History - Hanes
Abertillery Town Band
The roots of the current Abertillery Town Band lie in the Abertillery and District Youth Band started by Joyce Morgan with a handful of young players in her front room in 1971. Two years later, the band was established officially, practising in the town’s Ambulance Hall.
It began playing small local concerts, fetes, and the town carnival, before venturing into the brass band contesting arena on May 16th, 1976, crossing the border to take part in the Weston Super Mare contest where it was unplaced in the fourth section.
A year later, the band returned to the same competition to claim its first-ever podium position, a highly-creditable third place amongst 8 bands for such a young band, augmented by some older heads.
Two years on, the band was now practising at King Street Baptist Church schoolroom and beginning to flourish taking 3rd place at the Welsh Area (Fourth Section) with its rendition of ‘A Winter’s Tale’, which earned it a place at the British National Finals in London.
Under Joyce’s tutelage, 1979 also saw another 3rd place at the Welsh Miners’ Gala and three runner-up spots which earned it promotion to the Third Section. She passed the conductor’s baton over to David Probyn in late 1980 under whom the band gained four podium finishes before returning to the fourth section.
In 1984, John Evans assumed the conductor’s role; 1985 was a year of considerable contest success with the band gaining its first-ever first place at the Welsh area finals at Swansea in March playing ‘A Malvern Suite’ and winning three other contests and another podium place.
John left his role in summer 1986 after consecutive third place positions and the baton was assumed for one contest only by a certain young Alun F. Williams. He led the band to first place in the Third Section at the West Wales BBA Contest at the Gwyn Hall in Neath and the band was promoted to the second section for the first time ever.
By 1988, Andrew Hicks was at the helm with the band back in the third section. Despite top five finishes in all four contests it entered, including 2 third places, the band struggled before resuming contesting in autumn 1992 under the baton of band stalwart and euphonium player Steve Bard. He guided them to victory at in Section 3 of the Greater Gwent Youth Brass Band Festival in 1993, the year that saw also the band celebrate its 20 years of official existence with a concert evening at the new Abertillery Comprehensive School.
The band continued throughout the 1990’s taking part in local concerts and events, as well as a trip to Germany; D. Roberts and Bob Gowing were the conductors before Eric Powell took the helm for several years, leading to the band to contest success with six podium places including another victory in Section 3 of Greater Gwent Youth Brass Band Festival in 1999.
Subsequently, another band stalwart John Harris assumed the role for a time leading the band to a creditable 4th place out of 16 in Section 4 of the 2001 Pontins National Finals in Prestatyn, as did Gareth Ritter. However by 2004, the band was unable to contest through lack of numbers. However, vitally it was kept alive with the hard work and dedication of Dean Evans and half a dozen stalwarts.
In 2008, a cohort of players returned to the fold and the band began to rebuild with Dean at the helm. Between 2009 and 2011, the band gained six runners-up spots, including the 2011 Wales area Section 4 contest at Swansea where John Harris was awarded best instrumentalist, and was promoted, as well as returning to the British National Finals for the third time.
This progress continued first under Huw Cole and then conductor Joshua Ruck, with the band representing Wales in the 2015 and 2017 British National Brass Band Championship finals, when it attained 3rd place in the Third Section, playing Hinemoa, and promotion to 2nd Section.
The next few years consolidated those successes with Josh handing over the baton to Alun F. Williams in January 2020. On February 29th 2020, Abertillery Town Band qualified once again for the National Finals by coming 2nd at the Wales Area Brass Band Championships in Swansea with principal euphonium player, John Jones taking a soloist prize.
The band led the St David’s Day celebrations the following day at St. Michael’s Church in the town. But it was to be its last engagement for more than 18 months as the Covid pandemic hit, though band members managed to keep in touch through Zoom. On May 12th, 2021, players met once again in person to rehearse. In September that year, the band completed for a fourth time at the British National Brass Band Championship finals and two months later celebrated 50 years of its beginnings with a concert at The Met in Abertillery and the world premiere of the wonderful ‘Guardian of the Valleys' (see below), a piece by world-renowned composer and conductor, Phillip Harper, specially commissioned for the band and its celebrations.
In October 2022, the band took a creditable fourth place at the Wychavon Entertainment Contest, coming only behind bands already promoted to the First Section. With new players coming in for 2023, despite a disappointing result at the spring Welsh Area Finals at Swansea, the band is looking forward with much confidence, building on the heritage of the last 50+ years and the older tradition of banding in the town.