Post by sean1981 on Jun 27, 2012 17:08:52 GMT
The Ambassadors Dance Band
Bobby Pickles was leader of The Ambassadors Dance Band and one of my early memories of Bobby, who was my dad’s cousin, was of him shaving in the kitchen. He had just come back from National Service and was still a single man at that point. He also had various musical instruments around the house that I was not allowed to touch; this included a piano accordion (though I do not remember him playing that in the band in later years.)
After he married, he and Jean would take me out for day trips, and I would sit behind Jean in the back of his motorbike sidecar, I don't think they trusted me on the back of Bobby.
My dad said that Bobby was fastidious when it came to practicing music himself and frowned at any wrongly played notes when the band practiced together.
Jean, Bobby’s widow, is still going strong and just for the record I asked her recently to dig out any old photographs and fill me in on the actual details she remembered of the band's early days.
There were other dance bands around and later groups of musicians with guitars and singers etc in the Keighley area, but in the 50s it was more, ‘full dance bands’ that were seen.
In the thirties Bobby worked at Dean Smith and Grace as a fitter and continued there until the end of the war in 1945. This was the time when National service started and he was called up to do his two years. Prior to that Bobby had played his accordion at events in Haworth and was familiar with the clarinet and saxophone too. At some time early on in his time with the Royal Artillery he was noticed and asked to join the Royal Artillery Dance Band as a clarinettist, gaining experience and rising in rank as well.
After demob, shortly after 1948 when Bobby and Jean were married, there were friends who became the early members of the dance band. This would have been around 1950. Not to put any particular dates to names, these early members included:-
Bobby Pickles – Sax, clarinet
Arnold Foster – Sax
Billy Taylor – Tenor sax. Still living locally
Bobby Sugden – Piano
Jack Donaldson – Piano
Ernest Clewer – trumpet. Still living locally
Harry Clarke – Trombone. Still living locally
Harry was called in from time to time he tells me and actually played in Skipton with Ken Henderson’s band and also The Modernairs.
At the height of the band’s fame there were 20 plus players and The Ambassadors were the house band at The Victoria Hall when other nationally famous bands came to play. One event the band members remember well was the evening celibrations when Airedale Hospital was opened and Prince Charles flew in to do the honors. The band was there to entertain into the early hours.
Between 1984 and 1991 the band began to be less called for and eventually stopped playing together under that name.
In the last years of his working life Bobby was part of the musical education our schools then enjoyed, I.E. He was a member of a group of musicians travelling round schools, something he very much felt at home doing.
After retiring, Bobby continued to play and enjoyed playing with the Tom Roberts Jazz show band in Harrogate right up to his untimely death. He had been playing the very evening he was taken ill.
The photograph is one taken toward the end of his time with us, and brings back fond memories of those who knew him and his band of musicians.
John June 2012
Bobby Pickles was leader of The Ambassadors Dance Band and one of my early memories of Bobby, who was my dad’s cousin, was of him shaving in the kitchen. He had just come back from National Service and was still a single man at that point. He also had various musical instruments around the house that I was not allowed to touch; this included a piano accordion (though I do not remember him playing that in the band in later years.)
After he married, he and Jean would take me out for day trips, and I would sit behind Jean in the back of his motorbike sidecar, I don't think they trusted me on the back of Bobby.
My dad said that Bobby was fastidious when it came to practicing music himself and frowned at any wrongly played notes when the band practiced together.
Jean, Bobby’s widow, is still going strong and just for the record I asked her recently to dig out any old photographs and fill me in on the actual details she remembered of the band's early days.
There were other dance bands around and later groups of musicians with guitars and singers etc in the Keighley area, but in the 50s it was more, ‘full dance bands’ that were seen.
In the thirties Bobby worked at Dean Smith and Grace as a fitter and continued there until the end of the war in 1945. This was the time when National service started and he was called up to do his two years. Prior to that Bobby had played his accordion at events in Haworth and was familiar with the clarinet and saxophone too. At some time early on in his time with the Royal Artillery he was noticed and asked to join the Royal Artillery Dance Band as a clarinettist, gaining experience and rising in rank as well.
After demob, shortly after 1948 when Bobby and Jean were married, there were friends who became the early members of the dance band. This would have been around 1950. Not to put any particular dates to names, these early members included:-
Bobby Pickles – Sax, clarinet
Arnold Foster – Sax
Billy Taylor – Tenor sax. Still living locally
Bobby Sugden – Piano
Jack Donaldson – Piano
Ernest Clewer – trumpet. Still living locally
Harry Clarke – Trombone. Still living locally
Harry was called in from time to time he tells me and actually played in Skipton with Ken Henderson’s band and also The Modernairs.
At the height of the band’s fame there were 20 plus players and The Ambassadors were the house band at The Victoria Hall when other nationally famous bands came to play. One event the band members remember well was the evening celibrations when Airedale Hospital was opened and Prince Charles flew in to do the honors. The band was there to entertain into the early hours.
Between 1984 and 1991 the band began to be less called for and eventually stopped playing together under that name.
In the last years of his working life Bobby was part of the musical education our schools then enjoyed, I.E. He was a member of a group of musicians travelling round schools, something he very much felt at home doing.
After retiring, Bobby continued to play and enjoyed playing with the Tom Roberts Jazz show band in Harrogate right up to his untimely death. He had been playing the very evening he was taken ill.
The photograph is one taken toward the end of his time with us, and brings back fond memories of those who knew him and his band of musicians.
John June 2012
