R2OK!

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

I haven't followed this show/series but was alerted to this week's episode (Friday 7.00pm) which promised to feature British singers in dance bands late 1930s, and into WWII. These ladies were Dorothy Carless, Carole Carr, Beryl Davis, Marjorie Stedeford, Anne Lenner, Anne Shelton amongst others.

Nice to hear British Dance Band recordings being aired outside the Sunday night oasis, bands like Geraldo, Ambrose, Carroll Gibbons, Joe Loss and studio ensembles. Many of those ladies had 'deep' voices, mezzo or contralto, not the high pitched sopranos of the earlier flapper days.

In WWII the bands were influenced by Glenn Miller who was hugely popular and toured and broadcast during the war but the bands had developed their own styles in the 1930's so there is still very much a British feel to their records and (most of the time) the ladies avoided putting on American accents, though that very much depended on the lyrics of the songs.

Good on Clare Teal to clear up the issue of Anne Shelton's debut age, she always insisted she was 12 when she got her break with Ambrose in 1940, but Clare rightly said that her birth certificate confirms she was born in 1923.

John W

RobbieM · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 1:51 pm Post subject:

I really like Clare Teal. Another really good "rising star" in the jazz world.
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ONline, ONdigital and ONtherocks: BBC Radio 2. Eleanor Rigby, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door.

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

I really like Clare Teal, as a singer, anyway - she has a gorgeous voice. Lately she has been steered into easy listening waters on record - some jazz afficianados are not impressed. I don't mind.

Is this series a repeat? I remember hearing one on Anita O'Day last year. They are scripted by Russell Davies.
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Ron

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

They might be a repeat, but I didn't listen first time round

You're right that Russel Davies scripted them, so (as someone elsewhere pointed out to me) it was Russell who was putting us straight about Anne Shelton's age.

John