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A musical based on the life of Welshman Dic Penderyn. Performed by Cheney School (Oxford) in 1980. |
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Text by Tim Harris (Cheney School
pupil 1979 - 1985) In 1980 Cheney School (Oxford) performed a new musical telling the story of Dic Penderyn and the Merthyr Tydfil uprising of 1831. The musical was written by two teachers at Cheney, the words by Chris Wright (History teacher), the music by Chris Banks (Music teacher). Performed in 1980 to an appreciative audience, a soundtrack was recorded at the Union Recording Studio in Oxford and distributed on audio cassette. The musical's cast was made up of 13 to 16 year old pupils from Cheney, including quite a few who, like me, were in their first year at that school. I took a backseat interest in the musical: what interested me first was that it had been created by two teachers at the school who had an interest in producing a new musical. Secondly, it was based on a true story, a true story without a happy ending. Even though I had not listened to the audio tape since the early 80's, two songs from it would occasionally go through my head, "Come to Merthyr" and, more often, "Playing With Fire". Whilst listening to the tape again it was interesting to read the names on the enclosed cast list and it brought back memories. The "Penderyn" musical is (C) Chris Wright & Chris Banks 1980. Whilst I have no idea of the whereabouts of the authors of this musical, it is not my intention to disregard the rights they own to it. If anyone out there has a copy of the "Penderyn" script I'd be very interested to see it (and perhaps borrow it if allowed). Tim Harris, Thursday 17th July 2008. |
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Cassette Track Listing Samples of tracks 2 and 4 (44hz, 16 bit stereo) can be downloaded by clicking on the titles below. |
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| 01 Gentlemen, Gentlemen (A,B) | 08 If You Want To Work For The Iron Men (Chorus) |
| 02 Come To Merthyr (C) (513 KB) | 09 Every Time We Look At You (Chorus) |
| 03 It's The Union, It's Reform (Chorus) | 10 Dic Penderyn (Chorus) |
| 04 Playing With Fire (D) (722 KB) | 11 Getting Back To Normal (F,C,G,H,I,J,E,D) |
| 05 What's In This Life? (E,D) | 12 No Reason And No Rhyme (B) |
| 06 The Iron Men Of Merthyr (The Ironmasters) | 13 Say Goodbye To All The Years (I,D) |
| 07 Up The Waun To see The Fair (Chorus) | |
| - Main Vocals - | Iron Workers: |
| James Abbott - ANDREW CLARK (A) | Dic Penderyn - STEWART BLACK |
| Dic Penderyn - STEWART BLACK (B) | Mary Lewis - KAREN MATCHETT |
| Blind Dic - BRUCE COKER (C) | Lewis Lewis - STEPHEN BIANCHINI |
| Mary Lewis - KAREN MATCHETT (D) | Will James - RICHARD PINNEY |
| Betsy James - JANE COKER (E) | Betsy James - JANE COKER |
| Patrick - TOBIAS DODDS (F) | Thomas Llewellyn - DAVID LEGG |
| William Crawshay - NEIL HURMAN (G) | John Phelps - SIMON DEALE |
| Josiah Guest - STEPHEN HARROP (H) | |
| Rev. Morgan Howells - RICHARD SANDERS (I) | Ironmasters: |
| Mrs Howells - LOUISE LYZBA (J) | William Crawshay - NEIL HURMAN |
| Josiah Guest - STEPHEN HARROP | |
| Townspeople: | Richard Fothergill - ANDREW POTTER |
| Rev. Morgan Howells - RICHARD SANDERS | Associates: STEPHEN BIANCHINI, SIMON DEALE, IAIN POTTER |
| Mrs Howells - LOUISE LYZBA | |
| J.B. Bruce - RICHARD PINNEY | Law and Order: |
| James Abbott - ANDREW CLARK | Major Falls - RICHARD SANDERS |
| Joseph Coffin - ANDREW CLARK | Private Black - SIMON DEALE |
| Servant to Crawshay - DEREK CONLON | Judge Bosanquet - IAIN POTTER |
| Patrick, a peddlar - TOBIAS DOBBS | Mr Maule - DAVID SIMONS |
| Blind Dic, a beggar - BRUCE COKER | Secretary - SUSANNAH THOMAS |
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Chorus of iron workers, soldiers and townspeople: |
Musicians: | ||
| Sharon Bray | Fiona Hurman | Flute | Gill Baker |
| Jane Bruder | Jane Legg | Alto Sax | Steve Cadd |
| Pamela Casson | Susanna Matchett | Tenor Sax | Debbie Cadd |
| Susan Chilton | Sarah Mills | Guitar | Richard Morris |
| Helen Cooke | Sarah Paterson | Drums | David Hadland |
| Lisa Cowey | Nicola Rhodes | Keyboards/Bass | Chris Banks |
| Trudy Croxford | Anna Roberts | ||
| Jean Durham | Judi Scarff | ||
| Michael Durham | Emilie Selbourne | ||
| Mark Every | Wendy Tate | ||
| Rachel Finley | Susannah Thomas | ||
| Kay Goddard | Rachel Verney | ||
| Vanessa Kemp | Anne Wells | ||
| Janet Howman | |||
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This page was originally uploaded to the internet on Monday 28th May 2001. This new version was uploaded Thursday 17th July 2008. |
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