The Grahamophones Swing Orchestra
The Grahamophones Swing Orchestra can trace its roots back to VE Day 1985 when Graham, then a student at Trinity College of Music, was asked to form a band for its first gig at The Hammersmith Palais. Shortly after Graham Dalby organised a promo video (sponsored by the philanthropic Sir David Scholey of Warburg fame) and soon the bookings started to trickle in. Quality bookings though such as The Hurlingham Club,
The Park Lane Hotel, The Boatrace Ball at The Savoy and the band's first overseas trip - to Berlin. The boys didn't know that Tuntenball at The Congresshalle meant Transvestites Ball and there were a few surprises in the gents!! But to.be on the same bill as Gloria Gaynor and James Last was a step in the right direction.The following year the band consolidated by playing a regular pub gig at the legendary Half Moon in Putney and built up a following that led to a contract with President Records and first vinyl LP called “We’re Tops On Saturday Night” which was warmly received by BBC Radio 2 and played regularly.
Mike Lovatt, the band’s lead trumpet had a brother who worked in television and, sure enough, a production team showed up in Putney. A year later the band had made its television debut in a wonderful BBC 2 documentary entitled “I’d Sooner Be A Crooner” which the Times hailed as “real music, real singing, real style”. During this period the band was invited to play in Hong Kong and at Festivals including Henley, Chichester, Litchfield, in Alphen (Holland) and Molde (Norway) alongside Miles Davies and Manhatten Transfer. At this time the band made a brief appearance in the film A Handful of Dust (which starred Alec Guiness) at the Café de Paris.
During the late Eighties Graham and the Band built regular relationships with The Henley Festival (six years) and the Marie Curie Ball Edinburgh (five years) and Hong Kong (ongoing). More albums followed - Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Let’s Do It Again (Hubert Gregg in guest appearance) and Transatlantique sponsored by SAUR in Paris for whom the band played wonderful gigs in Annecy, Le Touquet and La Rochelle. The band played a series of concerts from The Barbican to Torquay often in conjunction with the BBC who also invited the band to record for regular sessions on Radio 2 “Friday Night Is Music Night” and “Nightride”.
Having played Bahrain, the band had a fabulous double booking of a week in Dubai followed by the Hong Kong International Arts Festival.
Corporate and Society Parties included Thomas Cook’s 150th with Princess Diana and The Devonshire’s now legendary ball of 1989. Graham was approached by HRH Princess Margaret in the early hours of the morning at Chatsworth to say she would be speaking to her sister about us. People often say things at parties and forget. Not Princess Margaret. A letter arrived in November 1990 with the Buckingham Palace stamp. “Her Majesty would be pleased if you would play music for dancing for the 90th Birthday of HM The Queen Mother, 60th of HRH Princess Margaret, the 40th of HRH The Princess Royal and 30th of HRH Prince Andrew…you may be pleased to know you came to the notice of the HM The Queen via The Princess Margaret who was impressed with your playing at Chatsworth”. Ten Years later the band were to repeat the performance at Windsor Castle in 2000 for the last time for HM The Queen Mother and HRH Princess Margaret.
At this time Graham teamed up with Children in Need and recorded “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” with two BBC presenters, Gloria Hunniford and Adrian Love and performed live on the same day on “Pebble Mill at One” in Birmingham and“Wogan” in White City before jetting off to the Emirates that same night.
The early nineties were marked with what can only be described as epic recording sessions at Abbey Road where a mad Portugese Producer called Jose Callvario (Joe Squid as the boys called him) commissioned us to record a series called Let’s Dance. This entailed recording fourteen albums of every possible dance form including Bossa Nova, Samba and Paso Doble. The latter proved difficult to find in England so Graham had Bullfight music shipped over from Madrid! The results were spectacular and the albums are still available worldwide but more for ballroom enthusiasts than jazz and swing aficionados.
A little pushed for time for a London gig, Graham was just about to leave when his wife called out “I think you’ll want to take this call”. It was the BBC Drama Department. Would we be interested in supplying the music for a new television series set in 1927 entitled The Mrs Bradley Murder Mysteries starring Dame Diana Rigg? The band recorded the title music “You’re The Cream In My Coffee” and some of the incidental music, appeared in two episodes, recorded the album and appeared live on BBC Breakfast TV to plug it. Not bad for one phone call!
During the mid nineties the band clocked up some great venues including Wembley Stadium for the American Superbowl in front of 72,000 people! and a performance in a palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice. The band was also in demand by the film industry with performances for the re-launch of Disney’s Snow White, Chaplin, and three separate performances for Kenneth Brannagh films. Parties to open shows also required the band to make things swing and these included Chicago and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
In 1997 Graham took the band back into Abbey Road to record Swing Classics for EMI before flying off to Beijing to play a series in Shanghai and then the grand finale on The Peak in Hong Kong where the band played right up til the Union Jack came down at 11:59 on June 30th when an American band took over and Graham and the band were able to drown their sorrows. Less than ten years later the band returned to find the colony unchanged and played for the charming Christine Wong and then the Hong Kong Club. In 2007 the band were invited to play for the Hong Kong Tourist Board in front of thousands in the square and then a more exclusive New Year’s Eve performance at the Hong Kong Club.
The band have been filled with interesting engagements. The Duchess of Cambridge’s 21st birthday and a subsequent garden party for Carole Middleton on a scorching afternoon. A Royal wedding in the palace garden in Armagh, Jordon - not quite the hottest gig ever - that goes to a wonderful party thrown in The Phillipines in a fort built by Magellan in the 16th century. The wettest gig ever was a few years ago at The Hampton Court Flower Show as the deluge failed to deter the band or Graham who had donned Hunter wellies and a Barbour over his white dinner jacket. The strangest venues include the gun decks of HMS Warrior and, most recently, the walkway over Tower Bridge. The variety of events has been so wide but perhaps, most notably, The Royal Warrant Holders 500th Anniversary, Valentino’s 75th birthday in Rome followed by Fashion Week for Elle Magazine in Milan and, in November 2010 playing a Polonaise to two hundred and fifty guests (who knew how to dance it) at The London Guildhall to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Frederic Chopin! The band looks forward to New Year’s Eve 2011 in St Moritz having played in Gstadd a few years earlier.