0:00:02 > 0:00:07CROWD SINGS # And we were singing hymns and arias... #
0:00:07 > 0:00:10'And they are still singing hymns and arias.
0:00:10 > 0:00:15'Four decades after it was written, everybody knows the words.
0:00:15 > 0:00:21'This people's anthem is part of the amazing story of Live At Treorchy,
0:00:21 > 0:00:25'the album that turned unknown singer and comedian Max Boyce
0:00:25 > 0:00:27'into an international star,
0:00:27 > 0:00:30'launching a career spanning 40 years
0:00:30 > 0:00:33'and two million record sales.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37'Recorded in a Rhondda rugby club in 1973,
0:00:37 > 0:00:41'this collection of comedy, poetry and song astonished the industry
0:00:41 > 0:00:46'by coming from nowhere to stay in the charts for three years
0:00:46 > 0:00:48'and attract fans across the world.
0:00:48 > 0:00:53'Live At Treorchy still stands as a beacon of Wales and welsh identity,
0:00:53 > 0:00:57'captured forever in nine unforgettable tracks.'
0:00:57 > 0:01:03Maybe in years to come, they'll look back on him as one of the great bards.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07It was almost like a folk song. That kind of thing.
0:01:07 > 0:01:12It's there with Under Milk Wood and Ryan At The Rank.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16It's almost as important to us, as a family, than the rugby itself.
0:01:16 > 0:01:22As important a statement of Welsh culture as anything by Dylan Thomas or Saunders Lewis.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25He was funny, damn him!
0:01:25 > 0:01:28CHEERS AND WHISTLES
0:01:28 > 0:01:34'This is the story of Max Boyce and The Road To Treorchy.'
0:01:36 > 0:01:40- Oggy! Oggy! Oggy! - AUDIENCE: Oi! Oi! Oi!
0:01:40 > 0:01:44'When Live At Treorchy was released in 1974,
0:01:44 > 0:01:48'nobody, least of all Max Boyce, could have predicted that,
0:01:48 > 0:01:53'40 years later, many of its songs would be sung across the world.
0:01:53 > 0:01:58'And what a variety of songs there were - raucous rugby songs,
0:01:58 > 0:02:03'like The Scottish Trip, celebrating the camaraderie of Welsh fans on tour.'
0:02:03 > 0:02:08# ..Went up by train and by car
0:02:08 > 0:02:13# When the juice of the valleys start flowing
0:02:13 > 0:02:18# We all saw the game in the bar... #
0:02:18 > 0:02:22'But there were also songs of sadness of poignancy,
0:02:22 > 0:02:27'like Did You Understand? which explored the decline of coal,
0:02:27 > 0:02:29'a subject that touched Max personally.'
0:02:29 > 0:02:32# I remember the time
0:02:33 > 0:02:37# Of the collier and the candle
0:02:39 > 0:02:43# Of a long, bitter fight that darkened the land... #
0:02:43 > 0:02:47'And there was the surreal comedy of the Outside Half Factory.'
0:02:47 > 0:02:52# ..But he's had some rejects lately Cos there's such a big demand
0:02:52 > 0:02:55# So he sells them to the northern clubs
0:02:55 > 0:02:58# And stamps them "secondhand"... #
0:02:58 > 0:03:01LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:03:01 > 0:03:06'All of these songs came from one man who could write about this world
0:03:06 > 0:03:08'because he was rooted in it.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11'Maxwell Boyce - singer, poet, comic -
0:03:11 > 0:03:16'was born into tragic circumstances on September 27 1943,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19'in the mining town of Glynneath.'
0:03:19 > 0:03:24My father was killed in a mine explosion a month before I was born.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28We lived in one room in my auntie's house.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32It wasn't tough for me. I don't remember any hardship.
0:03:32 > 0:03:37It was tough for Mother. She had to go to work. She was only 28.
0:03:37 > 0:03:43'Growing up in a post-war valleys mining community, Max was surrounded by song and verse,
0:03:43 > 0:03:46'but he had no ambitions to be a performer.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50'Max left school at 15 to support his mother.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53'Like almost every other man in the village,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55'he went down the mines.'
0:03:55 > 0:03:57I'm glad, looking back,
0:03:57 > 0:04:01because I worked ten years underground.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03That gave me a licence, as it were,
0:04:03 > 0:04:09to write songs I would never had written had I not worked in the mining industry.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11'In between night shifts,
0:04:11 > 0:04:15'the young Max did what many teenagers did in the '60s,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18'he picked up his first guitar.
0:04:18 > 0:04:24'Not the most natural musician, Max spent years trying to master Bert Weedon's Play In A Day book.'
0:04:24 > 0:04:26Everyone had them. So I bought it.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28'His perseverance paid off,
0:04:28 > 0:04:32'following a chance meeting with a local agent in a music shop.'
0:04:32 > 0:04:37I went in this back room full of old guitar boxes and sang songs to him,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40like, country songs.
0:04:40 > 0:04:47The two I auditioned were, amazing, The Wreck Of The FFE about a train crash and the Wabash Cannonball!
0:04:47 > 0:04:50- LAUGHS - Oh, and Paddy McGinty's Goat!
0:04:50 > 0:04:53# Now, old Paddy's goat had the wondrous appetite... #
0:04:53 > 0:04:58'So I went round the clubs singing country songs
0:04:58 > 0:05:01'and I was very ordinary.'
0:05:01 > 0:05:08'Ordinary or not, Max soon shifted from singing other people's material to his own.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11'Inspired by Bob Dylan and the protest singers,
0:05:11 > 0:05:13'he reflected his surroundings.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17'As he developed his gift for comedy and social comment,
0:05:17 > 0:05:22'the changing South Wales valleys provided plenty of source material.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26'The early '70s brought Wales a golden generation of rugby talent.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30'Kings on the field, they dominated the game,
0:05:30 > 0:05:35'trouncing the old enemy with almost monotonous regularity.
0:05:35 > 0:05:40'Off it, industrial turmoil and the decline of coal took their toll.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45'Max's own working life reflected these changes.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50'He quit the colliery to work as an electrical engineer in the Metal Box factory in Neath.'
0:05:50 > 0:05:53I was glad to leave.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Everybody who worked there has a love-hate relationship.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58You love the camaraderie.
0:05:58 > 0:06:06As I wrote in the song, "Now those dusty mines have seen the last of me." I never wanted to go back.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10'This change of job also brought a change of fortune.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15'Max began making regular appearances on BBC Radio Wales.'
0:06:15 > 0:06:18I wrote topical songs about everything.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22I'm always grateful to the boys at the Metal Box.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25The BBC rang me up at 10 o'clock and said, right,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29Margaret Thatcher had stopped free school milk
0:06:29 > 0:06:31and would I write a song about it?
0:06:31 > 0:06:33I said, "I'm in work."
0:06:33 > 0:06:37The boys said, "Don't worry. We'll cover the breakdowns."
0:06:37 > 0:06:44I'd be at night shift at Metal Box, writing songs about Margaret Thatcher stopping free milk.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48On a night shift, it was quiet. We had our jobs to do, which we did.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52In the quiet times, Max would do his composing.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54He'd catch up on the sleep
0:06:54 > 0:06:57he'd missed by getting up early to record.
0:06:57 > 0:07:02'If he was stuck for a rhyme, his workmates weren't short of suggestions.'
0:07:02 > 0:07:06He'd say, "Don't be silly. That doesn't sound right."
0:07:06 > 0:07:12Some of those songs could have been really, really bad.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16Luckily, Max had the common sense not to listen to us!
0:07:16 > 0:07:21Then I was getting in trouble. They were strict on absenteeism.
0:07:21 > 0:07:28If you were sick, you put S on your card. If a pattern developed, they'd sack you.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32I'd say, "I've got a massive concert."
0:07:32 > 0:07:34"Oh, OK. Put down D."
0:07:34 > 0:07:37D was "domestic trouble".
0:07:39 > 0:07:43So my card was covered in Ds. Ds everywhere!
0:07:43 > 0:07:48The personnel manager... I was going through the factory, singing songs. ..he said,
0:07:48 > 0:07:54- ENGLISH ACCENT:- "Can I say, I've got so much respect for you, Max, young Boyce.
0:07:54 > 0:08:01"You're such a cheery fellow for someone who's had so much domestic trouble."
0:08:01 > 0:08:05'By 1971, he was making his first television appearances,
0:08:05 > 0:08:10'but a stage show in Swansea would lead to his big break."
0:08:10 > 0:08:14'He was invited to support Ken Dodd in the Brangwyn Hall.'
0:08:14 > 0:08:17There was so much laughter going on,
0:08:17 > 0:08:23because Max is so parochial, that Ken Dodd really objected to this.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27He was put out the fact that his spot was taken.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31He said something like, "Well, you can support me next time."
0:08:31 > 0:08:33LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:08:33 > 0:08:37'In Swansea that night, EMI producer Bob Barratt
0:08:37 > 0:08:41'was blown away by Max's show-stealing antics.'
0:08:41 > 0:08:45He asked could he see me and came to a concert somewhere.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48Then we met here at the beautiful Langland Bay Golf Club.
0:08:48 > 0:08:53'Bob Barratt wined and dined Max and offered him a two-album deal.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57'The young and naive performer was only too happy to sign.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02'Four decades later, Max dearly wishes he'd read the small print.'
0:09:02 > 0:09:04Signed my life away, really.
0:09:04 > 0:09:09I was so delighted, really, to sign a major recording contract,
0:09:09 > 0:09:14I'd have signed anything, and I signed it for 1.25% first album
0:09:14 > 0:09:16and the second album for 1.5%.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21The follow-up to Live At Treorchy was We All Had Doctors' Papers,
0:09:21 > 0:09:25- which went to Number One, so, 1.5% - LAUGHS
0:09:25 > 0:09:29'Still, he'd signed the deal and the show had to go on.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33'Without an agent or any promotional backing,
0:09:33 > 0:09:38'Max had to make his own arrangements for the recording of his first EMI album.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43'In parochial Wales, Max's fame was largely in the Swansea valley.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46'On the advice of friends from Penygraig Rugby Club,
0:09:46 > 0:09:53'Max booked the Treorchy RFC clubhouse, just 16 miles from his home town of Glynneath.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57'There was one problem - they'd never heard of Max Boyce.'
0:09:57 > 0:10:00We didn't know who or what he was.
0:10:00 > 0:10:06They hadn't heard of me, that was the other side of the coin. We couldn't sell the tickets.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08Oh, yes! That's right!
0:10:08 > 0:10:11And I think Max himself went out
0:10:11 > 0:10:15and was giving tickets to people just in the road.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20They came because they almost felt sorry for me. I had no audience!
0:10:20 > 0:10:23'The audience wasn't the only problem.'
0:10:23 > 0:10:26Max arrived with with the backing group.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29He said, "Where's the piano?"
0:10:29 > 0:10:35We all looked a bit stupid. "Piano? I've never bothered with a piano."
0:10:35 > 0:10:38He said, "I've got to have a piano."
0:10:38 > 0:10:43He said, "Let's phone around a few clubs and see if they've got one."
0:10:43 > 0:10:49They phoned around and said, "Yeah. There's one in a club 350 yards from here.
0:10:49 > 0:10:51"They said come and fetch it."
0:10:51 > 0:10:56A gaggle of boys, believe it or not, humped this piano out to the road
0:10:56 > 0:10:59and rolled it up on its casters!
0:10:59 > 0:11:03Brought it to the side, chucked it on the stage. Said, "Here we are."
0:11:03 > 0:11:06You can imagine, it was not very good.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11'For the sound engineers from London sent by EMI to record the gig,
0:11:11 > 0:11:13'it must have been challenging.'
0:11:13 > 0:11:19It's very posh now, but in them days, there was no players' lounge.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22It wasn't very pleasant to look at.
0:11:22 > 0:11:27The club mascot, the zebra, his head was sticking through the front wall.
0:11:27 > 0:11:33On a Saturday night, you were knee deep in beer from the bar and broken glass, everybody drunk.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36But we loved it. It was our club.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41'And so, on a cold November night in 1973,
0:11:41 > 0:11:45'Maxwell Boyce, Metal Box factory employee,
0:11:45 > 0:11:49'singer, poet, comedian, entered the Treorchy Rugby clubhouse,
0:11:49 > 0:11:53'little knowing what fate had in store.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57'There is no footage or photographs from that legendary night
0:11:57 > 0:12:03'but, for those who were there, the memories are unforgettable.'
0:12:03 > 0:12:07- The atmosphere was electric. - It was buzzing when we walked in.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09It was packed.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12They were queuing up from six, outside the door.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14They did let them in a bit early.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17'Employing all his wit and charm,
0:12:17 > 0:12:21'Max had persuaded half the Rhondda to attend his concert.'
0:12:21 > 0:12:26I think they understood it was a very important night for me.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30'The Treorchy clubhouse held just 250 people.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33'By 7 o'clock it was full to bursting.
0:12:33 > 0:12:39'Beer and Babycham were flowing, and Max's nerves were beginning to shred.'
0:12:39 > 0:12:47'It must have been very tense for him. He was really trying to get himself psyched up.'
0:12:47 > 0:12:51I can see us now going, "Come on, Max! You can do it!
0:12:51 > 0:12:54"You'll be wonderful!"
0:12:54 > 0:13:01And virtually pushing him out through the door, so he was almost at 100% as soon as he went out.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06- COMPERE:- We're all set. A great welcome awaits, Max Boyce.
0:13:06 > 0:13:07APPLAUSE
0:13:07 > 0:13:10It was like an explosion. That was the difference.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14He came rushing on with this enormous leek and "Oggy! Oggy!"
0:13:14 > 0:13:17- Oggy! Oggy! Oggy! - Oi! Oi! Oi!
0:13:17 > 0:13:19The leek was everywhere!
0:13:19 > 0:13:21I was just...flying.
0:13:21 > 0:13:26- It was better than I'd expected. - Laughter from start to finish.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29- Heard it before, have you? - LAUGHTER
0:13:29 > 0:13:35I think I stood on a table there and said, "I've come home!"
0:13:35 > 0:13:39I hadn't planned anything. I don't think I knew what I was going to do.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43'I had a dream the other night, the strangest dream of all
0:13:43 > 0:13:47'I dreamt I was in heaven and away from life's hard call
0:13:47 > 0:13:51'It was as I'd imagined, with the silver stars beneath
0:13:51 > 0:13:55'Seven there from Treorchy Thousands from Glynneath.'
0:13:55 > 0:13:57LAUGHTER
0:13:58 > 0:14:03'With the audience warmed up, Max launched into his set list.'
0:14:03 > 0:14:05Right. Here we go, then...
0:14:05 > 0:14:07'His choice of material was simple.'
0:14:07 > 0:14:16It was everything I'd ever written at the time - minus the Wabash Cannonball and the Wreck Of The FFE.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20# We...went up to the highlands of Scotland... #
0:14:20 > 0:14:24'Honed over his apprenticeship on the club circuit,
0:14:24 > 0:14:29'the songs Max performed had the formula that has served him since.'
0:14:29 > 0:14:33# ..We'll all bring our wives back a present... #
0:14:33 > 0:14:35'Wry observation.'
0:14:35 > 0:14:38- # ..So we can go next time again. # - LAUGHTER
0:14:38 > 0:14:40'Great jokes...
0:14:42 > 0:14:45'..and a big catchy singalong chorus.'
0:14:45 > 0:14:50# Singing...
0:14:50 > 0:14:55- MAX AND AUDIENCE - # Too-ral-ay-oo-ral-ay addi...#
0:14:55 > 0:15:01'Max was particularly canny with his distribution of unwanted tickets.
0:15:01 > 0:15:07'He made sure the famous Treorchy Male Voice Choir got their share,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11'giving himself the best unofficial backing singers possible.'
0:15:11 > 0:15:14At the back are the Treorchy Male Voice.
0:15:14 > 0:15:20- And down the front is like Treorchy Co-op. - LAUGHTER
0:15:20 > 0:15:24# Singing... #
0:15:24 > 0:15:29I thought the singing was tremendous for a live performance.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33It was absolutely tremendous. It was in tune.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36A few slurs cos everybody was drunk.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39It was a hell of a sound. Really good.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41We had a good singsong.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46# ..in the bar! #
0:15:46 > 0:15:48CHEERS AND WHISTLES
0:15:53 > 0:15:57'Switching from song to poetry, Max celebrated Llanelli's triumph
0:15:57 > 0:16:00'over the All Blacks in 1972
0:16:00 > 0:16:02'in almost bardic fashion.'
0:16:02 > 0:16:06It's called simply 9-3.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08LAUGHTER
0:16:09 > 0:16:15I think I wrote it the next day, in about half an hour.
0:16:15 > 0:16:20Twas on a dark and dismal day in a week that had seen rain
0:16:20 > 0:16:24When all roads led to Stradey Park with the All Blacks here again
0:16:24 > 0:16:28They poured down from the valleys they came from far and wide
0:16:28 > 0:16:32There were 20,000 in the ground and me and Dai outside...
0:16:32 > 0:16:34As a Llanelli boy,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38you wouldn't be surprised that 9-3 is my favourite track.
0:16:38 > 0:16:44It's because it brings back all the euphoria and excitement of that day,
0:16:44 > 0:16:4631 October 1972.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50Llanelli beating the All Blacks 9-3. And I was there!
0:16:50 > 0:16:52Another Max phrase. I WAS there.
0:16:52 > 0:16:58..The shops were closed like Sunday and the streets were silent still
0:16:58 > 0:17:03And those who chose to stay away were either dead or ill
0:17:05 > 0:17:09But those who went to Stradey, boys will remember till they die
0:17:09 > 0:17:13How New Zealand were defeated and how the pubs ran dry
0:17:13 > 0:17:19Oh, the beer flowed at Stradey piped down from Felinfoel
0:17:19 > 0:17:22And the air,
0:17:22 > 0:17:27the air was filled with singing and I saw a grown man cry
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Not because we'd won but because the pubs ran dry...
0:17:31 > 0:17:34Llanelli was just a mad carnival.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36Max, in 9-3, brings all that back.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38Well, thank you, both...
0:17:38 > 0:17:43'In between poetry and song, the jokes kept coming.'
0:17:43 > 0:17:50The only break I had was when a chap came out, walked past with a tray of drinks.
0:17:50 > 0:17:52I stopped and I said...
0:17:52 > 0:17:55'Big round you've got there, lad...!'
0:17:55 > 0:17:59- On the committee, are you? - LAUGHTER
0:18:00 > 0:18:04'Live At Treorchy wasn't just a comedy night.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09'What made it so special was the depth and variety of material,
0:18:09 > 0:18:13'which switched seamlessly from belly laughs to quiet reflection.'
0:18:13 > 0:18:20# In our little valley they closed the colliery down
0:18:20 > 0:18:25# And the pithead baths is a supermarket now... #
0:18:25 > 0:18:34If you listen to the record, it's absolute silence for the ballads. There's not a clink of glass.
0:18:34 > 0:18:39They could identify to those coal mining ballads I sang at the time.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43# ..It's hard, Duw, it's hard... #
0:18:44 > 0:18:48Duw It's Hard is a love-hate relationship song,
0:18:48 > 0:18:52where you moaned the closure of the industry that supplied work,
0:18:52 > 0:18:56but you didn't want anybody to work in those conditions.
0:18:56 > 0:19:02Only someone who'd been in that environment could have written that.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06It wasn't some nancy folk singer coming and saying,
0:19:06 > 0:19:11"How horrible it is!" This is a miner talking about the closure
0:19:11 > 0:19:15and saying, "It was bloody hard. I don't want to work under there."
0:19:15 > 0:19:19# ..Cos it's hard... #
0:19:19 > 0:19:22He hits the nail on the head.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26He said, "I'll never regret not going back down there."
0:19:26 > 0:19:32A lot of miners say, "Best job I ever had - for the camaraderie."
0:19:32 > 0:19:35It wasn't a great job. It was dirty, filthy, dangerous.
0:19:35 > 0:19:41Yet, there's that honesty about the camaraderie. "I will miss what we had."
0:19:41 > 0:19:45"..But I can't forget the times we had
0:19:45 > 0:19:49# The laughing midst the fear
0:19:49 > 0:19:57# Cos every time I cough I get a mining souvenir... #
0:19:57 > 0:20:00They had a mining souvenir.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04God alive! That was on every corner!
0:20:04 > 0:20:11When I saw some of these ex-miners stopping to take a breath,
0:20:11 > 0:20:15leaning against a gate or against the fence,
0:20:15 > 0:20:21I knew exactly what he was talking about.
0:20:21 > 0:20:28# ..The pithead baths is a supermarket now... #
0:20:28 > 0:20:30I was reading the Western Mail
0:20:30 > 0:20:33and there was an advert in there.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36"Carpets for sale.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39"Carpet Kingdom.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43"The old pithead baths, Cwm Ebbw Vale."
0:20:43 > 0:20:49I thought, "Yeah. The pithead baths is a supermarket now."
0:20:49 > 0:20:53# ..Aye, the pithead baths
0:20:53 > 0:21:00# It's a supermarket now. #
0:21:00 > 0:21:03APPLAUSE AND WHISTLES
0:21:13 > 0:21:18# We paid our weekly shilling for that January trip... #
0:21:18 > 0:21:22'Max closed with a rousing rendition of Hymns And Arias.
0:21:22 > 0:21:28'To the audience who learned it that night, it was a fresh take on Welsh fan culture.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31'To those who weren't even born in 1973,
0:21:31 > 0:21:35'it's the most familiar rugby anthem of all.'
0:21:36 > 0:21:39The crowd starts singing Hymns And Arias,
0:21:39 > 0:21:41it's such a motivation.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45It's a Welsh rugby hymn, really.
0:21:45 > 0:21:47They don't come much bigger than that.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52On the field, we can feel it. We've got a lot of thanks to give Max.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56'The people of Treorchy helped Max's material come alive.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00'Every song buzzed with the energy of those who could say...'
0:22:00 > 0:22:03I was there.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07People say, "Was you really?" "I was, actually, you know."
0:22:07 > 0:22:12If you went to Rhondda, you'd find 30,000 people who said, "I was there that night."
0:22:12 > 0:22:16There were no edits. It was just as it was.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18One take. Bang.
0:22:18 > 0:22:23We was all drunk, all singing. It was just a great night to us.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26A heady night. Magic night. Yeah.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30There's a conspiracy between me and an audience.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34'But the recording was just the beginning.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39'Max Boyce, Live At Treorchy sneaked out in the spring of '74
0:22:39 > 0:22:43'with no fanfares, no promotion and no prospect of success.
0:22:43 > 0:22:50'But in a dreary grey world of strikes, power cuts, three-day weeks and hung parliaments,
0:22:50 > 0:22:55'something surprising happened - the album began to sell.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58'Mostly in Wales, then throughout the UK by the truckload.
0:22:58 > 0:23:04'After ten years of hard slog, Max was an overnight sensation.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06'How had this happened?
0:23:06 > 0:23:11'One man is prepared to take credit for the album's success in Wales.'
0:23:11 > 0:23:18I am partly responsible for the fact that Live At Treorchy became a best-selling LP.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23When it went on sale in the National Eisteddfod in Carmarthen
0:23:23 > 0:23:28in August 1974, I was working at a shop which had a stand.
0:23:28 > 0:23:35It was the only stand where Max's record was on sale, and there were queues every day.
0:23:35 > 0:23:37It sold hundreds of copies.
0:23:37 > 0:23:43But I'd like Max to realise today that part of that best-selling sale
0:23:43 > 0:23:45was down to my skills as a salesman.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48'As for its unexpected success over the border,
0:23:48 > 0:23:53'Tenby record shop owner Laurie Dale thinks he has the answer.'
0:23:53 > 0:23:55We had this record that came in, Live At Treorchy,
0:23:55 > 0:24:01which meant very little to me, but I listened to it and thought it was so funny
0:24:01 > 0:24:04that I thought I'd put it to the hotels.
0:24:04 > 0:24:09I gave it to all the hotels in Tenby and they all played it in the bars.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13Suddenly, before I knew it, I was selling boxes of these.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16And they were all going to English tourists.
0:24:16 > 0:24:22These tourists went back to England and couldn't find these LPs.
0:24:22 > 0:24:27So they would ring me up and say, "Could you send me a Max Boyce LP?"
0:24:27 > 0:24:34I'm thinking, "This is crazy." So I rang EMI and said, "You ought to promote him a little."
0:24:34 > 0:24:39Of course, he said, "Oh, no, no. They'd only sell in Wales."
0:24:39 > 0:24:45I said, "No, no. Tourists are buying them like mad." The rest is history.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48I was called the poor man's Max Boyce.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53It's thanks to Max, really, that I'm here, he and Billy Connolly.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57Because their regional backing kicked the whole thing off.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02'In today's money, Live At Treorchy made 1.3 million.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07'Not that Max saw much profit with his 1.25% cut,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10'but it allowed him to become a professional performer.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14'And while Max's follow-up album, We All Had Doctors' Papers,
0:25:14 > 0:25:17'remains the only comedy album ever to top the UK charts,
0:25:17 > 0:25:25'it's the songs and poems of Live At Treorchy that are recited from Glynneath to the Gold Coast.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29'So what is the secret of their remarkable staying power?
0:25:29 > 0:25:33'For a start, there's their sheer Welshness.'
0:25:33 > 0:25:38Max made Welshness the central phenomenon of the act.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42Yes, it was overblown and a bit kitsch and a bit over-the-top,
0:25:42 > 0:25:47but we loved it because he was proud of his identity
0:25:47 > 0:25:51and not afraid to sock it to other people, English people, and say,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54"Hey. We are Welsh and we're proud of it.
0:25:54 > 0:26:00"We're rugby fanatics. We've got our own language. We're happy with our identity."
0:26:00 > 0:26:03It's almost like Max invented our own Vera Lynn.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08He invented Welsh jingoism, which was allowable.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12It's not nasty nationalism, in any way.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15It's passionate patriotism.
0:26:15 > 0:26:21We realised for the first time that Welsh people had a great sense of humour,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25just as we all have, but it had not been represented before.
0:26:25 > 0:26:30So suddenly there's this guy saying, "Look, we're good."
0:26:30 > 0:26:37'The experience Max described struck a chord with working people wherever they lived.'
0:26:37 > 0:26:41There's something very human about the stories Max tells.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43They happen to be set in Wales.
0:26:43 > 0:26:49They could be set in other places, if you gave them a different accent.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53He empathises with people, not a certain type. With people.
0:26:53 > 0:26:58He's not upper class, you see. He's one of us, working class.
0:26:58 > 0:27:05'It's more than 40 years since Max wrote Live At Treorchy's greatest hit.
0:27:05 > 0:27:12'He's left it until now to reveal a dark secret about Hymns And Arias.'
0:27:12 > 0:27:18I was cleaning the house out and I came across this original version of Hymns And Arias.
0:27:18 > 0:27:23It's unfinished and it was actually called...Twickers.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28I must have changed it before I sang it but it's down here as Twickers.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32It's like finding the Dead Sea Scrolls!
0:27:32 > 0:27:36'It may feel like an ancient manuscript to Max,
0:27:36 > 0:27:41'but all these years later, Hymns And Arias is Wales's second anthem.'
0:27:41 > 0:27:47When they start singing it, the feeling, I can't describe it.
0:27:47 > 0:27:54To hear that stadium reeling to the song you've written is something that is just magical.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57'All together now...!'
0:27:57 > 0:28:01# And we were singing
0:28:01 > 0:28:05# Hymns and arias
0:28:05 > 0:28:10# Land of my fathers Ar hyd y nos
0:28:10 > 0:28:16# And we were singing hymns and arias
0:28:16 > 0:28:20# Land of my fathers
0:28:20 > 0:28:23# Harry the horse
0:28:23 > 0:28:30# Ar hyd y nos. #
0:28:30 > 0:28:32CHEERS AND WHISTLES
0:28:32 > 0:28:35Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:35 > 0:28:38E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk