Byn (Bynbrynman)Tavarn Ty Elise's Page

1) My first choice of song for my playlist has Alan Stivell singing 'Bro Gozh Ma Zhadou the Breton Anthem borrowed from Wales, seamlessly linking with 'Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau'. I once mentioned to Alan Stivell over a glass of beer that this hymn title is not translated into English, any more than the title of the Breton version is translated into French, however, this is not 'Land of my Fathers' but 'Lands of my Fathers,' signifying both Cymru/Wales and Breizh/Brittany.
2) My friend Francis will recognise this, it is the air that gave us our school song 'Ienctyd y Castell', I believe it is now 'Ienctyd Cyfarthfa'
3) This song was reputedly written with my daughter in mind
4) I chose Tornaod becausethe second part is a shared dedication between my pub in Brittany and Yvon's pub in Paris; the two ends of their journey.
5) Dol is a place in Brittany; Gareth & myself go back a long way, and I put Guy up in my house for a few weeks.
6) Calennig, a souvenir from the past and a friend on site
7) I'm from South Wales and Paul Robeson was a demigod with a majestic voice. His return visit to Wales was scuppered by the confiscation of his passport by Senator McCarthy.
8) I'm from Merthyr
9) This was my father's party piece
10) My party piece
11) Joseph Parry was born in Merthyr.
12) Another Idris Davies poem set to music, but this is far more famous than No 6.
13) Joseph Parry & St. Tydfil combining.
14) The music of my adopted home, the Menez Are in central Brittany.
15) Tom the boy; this has been taken to heart by Pontypridd and adopted by the Welsh, confused by some with 'How Green Was My Valley' which was situated just across the road in Gilfach Goch, don't tell them it's an American song about a man waiting to be hanged!
16) This is shared with Cerys Matthews
17) The deception of the swans' wings being taken for white sails coming to liberate Brittany, sung by my niece's godfather.
18) This came out as a protest at the exagerated amount of second homes in rural Wales.
19) Erwan was a Breton friend who fell into a coma after a car accident; the tragedy was, that after coming out of the coma he got out of bed to go for a newspaper and collapsed and died from a hidden blood clot. As for Mike, he had the grace to include me in the second volume of his autobiography, which for the moment is out only in Welsh.
20) No 1 in Wales for 8 weeks.
21) Allan Jones from Aberdare became world famous for this hit from the film 'Showboat'.
22) Allan's son Jack, who's also made a pretty good name for himself .
23) Our Shirl; One of my favourite early Shirley's
24) The other early favourite
25) Who could forget her winning every week on opportunity knocks, exactly the reverse of what happened to Max Boyce, he told me that it took his career back years.
26) Mary Hopkin singing in her first language
27) One of my favourite songs sung by my local choir
28) In the back of a van driven around the Aberteifi countryside in the '70's at night wondering why the van was stopping every five minutes, driven by Sian Tesni & Gwawr who sadly left us not long after.
29) I'm in Brittany and the group leader is my friend Derek.
30) The second part of this Medley is Barwn Merthyr; I was brought up near his statue in Merthyr.
31) When I read 'Brechfa' it reminds me of a friend who works in Brechfa and whose brother is a sculpter who participated an a large open air international exhibition in Carhaix down the road or me.
32) Plouie is the correct spelling for the village where I live
33) Siân has to this date not joined with me on this site: consider this an invitation.
34) A pilgrim to Llydaw/Breizh/Brittany; at this moment and for a while to come, Lleuwen is just 7 kilometers up the road in Huelgoat.
35) Caution, if you're into hymns this Merthyr group is not for you, with the children of year 6, Heolgerrig primary school, Merthyr Tydfil
36) I met René in Cardiff when he first came to Wales over 30 years ago from Patagonia; he gave me this album in Derek's Celtic festival in Porthcawl 2 years ago.
37) This time in his other language.
38) I couldn't keep the girl from Neath off, she's got a stronger accent than myself and the sentiment of being lost in France, although I consider Brittany to be as French as Wales is English, but, the Franks changed the name of Gaul to France, claimed hegemony and imposed Langue d'O'ïl as the State language.
39) According to Kaiser Bill,in his time, this was the best military march in the world, if we could restore it as our National Anthem, it would be a more inspiring counterweight to the Haka.
40) I knew Elinor when she and her husband Dafydd Wigley were acive in local politics in Merthyr Tydfil. They came to be living there because Dafydd was head of finance in Hoovers. One day Dafydd got the job of introducing the local dignitaries to Mr Felix Mansager, the American head of the firm and presented the local Mayor as Councillor Charles Bungalow, not realising that 'Bungalow' was his local sobriquet, intimating that he had nothing upstairs.
41) A vocal rendition of the same air.
42) Here Elinor is sharing the workload with Meinir Heulin.
43) I like the idea of playing from the old manuscripts
44) Plethyn have played in my bar and eaten in my house. Linda is from Pontrobert and we have a close friend in common, Mair, whom I know from Merthyr but who comes originally from there. In that part of 'Hen Sir Drefaldwyn' they have the same accent on the words as we have in Merthyr e.g. llêth for llaeth.
45) There's something about this song; it's been on my brain since the Eisteddfod Cricieth.
46) I write from a not so 'Tavarn Newydd', and Jim is a friend.
47) When I go to Wales now, it's like a pilgrimage.
48) I had never spoken to Heather before I met her, and Cathrin from Neli, at the Rugby World Cup in Nantes, although I have sat near her in the Welsh classes in Llangrannog many years ago. Little story; I went to Meic Steven's 65th birthday party at the old Coal Exchange in Cardiff with Ap Siôn, where Heather and Geraint Jarman had arranged to revive their old group, Bara Menyn, specially for the night; we got there early so I decided to visit a dockside pub for the first time and told Gareth not to worry as the best acts never go on first:
Mae'n ddrwg gen i, Gareth!
49) One of the original one hit wonders for this boy from Blackwood.
50) I might be in a different Country but the weathers the same; no tourists this year, they've all stayed away.
51) What I used to say to everybody at 1a.m., nobody's here at that time anymore!
52) Calzaghe ands Wales, the Nation, not the rugby team.
53) Two years ago, Ap Steffan (Castro), put me up in a caravan in Porthcawl so I could go to Derek's Inter-Celtic festival in Trecco Bay: two Americymru friends were there; Derek Smith the organizer from Mabon and Terry Breverton whom I met at the bar (he asked me if I knew me; see above)..
54) This is what McCarthy should have done. (I had to come to Brittany to see Paul Robeson sacrificing himself to save the Welsh miners in 'The Proud Valley).
55) Elfed's girlfriend, Ann Preston used to share a flat in Merthyr Town Centre Precinct with 3 other teachers of the same age and sex, it just so happens that Mecca's Tiffany's nightclub was just across the road, and suffice it to say that I found sleeping on the floor in that warm and friendly far more inviting than a long walk home (unless there was a girl by my sde, although that usually meant two walks home, hers and mine) on a cold winter night, and the flat also gave me a glow inside.
56) I personally organizedthe first, and perhaps the only Welsh Language rock concert in Merthyr Tydfil during the 20th century at the Rhydycar Sports & Leisure Centre, I got to eat a curry with Caryl Parry Evans née Jones and I remember people asking me why they were singing in Welsh.
57) Wynfford James was organizing a concert on behalf of C-Y-I-G on the fringes of the Eisteddfod Aberteifi and I got in free as a bouncer; I couldn't believe my ears when he told us to be particularly wary near the end, in case the girls would try to storm the stage to grab hold of them, my thoughts were, these are not the Beatles, but sure enough, close to the end all the security peple had to link arms forming a barrier to prevent it happening.
58) I was introduced to him many years ago in either Bangor or Caernarfon, perhaps during the Eisteddfod yr Urdd, Porthaethwy by a friend Ioan Roberts who was a journalist in Swansea ( I introduced him to John Charles); his wife won many eisteddfod medals for her singing voice.
59) A long time ago, before I came to live in Brittany, I went to a garden party in the grounds of a big house in Pontardawe, I think it was to raise funds for the local branch of Plaid Cymru, and there was a Breton couple singing; anyway I ended up sleeping on the floor of the house in a sleeping bag after being invited to stay the night by the Lady of the house. A few years later, I met one of the brothers with his girlfriend Llio and the next time I was in Wales, with a friend, we were invited to the family home and it was the same house, later on we drove down to Coleg y Drindod in Caerfyrddin/Carmarthen to celebrate Llio's birthday and stayed the night in the dormitories.
60) Most people think of these as a wholly Irish group, but David Howell Evans a.k.a. The Edge, is the son of two Welsh parents. Unfortunately with so many Welsh people finding work in England, he was born to Gavin and Gwenda Evans in Barking Maternity Hospital, Essex. I'm guessing that they were teachers because that's our greatest export to England, particularly in the South-East. Our biggest export to The United States, outside of Presidents, Discoverers, Trades Unionists, Gangsters, Distillers and Industrialists, was Miners and Steelworkers, notably in the Appalachians and Pittsburgh.
61) Jim is James and James is Iago; Jim sent me this today.
62) Meic in Llydaw/Brittany
63) Meic in Llydaw/Brittany
64) Dewi Prysor came to my birthday party last year
65) Claudio Vincent Williams's favourite
66) Mike Peter's band
67) Helen Morgan
68) Another fellow member
69) Lleuwen's dad, he came to see me recently, and it is Mis Medi ar hyn o bryd.