Only weeks later, the band was given a new home and a new life as ‘Excelsior Ropes Works Band’. Several members worked for the Company, which manufactured wire ropes for industry, and the initiative received the enthusiastic support of the management.
Haydn White, who had deputised for the ailing Tom Powell for several years, took over as conductor, and the band progressed once more, leading to further successes.
During Excelsior days, the band competed in the National Finals as Wales Regional Champions and won at the National Eisteddfod on several occasions. Conductors who followed Haydn White included Harold D. Morgan from Tongwynlais, and David Thomas, a virtuouso ex-Welsh Guards cornet player. Occasional guests on the podium included Rex Mortimer and Major H. Arthur Kenny.
In 1965 and 1967 Excelsior reached the final rounds of Dilyn y Band (Follow the Band), a television knockout competition recorded at the Pontcanna studios of TWW (then the local ITV franchise) and broadcast on Teledu Cymru (the forerunner of S4C).
As Excelsior, the band twice participated in the London Welsh St. David’s Day celebrations at the Royal Albert Hall, and in 1968 inaugurated their own Festival - a gala held annually for more than ten years at Cardiff's Sophia Gardens Pavilion. An invitation contest during the day was followed by an evening concert graced by the finest of Britain’s brass bands and Wales’ male choirs.
Amongst other memorable engagements during Excelsior days, the band were invited to "act" in a Welsh language comedy drama recorded at the BBC's television studios in Broadway, Cardiff. Y Drymwr (The Drummer) starred the late great Ryan Davies as Sami, pathetic factotum of the fictional Abermarlais Silver Band, who was longing to find musical fulfilment and escape the henpecking of his domineering wife.
The serious illness of the band's bass drummer provided his golden opportunity, and he went on to lead them to victory in a marching competition, making him the band's hero and boosting his confidence to face-up to his spouse! Interestingly, Y Drymwr was to become the very first Welsh language play to be re-broadcast with English subtitles.