Big Bands

Does anyone remember The Bert Jones Band from the 1930's/1940's. I believe my dad was part of it and I would love find anyone who knows anything about it.

I did not want to intrude on the 'Dukes' post although I did enjoy listening to him, but I have just listened to Count Basie's One o' clock Jump, I was tempted to get up and have a go. What a great hit to jive to. Any more 'happy feet' out there remember him?

I found a shot of 'Bill Pether's' Orchestra and wondered what he would have been playing at the time! VE Day Celebrations

I think I may have made a bit of a boo boo here Foxcote, I should have put Big Bands into the non Coventry category, but I can't say as I remember the band leader mentioned above, I like to think I was only a baby at that time. Great picture though.

I remember going to see Ken MacIntosh at the Matrix. I had my hen party in 1964 at the Locarno and I think it was Humphrey Lyttleton who was playing. I was a fan of big bands mainly because I had an older sister, she was part of the big band era and continually played their music on our record player (78s of course). Just remembered it was Joe Loss not Hump.

Yes, another 'great" Tricia, I think Joe Loss was popular with everyone at the time. Most memorable on the radio. Another, Victor Sylvester with his slow, slow, quick quick, slow. I can remember dancing on my own to that at a tender age before TV.

I love Big Bands and all my friends hate them! So glad to have met some kindred spirits Do you listen to the Big Band special on Sunday evenings on BBC Radio 2?

Hi Tricia, The big bands were always a favourite of ours. We had a Glen Miller original amongst our belongings being shipped to Oz and when we came to unpack the boxes, that was the only one that had been, we presume, stolen. I had listed all the titles of records etc. Someone must have been desperate. There is nothing like those sounds today, where you would stop dancing and just listen to the music.

There is one on a Monday evening as well

I typed Bill Pethers in search and ended up here. He conducted the Hippodrome orchestra (I say that advisedly because some fool changed its name and ended up getting it pulled down). Anyway went to some performance with my father-in-law, went to find him to leave and he`s chatting away with Bill Pethers, turned out they were both Scotsmen from Perth and went for violin lessons together with the great Scottish fiddle player Scott Skinner

I also typed in "The Dud Clews Orchestra" I have found it on YouTube, I think playing at the Burnt Post and if you look it up there is the bands story running over the picture. But the reason I put it on here was that my wife and I used to go and see them Saturday Nights at the Mercers Arms - I had an interest, the lad I played Rugby with, Derek Habberjam, led the Orchestra (he took over after the original Dud Clews was killed in a motor accident) Our favourite piece was one called "Caravan"

In the 50's and 60's the Hippodrome often featured big bands on Sundays. They all came, Ted Heath, Jack Parnell, Ken Macintosh, Joe Loss, Sid Phillips, Edmundo Ross and even Graeme Bell's Australian Jazz band. I was to meet Graeme many years later in Australia and had the privilege of playing with some former members of his band in the 1990's here in Oz. I still love big band jazz/swing and was enraptured in my young days by Stan Kenton. Fond memories also of vocalist Dickie Valentine

I saw all the big bands, Hippodrome, Leamington, De Montford Leicester, wherever, I believe Sid Phillips was the most accomplished musician (clarinet) but for me it was the drummers, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich especially. I believe Ted Heath did a scene with all the lights out except for the drummer, it was fantastic (blew me away) people like Ronnie Scott went on to form their own bands, Dickie Valentine, Denis Lotis (whom I lost a girl friend to down in Torquay) that's another story. Lita Rosa the female vocalist. Yes, they were the days. Billy Martin doesn't ring a bell, although I went to the Hippodrome a lot in the fifties. Bill Pethers was a household name.

The Ronnie Scott jazz club in London was a must for all jazz fans of that era.