Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra was a Canadian

swing revival The swing revival, also called retro swing and neo-swing, was a renewed interest in swing music, beginning around 1989 and reaching a peak from the early/mid to late 1990s. The music was generally rooted in the big bands of the swing era of the ...

band, active in the late 1990s."Band a favorite with swinging fans". ''

Kingston Whig-Standard ''The Kingston Whig-Standard'' is a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It is published five days a week, from Tuesday to Saturday. It publishes a mix of community, national and international news and is currently owned by Postmedia. It has ...

'', June 10, 1998. Formed in Halifax, Nova Scotia by jazz singer Stuart "Johnny Favourite" Bastow, the band released its debut album ''The Life Desire'' independently in 1997. Other band members included John Wesley Chisholm, Wes Mackey Jr., Colin Hudson, Pete Johnston, Matt Myer, Craig Sheppard, "Hound Dog" Dave Fitzgerald, Eric Landry, David Christensen, Dawn Hatfield and Andrew Killawee. They won an

East Coast Music Award The East Coast Music Association is a non-profit association that hosts an annual awards ceremony based in Atlantic Canada for music appreciation on the East Coast of Canada. Its mission is to develop, advance and celebrate East Coast Canadian mus ...

for Best Jazz Group in 1998, and signed to

Universal Records Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

that year. Soon afterward, however, Chisholm left the band after the birth of his second child; he subsequently received two

Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for scu ...

nominations, for both

Best Original Song This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

and Best Original Score, for his work composing music for the film ''

Beefcake Beefcake is a performance or a form of glamour photography depicting a large and muscular male body. Beefcake is also a publication genre. A role a person plays in a performance may be called ''beefcake''. The term was believed to be first used ...

''. The band's second album, ''Holiday Romance'', was released in fall 1998. By this time the band was a popular touring act, whose live show included original material, jazz standards and covers of classic and hard rock songs by bands such as

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

and The Band. They garnered radio and

MuchMusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31 ...

airplay for singles such as "Rootbeer & Licorice" and "We Still Talk". "Rootbeer & Licorice" charted on the Adult Contemporary charts in ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'', peaking at #32 the week of January 11, 1999. The band won the

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

for Best New Group at the

Juno Awards of 1999 The Juno Awards of 1999 honouring Canadian music industry achievements were held in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The primary ceremonies at Copps Coliseum on 7 March 1999 were broadcast by CBC Television and hosted by Mike Bullard. Nominations wer ...

. Because the band had up to 14 members at various times, it underwent frequent personnel changes and internal tensions."Just in time for summer: Johnny Favourite is smooth, solo and back on your radio". ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', July 6, 2000. The band broke up following a show in Halifax in early 2000; Bastow continued to use the name Johnny Favourite as a solo artist,"Still a Favourite, despite Juno curse". ''

'', July 25, 2000. and released his first solo album ''The Tonight Album'' in fall 2000. Five of the former Swing Orchestra bandmembers continued as his solo backing band. He moved to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

for several years in the 2000s, before returning to Canada near the end of the decade;"The Province Playlist; Featured artist: JOHNNY FAVOURITE, 'What a Difference a Day Makes'". ''

The Province ''The Province'' is a daily newspaper published in tabloid format in British Columbia by Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, alongside the ''Vancouver Sun'' broadsheet newspaper. Together, they are British Columbia's only ...

'', July 6, 2010. his second solo album, ''Troubadour'', was released in 2010.

References

{{Authority control Musical groups from Halifax, Nova Scotia Canadian jazz ensembles Musical groups established in 1996 Musical groups disestablished in 2000 Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year winners Swing revival ensembles