London Swing Orchestra
On VE Day 1985 Graham Dalby was invited to form a dance orchestra to perform for a charity event at The Hammersmith Palais de Danse, in London, to celebrate forty years of peace in Europe. Following the initial and partial success of this band the group were named by the Warburg's Bank Chairman, Sir David Scholey. The original band were called Graham Dalby and The Grahamophones.
After playing at a few society parties the band were invited to play at a huge event at The Congresse Halle in Berlin, sharing the billing with James Last and his Orchestra and the Motown Gloria Gaynor. In January 1986, the band had accepted a very bruising cruise gig on board a Scandinavian Silja Line ship, The Wellamo, during which time they played four sets a day for five weeks. During this time the BBC Music Archives Department were sending out original stock arrangements for the band to learn so that, by the time they returned to England the orchestra were in a position to approach a publishing and recording company. In 1986 a contract was signed between Graham Dalby and Edward Kassner on behalf of Kassner Publishing and President Records.
The first album was produced at Pye Studios in London in 1987 entitled "We're Tops On Saturday Night" and was released on vinyl and cassette. The album included a first published song by Graham Dalby titled 'I'd Sooner Be A Crooner' which was released as a single and was taken up in 1988 by BBC Television as the title of a forty minute TV documentary about the the Orchestra and it's roots in the Golden Age of British Dance Bands between the wars. This is available to view on You Tube.
Following the BBC television publicity the Orchestra were invited to perform at many international arts festivals including The Henley Festival of the Arts,The Hong Kong Arts Festival, The Molde Jazz Festival (Norway) and The City of London Festival. Subsequent recordings with President Records followed: "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" in 1988 cat. no. PCOM1097, "Teddy Bear's Picnic" (BBC Radio 2 Children in Need single with Gloria Hunniford), "Let's Do It Again" 1990 cat. no. PCOM1108 and "Transatlantique" 1993 cat. no. PCOM 1128. From these albums Dalby wrote and arranged Sooner Be a Crooner, Hair of the Dog, Vo-Do-De-O Dodo and Thinking of You, all published by Kassner President.
The movie, A Handful of Dust, starring Alec Guinness and based on novel by Evelyn Waugh featured a scene with Graham Dalby and The Orchestra at The Cafe de Paris playing his composition Sooner Be A Crooner. This was over-written by George Fenton's orchestral score although the visual scene survives.
In 1995 Dalby and his Orchestra were commissioned to record a comprehensive series of Ballroom Dance albums at Abbey Road studios . Some fourteen albums (including compilations) were recorded on the Let's Dance series ranging from Foxtrot to Jive and even Spanish Paso Doble. They were distributed by BMG and many are still available worldwide e.g. Let's Dance The Jive cat no.LTD102711. The three album set Dancing Neath The Stars issued in 2005 was released without Dalby's knowledge or approval.
In 1994 Dalby wrote and presented What Ho! Wodehouse, a musical biopic, for BBC Radio 2 The Arts Programme during which Dalby interviewed the Heritage Secretary Iain Sproat (author of Wodehouse at War d.2011) and proved, probably for the first time ever on air, that the accusations against the author P.G. Wodehouse on the grounds of collaboration and treason during WWII were spurious and that Wodehouse had no case to answer. This was subsequently toured live with the Orchestra around British theatres including The Symphony Hall, Birmingham.
You're the Cream in My Coffee was used as the evocative and period-convincing theme song for The Mrs Bradley Mysteries in the late 1990s and it was recorded and sung by Graham Dalby and The London Swing Orchestra in a re-creation of Jack Hylton's 1928 version. External Links Mrs. Bradley Mysteries on IMDb (Graham Dalby music consultant / music advisor / ... (5 episodes, 1998–2000)
In 1997 Graham Dalby recorded at Abbey Road Studio, The Great Legends of Jazz and Swing for EMI Records and performed the last number by a British Dance Band in British Hong Kong at 11:45 on The Peak on 30 June 1997. It was Mad Dogs and Englishmen. The album was re-issued in 1999 as Swing Classics on EMI. Hereafter the Orchestra was re-named and re-branded as The London Swing Orchestra.
In 2000 Dalby and his orchestra were asked to play for H.M. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's 100th Birthday at Windsor Castle and later featured in a BBC documentary 'The Queen Mum and Me' shown on BBC1 during the Laying in of State of The Queen Mother in 2002.
In 2004 Dalby formed a large orchestra and chorus renamed The Esterhazy Orchestra for the 500th Anniversary of The Royal Warrant Holders Association in which he programmed and conducted an elaborate performance of five hundred years or Royal patronage through music in which The London Swing Orchestra also performed.
In 2005 to mark the 200th Anniversary of The Battle of Trafalgar, the Orchestra performed on board HMS Warrior just next to HMS Victory
In 2012 Dalby, to mark twenty five years of recording, compiled and re-recorded an Anthology of Swing Music with The London Swing Orchestra of four albums of music from 1920 – 1965 in association with Upbeat Recordings upbeatrecordings.co.uk.
In 2015, to mark the 30th Anniversary of the Orchestra they were invited to perform live on BBC Radio Two in a VE Day programme with the BBC Concert Orchestra.
In May 2017 the London Swing Orchestra performed at a huge gala event in Geneva for Action Innocence.
The London Swing Orchestra currently have 80 tracks available to listen to on Spotify and they continue touring theatres and festivals which in 2017 includes Bletchley Park.
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