Last updated 09:04, Saturday, 01 November 2008

I became a member of The Gordon Nichol Band in 1971 and for the next 17 years the five of us played every Saturday night at the Lodore Hotel.

Memories: From left, Alan Bunting, Derek Holmes, Dougie Best, Gordon Nichol and Bob Wild

For me it was a privilege to sing with such a talented group of musicians who had all been in big bands during the big band era and I’d like to tell you a little bit about the musicians who became my dear friends.

The line up was Gordon Nichol (sax and clarinet), Derek Holmes (drums), Bob Wild (piano and keyboard), Dougie Best (double bass) and myself on vocals.

Gordon was a railway memorabilia collector and a great band leader, who organised all our bookings. We used to practice at his home in Maryport– it was a good job he had no neighbours!

Dougie was our musicians union rep and area secretary. A good man to have on your side in a fee or booking dispute.

Bob’s day job was a keyboard teacher with Dias Music Shop. He could play a guitar left-handed without altering the strings. Sadly Gordon, Bob and Dougie are no longer with us.

Derek was one of the few drummers around who was able to play from a musical score. He taught percussion in the Carlisle Youth Orchestra.

These days Derek plays golf...but not as well as he played drums.

We played mainly for dances – old-time, ballroom, Latin American but we tried to keep up to date by including the latest chart songs.

Lots of our dances were in West Cumberland where we played at works dances at places like Marchon and Sellafield, but we always did the New Year’s Eve dance at the Westlands in Carlisle.

Each month we were booked to play at the Hilltop and also for the Bill Whitfield dancing school. These were delightful events.

We were a hard-working band. At the Lodore we always played for three hours without a break – who would do that these days?

Most of the numbers required vocals and one night I counted I had done 76 songs, but I loved every minute of it and didn’t consider it hard work.

Naturally I was devastated when I had to retire from the band because of ill health. It took me a long time to come to terms with losing my much-loved hobby.

Not only that, my friends were the band members and I missed the association with them. Jack Wilkinson took over my place at the Lodore.

While I was trying to come to terms with this state of affairs, Cliff Eland said he was starting nostalgia nights at the County Ballroom with his big band but didn’t have a singer. Would I give it a try?

In my condition I was doubtful, but my longing to sing with a big band pushed that doubt out of my mind and after a few rehearsals I was sucked into it.

It was lovely to sing Sinatra songs because the band had all his arrangements and for a year I really enjoyed it.

Eventually, I had to accept that it wasn’t doing me any good and once again I had to say goodbye to something I really loved doing.

Pete Hoban took over from me and has been a great success for over 25 years.

In the last 25 years or so, singing was a prominent part of my life and I wouldn’t have changed any of it.

I have lovely memories and for me it was a ‘Golden Age’ where there were always good songs coming along and it was when people liked to dance, holding each other.

Strictly Come Dancing I believe has increased the number of people who want to dance properly again, but I still feel that such a lot of people don’t know what they are missing.

My own golden age started at Ruleholme, spurred on by the encouragement and help given to me by Maurice, Ritchie and Tommy.

I owe them a lot.