The Bands That Mattered - Episode 4

Brian Matthew continues to celebrate the golden age of British dance bands, when some of the biggest and most glamorous stars on the pop scene were bandleaders. The fourth and final subject of this series is Lew Stone, who's rated today as the very best of the 1930s bandleaders. He took charge of a band at The Monseigneur Restaurant in Piccadilly by accident, when the American trumpeter/leader Roy Fox fell ill and Lew stepped up from the piano stool to take his place. He went on to set the style for one of the most successful broadcast and recording dance bands of the pre-war years, when the congenial atmosphere and unique swirl of talent that centred on the West End spread out to ballrooms and theatres nationwide. Brian Matthew tells the first part of the Lew Stone Story, in which his widow Joyce (now 97) recalls the glorious musical atmosphere of the 1930s.