bhowells

Who in Forum land recalls the days when the likes of Joe Loss and Victor Sylvestor had their own weekly shows on the light progamme.

I remember these programmes being on before I was old enough to go to school circa 1964.

Victor Sylvestors show if I remember rightly was on after Housewives Choice and Edmondo Ross had a show as well.

Joe loss and Bob Miller and the Miller Men were on towards luncthime and I distinctly remember Vince Hill being featrured vocalists and also recall the Lorne Gibson a stalwart of light programme and Radio Two shows.

Joe Piano Henderson was always on at weekends,I am sure that he might have done a stint as disc jockey as well. I know Jack Jackson did, he always played records interspersed with comedy clips, Adrian Juste did a show with a similar format many years later.

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!

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

julian_craster

I wonder if tapes/discs of these shows are in the BBC archives ?

It would be great to hear them again on BBC7........

johng

I would imagine that they have at least some of them in the archives. They certainly would not have been wiped since in those days most recordings were cut on to shellac andtherefore not reusable.

hankoler

I remember listening to the likes of Billy Cotton and Semprini on the radio when I was a child,
One thing that sticks in my mind was the ending of the Billy cotton band show was the line, "Hey you down there with the glasses" anyone else remember that?.

Geoffers

Great post! Yes, from the early 60s I remember Parade of the Pops and The Joe Loss Show on around lunchtime. As well as Ross McManus there was a singer called Larry Gretton. He had a good voice but covering records like Herman's Hermits' "Silhouettes" was not a good idea - he was a little too mature! I also remember Bernard Herrmann and the NDO were featured a good deal on shows like these.

Jackdaw

I'd forgotten all about Larry Gretton!
As you say, good voice, but a bit of a fish out of water on that type of number.
Re the NDO, did Bernard succeed Alyn Ainsworth?
Also any mention ofthe NDO and I think of Roger Moffatt (sp), as dry as tinder, and Sheila Buxton, wasn't it?

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

Jackdaw

Thanks for that Freddie - brought back a few memories!
Seeing the pic of Joe reminded me, that like Eric Morley, he must have discovered the secret of life-long black hair.
You must have been very good to get into Joe's band, especially at nineteen, what instrument did you play?

orpheum

I well remember the Billy Cotton Bandshow on radio on Sunday lunchtime just after Forces Favourites and before Round The Horne.I remember well Alan Breeze kathy Kay,Greisha Farfel.Those were the days of radio.It was on the Light programme.

Welcome To Highbury The Home Of Football

julian_craster

Billy Cotton on the Light Programme.......always associated with the aroma of gravy, Yorkshire pud and roast beef....

orpheum

Wakey Wakey

Welcome To Highbury The Home Of Football

earlb

[quote=Freddie Freeloader;155753]
One of my earliest gigs, as a nineteen year old, was becoming a member of the Joe Loss Orchestra.

I used to record Joe Loss, Ross and Larry for Radio Luxembourg - what era are you talking about? The days of Kenny Hollick or Gary Stewart?

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

Freddie Freeloader

Piano.

Early 80's. Kenny deputised on a couple of gigs, but this was long past his era with the band.