BBC Northern Dance Orchestra
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The BBC Northern Dance Orchestra was a
big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
run by the
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and formed in 1956 as the successor to the BBC's Northern Variety Orchestra, which had been formed on 1 April 1951. Known to listeners as the NDO, it broadcast on the radio daily, usually from recordings made at the
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in
Hulme Hulme () is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England, immediately south of Manchester city centre. It has a significant industrial heritage. Historically in Lancashire, the name Hulme is derived from the Old Norse word ...
,
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, and on many trips to halls throughout the UK. Through
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it gained loyal listeners overseas. Many well-known musicians played with the orchestra over the years, including trumpeter Syd Lawrence, who left the NDO and formed his own very successful big band in 1967, and saxophonist Johnny Roadhouse, one of the band's founding members. The NDO's first conductor was
Alyn Ainsworth Alyn Ainsworth (24 August 1924 – 4 October 1990)
 was a British musician, singer and conductor of light e ...
, who had conducted the BBC's Northern Variety Orchestra. Ainsworth also wrote some of the band's arrangements together with Pat Nash and Alan Roper, using a standard big band line-up of five saxophones, a flute, four trombones, four trumpets, occasional solo violin, and a rhythm section of piano, double bass, guitar, drums and percussion. The original NVO owed its roots to Ray Martin (orchestra leader), Ray Martin and his orchestra, who were playing for variety and other programmes long before the BBC decided to form its own band based in Manchester, and who did, on occasion, conduct the orchestra. As well as its national radio broadcasts and contributions to musical links for variety shows in Manchester, the orchestra also appeared regularly on BBC television in shows such as ''
Six-Five Special ''Six-Five Special'' is a British television programme launched in February 1957 when both television and rock and roll were in their infancy in Britain. Description ''Six-Five Special'' was the BBC's first attempt at a rock-and-roll programme. ...
'', ''All Systems Freeman'' and ''Make Way for Music''. On the radio, it featured in ''Pop North'', and ''Here We Go with the NDO''. It was occasionally augmented by a string section, leader Norman George, almost bringing it back to its Northern Variety Orchestra roots, becoming the Augmented Northern Dance Orchestra. Some members of the NDO played in the pit orchestra for '' The Good Old Days'' TV programme, conducted by flautist Bernard Herrmann, who succeeded Ainsworth as conductor of the NDO.


Closure

The band was threatened with closure in 1969, as much of its work was by then being carried out by the London-based
BBC Big Band The BBC Big Band, originally known as the BBC Radio Big Band is a British big band, previously run under the auspices of the British Broadcasting Corporation ( BBC). The band broadcasts exclusively on BBC Radio, particularly on BBC Radio 2's long ...
, the successor to the BBC Dance Orchestra and BBC Showband, which functioned as part of the larger
BBC Radio Orchestra The BBC Radio Orchestra was a broadcasting orchestra based in London, maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation from 1964 until 1991. The BBC Radio Orchestra was formed in 1964 as a large, flexible studio orchestra on the Nelson Riddle/H ...
. A public outcry about the closure of the NDO followed, and the band was retained. However, under a shake-up of musical policy, the orchestra was reorganised by the BBC in 1975 as the BBC Northern Radio Orchestra. Under the leadership of Neil Richardson, it continued, until the BBC closed many of its in-house orchestras in 1985. The NDO made a number of recordings, including, in 1972, a vinyl LP (BBC Records REC 133s), and a CD, ''A Legend Reborn'' (NDO CD 101); neither of these are still available. In 2012, a double CD, ''DIAMONDS: The Best of the BBC Northern Dance Orchestra'', was produced by three ex-BBC staff to celebrate 60 years of music by the orchestra. In 2013 another double CD album ''PURE GOLD 1'', was issued with music from the band's beginnings up to around 1966. In November 2013 a double album called ''RUBY'' was issued, containing some rare experimental stereo recordings and some of the last stereo recordings the band made in the 1970s. In April 2014 another limited edition double album, ''PURE GOLD 2'', was released. As with all the preceding CD's this is being sold at cost, and for this double album donations are encouraged to benefit the Musicians Union Benevolent Fund. September 2014 saw the issue of a 61 track double album, ''PURE GOLD 3''. This contains earlier tracks and more of the last stereo recordings the band made in 1974.


See also

*
List of radio orchestras This is a list of radio orchestra A radio orchestra (or broadcast orchestra) is an orchestra employed by a radio network (and sometimes television networks) in order to provide programming as well as sometimes perform incidental or theme music f ...


References


Citations


Bibliography

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External links

* http://www.northerndanceorchestra.org.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc Northern Dance Orchestra Northern Dance Orchestra BBC Radio Radio and television orchestras 1951 establishments in the United Kingdom 1975 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Musical groups established in 1951 Musical groups disestablished in 1975 British orchestras Musical groups from Manchester BBC history History of radio Disbanded orchestras