The History of "Swing Era"

The band inception came in 2010 when four older members of The Heswall Concert Band took the decision to start a swing band based on the extensive experience they possessed as professional or semi professional musicians playing in the regional dance bands of the late 40's and 50's.
They thought it important to bring back the great live sounds of those halcyon days when they played nightly to packed dance halls with the popular tunes of the day as well as the tunes of the great American bands such as Glen Miller , Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

Sadly, virtually all of the nightly dance halls had closed by the start of the 60's and the twist and dicso dancing in late night clubs to records or smaller guitar based groups took their place; but the dance halls and the cimema's were really killed off commercially by television and their conversion to bingo halls. It was a seed change in life style for younger people which is still with us in the 21st century.

Swing Music is a special genre in its own right and is the precursor to BeBop and all other forms of modern jazz which have become the preserve of a far more eclectic audience than the mass appeal that swing music was in it's day.

The band contains the standard reeds, brass and rhythm sections of the great bands to play their arrangements. It is our mission to provide pleasurable entertainment with live music of this genre to audiences of all ages and musical tastes for either concert or social functions of any kind.

Whilst there is great acceptance of our music from older members of the public we find that many younger peple are enthused with the prospect of hearing or playing our music and as older members retire younger musicians are taking their places very successfully as the band goes from strength to strength.