Max Boyce: Hymns & Arias: The Selected Poems, Songs and Stories

Product Information

I know a lot of people would list Gold Finger and Diamonds are Forever as their favourite Shirley Bassey songs – but I’m not much of a Bond fan so for me it’s always been the sultry Big Spender. Here she is singing the song live at Glastonbury in 2007 in the most amazing pink feathery dress designed by Merthyr’s Julien Macdonald and a full orchestra. Max Boyce, Max Boyce in the Mad Pursuit of Applause (Pavilion Books Limited: London, 1987), ISBN 1-85145-136-6 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.

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. My children love this song and pretending to be monsters coming over the hill. The official video is a tongue-in-cheek adventure that sees the band hunting for various monsters. We always have to rewind the Yeti-style monster wiggling his bum. belt out – Gwlad, gwlad, pleidiol wyf i’m gwald. This video is from the Six Nations tournament of 2013, just before Wales beat England 30-3. Let’s hope for a similar result when we take them on in their home ground this year on 12th March. 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. Rhondda Grey’ and ‘Duw! It’s Hard’ in particular mean so much to me, for they are songs of personal experience, having worked underground from the age of sixteen for ten years and experienced the love/hate relationship the miners had with their workplace… ‘where they emptied all the hills to warm the world’.My list starts with our iconic National Anthem and finishes with two traditional Welsh songs and probably the most famous Welsh songs ever composed, Calon L ân and Myfanwy. It also includes songs by Stereophonics, Manic Street Preachers, Dafydd Iwan, Max Boyce and Tom Jones. Here are the full lyrics with English translations and meanings where necessary. Number Hymns & Arias includes some of my favourite songs, such as ‘Rhondda Grey’ and ‘Duw! It’s Hard’, as well as some unpublished poems, such as ‘Is God in His Paint Shop’, ‘Aberfan’ and ‘With a Whistle in His Hand’. Much of my work is based on personal experience, born of a truth that gives me the credence to tell my stories and sing my songs.

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. This early pinnacle in Boyce's career coincided with the dominance of the Welsh rugby team in the Five Nations Championship during the 1970s. His songs and poems were real-time reflections on this unfolding history, often invoking the names of Welsh rugby greats such as Barry John, Gareth Edwards and Dai Morris. Songs such as "Hymns and Arias" soon became popular with rugby crowds, a fact which has played a significant part in his ongoing popularity. When Swansea City were promoted to the English Premier League in 2011, Boyce was asked to perform for their first game and produced a special version of "Hymns and Arias" for the occasion. [10]I’ve really missed live sport throughout these pandemic times, but thankfully the situation has been restored to some normality.