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Terry  Breverton , who has been translated into languages as varied as Chinese, Japanese and Turkish, recalls the almost forgotten eight brothers who all played for Cardiff Rugby Club, when it was universally acknowledged as the ‘ greatest rugby club in the world’ . For forty years to 1974, in every season at least one of the brothers was a regular first team member, and the youngest four brothers sometimes all played together. The careers of four of the brothers were halted because of World War Two, where the eldest and ‘best’, Gwyn Williams, was carried off on a death cart but recovered, never to play again. Brother Bleddyn was a fighter pilot, pressed into service as a glider pilot, flying paratroopers for the invasion of Germany. In the 1953 New Zealand rugby tour of Great Britain, the All Blacks suffered their only defeats to Cardiff and Wales, both captained by Bleddyn. Another brother, Lloyd, captained Cardiff and Wales, as did their cousin Bill Tamplin. Their uncle Roy Roberts played with the older brothers for Cardiff and won the Military Medal. Despite the war ending 6 years of fixtures for the 4 older boys, and the next 2 having to undertake National Service, the brothers played 1,400 games for Cardiff Firsts. They grew up with four sisters in a rented terraced house in the small village of Taff’s Well – theirs is a unique story of sporting achievement, impossible to replicate.

Some 5* reader reviews include: ‘This book not only records graphically the history of Cardiff and Taff’s Wells rugby clubs, but also the first hundred years of Welsh rugby. I could not put it down as I felt that I was there on the field. It is an incredible story of eight brothers from a small village who played for Cardiff when it was the greatest club in the world. This achievement can never be repeated. It is also a valuable document recording social history of its time in Wales, a wealth of information for historians and sportspeople alike. This is  Terry   Breverton  at his very best.’ - ‘Wonderfully researched … This is an important book in the annals of rugby history, and also shines a light on the social and economic history of Cardiff, Wales and the wider UK.’ – ‘Having spent time in conversations with four of the brothers, I can highly recommend this book to lovers of the game they play in heaven.’

‘Writing about sport can be neat and academic, with scores, records, reports, lives and opinions cited to describe this game or that as a social phenomenon…This is not such a book. It’s a love letter – to rugby, to Cardiff Rugby Football Club, and to the extraordinary Williams family. For you don’t go to Cardiff Arms Park – or Bath Rec or the Brewery Field or Twickers – to watch a social phenomenon. You go to see victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, or to bear disappointment with a pint; to applaud that outside break, that tackle, that kick; to bemoan the one-eyed referee or the team selection; to be partial but generous; to complain that the game isn’t what it was … but still to follow the latest stars and stalwarts, the clowns and villains that some rugby Shakespeare has placed upon the green stage. And to honour the Williams family and Cardiff RFC,  Terry   Breverton  has turned himself into that know-all who drives you nuts, but with whom you will always go the match. The one you tell to shut up, because he goes on so – but when you want to know something, he’s the one you ask. This book is long overdue, but none the worse for it. Read it, and cheer.’

It's a bit of a doorstop, 650 pages showing why for over 100 years Cardiff were regarded as  'the greatest'  - alongside the history of the Cardiff club, Taff's Well RFC and the Welsh team to the era of Gareth and Barry in the mid-1970s.  Terry  began writing it because a few people had heard of Bleddyn Williams, but hardly anyone recalls the family. He tells  Nation Cymru  that: "Amazingly, eight brothers played rugby for Cardiff, when it was regarded as 't he greatest club in the world ' . An unknown story - two of the boys captained Cardiff and Wales, as did their cousin Bill Tamplin, who played with the famous Bleddyn Williams. Their uncle Roy Roberts also played for Cardiff with the older brothers before and after the War, winning the MM as a tank commander. The three eldest boys, Gwyn, Bryn and Bleddyn Williams fought in the War, Gwyn getting hauled off on a 'death cart' in North Africa for a desert burial, before a miraculous rescue. Gwyn was riddled with shrapnel, blinded in one eye and in pain for the rest of his days. Bleddyn risked court martial by racing to Gwyn's hospital in Oxford, talking constantly to him about their childhood and rugby, until Gwyn came around from a coma. Gwyn did not even know he was married. In his spare time, Gwyn’s Taff's Well schoolmaster selflessly threw himself into teaching Gwyn to read, write and count again. Bleddyn had trained as a fighter pilot but had to retrain, to fly paratroops through immense flak for the Rhine Crossing, as so many glider pilots had been lost at Arnhem. The rugby careers of Gwyn, Bryn and Bleddyn were put on hold for six years because of War, and the next three brothers Vaughan, Lloyd and Cenydd, lost two years for National Service.   

Despite thus losing 24 seasons of playing time, the boys played 1,480 times for Cardiff Firsts. By the time their careers ended, three were in the top 8 appearances for Cardiff - Elwyn with 339 games, Tony with 328 and Lloyd with 310. Tony and Lloyd were the only backs, the other six being forwards. The book takes us over 100 years from the founding of Taff's Well and Cardiff rugby clubs in the 19 ^th  century up to the mid-1970s, when the youngest two brothers, Elwyn and Tony returned to play for Taff's Well with great success. It is a UNIQUE story, never to be repeated in any team sport, with what amounts to a social history of rapidly changing times, and describing why Cardiff were acknowledged as  'the greatest ' team for a century. They played the best teams in Wales and England, and all the major touring sides, never coming close to a losing season. In many seasons they scored three to six times as many tries as their opponents, but the other teams scored more penalties. Cardiff always preferred to run the ball, the mission of the forwards being to get the ball to the backs for entertaining flowing rugby that brought record attendances wherever they played. 

We may have heard of Bleddyn, who captained Cardiff and Wales to the only two defeats of New Zealand on their 1953 tour of Britain, but there are the rugby biographies of all the brothers, their relatives Roy Roberts and Bill Tamplin, and some of the greatest men in Welsh rugby that they played alongside, for Cardiff, the Lions, Barbarians and Wales. I sometimes saw the four youngest in the same team - Lloyd (who also captained Cardiff and Wales), Cenydd, Elwyn and Tony - and this was the most difficult team to play for in British, if not world, club rugby. From 1933 to 1974, at least one brother was a regular first-choice player. Theirs is a frankly  incredible and inspiring  story of 8 brothers and 4 sisters growing up in the Depression and War. Their father was out of work as a coal tipper down Cardiff Docks for 6 years before War broke out, and they grew up in a 2.5-bedroom rented terraced house in a tiny, polluted village. 

Despite constant offers to turn professional - Bleddyn was offered a world record fee - only two 'went North'. Gwyn before the War joined Wigan, known as  'Wigan Welsh'  for their preponderance of Welsh players.

He told the press that he went to help his father financially, but three years ago I discovered that he turned professional to pay for Bleddyn's Rydal School fees. Cenydd was being touted in all the press as the next Wales outside-half or centre, but had played outside-half to rugby league legend Alex Murphy as his scrum-half for the RAF. Murphy convinced St Helens that they needed Cenydd, and he decided to go, for a record for a non-international. He and his wife were living at his in-laws' terraced house in Rhydyfelin, and the fee enabled him to buy a new four-bedroom house in a Lancashire village, with plenty of money left over. His rugby union career could have ended at any time with an injury, and he has never regretted the move. (Incidentally, turning 'professional' meant that one was paid for playing rugby, but still had a full-time job.)  In effect this is the story of the first 100 years of Welsh rugby, along with that of the Taff's Well and Cardiff clubs - a engrossing read and a riveting history of changing times."

Whatever the complexities surrounding the flooding of Cwm Tryweryn, the construction of Llyn Celyn is widely regarded as a decisive event in Welsh history. The story resonates with Welsh people like no other, and at last, after twenty years of research, author Wyn Thomas has written a detailed study of the story published by Y Lolfa, and questions many widely held views.

Two aspects of the Tryweryn story have attracted particular attention and comment in Wales: what is deemed to be Liverpool’s dubious justification for flooding Cwm Tryweryn and the traditional belief, often strenuously expressed, that the threatened Welsh-speaking community was united in opposing Liverpool’s reservoir construction project.  Tryweryn: A New Dawn?  powerfully challenges both of these deeply-held opinions. The use of extensive archival testimony convincingly demonstrates that Liverpool’s need to construct a reservoir to combat the city’s municipal water and employment problem is real and genuine.  As to the true extent of the cohesion felt by the threatened Welsh-speaking community in protesting Liverpool’s actions, compelling evidence is presented to challenge the existing legend – with Thomas offering an unprecedented voice to those from the former valley community who feel the time has come to put the record straight.

Wyn Thomas said: “After twenty years of research I have come to some conclusions that won’t please everyone – but I’ve interviewed scores of people and thoroughly researched the subject.  Consequently, I believe this book rectifies many of the existing and predetermined opinions which surround the flooding of Cwm Tryweryn, and gives a highly readable account of all that went on in the background and much that has happened since.”

Dafydd Wigley, in a foreword to the book has said that “this significant book deserves to be read by all who study the emergence of modern Wales”.

The book chronicles the controversial flooding of the Tryweryn Valley in North Wales by Liverpool in the 1960s to increase the city’s water supply. In the process of Liverpool constructing the reservoir a proud Welsh-speaking community was removed. There are complicated factors which govern such episodes and  Tryweryn: A New Dawn?  provides a balanced and nuanced appraisal of this contentious affair. 

Dr Wyn Thomas works freelance in academia, the media and as a respected songwriter and musician – releasing the album  Orion’s Belt  in 2022. His books  John Jenkins: The Reluctant Revolutionary?  (Y Lolfa, 2019) and  Hands Off Wales  (Y Lolfa, 2022) are considered essential reading for anyone with an interest in Welsh history and UK politics. He is married, has two daughters, and lives in Mid Wales. For more information see:  www.drwynthomas.com

Attic Theatre International Film Festival 2023

 
Photos: 12

AmeriCymru: Hi Glenn and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. Care to introduce the Attic Film Festival for our readers?  

Glenn: The inaugural Attic Theatre International Film Festival is organised by the Attic Theatre, a group of artists, actors, writers, film-makers and technicians based in Newcastle Emlyn, West Wales, who are captivated by the medium of film. 

Our designated event team for ATIFF are;

Carole King: an artist, bookbinder and printmaker -and the reluctant leading lady in the film ‘Tatsuko’, which will be shown as part of the Sunday screenings. She holds a particular interest in narrative film and documentary material. 

Melanie Davies: an actor and playwright  who won the  2022 Cynon Valley Film Festival Director’s award for devising and acting in ‘Thoughtpolice 4891’. “As an actor/writer/director of theatre, it has always been the telling of the story that has excited and intrigued me. And it seems that with current technology we can hear and see stories now, that have been left untold. The democracy of film making is liberating for many voices and small film festivals like ours help to give audiences for those stories. Sharing a good story is a universal need it seems to me and participating in that is a great joy.               Peter Mount: is the theatre company’s  sound and visual effects technician and is a big fan of black and white film. ”Like millions of others, I’ve watched films all my life. We watch them to find out about the world and to see it through other people eyes. Life without the enrichment of film, would just be so much duller.”

Glenn Ibbitson: artist and former scenic artist for film and television, through which I enjoyed a brief acting scene with the late and much lamented Robin Williams -which oddly ended up on the cutting room floor, but that’s a story for another time. I hold a passion for silent film -the world’s only truly international language.

Visual interest is our shared criteria, though of course that is subjective; we felt that four directors could better able to argue the merits of each submission and prevent one personal taste predominating.

Together, our aim is to encourage excellence in film-making and to present the medium of movie to our audiences through a free weekend-long event. We invite submissions of short film from  a few seconds long [this is the age of TikTok after all] to a maximum running time of about 20 minutes. We are a genre fluid event with no particular theme. We already have submissions which are silent films, music videos, documentaries, animation. 

Our submission fee is kept at a nominal level. This is simply to cover festival expenses. We are not out to make a profit. 

Our main concern was to make this a free event for our visitors. The public can use this as a drop-in event; watch a couple of films, take a break and return for more , or stay for a whole day session. This guarantees that our selected filmmakers are showing their work to an actual live audience.

AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about the venue - the Attic Theatre? 

Glenn: The theatre/cinema is sited in the elegant Grade Two listed Town Hall above the Market Buildings. The building dates from1892.

The raked auditorium itself has a capacity of 80. The plush seats were retrieved from a cinema in Pembrokeshire They give our audiences the authentic and comfortable theatrical experience. We have a digital projector and a large screen, so this is a genuine big-screen experience.

AmeriCymru: How many entries are you aiming for and what are the competition categories? 

Glenn: We really don’t know how many entries to expect to be honest. The rate of submissions has accelerated in recent weeks; a viewing/selection process which last month seemed quite relaxed is now looking more like a task -one which as fans of film, we are more than happy to address.

Films considered for completion will be shown on Friday evening of the 13th October and Saturday 15th from 2pm-9pm. With intervals between hourly blocks of film, we expect to offer 6hours of film. Sunday is reserved for invited works and those made by colleagues at the Attic theatre. These have been excluded from competition to avoid any conflict of interest. This will comprise  another 4 hours or so of movie.

The Festival Categories eligible for awards are:

Drama
Best Made in Wales
Experimental
Animation
Cinematography
Documentary
Black & White
Music
Environmentalist

The ATiFF Award -this will be a film chosen for special mention by the co-directors of the festival.

The actual design of the award statuette has not been finalised as yet. We are split between a figurine and a stylised clapperboard! Watch this space for an update!

AmeriCymru: What is the deadline for the receipt of submissions? 

Glenn: August 19th for the regular deadline and September the 8th for the last minute deadline. This allows us just enough time to get a comprehensive festival programme to print.

AmeriCymru: Submissions are welcome from around the world, correct? 

Glenn: Yes; so far most submissions have been from the UK, but films have come in from  from Canada, the U.S, Japan, India -and Cardigan, which is 10 miles down the valley!

AmeriCymru: Will this become an annual event? 

Glenn: I would hope so; the impetus for this event -quite apart from our enthusiasm for film, was the feeling that our venue could be used for a greater variety of events throughout the calendar. My personal hope is that ATIFF can occupy a regular Autumn slot on an annual basis from now on.

AmeriCymru: Any clips that you would care to share? 

Glenn: We have no trailers as yet; it may be a little too early for that kind of pre-publicity, but we have stills from several submissions and invited films which I have enclosed [labelled with title and director’s name] together with photographs of the venue and posters.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru? 

Glenn: If you have a camcorder, if you have a stills camera with a movie mode option on its function dial, -if you have a mobile, you can make movie. If you think you have something to share with an enthusiastic audience, let’s see it -you could be walking off with an award come October. Ffilm hapus!

The text for Taopolis has its genesis in a series of dates Jeremy Gluck's band The Barracudas played in Tokyo in 2013. Enthralled by the city and in his hotel room in Shinjuku, the words flowed to try and capture the spirit of a city that after only four days he never wanted to leave.

We invited renowned Tokyo Dadaist Jack Seiei to produce a video for the track,his expertise in collage and video art bringing a fresh and innovative perspectiveto the project.

Recording artist, digital fine artist, and prolific electronic music and video art collaborator, Jeremy Gluck is perhaps best known as lead singer of cult surf-punk band The Barracudas, the subject of a recently released 3CD retrospective on Cherry Red Records. As a solo artist he has had songs covered by artists such as Lydia Lunch and Rowland S. Howard (The Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution, These Immortal Souls), and Nikki Sudden (Swell Maps), with whom two latter artists he recorded the first supergroup alt.country album, ‘I Knew Buffalo Bill’ in 1987. In 1997 Gluck began a journey into experimental electronica that led to him working with some of the genre’s leading lights, including Martin Rev, Brendan Moeller, Dub Gabriel, and Youth.

Paul Hazel is a music producer and multi-instrumentalist. He has studied electroacoustic composition with Simon Emmerson and completed the ‘Search and Reflect’ method with free jazz drummer John Stevens. He has had many releases on labels such as Rising High, Rotation, Inspiral, 2Kool, Welsh Modular Alliance, and SWND. As part of the band Blue Train he hit the Billboard dance charts with Get Movin’, released on Masters At Work. He has composed and produced the music for a number of commercial films and TV programmes. Short films of his own have been exhibited in Japan, Venice, and at several galleries across Wales.

Links

https://bambooradical.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/JeremyGluckArt
https://www.facebook.com/paul.hazel.31/
https://www.paulhazel.com
https://twitter.com/nonceptualism
https://objkt.com/profile/tz2JPVuwvUZyq1LyFwNz2ghXbJ62pQ1rd9f2/activity
https://www.instagram.com/jackseiei

Today, we are excited to announce that joining our 20th anniversary event at The Gate in Cardiff on Saturday 30th of September 2023, are one of Wales’s best-kept secrets, righteous bilingual noise pop trio Chroma, as main supports.

They are gearing up for the release of their debut album and will be joined by master Welsh songsmith  Carwyn Ellis  of  Rio 18, Colorama  and  The Pretenders  live band, who will be playing an exclusive stripped back set, and practitioners of soulful lo-fi pop  Papaya Noon , who will ease you into the late afternoon. Finally, on the decks we have former Boomtown booker and local legend  Kaptin  who will be bringing the party with his encyclopedic collection of hip hop, soul, disco music and beyond.

They join a bill that already boasts three awesome acts. Two-time Welsh Music Prize winners and GIITTV favourites  Adwaith  who will be headlining, emerging artist  The Honest Poet , who blends soul, hip hop, and pop into personal songs full of heart. Opening the show are one of our tips for 2023,  Half Happy , a wonderful bittersweet indie pop band who have captured our hearts in recent months.

Doors are 3pm with the acts starting at 4pm.  Tickets are twenty pounds in advance and more on the door, book here.

This event is in conjunction with our friends at  Joyzine  who are also celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, we will be helping promote events around this landmark in due course. Also the charity  Hope Not Hate  and the fine online publication  the Zine .

 An independent publication, GIITTV, started in 2003. This was an era even before blogs, before YouTube, and Twitter. Inspired by webzines like Drowned in Sound and the punk zine spirit of Repeat fanzine, I started posting my early reviews from the Cardiff University newspaper, Gair Rhydd on a basic Yahoo Geocities page. Over the years I was then joined by writers from around Britain and the world, GIITTV has evolved through many incarnations and evolutions as a website and publication, now boasting a passionate and hardworking editorial team, over 200 writers, and the contributions of artists and web designers, without whom this website would not have grown and thrived for so many years. With a solid following, we hope we have grown into one of the most lasting online portals for music and culture around. We have always championed the artists that excite us no matter their level or label from throughout the country and beyond, providing a platform for emerging artists and groups. The site also has a special focus on Welsh music over the last decade, championing the new Welsh wave of artists. We have developed this by spotlighting as many genres as we can in the principality, sponsoring a stage at the Focus Wales festival and by featuring the likes of  The Anchoress, Adwaith, Carwyn Ellis, Aderyn  and many more on our podcast Show Me Magic.

As well as delivering a stream of quality writing, our achievements over the years include raising £5000 for Help Musicians from a  R.E.M.  Covers compilation that was endorsed by the band, helping to promote several charity shows including G Spot in London and Mind Fest in Cardiff, staging shows by the likes of  Frightened Rabbit, My Sad Captains, Orphans and  Vandals, HMS Morris  and  Vessels  and many more. Our deputy editor,  Simon Godley,  received an award for best festival journalist at the Festival Congress.

With an independent voice free of corporate constraints, we have always believed in giving new artists and writers a platform to gain experience, hone their craft, and explore their passions. We are powered by the goodwill, knowledge, and passion of our writers, the support of labels and artists, and the readers. We hope this event marks this special occasion in style, with an event celebrating some of Wales’s finest artists and acting as a thank you to everyone involved, set in the heart of Cardiff at one of the city’s most impressive venues- a converted church with listed status as a building.

Tickets here: 

https://www.gigantic.com/giittv-20th-anniversary-tickets/cardiff-the-gate-arts-centre/2023-09-30-15-00