Award-winning Welsh singer/songwriter Martyn Joseph joined young performers for a special musical production to commemorate the Tonypandy Riots of 1910.
Martyn was joined by students from Tonypandy Community College and Ysgol Gyfun y Cymer along with a chorus from six local primary schools for the four performances of Broken Peace/ Ni Ddaw Heddwch at The Park & Dare Theatre, Treorchy, plus the production of a CD of the same name.
Rhondda Cynon Taf Cultural & Music Services worked with Martyn and the youngsters to create the unique piece. The students contributed compositions and musical accompaniment, guided by MD Andrew Griffiths and Martyn led workshops in schools and colleges encouraging the young people to get involved.
As well as performing his new music with the students at the Park & Dare, Martyn was asked by BBC Radio Wales to present a special radio programme about the Riots and Broken Peace and its preparation featured large in that show.
Martyn said: “I was delighted to be involved and proud to be asked to lead on such a fantastic project. It is important to get the messages and some of the history of where we live across to people at a younger age.”
Jessica Worner, a student at Ysgol Gyfun y Cymer, said: “Being able to sing on the song that I helped compose was an amazing feeling. It’s also been a great experience working with such a great singer/songwriter as Martyn Joseph.”
Suzie Murphy, a student at Tonypandy Community College, said: “This experience has been fantastic. I have learnt many things about the Tonypandy Riots from 1910 and I now look at the Rhondda Valley and its heritage a lot differently. I have really enjoyed writing our own music and I really think that it will have a big impact on people’s thoughts about the Rhondda and its coal miners.”
Simon White of Bigfoot Arts Education said: “The performance was outstanding and incredibly moving. It was a wonderful way for the young people involved to access history and their heritage and then to put their own creative stamp on it.
“The portrayal of the characters through the songs was excellent. The appearance of the actor in the last song was a particularly touching moment!”
Local playwright Larry Allan said: “The event captured and combined seminal history with contemporary issues in an epically uplifting fashion. This was made all the more poignant and pertinent as it was delivered through the mouths of our young people.
“Everyone associated it should be very proud and anyone, such as myself, who is involved in similar projects, could not fail to be inspired.”
The Tonypandy Riots of 1910 were a series of violent confrontations between coal miners and police that took place in and around the mines of the Cambrian Combine, a business network of mining companies formed to regulate prices and wages in South Wales.
The riots were the culmination of an industrial dispute between the workers – who went on strike for a year in an effort to fight for a living wage – and the mine owners.
Broken Peace/ Ni Ddaw Heddwch is one of a series of events held throughout the year to commemorate the Riots. Broken Peace – Ni Ddaw Heddwch was commissioned by RCT Theatres & RCT Music Service with the funding support of Arts Council of Wales and Fframwaith.
Rhondda Cynon Taf’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Recreation and Tourism, Cllr Robert Bevan, said: “The standing ovations at all of the performances demonstrate how well this project told an important story – one that had a huge beneficial impact subsequently on working families within and way beyond the Rhondda Valleys.
“I am delighted too that Martyn Joseph, in singing songs from this show every night on his current UK tour, is ensuring that the impact of Broken Peace is also spread well beyond our borders.”
The CD of Broken Peace is available from the Park & Dare Theatre and also from the Martyn Joseph website www.martynjoseph.com
For more information on the Tonypandy Riots, go to: www.tonypandy2010.com
