The fabulous Syd Lawrence Orchestra has been thrilling audiences with concerts and dances for over 35 years, touring all over Great Britain, over 150 performances each year.

The traditional band line-up of trumpets, trombones, saxophones, rhythm section with piano, bass and drums, male and female vocalists and the harmony group allows for the diversity that makes this one of the most popular Big Band Swing Orchestras. The SLO has been voted the Favourite Big Band for the 7th consecutive year running by the readers of this magazine.

For entertainment value every show performance includes a mixture of swing music, dance music and jazz music together with fun, laughter, excitement and comedy to make a great live music variety show.

Featuring some of the very best musicians and singers of all ages, the band performs a wide selection of traditional Big Band Swing music. Under the directorship of Chris Dean, the Orchestra has proven to have a thorough command of true traditional swing music for over 35 years. Featuring wonderful musicians and singers the Band performs a wide selection of traditional big band music in theatres and concerts halls, and is frequently featured at many of the famous music and jazz festivals during the summer months. The repertoire of over 1200 classical and traditional big band titles from such artistes as: Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Ray Anthony, Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, Stan Kenton, Ted Heath, Bert Ambrose, Geraldo and many more, has made the Orchestra one of the most popular of its kind.

The international well-known hits from the Great American Songbook George Hershwin, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Hogy Carmichael, Irving Berlin and their singers like Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr, Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Barbara Streisand, etc. are also featured in the programme, together with the wonderful close harmony singing of the Serenaders, who recreate the sound of the great vocal groups from The Modernaires and the Pied Pipers to the legendary Mel-Tones.

Syd Lawrence Orchestra a story of success

It was in 1967 when the great Syd Lawrence, an established player with the BBC Northern Dance Orchestra who had served his musical apprenticeship working with such band leaders as Teddy Foster, Nat Temple, Geraldo, Sidney Lipton and Cyril Stapleton discovered that he, like many fellow professionals at that time had become disillusioned with having to play uninteresting arrangements of hit songs from the sixties pop scene.

Keen to continue playing the style of music that had his generations (though not realising that it would still inspire generations to come). He took it upon himself to establish, what is referred to as, a rehearsal band made up of like minded musicians who could get together once a week for their own pleasure and play the kind of music they really enjoyed. This gathering began in an upstairs room of the Wellington Hotel in Didsbury, Manchester, where after a few short weeks numbers of spectators at the rehearsal sessions had swollen from just the musicians, to the wives, families, friends and locals. One local commented that he could hear this sound in the street, it was the trumpet introduction to Glenn Millers At Last, thinking that the hotel had just installed a new sound system her went in to investigate, he could not believe it when he entered the room to see Syd and the Band playing the tune in real life. He had been so sure that it was a recording of the original Miller classic. So great was the local support that the Band had to move to larger premises three times in eighteen months until finally, in 1969, Syd decided to take the music to which he was so dedicated to a wider audience, so he severed his connections with the BBC and took the Band on the road.

The first public performance was a sell-out and was closely followed by appearances on Granada and Yorkshire TV. This in turn led to the first recording session for Philips at Strawberry Studios from which an album of Miller classics was produced and quickly hit the 100,000 sales mark and in January 1970 they released More Miller and Other Big Band Magic. Soon after the these albums were released, the late Alan Dale, the BBCs own Mr Big Band, played the American Patrol track on national radio and demand for the Syd Lawrence Orchestra to perform in ever y major venue across the kingdom hit fever pitch. Within months the Orchestra had visited every corner of the UK and performed in all of Londons major venues, the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, and a Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium.

After nearly 30 years of constant touring with his Band, Syd handed over the leadership to his former lead trombonist Chris Dean. The responsibility of looking after the affairs and operations of the Orchestra were entrusted to David Bothwell, a life long devotee of swing music and supporter of the band. Together Chris and David have worked to bring this wonderful sound to a wider audience and today include concerts across the EU presenting the band as the European Swing Orchestra.

Nowadays, many of you will think that it would be impossible for your children and grandchildren to enjoy this original live sound. Swing, in the finest meaning of the word, is still alive and swinging!! The perfect reproduction of the original sound, performed by the Syd Lawrence Orchestra, will help you fully appreciate this wonderful music.