John Philip Tate (28 April 1922 – 9 December 2005) was an English dance

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or ...

.Thedeadrockstarsclub.com
- accessed December 2010 Born in Bramley,

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, England, Tate played

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

from the age of eight, and was later an

autodidact Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools). Generally, autodidacts are individua ...

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

and

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

. Allmusic - biography by Jason Ankeny/ref> He formed his own group, the Five Quavers, while in high school, and played in the RAF Silver Wings Dance Orchestra during World War II. The ensemble proved so cohesive that all twelve of its members decided to continue playing together after the war, under the name Phil Tate & His Orchestra, taking a residency at Leas Cliff Hall in

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

. Their instrumentation was unusual, featuring five saxes and three

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

s. After appearing in the 1951 film '' Green Grow the Rushes'', they took their next residency at the

Hammersmith Palais The Hammersmith Palais de Danse, in its last years simply named Hammersmith Palais, was a dance hall and entertainment venue in Hammersmith, London, England that operated from 1919 until 2007. It was the first ''palais de danse'' to be ...

and signed to Oriole Records. Tate's orchestra played at the Hammersmith for a full decade, then moved to the Ilford Palais. Tate hosted the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

show ''Non-Stop-Pop'', where he interviewed

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

on 30 July 1963. On radio, he was best known for his 144 appearances in ''

Music While You Work ''Music While You Work'' was a daytime radio programme of continuous live popular music broadcast in the United Kingdom twice daily on workdays from 23 June 1940 until 29 September 1967 by the BBC. Initially, the morning edition was generally ...

''. In 1964, his orchestra took up at the Locarno Ballroom in

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

; the next year they appeared on the BBC program ''Music Through Midnight''. Tate's most longstanding association came in 1965, when he became musical director for the

Miss World Miss World is the oldest existing international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has co-chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Miss Int ...

Pageant. He disbanded his orchestra in 1967, and ran Mecca Agencies in addition to his duties with Miss World, where he remained until his retirement in 1992. He served as director of the Music Users' Council from 1992 to 2000, after which he retired. Tate died on 9 December 2005, at the age of 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tate, Phil 1922 births 2005 deaths English bandleaders English pop musicians People from Bramley, Leeds Musicians from Leeds