This is the background and history of the band.

The Birth and early years

We start our story in 1884 – the year of the “Cutting of the Clod” at the new Maerdy pit which was to bring new employment to the village. To celebrate the occasion, it is recorded that eight local instrumentalists – four cornets, tenor, trombone, euphonium, bass and the big drum played at the ceremony and what an occasion it must have been to have brass music at the birth of a new way of life.
The conception had occurred, but it was eight years later before the inspired dream of a few locals became reality, when in 1892 a meeting was held to form a brass band in Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen.
 

The Silver Years

The year 1925 saw the band invited to play at the Wembley National Exhibition Centre where they become the first brass band ever to broadcast outside a studio. Just imagine how local people who had radios must have felt – the pride of hearing their very own band playing in London.

The "Uncle Dan Years"

In September 1933 the former double bass player Mr. Dan Lloyd who had joined the band in 1901 was invited to form a junior band assisted by a few of the former players. He had been born in Rhandirmwyn in 1886 and had moved to G.C.G in 1900 where work was plentiful in the then working Maerdy pit.
This was the start of a magnificent partnership (Dan Lloyd and Band-Y-Waun) which brought unrivalled success with the local band achieving 28 firsts, 3 seconds and one third prize in the first 32 contests attended between 1933 and 1939. This was probably the greatest era in the history of brass bands and Gwaun-cae-Gurwen competed against the best in the land.
 

'Uncle Dan'

Being such an influential character in the history of the band it is befitting to put on record for posterity the reason that the name ‘Uncle Dan’ came about. It’s the simple fact that everybody in the brass band world virtually thought of him as their Uncle Dan. Being one of eleven children himself (brothers Ifan and Jim; sisters Annie, Bessie, Catherine, Deborah, Hettie, Maggie, Marry and Nellie) and as they all got married so the number of nephews and nieces grew to form the great “Lloyds” of G.C.G. It is estimated that during his reign as conductor no less than eighteen nephews played under him – most famous of these was Roland Jones (Annie’s son) the celebrated euphonium player who went on to join Black Dyke and later the Bickershaw Band and eventually to join the Saddlers Wells opera company where he became one of the country’s leading tenors.
As one can imagine, with more than half the band calling him quite rightly ‘Uncle Dan’, the name soon caught on and became synonymous with “Band-y-Waun”.

The Last Decade

The year 1982 saw the bands most major upheaval when after an association of 90 years they moved away from the “Mount Pleasant Inn”. Would “Band-y-Waun” ever be the same? Gone were the days of a few pints after rehearsal and the following of locals who enjoyed listening to the band in such congenial surroundings. Gone was the old excuse for a pint “I’m going down the pub to listen to the band!”
The committee had decided that owning it’s own bandroom was the ultimate aim and had purchased the old Wesleyan Chapel in Church Lane, Cwmgors. Unused for many years the building was in a dilapidated state, but with hard work, determination and the rallying of finances, the first practice was held at their very own headquarters on the 8th February 1982.
 

The European Connection.

The Easter weekend of 1987 became the start of an international friendship when a party of 56 visited Wales and Gwaun-cae-Gurwen for the first time. The weekend consisted of concerts, visits to Swansea and the locality, and naturally most evenings culminated in social gatherings at local hostelries. The local band certainly maintained the old tradition of ‘We’ll Keep A Welcome in the Hillsides’ and done the “Land of Song” proud. Their departure brought many a tear and a new milestone in the band’s history in that the Waun band was to visit Germany in 1988.
Well! The journey was certainly worth it, if only to be present at the most spectacular concert in the history of the band – the Germans had organized our visit into the first Obere Saar Brass Band Music Festival featuring three German bands, one French and, of course, “Band-y-Waun”. With five stages and comperes in German, French and English, the audience of nearly one thousand in a huge sports arena were entertained to a selection of music from all over the world – and the little band from the valleys played its heart out.

Centenary Celebrations

The band again played host to their friends from Blasorchester Kleinblittersdorf over the Easter holidays culminating in a joint concert at Theatre Cwmtawe. Another memorable evening of musical entertainment. Also to commemorate the centnary, a plate was commissioned with the emblem of the Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen band which contains in its design the musical notes G.C.G on the musical stave – that little something special for a very special band.
 

Interested?

Rehearsals are held every Tuesday and Friday evenings in the bandroom, which in the last ten years has doubled in its size and which now has a large car park through sponsorship from the British Coal Opencast Organization.