Jack Payne and his BBC Dance Orchestra
Excerpts from their broadcast of Thursday 29th January 1931
These recordings, which feature four numbers, were made on early home recording equipment and cut on 6" double-sided metal discs. They were recorded from the radio during Jack Payne's broadcast on the BBC National Programme which started at 10.30pm and ended at midnight. The London Regional Programme carried the same broadcast from 10.35pm.
For many years, the top British Dance Bands provided the late night dance music from Monday until Saturday over the radio and, until 1936, these programmes lasted approximately 90 minutes and were broadcast live from the BBC studios, or more commonly from the venues where the bands were resident. Thursday nights were traditionally the preserve of the BBC Dance Orchestra, and these recordings survive from one of those programmes. The BBC did not record or preserve any of these transmissions; these metal discs are precious.
As you will hear, the discs are not in good condition and the sound quality leaves much to be desired. Nevertheless they are historic documents and quite unique. One of the songs was never commercially recorded by Jack's orchestra while two of the numbers here feature different vocalists to those who sang on the versions recorded and released by Columbia.
Jack Payne can be heard twice announcing, only the second is reasonably clear.
