Portsmouth Music Scene


The Portsmouth Music Scene

Johnny Lyne and his Orchestra


Johnny Lyne marries Marjorie Greehouse 1942/3?
Johnny Lyne marries Marjorie Greenhouse 1942/3?.

Births Mar 1922 John W Lyne (his father married Miss Pratt) Portsmouth 2b 762
JOHN W LYNE MARRIED MARJORIE. E. GREENHOUSE PORTSMOUTH JAN QTR 1943 2B 1027
Parlophone F 2528 Johnny Lyne Orchestra - Yesterdays/Why Do I Love You?
Parlophone F 2532 Johnny Lyne Orchestra - Lullaby Of Birdland/Night And Day
Johnny Lyne and his Orchestra ***Lullaby Of Birdland (Shearing) (Parlophone CE 4807) ***Night And Day Lyne (altosax, trumpet, clarinet); Ken Bishop, Cyril Breese, Freddie Wyllie (tensax, clarinets); Freddie Hutchins (barisax, altosax); Doug Wheeler (trombone); Bill Cole (Piano) Lawrence English (bass) ; Arthur Ward (drums) Eddie Miles (bongoes). 25/11/1953. London (do. CE14810) (Parlophone F2532-4s.)
Johnny Lyne and his Orchestra are, of course, the winners of the " Melody Maker " 1953 All-Britain Dance Band Championship Final, and all the complimentary remarks I was able to make on their first records— Why Do I Love You? and Yesterdays, on Parlophone F2528, reviewed last January—go for these two new releases, made at the same session.
If you listen carefully you may notice a slight trumpet fluff in the coda of Night And Day. This gives me an opportunity to tell you an amusing little story of what was a great day in the lives of the semi-professionals who constitute this Portsmouth band.
Lynn has a large van in which he drives his musicians and their instruments to and from their various engagements. After the instruments had been unpacked at the Bond Street (London) studio where the session was to be held, the van had to be parked, and Johnny was advised that the nearest place was nearby Hanover Square.
So off he set with a good ten minutes to spare before the session was due to commence. But twenty minutes later he still hadn't arrived back. Just as they were thinking of sending out a search party, up turned a very hot, and flustered, Johnny. He had been driving round the Square for nearly half an hour, with a fat policeman hanging on to the running-board, waiting for someone to take a car away so that Johnny could have its place.
Needless to say he was pretty perturbed, and became more so on learning that his late arrival would result in the band having half an hour less than had been arranged to make the tests and get the four numbers on the tape. Added to which this was the band's first session that called for a professional recording standard of performance, and to make it doubly exhausting for Lyne he had continually to change about from clarinet to alto to trumpet as well as direct the band. In the end his lip started to give out, but the astonishing thing is that he kept going so well for so long.
Johnny Lyne and his Orchestra ***Why Do I Love You ? ( Jerome Kern) (Parlophone CET 4809) Yesterdays (Kern) (do. CE14808) (Parlophone F252.8-4s.) Lyne (clarinet, altosax, trumpet) ; Ken Bishop, Cyril Breese, Freddie Wyllie (tensax, clarinets); Freddie Hutchins (barisax, altosax); Doug Wheeler (trombone) ; Bill Cole (piano); Lawrence English (bass); Arthur Ward (drums); Eddie Miles (bongos). 25/11)1953. London.
On Saturday, October 11th last, seven thousand people were present at the Kings Hall, Belle Vue, Manchester, for this year's culminating event in the annual round of dance band contests run by our contemporary, the " Melody Maker" 1953 All Britain Dance Band Championship Final—and this is the band they saw and heard proclaimed the 1953 All Britain Champions. It had fought its way up through the series of preliminary contests and area finals.
Although these " Melody Maker " contests are open only to amateur and (as they are called) semi-professional bands, previous years have proved that to win the final a band has to be at least the equal of a good professional combination, and this year's event was no exception to the rule.
Johnny Lyne's Orchestra is the equal of many of the professional bands broadcast by the B.B.C. Its strength lies in the skilful and attractive arrangements, all scored by Lyne himself, the prowess of Lyne as an alto, trumpet and clarinet player, and among a most proficient group of musicians some excellent soloists—notably pianist Bill Cole and trombonist Doug Wheeler, who will be even better when he gets over his inferiority complex.
All this is not to say that these records have not their weaknesses. But they are due almost entirely to lack of recording experience. This was the first time the band had attempted recording in a professional studio, and although I had heard it when I attended its rehearsal for the session what to expect, it was astonished to find how minor roughnesses which it had never previously realised stuck out like sore thumbs on the tests. There was of course an immediate and for the most part successful attempt to polish things up. But the sudden knowledge that they had ever existed did nothing to put the boys at their ease—especially Lyne, who, in having to change about from alto to trumpet to clarinet, as well as direct the band, has his hands and mind pretty full. I might also add here that his arrangements are at times anything but easy to play perfectly, and I think he would be well advised to make them a little less difficult.
However, even so, these records of the Johnny Lyric Orchestra playing two of the numbers it played at the All-Britain Final are very much more than merely souvenirs that will be sought after by the seven thousand who heard it triumph at Manchester. They are worth their money to anybody as good examples of good swing music, and I congratulate Parlophone on having given the Johnny Lyne Orchestra of Portsmouth an opportunity to increase its already large circle of admirers.

Johnny Lyne Orchestra played on South Parade Pier during the 1950's. He ran a music shop in Arundle Street Portsmouth,
1948/49 John W Lyne 273 Arundel Street(ran the Johnny Lyne Orchestra)
1953 John W Lyne 273 Arundle Street(ran the Johnny Lyne Orchestra).
2 entries from the Kellys Directories.

Lyne Lullbirdland2 Lyne nightandday1


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OCTOBER 17, 1953 7 000 SEE PORTSMOUTH BAND WIN ALL BRITIAN - AND PLACE IN JAMBOREE THE new All-Britain Champions are Johnny Lyne and his orchestra from Portsmouth, Johnny who knocked at the door of the Final last year, has finally won through. And his victory was acclaimed the 7,000 spectators who crammed the massive King's Hall. Belle Vue, Manchester, last Sunday. Johnny and his boys thus displace the 1952 All-Britain winners, the Wolverhampton Quintet, and walk away the proud Possessors of the title in the Class "A" section, which carries with it One Hundred Guineas, the mammoth Silver Challenge Trophy, and the MM All-Britain Emblem of Success. Moreover, Johnny himself brought off a double by winning the Silver Trophy awarded to Best Musician of the Day. Further, his orchestra has, as a result, been invited to appear at the Jazz Jamboree on October 25, together with eight of the country's foremost professional bands. Formed in 1947, the Johnny Lyre Orchestra competed in the MM contests for the first time last season---when they achieved the distinction of coining second in the Final. Johnny, who plays alto, clarinet and trumpet, then also won the Best Musician of the Day Award.

Second this year were Jimmy Heyworth and his Astoria Dance Orchestra, from Burnley. The band, a 13-piece led by tenorist Jimmy Heyworth, carries off Fifty Guineas and a Silver Challenge Trophy.

Third were Fred Anderson's Cabaret Dance Band, from London. Fred, who originally formed his band in 1918, is a veteran of MM contests. He Entered his first in 1925, and since then has won ten first, three second and two third prizes, and this year won the South Britain (Eastern) Region Championship -thereby qualifying for the All-Britain for the first time. Fred gets Ten Guineas and a Silver Challenge Trophy. The winners of the Class B section of the All-Britain together with full details of all results can be seen on page 8 ind 9

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P1000661x Lyne nightandday1
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Lyne nightandday1
Left to right, Eddie Miles bongoes, Freddie Hutchins bari sax, Fred Wyllie tenor sax(with glasses), Cyril Breeze tenor sax, Ken Bishop tenor sax, Duggie Wheeler trombone, Back Row;- Joe English bass, Johnny Lyne Trumpet, Arthur Ward drums.
piano? unknown, probably Bill Cole

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p1030820x

Fred Wyllie and Duggie Wheeler and the coach arrives at Bell Vue Manchester before the contest

But the year before, in 1952, they entered and came second.
However they won four trophies for other catogories,
ie Best Leader, Best Arrangement etc.
Left to right, Joe English, Arthur Ward, Freddie Hutchins, Duggie Wheeler, Johnny Lyne, Ken Bishop,
Cyril Breeze, Fred Wyllie(with glasses), Bill Cole(without glasses!) p1030818x


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