Carmel Clydach (Swansea), is now home to the remnants of about five others, and the Gymanfa Ganu is still not dead. Morriston Tabernacle, the Cathedral of the Valleys, tends to do Chapel and Rugby Club Gymanfau turn and turn about.

What is interesting is the gentle spread of a related tradition in England. I spent yesterday in rehearsal for the Carnival Band's Christmas gigs. Few off the singers had any difficulty with songs from that repertoire, even though Andy Watts thought we would: there were more than a few West Gallery singers in an area where West Gallery was thought no to have yet reached, the West Midlands. Things like the X-Factor have people getting as far as karaoke, and thence into an explosion of community choirs: it was the same movement in the 1890s which saw the Chapels and choruses under discussion come to the fore, of course. The Churches and Chapels are no longer community focuses, but Church Halls are. The professionalism level's climbing too: most of us were sight-reading to a working level, going to melding workups on the second runthrough.