Boyce, Max

I met Max Boyce for the first time in 1975, a rare working visit to Wales as a freelance photographer for the Saturday arts page of The Guardian. I photographed him outside the terraced house where he lived in Glyn Neath. At the time he had completed the memorable ‘Live at Treorchy’ album. Max was packing out the halls and clubs across South Wales, and as he would say ‘I was there’ when he filled the Albert Hall in London. Coaches in lines from the valleys confirmed his meteoric rise, he was the bard of the South Wales Miners. Nothing can replace the magic, when Wales are beating England in Cardiff and the crowd start singing ‘ Hymns and Arias’. Max performs with joy and humour, enough to warm the cockles of any proud Welshman’s heart.

Image: Bernard Mitchell

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