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British dance band

British dance band is a genre of popular jazz and dance music that developed in British dance halls and
hotel ballrooms during the 1920s and 1930s, often called a Golden Age of British music prior to the
Second World War.

Thousands of miles away from the origins of jazz in the United States, British dance bands of this era
typically played melodic, good-time music that had jazz and big band influences but also maintained a
peculiarly British sense of rhythm and style which came from the music hall tradition. Often comedians of
the day or music hall personalities would sing novelty recordings backed by well-known British dance
band leaders. Some of the British dance band leaders and musicians went on to fame in the United States
in the swing era.

Thanks to Britain's continuing ballroom dancing tradition and its recording copyright laws, British dance
music of the pre-swing era still attracts a modest audience, which American dance music of the same
period does not.

Contents British dance band leader Jack

Hylton, c. 1930
Notable band leaders and musicians
Notable vocalists
British service dance bands
Notable venues
In popular culture
References
Further reading
External links

Notable band leaders and musicians

Famous British dance band leaders and musicians included (see also List of British big band leaders):

Bert Ambrose Jack Harris Mantovani Debroy Somers

Bertini Bobby Howell Billy Merrin Lew Stone
Billy Cotton Jack Hylton Ray Noble Billy Ternent
Fred Elizalde Jack Jackson Jack Payne Billy Thorburn
Roy Fox Charlie Kunz Lou Preager Jay Whidden
Geraldo Sidney Kyte Oscar Rabin Jay Wilbur
Carroll Gibbons Sidney Lipton Edmundo Ros Maurice Winnick
Nat Gonella Joe Loss Harry Roy
Henry Hall Percival Mackey Victor Silvester

Notable vocalists
Many popular singers rose to fame as vocalists on recordings by the British dance bands. They are not always attributed on the record label,
except for the description "with vocal refrain", but an experienced listener can usually identify the voices of these otherwise anonymous
singers. Famous British dance band vocalists included:

Al Bowlly Evelyn Dall Vera Lynn Anne Shelton

Alan Breeze Frances Day Pat McCormack Dorothy Squires
Sam Browne Denny Dennis Pat O'Malley
Elsie Carlisle Chick Henderson Bob and Alf Pearson
Sam Costa Anne Lenner Val Rosing

British service dance bands

The Squadronaires are a Royal Air Force band which became the best known of the British service dance bands during the Second World War,
with hits like "There's Something in the Air" and "South Rampart Street Parade". They played at dances and concerts for service personnel,
broadcast on the BBC and recorded on the Decca label. Many of the members formerly played as side men in Bert Ambrose’s band, and they
continued to be popular after the war under the leadership of Ronnie Aldrich. Other British service dance bands included the Blue Mariners,
the Blue Rockets and the Skyrockets.[1]

Notable venues

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Cafés, clubs, hotels and restaurants in London noted for British dance band music during the Golden Age included:[2][3]

The Ambassadors Club, Conduit Street Fischer's Restaurant, Bond Street

The Astoria Ballroom, 157, Charing Cross Road, WC2 Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane
Bat Club Hatchettes, Piccadilly
The Bag O'Nails, Kingly Street[4] Hollywood restaurant, Piccadilly
Berkeley Hotel, Piccadilly Kit-Cat Club, Haymarket
Café Anglais, Leicester Square Monseigneur grill restaurant, 16-17 Jermyn Street, SW1
Café de Paris, Coventry Street The May Fair, Berkeley Square
Carlton Hotel, 90, Belgrave Road, Victoria Murray's Club, Beak Street
Casani Club, Imperial House, Regent Street New Princes, Piccadilly
Hotel Cecil, Strand Piccadilly Hotel, Piccadilly
Ciro's Club, Orange Street, off Haymarket Quaglino's, Bury Street
Devonshire House, Piccadilly Romano's, Strand
The Dorchester, Park Lane Savoy Hotel, Strand
Embassy Club, Old Bond Street The Waldorf Hilton, London, The Aldwych

In popular culture
The 1935 British musical comedy film She Shall Have Music featured Jack Hylton as himself in a speaking role, and his orchestra.
The 1937 British musical comedy film Calling All Stars featured Bert Ambrose, Carroll Gibbons and Evelyn Dall.[5]
The 1938 British musical comedy film Kicking the Moon Around featured Bert Ambrose and Evelyn Dall.[6]
The BBC Radio programme Dance Band Days ran from 1969 to 1995 with a playlist of British dance band music. It was presented by Alan
Dell, and subsequently by Malcolm Laycock. The programme was later transferred to Sunday Night at 10, until the British dance band
content was dropped by the BBC in 2008.[7]
The BBC Radio programme Thanks For The Memory presented by Hubert Gregg regularly featured British dance band music, and ran for
35 years until his death in 2004.
The English television dramatist Dennis Potter was responsible for repopularizing music from the British dance band era in several of his
works, with his actors miming period songs in Pennies From Heaven (1978) and The Singing Detective (1986).

References
1. Ades, David; Bickerdyke, Percy; Holmes, Eric (July 1999). This England's Book of British Dance Bands. Cheltenham: This England Books.
pp. 86–89. ISBN 0-906324-25-4.
2. "Memory Lane Events" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120528184926/http://www.memorylane.org.uk/file/Events.html). Memory Lane
magazine. Archived from the original (http://www.memorylane.org.uk/file/Events.html) on 28 May 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
3. "London Dance Places - mgthomas.co.uk" (http://www.mgthomas.co.uk/dancebands/indexpages/LondonDancePlaces.htm). Mike
Thomas. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
4. "Bag O'Nails Club Heritage" (http://bag-o-nails.com/club-heritage/). Bag O'Nails. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
5. "Calling All Stars (1937)" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028681/). IMDb. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
6. "The Playboy (1938)" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030319/). IMDb. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
7. "Malcolm Laycock: Broadcaster who parted company with the BBC in a row over the age of Radio 2's target audience" (https://www.indep
endent.co.uk/news/obituaries/malcolm-laycock-broadcaster-who-parted-company-with-the-bbc-in-a-row-over-the-age-of-radio-2s-target-au
dience-1818180.html). London: The Independent. 11 November 2009. Retrieved 28 April 2012.

Further reading
James Nott, Going to the Palais: a social and cultural history of dancing and dance halls in Britain, 1918-1960 (OUP, 2015)

James Nott, Music for the People: Popular Music and Dance in interwar Britain(OUP, 2002)
Abra, Allison. Review of "Going to the palais: a social and cultural history of dancing and dance halls in Britain, 1918–1960."
Contemporary British History (Sep 2016) 30#3 pp 432–433.
White, Mark. The Observer's Book of Big Bands: Describing American, British, and European Big Bands, Their Music and Their Musicians
[and their vocalists], in The Observer's Series, no. 77. London: F. Warne, 1978. ISBN 0-7232-1589-8.

External links
"The British Dance Band encyclopaedia - mgthomas.co.uk" (http://www.mgthomas.co.uk/dancebands/). Retrieved 24 April 2012.
"John Wright's The British Dance Band Show podcasts - r2ok.co.uk" (http://www.r2ok.co.uk/dancebandshow.htm). Retrieved 25 April
2012.
"Memory Lane magazine - memorylane.org.uk" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120419081651/http://www.memorylane.org.uk/file/Home_P
age.html). Archived from the original (http://www.memorylane.org.uk/file/Home_Page.html) on 19 April 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
"The Golden Age of British Dance Bands - facebook.com" (https://www.facebook.com/groups/282519584859/). Retrieved 25 April 2012.
"Everybody Dance: The Very Best Of The British Dance Bands" (https://www.europeana.eu/resolve/record/08901/38AB409811B606E2D5
D12E35B5B62BBD9313B7DA). Europeana. Retrieved 2012-06-10.

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