Watch: The new Valleys anthem that has gone viral

When John Geraint’s work as Creative Director of the Rhondda Heritage Project took him to Coleg y Cymoedd, something unexpected happened. And, by now, it’s had an even more unexpected consequence, as he explains here…

‘Heritage’ is usually regarded, I suppose, as having to do with the past, often the distant past. But when Rhondda Radio won a major grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, I was determined that – in using the funding to celebrate the valley’s astonishing industrial history – we should look forward as well as back.

I wanted to hear and record the young voices of the valley, so we held Storytelling Workshops at Ysgol Nantgwyn in Tonypandy, and with Valleys Kids.

And when I went to deliver a ‘masterclass’ at Coleg y Cymoedd, I was surprised – and delighted – that the young learners there wanted to express their feelings about their home patch not just in the spoken word, but in music too.

The result: a fantastic new song, ‘Heart of the Valleys’, written especially for the Project by students Abbie Carter, Bree Evans, Ebboney Rees-Lewis and Jake Cook.

They call themselves ‘The Unknown’ – but they’re becoming very well known.

Because when the Treorchy Male Choir got to hear this new ‘anthem’ for the Valleys, they saw the potential and wanted to get involved too.

Bethlehem Chapel

So the young group and the world-famous choir got together in the choir’s rehearsal space, Bethlehem Chapel in Treorchy.

And their brilliant joint recording of ‘Heart of the Valleys’ proved just perfect as the soundtrack of a video we’ve produced to promote the brand-new Rhondda Heritage Trail.

The song has really caught people’s imagination, attracting rave reviews… and it’s just clocked up an amazing 25,000 ‘views’ online!

25,000 views – and hundreds of comments and ‘likes’.

People love the combination of young voices and perspectives with the mighty sound of the male choir which made our ‘Valley of Song’ renowned the world over.

It’s a great accompaniment to a video which celebrates the Rhondda’s astonishing industrial history and our stunning landscape.

The Heritage Trail itself runs the length of the twin Rhondda Valleys, from Trehafod to Treherbert and from Porth to Maerdy.

At each ‘Station’, an online audio guide takes visitors and residents deeper into past, and links to a bank of more than 100 stories and memories which have been recorded by Rhondda people, young and old.

Each of the twelve Heritage Stations focuses on a particular theme in Rhondda’s rich history.

Stars

For instance, scan the QR code outside Treorchy’s iconic Park and Dare Theatre and you’ll hear all about Rhondda’s starry performers – the Treorchy Male Choir, the world champion Cory Brass Band, and individual stars like Glyn and Donald Houston and Sir Stanley Baker.

But you’ll also learn about why performing together became such a feature of Rhondda life.

So the Rhondda Heritage Project is bringing the past alive again in this very up-to-the-minute fashion.

The way Rhondda people express themselves in the recordings we’ve made and are broadcasting on Rhondda Radio makes their communal experience vibrant and vital for the world we live in now, and highlights their hopes for the future.

And as well as this rich catalogue of spoken testimony, I’m so proud to have this beautiful song and video – to quote the lyrics – celebrating the ‘stories made day by day’ under our Rhondda skies.

You can watch the Rhondda Heritage Trail video featuring ‘Heart of the Valleys’ performed by the Treorchy Male Choir and The Unknown here.