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Palais de Dance
"Regarding the photo of the big band at
the Palais, my dad has now updated me with the
names and details of the band members. It's
not the Johnny Kildare Orchestra!!
It is a band put together by Pete Seaton, a
well-known figure on the Edinburgh music scene who owned a music shop in
Hope Park Terrace, Edinburgh,
from the late-1950s through to the early-1980s.
Pete was / is a
highly-talented multi-instrumentalist; he could play almost any instrument.
Through and beyond the big band era, he
produced a suitcase full of big band arrangements which he used to
rehearse with a scratch band in the Doric Hotel in Minto Street, Newington
in the early 1970s.
This shot shows a number of his big band
regulars. Among them are:
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Jimmy Leslie (singer); (beyond him, in
front of the guitarist) Pete Seaton; Ian Reid (drums); Charlie Alexander
(guitar); John Sutherland (bass); George Smith (1st trumpet - who lived in
The Inch, quite near us!!); Jimmy Robertson (2nd trumpet); Billy ??????
(4th trumpet); Jimmy Burns (tenor sax); Dougie Crombie (2nd tenor); Ross
Burns (Baritone Sax); Alex McKie (2nd trombone); Harry Cadger (3rd
trombone).
They were all semi-pro musicians, meaning they
had day jobs which they mostly hated and regarded music as a blissful
release: 'Playing' was
what they were put here for...!
Paul Sutherland, Glasgow: July 28,
2008 + September 20, 2008 |
