24th December - In spite of the weather, we played on Ystrad square this morning and made our usual Christmas Eve pilgrimage to the Con Club (and Gloria) in the evening.
22nd December - Another trip to Tesco: this time we were in the Swansea store. The St Cynog's service followed in the evening.
21st December - We visited Tesco in Neath Abbey on Wednesday and returned to Tesco in Fforestfach today.
17th December - Just one spot of local carolling this week. Tonight we played in Brecon Road.
15th December - The Band participated at the Carol Service of the ABC church in Ammanford.
14th December - Local shoppers once again showed their generosity as our stint at the Co-op raised our highest total of the year.
13th December - We visited a further eight pubs, travelling from Craig Y Nos down to Ystradgynlais.
11th December - Carolling has continued this week with visits to Tawe Park, Glantawe Park, Tan y Farteg and Glanrhyd.
9th December - We played on Ystrad Square in an event organised by 'Communities First' to celebrate the first ever year of Christmas lights in Ystrad!
7th December - Our first ever Saturday evening carolling session was held at Tesco Extra in Fforestfach.
6th December - The Band's annual carolling marathon is now well underway. We visited Cwmgiedd on Wednesday, Smithfield and College Row on Thursday and tonight saw a 'pub crawl' from the George in Cwmtwrch to the Bomb in Glanrhyd.
24th November - Our first CD recording session was held at the bandroom in Ystalyfera. Although there were a few surprise absentees, we had a band of 28 playing and Alud is happy with some of the recorded tracks.
20th November - A quartet from the Band played at an event in Abercrave school.
16th November - Yet another second place in competition - this time at Treorchy, but this was the band's best performance in 15 years and showed that we are worthy of the Championship title. Our chances of winning were this time reduced on three fronts: 1) Charles had told the contest organiser where to shove his competition after he had decided to rigidly stick to a different set of rules to those applied at the same contest last year (this meant that we were unable to borrow a bass and trombone player as anticipated). 2) The contest controller (who also happened to win best instrumentalist) played with the winning band. 3) The adjudicator was Lloyd Landry (Ross's comments about him are unprintable). But all in all it was a fantastic day, rounded off by an exceptional after-contest party!
5th October - The Band claimed 2nd prize at the Ammanford contest playing 'Malvern Suite'. This result was enough to secure our place as fourth section champions for the South East and West Wales region with one competition still to go. Our principal cornet player, Greg Owen, also won the award for the best soloist in the section today.
28th September - Although we were given just 12 hours notice by Alud at the end of the concert, the Band played at the Ystradgynlais Farmers' Market this morning.
27th September - Annual Concert at Abercrave Welfare Hall. The concert was a sell out and the packed hall were not disappointed as the Band turned in another rousing performance. There were excellent contributions from Abercrave, Caehopkin and Penycae schools and from our featured soloists - Wyn (who sang Can yr Arad Goch) and Rhysian (who played 'Sunshine of your Smile'). As usual, we finished with a combined item featuring all three choirs and the Band - the song on this occasion was 'Yellow Submarine'. Thank you to all who supported this concert and to those who worked behind the scenes to make it such a resounding success.
31st August - We held our Annual Barbecue at the Ynyscedwyn Scout Hut. It was an entertaining evening, which (for some) went on for over 13 hours!
26th August - Today saw the culmination of several weeks worth of fundraising at the Ynyscedwyn Arms on behalf of the Band and the Gyrlais choir. A small group from the Band provided entertainment in the gardens. A total of £250 was raised for us.
24th August - Dulais Valley summer festival. The organisers had originally booked Dulais Valley band, not realising that - in spite of their £70000 lottery grant a few years ago - they don't even have enough members to make up a quartet! It was Ystrad Band to the rescue, but we had to settle for travelling expenses while they kept the booking fee. To make things even worse, they have just received a further £3000 council grant to help teach both their players...
16th August - We held a quiz night at the Ynyscedwyn Arms. Video clips from the Band's performances in concerts and competitions over the last three years were shown and the questions related to the music in the clips. The winners of the quiz were the 'Smelly Arabs' who scored 42 out of 50.
3rd August - An outstanding performance saw Ystrad Band walk away with the runners up prize at the National Eisteddfod in St. David's. In each of the previous four years (the sequence may be longer, but my memory's not that good) the first prize has gone to the 'host' band so it was no surprise that the winners trophy went a few miles up the road to Fishguard. The Eisteddfod operates under the National grading system, which meant that we were faced with competition from bands who are locally graded up to two sections higher than us. So our second place was a fantastic result under the circumstances. Our two soloists, Wyn and Laurence both played superbly and thanks go also to our two 'borrowed' players, Geraint on trombone and Cliff on Bb bass.
6th July - Given our recent success, we again left our conductor to do other things as we performed at the Hospital Fete. But a request for us to play 'Memory' caused a little problem when each bar was played more slowly than the preceding one - our solo cornets obviously don't run on the same batteries as the energizer bunny...
15th June - Ynyscedwyn Scout Fete. The potential for disaster was high, with no conductor and a set of music that we haven't looked at for a year or longer. Thankfully, our successful run continued and even the rain held off until the end.
14th June - The Band was in remarkably good form, given the less than ideal preparation in the run up to the Charity Concert at the Welfare Hall in Ystradgynlais. Our combined item with Penrhos school stole the show and was received with rapturous applause!
8th May - Our Annual Concert at the Welfare Hall in Ystradgynlais. Wyn and Rhodri were the comperes for the evening and we are again delighted with the positive feedback received from the audience. Ynysgedwyn and Cynlais schools joined us and our finale was two combined items: Flashdance and I Will Follow Him.
20th April - We collected the first prize trophy at the Ebbw Vale contest. As Catryn was barely able to stand up straight, it was left to Daniel to collect our award. Parrot-face made his usual appearance as the results were announced.
17th March - Our first contest of the year at the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea. We are pleased to have signed 6 new players since the beginning of the year and five of these took part today.
1st March - St David's Day concert at Maesydderwen school. We joined Cor Meibion and a number of local schools for this concert. The concert was organised by the choir and although the hall was filled to capacity, they have not handed over a penny of the agreed £100 fee.
18th January - We played at the Gnoll in Neath for the international rugby match between Wales and New Zealand schoolboys.
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