l Web Page No 2750

 

16^th  January 2021

 

1^st Picture: Billy Cotton with the showgirls

 

 

2^nd Picture: Billy Cotton the racing driver

3^rd Picture: With Alan Breeze and Kathy Kay

4^th Picture: Wakey, Wakey

 Billy Cotton

Lunchtimes on the radio would not have been the same without the Billy Cotton Band Show

William Edward Cotton  was born on 6th May 1899  in Smith Square The youngest of 10 children, he was born into a close-knit, working class family.

Over the years he became known to most people as Billy Cotton the band leader and entertainer, one of the few whose orchestras survived the British dance band era. Billy Cotton is now mainly remembered as a 1950s and 1960’s radio and television personality, but his musical career had begun in the 1920s. In his younger years Billy Cotton was also an amateur footballer for Brentford (and later, for the then Athenian league club Wimbledon), an accomplished racing driver and the owner of a Gipsy Moth, which he piloted himself. His autobiography, I Did It My Way, was published in 1970, a year after his death.

His parents were Joseph and Susan Cotton and Billy was a choirboy and started his musical career as a drummer. He enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers by falsifying his age and saw service in the First World War in Malta and Egypt before landing at Gallipoli in the middle of an artillery barrage. He was recommended for a commission and learned to fly Bristol Fighter aircraft. Not yet 19 years old, he flew solo for the first time in 1918, on the day the Royal Flying Corps became the Royal Air Force. After the end of the war, in the early 1920s, he worked at several jobs, including as a bus driver, before setting up his own orchestra, the London Savannah Band, in 1924.

At first a conventional dance band, the London Savannah Band gradually tended towards music hall/vaudeville entertainment, introducing visual and verbal humour in between songs. Famous musicians who played in Billy Cotton's band during the 1920s and 1930s included Arthur Rosebery, Syd Lipton and Nat Gonella. The band was also noted for their African American trombonist and tap dancer, Ellis Jackson. Their signature tune was "Somebody Stole My Gal", which they recorded numerous times for Decca.

During the Second World War Cotton and his band toured France with the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). After the war, he started his successful Sunday lunchtime radio show on BBC, the Billy Cotton Band Show, which ran from 1949 to 1968.

In the 1950s, composer Lionel Bart contributed comedy songs to the show. It regularly opened with the band's signature tune and Cotton's call of "Wakey Wakey". From 1957, it was also broadcast on BBC television. Billy Cotton often also provided vocals on many of his band's recordings, in addition to work as a vocalist on recordings that didn't feature his band.

One of Billy Cotton's band's most famous songs was "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts" but Michael Grade told the programme his appeal was always "broad brush" and never "vulgar".

What many people did not realise was that despite being a band leader and arranger he could not play an instrument or read a note of music.

At its peak in the early 1960s the show had an audience of 20 million and regular guests included Dionne Warwick, Cliff Richard, Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw, Adam Faith, Tom Jones and Lulu.

And many, like Tom Jones, Kathy Kay and Sandi Shaw got their big break on the show.

The TV Band Show alternated with the Wakey, Wakey Tavern but Billy Cottons first love was his radio programme and he would let nothing interfere with its broadcast. The show made singers like Alan Breeze and Rita Williams household names. 

He loved speed and danger and in September 1936 he tried to break the world land speed record on the sands at Southport. In his memoirs, he joked that the car had two speeds - "fast" and "stop". He did not break the record but his 121.5mph was a very impressive speed.

As a racing driver, he raced at Brooklands between the wars but his finest moment came in 1949 when he finished eighth in the 1949 British Grand Prix, sharing an English Racing Automobile with David Hampshire.

Whilst working the 4am shift in an east London factory he married Mabel E. Gregory in 1921 and they had two sons, Ted and Sir Bill Cotton, who later became the BBC's managing director of television and looked remarkably like his father . In 1962, Billy Cotton suffered a stroke and on 24^th March 1969 he sang "Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner" at a charity function. It turned out to be his requiem. The following night he keeled over and died while at the Empire Pool in Wembley watching a heavyweight boxing match between Londoner Billy Walker and Jack Bodell from Derbyshire.

died on 25^th March1969 while watching a boxing match at Wembley Arena.

Billy Cotton was the great-great-uncle of TV presenter Fearne Cotton.

 

Stay in touch

 

Peter

 

gsseditor@gmail.com

 

You Write:

John Lockwood sent me his prize winning poem.

 

Nightmares

Night falls monsters creep.

Coffins open the dead step out.

Werewolves cry into the sky.

Haunted men they fall and die.

Horror houses have many creaks.

I just cannot get to sleep.

 

I remember writing this when I was about 13 or 14 years old, and being a boy I had a vivid imagination. 

 

News and Views:

 

On this day 16^th January 1960 – 1965

On 16/01/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was North by Northwest. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was price of large eggs cut to 3/- a dozen.

On 16/01/1961 the number one single was Poetry in Motion - Johnny Tillotson and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 16/01/1962 the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Van Doren guilty in US quiz show fix.

On 16/01/1963 the number one single was The Next Time/Bachelor Boy - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 16/01/1964 the number one single was Glad All Over - Dave Clark Five and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Steptoe & Son (BBC) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 16/01/1965 the number one single was Yeh Yeh - Georgie Fame and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.