13 Countdowns To Our St George's Day Cadogan Hall Concert,
The Golden Age Of British Big Bands, 23rd April, 7pm 2017.
Countdown #13: One night when the Ted Heath Band was sharing the bill with another big band, Johnny Hawkesworth was coming off stage carrying his bass. As he passed the other bass player going on he leant over and said “watch the bowler at your end”.
Countdown #12: A bandleader I used to work for always announced any Glenn Miller number by saying “You know Glenn Miller, he did the music for World War
Two”.
Countdown #11: “Do you know the difference between a ukulele and a
banjo? A banjo takes longer to burn.” George Formby.
Countdown #10: Tom Langham sings George Formby's 1932 hit "I Told My Baby With My Ukulele."
Countdown #9: “I visited an Italian restaurant in New York which was run by the Mafia. The house speciality was broken leg of lamb” Ronnie Scott
George Formby is featured in The Golden Age of British Big Bands, 23rd April, Cadogan Hall.
Countdown #9: “I visited an Italian restaurant in New York which was run by the Mafia. The house speciality was broken leg of lamb” Ronnie Scott
Tubby Hayes Big Band:
Suddenly Last Tuesday featured in The GoldenAge of British Big Bands
Countdown #8: Clarinet players sometimes hold their reed against a coin
and burn the top edge away to harden them.
A certain clarinet player turned to the pianist Bert Murray and asked if
he’d got a 10p piece to burn his reed and Bert looked up saying ‘Here’s a quid, burn the whole bloody
clarinet”
Countdown #7: A well know band leader confessed to being paranoiac, IanChristie told him “No, you’ve got it wrong.
Paranoia is when you think people
don’t like you.”
Countdown #6: We stayed in a hotel the other night. Talk about mean, he turned the gas off while
she turned the bacon over and when we went in to breakfast we found the tomato
ketchup on an optic” Acker Bilk.
Countdown #5: “I’d now like to hand you back to the band. Each man is a soloist in his own right – it’s
only when they play together that they get into trouble” Ronnie Scott
Tubby Hayes Big Band: Parisian Thoroughfare featured in The GoldenAge of British Big Bands
Countdown #4: Kenny Clare always played marvellous drum solos with my
band. I remember playing a firemen’s
dance in Hull – a fireman came up to me saying Kenny’s drumming was absolutely
fantastic,” but mind you, we’ve got a bloke who plays in a pub round the corner
who’s even better” – John Dankworth
Countdown #3: The great drummer Phil Seaman was playing drums in the
pit orchestra for West Side Story. One
night he nodded off to sleep during a quiet spot and fell off his stool and
crashed into his big gong. With great
presence of mind, he stood up and announced “Dinner is Served” - Ronnie Scott
Countdown #2: When the Stones drummer Charlie Watts appeared in the club with his enormous big band Apart from Charlie there were two other
drummers. I remember hearing the band
rehearse and at the end of one opus Charlie enquired if the tempo was OK. To which a voice from the sax section said
“Great. I liked all three tempos” Ronnie Scott
Countdown 1# Talking about putting new tunes on top of old
chords. I have just acquired an album of
the National Youth Jazz Orchestra on which some bright young thing has taken the
chords of “Thou Swell” and turned it into a bebop extravaganza called
“Gynaecology” Digby Fairweather
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