Follow Us
Like Us
Historical records matching Billy Cotton
view all 19
Immediate Family
-
ex-partner -
wife
-
-
ex-partner
-
mother
-
father
-
sister
-
sister
-
sister
-
sister
-
brother
About Billy Cotton
William Edward Cotton, better known as Billy Cotton started his musical career playing drums with the Royal Fusiliers when he was just 15 years old. He saw service in the Dardanelles and was given a commission in the Royal Flying Corps at 18. By this time he was playing the drums in small camp bands. When demobilised, he briefly worked at a bus conductor, a butcher's roundsman and a millwright's assistant, supplementing his income by gigging with Gilbert Coombes and his Fifth Avenue Orchestra in Kilburn. He also played football for Brentford.
In the early 1920s, one of his first jobs, though still a semi-pro musician, was playing in a trio for 5/- (25p) a night. The other two member of the trio were his nephew. Laurie Johnson (only four years Bill's junior) on violin and Arthur Rosebery on piano. Rosebery went on to become a major bandleader himself, but his story belongs elsewhere. Laurie Johnson, despite being only 18 years old, was something of an impresario and after a spell leading the band at the Ealing Palais, with Bill on drums, for £6 a night, he landed the plum job of providing four bands at the 1924 Wembley Exhibition. Laurie himself led one of these, with Bill on drums, and called it Al Johnson and the San Prado Band. The band also broadcast over 2LO.
After the exhibition, Bill went to work for Jack Howard at the Olympia Ballroom. Then he decided to form his own band, which included Laurie on violin and he auditioned for Gaumont-British; this led to a resident position at the Regent Ballroom in Brighton. This was in 1925. Bill called the band "Billy Cotton and his London Savannah Band", a name he continued using until 1929. Laurie left to form his own band when Bill moved to Southport Palais on May 29th, 1925. At this time, Bill's musicians included several that were later to become big names, such as Syd Lipton on violin and Joe Ferrie on trombone. They stayed at Southport until 1927. It was here that Bill gradually changed the band from playing purely dance music, to putting on stage acts. The band moved to the Astoria, Charing Cross Road, then on to the Locarno, Streatham. During this period, Bill started his long recording career, making records for Metropole and Piccadilly, plus a solitary disc for Decca. His big break came on moving to Ciro's Club in about 1929, where he stayed until the spring of 1931.
References and Sources
view all
Billy Cotton's Timeline
| 1899 |
May 6, 1899
|
Smith Square, London, England UK
|
|
| 1923 |
July 18, 1923
|
||
| 1928 |
April 23, 1928
|
London, England UK
|
|
| 1969 |
March 25, 1969
Age 69
|
Wembley, London, England Uk
|