Who are the legendary Tredegar Town Band?
If you need an answer to that question, you can’t know much about the wonderful world of brass bands! Tredegar Town Band was originally formed in 1876, in – surprise, surprise – the valleys town of Tredegar. These days, they are one of the top ten brass bands in the whole of the UK- not bad when you consider there are over 2,000 bands in total. What happens at a brass band competition? At a typical competition, each competing band is given the same piece of music to perform, and their performance is given marks by a judge. Before the competition begins, and in order to avoid any bias, the judge moves into a sealed tent at the front of the auditorium. Once the judge is hidden from view, each band then draws a straw in order to determine in what order they shall perform. The judge is then left to mark ‘blind’ each band’s performance. Do they really need to go that far? Well, if you’re to believe the fantastic film ‘Brassed Off’, the world of brass band competitions is ruthless, and the b
