Porchester Hall
Peter Hepple
The Stage - 23 December 1993

Launching their new album in a grand old hall which I did not realise was still in use, the Piccadilly Dance Orchestra, with a full programme for enthusiastic dancers, showed just why they are a unique dance band.

There are several large bands of the 'hot' variety which specialise in playing music drawn from the twenties and early thirties American big band repertoire, which had a strong jazz influence, but this one is based on the 'West End' sound of the middle and later thirties, typified mainly by Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Orpheans, sweet without being corny, highly sophisticated and supremely danceable, illustrated by the fact that a high proportion of the audience, admittedly largely of mature years, were up and dancing before the band had finished its first number.

They certainly knew how to write songs in those days, the majority of them being from the classic pens of the Gershwins and Cole Porter. But leader Michael Law, who plays piano as well as singing with Julia Shore and guest singers Danielle Carson and Stacey Kent, has also unearthed some lesser-known gems, such as the delightful Play Me an Elegant Song and Take a Number From One to Ten, and a few British hits from the period.

The band manages to avoid any feeling of stilted reconstruction, playing in a flowing, well-balanced style which challenges comparison with the originals and, in the tradition of such bands, contrives to include a few tasteful jazzy solos, notably from trumpet man Martin Etheridge, alto saxist Kyle Horch and tenor saxist Marti Dunsdon, all the musicians being young players who have had to carefully acquire this style rather than being brought up on it.

Peter Hepple
The Stage - 23 December 1993