Max Boyce

A love of rugby has long inspired the witty songs and humorous tales of Welsh performer Max Boyce, whose self-description as "a singing cartoonist" captures his pointed comedic style. This approach has made him a familiar figure across the United Kingdom, where his recordings have exceeded two million units in total sales. The Listener once characterized him as "uproariously and happily unique."

Boyce entered the world in the same month his father perished in a coal-mine blast. At fifteen he moved in with his grandfather, and during his late teens he followed the same underground path his father had taken. A factory position occupied his early twenties until, in the mid-'70s, he discovered his gift for spinning comic stories and performing songs.

Boyce has released eight albums and authored two books, I Was There in 1979 and In the Mad Pursuit of Applause in 1984, while a volume of his songs and poems appeared in 1976. In 1998 he took the leading role in his own adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk at the King's Theater in Edinburgh.