Blaenavon Town Band Talywain Festival

Saturday 2nd September 2006

Talywain Festival

“And the rain came down in torrents…” Perhaps you will remember singing these words in Sunday School and how apt they were when the band played at the Talywain Festival on the first Saturday in September! What’s that old joke - it rained cats and dogs, I stepped in a poodle. However, the main item for the good people of Talywain was to unveil a renovated clock on the green outside the OAP hall in memory of a local doctor who did a lot of good works in the area some forty years ago. The unveiling was done by his widow in the presence of local council dignitaries. A marquee had been erected in the field opposite the OAP hall and it was in this that the band played.

Owing to the unavailability of players we were somewhat under strength but we played pieces that were not too taxing and the few people that were in the marquee enjoyed “Ellacombe”, “Mood Indigo”, “Groundforce”, New Colonial March”, “I Will Follow Him”, “Aces High”, “Eternal Flame”, “Spartacus” “Cock Up Your Beaver”(yes, really!), “Mr Jums” and finally “Teddy Bears’ Picnic”. The problem was that some of the people were in the OAP hall and some of the people were in the marquee but it was raining too hard for any interchange but there was nothing anybody could do. In the absence of our resident conductor, Mr Alun Hathaway who was on honeymoon, euphonium player Evan Smith stepped up to conduct the band and Joanne Knight did well in covering for the solo horn player who is permanently absent and a position the band is desperate to fill. Also it was great to see Eb player Trevor Sanders back in action after a long absence with heart trouble.