Originally Posted by Jackdaw

Vince Hill was formerly a member of the Raindrops vocal group along, with Jackie (Lee) and Johnny Worth, who later gained fame as the writer of Adam Faith's early hits.
The Bob Miller and Joe Loss shows were a bit of an oasis for the chart record fan, since the Beeb was restricted in record playing because of the needle-time agreement.
Chart groups would come on and do "live" versions of their hits, and the respective orchestras also did quite respectable covers of same.
Elvis Costello's dad, Ross McManus was a featured singer with Joe Loss, as was Vince Hill with Bob Miller.
A very heavily featured group were Carter, Lewis and the Southerners - the first two being John and Ken (?) of the Ivy League. You can hear them on many records of the time. It sounds like them on Who numbers like I Can't Explain and I'm a Boy.
A very good band for doing covers on these shows were the Fortunes, who also had big hits of their own. Sadly, two of their number are no longer with us.
Looking back, these do strike me as very innocent times!

Originally Posted by Freddie Freeloader

Watch and enjoy....

YouTube - Alyn Ainsworth and the BBC Northern Dance Orchestra



One of my earliest gigs, as a nineteen year old, was becoming a member of the Joe Loss Orchestra. I kid you not.

I was in the band for three years and must have brought the average age down to fifty two! Many of the players had been there since the fifties and one of the three singers was indeed Larry Gretton. A lovely chap.
If you think that La was inappropriate for Hermans Hermits then you should have seen him singing along to YMCA and Ra Ra Rasputin !!

Joe was seventy two when I joined and was very kind. After having a band for fifty years I think he thought of me as being one of the last youngsters to start their career in his ranks.
I felt very proud , at such a young age, to take a bow as one of the "Gentlemen of the Orchestra", resplendent in the Green(first half) and Pink (second half) band jackets!!

And in the finest tradition of bandleaders posing in the strangest of publicity photos, I'll leave you with proof as to why Joe's alternative career as Karate instructor never quite took off.




Fredo

Originally Posted by John Llewellyn Moxey

Well, I remember them!! I heard them on the "wireless". Victor Sylvester, I believe once played at the Hammersmith Palais, and I believe i was there. Joe Loss, not one of my favourites,was more Jazzy. Oops I have nothing against Jazz. I have quite a collection of New Orleans earely recordings, which I enjoy. Rock and roll is fun to dance to, but not my choice for prolonged listening.

I could be Oh so wrong. No doubt, if I am, I will be corrected. Mary Malcolm, a BBC TV announcer, used to go there during breaks in the afternoon. Ah, those days are still a bit magical to think back on.

I really enjoy my visits to Britmovie. You are a great bunch!

John

Originally Posted by bhowells

John, there was a documentary about the Hammesrsmith Palais on BBC 4, the digital arts channel over here. You would have enjoyed it.

Originally Posted by John Llewellyn Moxey

Well, I remember them!! I heard them on the "wireless". Victor Sylvester, I believe once played at the Hammersmith Palais, and I believe i was there.

Originally Posted by homeguard

I was dragged there at sixteen by my elder brother. He, cool in his drainpipes and DA, me spotty in a blazer two sizes too big. Then to round it off, he and his mates were thrown out for jiving to a quickstep and refusing to stop.
Oh, the mortification..............!
Never went back.
regards,
HG