Abertillery preparing for 50th anniversary celebrations
ABERTILLERY Town Brass Band are busy preparing for their 50th Anniversary Celebration Weekend due to take place from November 12-14, despite not having been in the bandroom since March last year.
The band is optimistic that their events scheduled for the end of the year will go ahead including their performance at the 2nd Section National Brass Band Championship on Sunday, September 19.
Committee and band meetings have continued via Zoom and they can now confirm some of the activities planned for the 50th Anniversary Weekend.
A Celebration Concert is planned for Saturday afternoon, November 13, at the Abertillery Metropole Theatre and will feature an Abertillery Town Reunion Band, which will include players involved with the band during the last 50 years along with current Abertillery Town Band members and conducted by their musical director, Alun F Williams.
The concert wil be presented by David Hayward and our guest soloist, playing with both bands, will be Daniel Thomas, Principal Euphonium of the Black Dyke Band.
It is hoped that Daniel will be able to visit the local Primary and Secondary School of the Abertillery Learning Community on Friday, November 12.
Daniel himself studied for his GCSEs at the Abertillery Comprehensive School and so is very much looking forward to going back and passing on his skills and expertise.
Arrangements are still underway for this and will be updated once the finer detail have been agreed.
To commemorate their special anniversary, the band has commissioned Philip Harper to compose a fiveto-six-minute piece based on the sculpture The Guardian of the Valleys. The Guardian is a 20-metre tall statue standing proud on the former site of the Six Bells Colliery, overooking Parc Areal Griffin and commemorates the lives lost following the explosion on June 28 in 1960 and is also dedicated to all mining communities wherever they may be.
The first performance of this work will be at the Celebration Concert on Saturday, November 13 and will be performed by the current Abertillery Town Band.
The band is also hoping to hold activities and workshops in schools leading up to the weekend based on the history of The
Guardian and hope this work will be on display before the concert.
There will also be a Celebration Dinner on the evening of Saturday, November 13 with past and present players, conductors, invited guests and speakers from the local and brass band community.
The weekend of celebrations will be concluded with the Abertillery Band playing at the Annual Remembrance Parade at the Llanhilleth Institute Cenotaph on Sunday, November 14.
Everyone connected with the Abertillery Town Band is delighted and excited with the planning and preparation stages during the last six months and all are working hard to secure funding for the various areas of the Projects.
You can support the the band by visiting their Crowdfunding site at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/ abertillery-town-band-50th-anniversary where they raise money to help fund the band’s activities.
If you are a past member or conductor of the Abertillery Town Band and have not yet received an invitation to join the celebration events contact the band chair, Nigel Bard via email at: nigelbardnov@gmail.com.
Abertillery had a very successful Zoom Band session on Wednesday, February 10, when Brass Bands Wales chair Andrew Jones joined the meeting to give everyone an insight into the work and vision of the newly formed organisation.
It was an excellent presentation and the band chair, Nigel Bard, said: “It was great to see that the brass band scene in Wales now has a voice and that we can share good practice between bands with a view to keep the band scene vibrant and relevant.”
The band, in its 50th Anniversary, look forward to a further Zoom session with Philip Harper, musical director of Cory Band, on March 10.