John Curwin (Grenville 60) has sent in these marvellous archive photographs and writes:
“A group of us formed a traditional jazz band in the late 1950s. We called it the Stowe Dixieland Jazz Band (SDJB). This kind of jazz was having a revival in the UK at that time thanks to people like Humphrey Lyttleton and Chris Barber. This period coincided with the birth of Rock and Roll, which won the day for popularity!
The wind members of the group Michael Wightman (Chatham 61) (trumpet), Edgar Both (Bruce 61) (clarinet and saxophone), Harry Whiteley (Chatham 59) (tuba) and John Curwin (Grenville 60) (trombone) were all members of Eric Webb’s military band. He was a fantastic band-master. The other members, Tim Cecil (Chandos 60) (piano), Rex Birchenough (Grenville 60) (guitar/banjo), Ian Ferrier (Temple 61) (bass) and Charles Richardson (Chandos 63) (drums) were all talented members of the school orchestra.
These pictures might be of interest to Old Stoics as they were taken at the very first concert at the Roxburgh Hall 60 years ago. It had just been built, and we managed to get permission to play there!”