Plans to celebrate legacy of music legends Richard and Wyn Jones

The brothers – who died within a month of each other in the summer of 2021 – were twin pillars in the long-running band Ail Symudiad, widely considered to be the leading group to perform songs in the Welsh language.

Formed in 1978, Ail Symudiad’s hits over the following years, including ‘Rifieira Cymraeg’, ‘Garej Paradwys’ and ‘Twristiaid yn y Dre’ saw them build a loyal and enthusiastic following throughout Wales and further afield.

In 2014 Richard and Wyn celebrated 35 years of making music and running the highly-influential Fflach Stiwdios which they had set up together.

In June 2019 they performed a memorable set in bardic robes and what proved to be their final concert came at Cardigan’s Other Voices festival that November.

Now family, friends and fans of the band have held a meeting drawing up plans to form a social enterprise group called Flach Cymunedol with targeted objectives around the Welsh music scene, including the support and nurturing of new talent.

Cardigan’s Tabernacl Chapel was where the band was first formed. (Image: Supplied)

Cllr Clive Davies, a long-time Ail Symudiad fan, said although the project was very much in its infancy, initial funding had been secured to create such an initiative along with help from social enterprise group 4CG.

“It would be great if the idea was developed further and could also bring into use part of the Tabernacl Chapel building where Ail Symudiad first started,” he told the Tivyside.

“Everyone at the meeting agreed to further explore what would be another excellent opportunity for Aberteifi.”

Tabernacl Chapel, a towering presence in the centre of Cardigan for the past two centuries, held its final service in October 2022.

Soon after its closure Cymdeithas Aberteifi Society proposed the former Calvinistic Methodist place of worship as an ideal site for Wales’s first national poetry centre, but nothing has so far come of the plan.