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

Product Information

In 1999, he was awarded an MBE by Prince Charles and in 2013 he received the Freedom of the Borough of Neath and Port Talbot, following in the footsteps of Sir Richard Burton and Sir Anthony Hopkins. In 2022, there are plans to unveil a bronze lifesize statue of Max in his hometown – a fitting and deserved tribute to a modern-day folk hero whose poems, songs and stories have become part of Welsh legend.

Maxwell Boyce, MBE (born 27 September 1943) is a Welsh comedian, singer and entertainer. He rose to fame in the mid-1970s with an act that combined musical comedy with his passion for rugby union and his origins in a South Wales mining community. Boyce's We All Had Doctors' Papers (1975) remains the only comedy album to have topped the UK Albums Chart and he has sold more than two million albums in a career spanning four decades. 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. Games are still being cancelled because of some players testing positive, but there have been some matches in fractured leagues.

More clips from Rugby Union: Five Nations Championship: Wales v England

a b c Robert, Trefor (1 February 2007). "Max Boyce's 35 years as a Welsh icon". Neath Guardian . Retrieved 6 March 2011. His next album, We All Had Doctors' Papers, was also live, recorded at Pontarddulais Rugby Club. This was released in late 1975 and, unexpectedly, it reached the No. 1 position on the UK Albums Chart for the week ending 15 November. [8] This recording has the distinction of being the only comedy album to ever top the UK Albums Chart. [9] Boyce released several albums over the next few years, receiving further gold discs for The Incredible Plan in 1976, and I Know 'Cos I Was There in 1978. [1]

There’s nothing I enjoy more than watching my village side Glynneath play on a Saturday afternoon and soaking up the banter and the ‘craic’ in the bar afterwards when the referee is blamed for everything from petrol shortage to global warming. Boyce continues to make headlines in the British press. On 29 May 2006, Max Boyce headlined at a concert in Pontypridd to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Welsh national anthem, " Hen Wlad fy Nhadau". [16] In August 2006, he hit out against the stereotypical use of the word " boyo" in the media, following its resurgence in reference to Welsh Big Brother contestant Glyn Wise. [17] Tarleton, Alice. "University of Glamorgan". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 17 May 2007 . Retrieved 27 June 2007. They saw education as a means to escape the inevitability of working in the pits, where men were robbed of daylight and turned to song and religion. 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. NumberHis first and second albums were recorded live at rugby clubs in the South Wales valleys and the second went to Number 1 on the UK charts (the first comedy album to ever top the UK Albums Chart). Your moving poem ‘When Just the Tide Went Out’ has been uploaded millions of times, tell us a little about how you came about writing it … I’ve sung this at countless weddings and funerals… but its status as unofficial rugby anthem always means people belt out the “bread of heaven/feed me til I want no more, want no more” refrain as passionately as it gets sung at the rugby. Here it is sung by the legendary Michael Ball at Wales Millennium Stadium at the opening of the Rugby World Cup in 1999. Welsh entertainer Max Boyce had produced two albums prior to the release of Live at Treorchy, both on Cambrian Records, Max Boyce in Session and Caneuon Amrywiol (both in 1971). Neither album was very successful and Boyce continued touring clubs around South Wales. In 1973 and still an unknown outside Wales, he was spotted by EMI record producer Bob Barrett, stealing the show from headliner Ken Dodd at the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea. [1] Boyce signed a contract with the EMI producer while walking along a bridle path at Langland Bay, and was signed to a two-record deal overseen by Vic Lanza, head of EMI Records’ MOR music division. [1] [2] [3] The entertainer from Glynneath is a guest on Face to Face with Adrian Masters on Thursday (November 25).

I’ve really missed live sport throughout these pandemic times, but thankfully the situation has been restored to some normality. This was so true, so sad and left a deep impression on me how powerful simple words could be in colouring a memory and painting a picture. A true wordsmith who ‘carved words like jewels’ and was an early influence. Choosing what to include wasn’t easy but I sincerely hope it is a collection that is representative of my writing over the years. From such a wealth of material you’ve produced over the years, how did you go about choosing which stories, songs and poems to include in the book? One of the most beautiful songs I know, I sing this traditional Welsh lullaby to my children a lot… and even my English husband says it brings a tear to his eye. Yet never is it more beautiful than when performed by a male voice choir. I love this version in particular, by Only Men Aloud and Only Boys Aloud.

It was difficult to introduce an element of humour at such a sensitive time and I was acutely aware of people’s feelings when ‘just the tide went out’. My earliest influences in songwriting were Ewan MacColl and Pete Seeger, who wrote and/or performed ‘songs of the working man’, such as ‘Close the Coalhouse Door’, ‘The Shoals of Herring’ and ‘The Big Hewer’. These songs were a great influence on me and still are. Welsh historian Martin Johnes describes Live at Treorchy as 'important to an understanding of Welshness as anything Dylan Thomas or Saunders Lewis wrote.' [1] "Hymns and Arias" [ edit ]

Despite the counter-attraction of televised rugby and soccer matches, there is no substitute for live Saturday afternoon sport, not even off the bench… As Boyce's popularity became established across Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom, he became involved in many side projects, including three books, several television series and televised concerts, and three multi-part television specials produced by Opix Films. [ citation needed] His spoken and sung poetry was first collected in Max Boyce: His Songs and Poems in 1976, with an introduction by Barry John. The comic illustrations that accompany the poems were drawn by his friend Gren Jones of the South Wales Echo (who had also illustrated the cover of We All Had Doctors' Papers). This publication was followed up with a similar collection, I Was There!, in 1980. [ citation needed] Boyce, Max – Hymns And Arias (Uk,1974,Emi 2291,PROMO 7)". discoogle.com. n.d. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011 . Retrieved 6 March 2011. Another spine-tingler for me, I love Sosban Fach, a traditional Welsh folk song which tells of a harassed house-wife – the baby crying, Meri-Ann has hurt her finger and the cat’s scratched little Johnny. It’s mostly associated with Llanelli rugby and the Scarlets, but this Cardiff girl loves it, especially this rousing version which marked the debut of Only Boys Aloud. Boyce's greatest musical success in recent years was his 2003 tour of Australia, coinciding with the Rugby World Cup which was being hosted there at the time. He held concerts in Adelaide and Melbourne, but the highlight was his sold-out performance at the Sydney Opera House, which was later released on DVD as Max Boyce: Down Under. [ citation needed]Boyce has a wife and children, who live away from the public eye in his hometown of Glynneath, in South Wales. [20] He continues to play an active role within this community, having been the president of Glynneath RFC in recent years [21] and the Club President of Glynneath Golf Club, where the "Max Boyce Classic" is held every two or three years. [22] In the early 1970s, Boyce undertook a mining engineering degree at the Glamorgan School of Mines in Trefforest (now the University of South Wales), [5] during which he began to pen tunes about life in the mining communities of South Wales. He started out performing in local sports clubs and folk clubs around 1970, where his original set began to take on a humorous element, interspersed by anecdotes of Welsh community life and of the national sport, rugby union. [1] Music career [ edit ]