M1 is our championship section band, rehearsing twice a week from 19:30 - 21:30 on a Wednesday and Sunday.
Over the last four years, M1 has established itself as one of the leading bands in Wales, competing in the championship section consistently since 2017 and rising up the world rankings to its current position of 22nd in the UK (4barsrest.com).
At the Welsh Regional Championships, M1 have achieved five successive fourth placings since 2017, leading to the band’s appearance at the 2018 National Finals of Great Britain at the Royal Albert Hall. In the same year, the band was promoted into the Grand Shield at the Spring Festival at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens for the first time in its history.
The appointment of Christopher Bond as Musical Director in 2019 has seen two consecutive 2nd placings at the Welsh Open Entertainment Contest - also winning the prizes for the Most Entertaining Band and Best Horns in 2020 – a win at the South East Wales Brass Band Contest in 2019, and 3rd place in the Cory Online Brass Band Championships, also winning prizes for the Best Welsh Music, Best Horns, and Best Baritones & Euphoniums.
M1 is distinctly proud of the history on which the band sits; its close relationship with the late T.J. Powell, and the band’s re-emergence over the last seventeen years from the fourth section up to the championship section band it is today.