ON 15th APRIL WE CELEBRATE THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT!

In April 1960 Cwmbach Male Choir had the honour and distinction of appearing in concert with Paul Robeson at London’s Royal Festival Hall (the above photograph famously records the occasion). It was held by the Movement for Colonial Freedom (later to become Amnesty International) for Africa Freedom Day, and was attended by a celebrity audience, including Anthony Wedgewood-Benn, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, and folk singer Pete Seeger, famous as the composer/writer of the protest song “Where have all the Flowers Gone?

The concert was so successful that a second concert was arranged for the following year, April 1961. Paul Robeson, despite his increasing poor health, agreed to attend.

The choir arrived in London on Saturday 15th April in the late morning when the choir was preparing to rehearse, the organisers received a message to say that Paul Robeson had been taken ill in Moscow and would be unable to make the journey to perform in the concert. No professional replacement was available at such short notice so Cwmbach’s legendary Conductor, T.R. James, asked one of the Choir’s Basses, George Lloyd to take Paul Robeson’s place.

George had been a member of the audience who had listened to Robeson at the Mountain Ash Pavilion back in 1938. On being asked George is reported to have said:

"Well if you think I can do it, I'll have a go!”

In a wonderful, but largely amateur singing career, he had sung with the Welsh National Opera, the Welsh Festival Choir and Sadlers Wells. His performance on the day would bring the capacity audience to its feet, giving him a well-deserved thunderous ovation. Dai Francis (the Choir’s President), writing in the National Union of Mineworkers magazine later said:

" This working man from South Wales will never forget the memorable occasion when he was called upon at such short notice to fill the breach caused by the illness of one of the world's most famous singers…..and how wonderfully he acquitted himself…."

George died in 1999 in his 80th year. He was a Life Member of Cwmbach Male Choir, and at that time, the only chorister to have served for 60 years. His funeral eulogy fondly recalled his proudest moment. A lovely treasured memory of achievement!