Full
Name: William E. Cotton
Bandleader and drummer.
Born: Smith Square, Westminster, London, May 6th, 1899
Died: Wembley, London, March 25, 1969
Signature tune: Somebody Stole My GalBilly
Cotton started his musical career playing drums with the Royal Fusiliers
when he was just 15 years old. He saw service in the Dardanelles and was
given a commission in the Royal Flying Corps at 18. By this time he was
playing the drums in small camp bands. When demobilised, he briefly
worked at a bus conductor, a butcher's roundsman and a millwright's assistant,
supplementing his income by gigging with Gilbert Coombes and his Fifth
Avenue Orchestra in Kilburn. He also played football for Brentford.
In the early 1920s,
one of his first jobs, though still a semi-pro musician, was playing in
a trio for 5/- (25p) a night. The other two member of the trio were his
nephew. Laurie Johnson (only four years Bill's junior) on violin and
Arthur Rosebery on piano. Rosebery went on to become a major bandleader
himself, but his story belongs elsewhere. Laurie Johnson, despite being
only 18 years old, was something of an impresario and after a spell
leading the band at the Ealing Palais, with Bill on drums, for £6 a
night, he landed the plum job of providing four bands at the 1924
Wembley Exhibition. Laurie himself led one of these, with Bill on drums,
and called it Al Johnson and the San Prado Band. The band also broadcast
over 2LO.
After the exhibition,
Bill went to work for Jack Howard at the Olympia Ballroom. Then he
decided to form his own band, which included Laurie on violin and he
auditioned for Gaumont-British; this led to a resident position at the
Regent Ballroom in Brighton. This was in 1925. Bill called the
band "Billy Cotton and his London Savannah Band", a name he
continued using until 1929. Laurie left to form his own band when Bill
moved to Southport Palais on May 29th, 1925. At this time, Bill's
musicians included several that were later to become big names, such as
Syd Lipton on violin and Joe Ferrie on trombone. They stayed at
Southport until 1927. It was here that Bill gradually changed the band
from playing purely dance music, to putting on stage acts. The
band moved to the Astoria, Charing Cross Road, then on to the Locarno,
Streatham. During this period, Bill started his long recording career,
making records for Metropole and Piccadilly, plus a solitary disc for
Decca. His big break came on moving to Ciro's Club in about 1929, where
he stayed until the spring of 1931.
For most of the rest
of his career, he and his band did stage shows, with his nephew as his
"right-hand" man, starting at the Alhambra Theatre in
Leicester Square in 1931. He is well-remembered today for the
long-running "Billy Cotton Band Show" which was broadcast on
radio & television in the 1950s & 1960s, preceeded by his famous
call of "Wakey Wakey".
In early summer 1931,
Bill became quite ill with rheumatic fever and had to stop performing.
Obviously, his musicians became restless and left him. The three brass
players, Nat Gonella, Sid Buckman & Joe Ferrie, joined Roy Fox's new
band, while Syd Lipton left to start his own band. Bill had a knack for
spotting good musicians, and, undaunted, re-built the band a few months
later, with help from his nephew, who disbanded his own band, so that
Bill could have the pick of the musicians. His pianist and arranger for
almost his whole career, was Clem Bernard. Many other musicians stayed
with Bill for years too, including singer Alan Breeze, who joined in the
Spring of 1932 and stayed until the end in 1969, coloured trombonist
& dancer, Ellis Jackson and violinist Phil Phillips.
Bill had passions
other than music. He was a fearless and determined racing driver and
actually drove the famous Blue Bird, achieving a speed of 121 mph.
and also had his own aeroplane, a Gipsy Moth, which he often flew in the
years before World War II. He married Mabel Gregory in 1921. He had two
sons, Ted & Bill junior, the latter becoming head of entertainment
at the BBC.
I mentioned his early
recordings above. From 1930 to 1936, he made many records for Columbia,
Regal and Regal Zonophone, switching then to Rex until the late 1940s
when the label was discontinued. Subsequent records were made for Decca
right up until the late 1950s. His best selling record was
believed to be "South Of The Border" on Decca (according to
Julien Vedey in his book Band Leaders).
I first became aware
of Billy Cotton though his famed "Billy Cotton Band" series on
Radio and Television in the 1960s. It was not my kind of music,
then, but when I started collecting 78s in the early 1970s, Bill's Rex
and Regal-Zonophone records turned up often. They were usually comedy
numbers, so I was very surprised on finding his Regal record of
"The Clouds Will Soon Roll By" played straight and showing
what an excellent band he had for dancing to.
Acknowledgments: Leader
of the Band, by Chris Hayes; The Greatest Billy Cotton Band Show
by John Maxwell; Band Leaders by Julien Vedey.
|
Billy Cotton c1928
Billy Cotton's London Savannah Band
in 1925 at the Regent Ballroom
Billy Cotton's Band in the early 1930s
Billy Cotton's Band in the 1930s
|