Billy Cotton Bandshow

The leading showman of the mid-fifties in Britain was 56-year-old Billy Cotton, and the lively Billy Cotton Bandshow became a Saturday evening favourite for many years. Beginning with his familiar bellow of "Wakey wakey" and dashing through the signature tune Somebody Stole My Girl, the show continued at a relentless pace dictated by the effervescent Cotton.

He loved clowning around on his show, and despite his seventeen stone frame was not averse to rolling up his trousers and dancing a hornpipe or even doing a cartwheel. A critic on the Financial Times described him as having a centre of gravity somewhere near his knees.

The show's relatively small budget meant that it couldn't hope to compete with Sunday Night At The London Palladium but it still managed to attract performers like Tom Jones, Cliff Richard, Alma Cogan and Terry Scott. And Cotton was regularly assisted by pinup pianist Russ Conway, Kathie Kay and Alan Breeze. Conway collapsed on stage in 1962, reportedly suffering from a breakdown, and there was more drama two years later when a special-effects piano exploded injuring a technician and three female extras.

Then in 1966, Alan Breeze was sensationally sacked by the producer, Billy Cotton Jnr (Billy's son) after 34 years with the band. We remember Breeze for such cultured contributions as I Can't Do My Bally Bottom Button Up, a song about trouser-flies . . .

Billy Cotton began his career as a drummer boy in the First World War and he became a band leader in the 1920s. His sporting prowess encompassed boxing, playing centre forward  for Brentford and motor racing. In fact he bought Sir Malcolm Campbell's first Bluebird.

Cotton died in 1969, and there has never been anybody quite like him since.