was an unexpected success going gold and was Boyce's break through recording, helping make him a household name in Wales and beyond.

They saw education as a means to escape the inevitability of working in the pits, where men were robbed of daylight and turned to song and religion. Brendan Gallagher ranks rugby’s great songs and anthems held dearly to many hearts of fans, players, and local and national communities.He’s got a brand new car. Looks like a Jaguar. It’s got a leather seat. It’s got a CD player, player, player, player, player, player, player.” Ah, I never get bored of singing along to this one.