The first show of the month and if last week’s show was anything to go by, this Phantom Dancer will be the best show ever. HEAR IT ARCHIVED ONLINE AT 2SER.COM
This Tuesday 5 Aug at 12 noon on 107.3 2SER and online at 2ser.com we listen to 1930s airchecks by Johnny Green the composer of Body and Soul amongst many other songs.
For the Old Fygges, there are 1940s radio broadcasts by Eddie Condon on the Blue Network, This Is Jazz and The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street featuring Henry ‘Hot Lips’ Levine.
The second hour, as always, goes vinyl, and we’ll be going way back to radio broadcasts by bandleaders Anson Weeks and Ray Miller then way forward to radio broadcasts by Dizzy Gillespie and Slim Gaillard.
See the full play list below.
The Phantom Dancer will be online at 2ser.com after the broadcast. Follow the Phantom Dancer links on the Program Guide at http://2ser.com
Hope you like the show, daddy-o. This week’s Phantom Dancer Video of the Week from the YoutTube vaults has a tragic ending.
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
Community Radio Network Show CRN#116
Recently The Phantom Dancer has been contacted by family members of some of the singers and radio personalities presented each week on the show. So this week I’ve put up two sets of live radio featuring talent that some Phantom Dancers have a personal connection to – Lawrie Brooks, John Reed King, The Thrasher Sisters and Eleanor Russell.
Now, you can check out this show online (after 20 Sep) and hear earlier Phantom Dancer shows any time you wish over the next month by following The Phantom Dancer links at 2ser.com
And The Phantom Dancer Video of the Week – a WMGM NY ‘Doctor Jazz’ show aircheck of Ride Red Ride, Henry Red Allen, Stuyvesant casino, New York, 24 Feb 1952…
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
3. Greg’s award-winning swing jazz radio show, The Phantom Dancer, swing and jazz from live 1920s – 60s radio and TV is now heard on over 30 radio stations across Australia, including Sydney Tuesdays 107.3 2SER 12noon – 2pm and Canberra ArtSound FM Sundays 7 – 8pm.
You can now also hear The Phantom Dancer radio show online – Hear last Tuesday’s show. See the play list and the weekly Phantom Dancer Video of the Week here on Greg Poppleton’s Radio Lounge Blog
Where you can see Greg Poppleton and the Bakelite Broadcasters this July?
Greg Poppleton – 1920s vocals/leader
Paul Furniss – reeds
Al Davey – trumpet/trombone
Graham Conlon – banjo
Geoff Power – sousaphone
Lawrie Thompson – drums
Music playing from 12:30pm to 3:00pm. The Flying Squadron is at 76 McDougall St., Milsons Point. Google map
Ticket pricing is $10, pay as you sign in and enter on arrival.
WED 17 JULY – BONDI BEACH 1:30 – 2:30pm FREE
Once a year, Grahame Conlon on guitar and myself singing serenade the songs of the 1920s and 1930s in the High Tide Room of Bondi Pavilion – as a service for people bussed in from retirement homes – but if you happen to be in the area, you are very welcome.
Free. Afternoon tea is served.
SAT 20 JULY – PENRITH 2 – 5pm FREE
The Greg Poppleton Bakelite Broadcasters swing quartet return to Penrith RSL for an afternoon of 1920s-30s songs for fun and dancing. Greg Poppleton (voc) Grahame Conlon (g) Darcy Wright (double bass) Bob Gillespie (drums)
Bob was music director for Lovelace Watkins and was drummer in Maynard Ferguson’s English Orchestra. Darcy was named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the world’s top ten jazz bassists
Greg Poppleton (voc and megaphone) David Horniblow (tenor sax and clarinet) Ian Baker (tuba) Adam Barnard (drums and washboard)
JUNE 2013 IN PICTURES
7 JUNE – 1920s CORPORATE PARTY Greg Poppleton and the Bakelite Broadcasters played for a corporate event in the Django Bar of the Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. The theme was 1920s. In the band were Greg Poppleton 1920s vocals, Geoff Power trumpet and sousaphone, David Horniblow tenor sax and clarinet, Grahame Conlon banjo, Lawrie Thompson drums and washboard
Greg Poppleton and the Bakelite Dance Band Voh-De-Oh-Doh at a 1920s Corporate Party
15 JUNE – 1920s MURDER MYSTERY BIRTHDAY PARTY Greg Poppleton and the Bakelite Broadcasters played right on the edge of Sydney, houses behind us, paddocks in front, for a birthday party with Murder Mysrtery Fun – Greg Poppleton 1920s vocals, Geoff Power trumpet, Stan Kenton double bass, Paul Baker banjo
Greg Poppleton and the Bakelite Broadcaster – playing for a Murder Mystery Fun birthday party with a 1920s theme
23 JUNE – TOMMY DORSEY SHOW
I emceed. Quite a few Bakelites played in the ‘T Dorsey’ Orchestra for a big tribute concert at North Sydney Leagues
Greg Poppleton Tommy Dorsey Tribute MC at Norths Leagues, 23 June 2013. Picture by Helen Fenton
27 JUNE – THE LOUNGE BAR LOTHATIOS – SOUTHERN CROSS CLUB WODEN ACT The Lounge Bar Lotharios play original 1920s arrangements of 1920s hits like Me And Jane In A Plane and Never Swat A Fly. We launched a series of four concerts titled ‘Generations Of Jazz 1920s 50s’. Here’s an action pic. You’ll find more on the Greg Poppleton Radio Lounge Blog…
The Lounge Bar Lotharios 1920s Orchestra at The Souther Cross Club, Woden, ACT, 27 June 2013Greg Poppleton, Sydney’s only authentic 1920s singer , fronting The Louneg bar Lotharios 1920s show in Canberra
Thank you for reading this far. We hope to see you at a Greg Poppleton and the Bakelite Broadcasters soon!
Tune into The Phantom Dancer online at 2ser.com. Click the blog headings to get the online shows.
Band bookings are now handled by Tony Jex at OzManagement 02 9567 7171 tony@ozmanagement.com
Greg Poppleton at a 1920s Corporate PartyGreg Poppleton played for a 1920s theme corporate party in the Django Bar of the Camelot Lounge.
In the band, lead by Greg Poppleton, Sydney’s only authentic 1920s – 1930s singer, were Geoff Power (sousaphone and trumpet) David Horniblow (tenor sax and clarinet) Grahame Conlon (banjo) and Lawrie Thompson (drums and washboard) – all world-touring, vintage jazz musicians – they really know their stuff!
The photos were taken by the wonderful Anton from ArtOf2 Design, Tel 0431 936 926, info@artof2.com. Thank you, Anton!
Greg Poppleton at a 1920s theme Corporate Party. (L-R) David Horniblow (tenor sax, clarinet) Geoff Power (trumpet, sousaphone) Grahame Conlon (tenor banjo) Lawrie Thompson (drums, washboard)The band stand before the showComrade workers tap toes and take film of comrade musicians in a socialist realist demonstration of cultural solidarity
How about having Sydney’s only authentic 1920s singer, Greg Poppleton, and his band of world-touring, vintage jazz musicians at your corporate event, wedding and party. Talk to Tony at OzManagement. Tony can also provide you with sound, lights, staging and dancers
And here’s a couple of grainy pics I took myself. Grainy pic 1Grainy Pic 2
Greg Poppleton is available for your 1920s – 1930s party from OzManagement. Call Tony Jex, 61 2 9567 7171
To book Greg Poppleton, call Tony Jex at OzManagement on 61 2 9567 7171 or email Tony at Tony at OzManagement. Tony can also provide you with sound, lights, staging and dancers
The very first 2 hour Phantom Dancer (and Program 50 for national listeners) starts this week.
I started The Phantom Dancer on 107.3 2SER Sydney way back in December 1985.
I had already been doing a 15 minute segment of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV within another program called Cityscope since Dec 1984. The segment was called, Hot House, after the song.
Then in December 1985 I was asked to fill in for a vacated time slot. The previous show had been called Jazz Direction Out and I unhappily inherited the name.
However, the show hit the right note with listeners. I even had a few live shows, bring musicians into the studio like James Morrison, John Morrison, Ian Date, Andrew Speight, Ted Heath Goes Latin (the band) and an outside recording of Mic Conway and his Hiccups Orchestra.
And the first request came in, handwritten in blue biro, posted from a motel in Blakehurst on a scrap of pad paper.
The next name for the show after a schedule reshuffle was even worse than Jazz Direction Out. I didn’t choose it. My proposed title, ‘Hot Shit!’, was not accepted (and was at that time illegal). Because the show was in a late lunchtime slot, it got called ‘Swing Sandwich’. Cringe.
In 1989 there was yet another radio schedule reshuffle and the show was moved to 11:30pm – 1am Sunday night – Monday mornings. I called it ‘Round About Midnight’, after the song. Listenership bloomed. And I did a few ‘wacky’ things like a ‘Honeysuckle Rose-a-thon’ and a live mix of women in jazz with excerpts from an episode of Lost In Space. Like, far out, daddy-o!’.
Sunday nights used to start at 6pm for me at 2SER, because that’s when I’d also record, then dub edit, a weekly half-hour quiz show that had a 2 year run on 2SER called, ‘Wordsports’, a word game devised by performance poet Komninos and which I also ran at the Harold Park Hotel.
I also won the first of two BASF Hi Fi Certificates Of Merit for a soundscape called ‘Registered Clubs Of NSW A Musical Legacy,’ and began working in radio professionally.
In 1991 The Phantom Dancer won a BASF Hi Fi Certficate Of Merit for its special, ’42 Years Of TV’, demonstrating that TV had been around much longer than the 25 years the Australian commercial networks had been crowing about that year.
Another reshuffle saw the show put back to a weekday afternoon at 1pm. This, too, was considered a dead spot like late Sunday night, but contrary to expectations, listenership grew some more. In this ‘carnation, I called the show ‘The One O’Clock Jump’.
Another reshuffle shunted the show in 1994 to another then graveyard slot of 10:30am Tuesday morning. But the show did well. And I changed the name to The Phantom Dancer.
Introduced in 1994, The Phantom Dancer was the first 2SER show with a digitally edited theme – and that’s the show theme that’s still in use.
On 8 May 1995, The Phantom Dancer, was the first 2SER show (and possibly one of the first Sydney radio shows) to be wholly digitally produced and edited. The one hour special commemorated the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe. And it went to air on CD. The hard-to-get CD blank cost me around $30.
In 1997, The Phantom Dancer almost went off-air due to a ‘music producer’ who nevertheless still thought enough of the show to claim in a prestigious jazz dictionary (without telling me) that he ‘produced’ the show. He went on to an academic career.
The Phantom Dancer did have its one only ever producer in 1999. Jo White helped refocus the show and as a result, the show became even more popular in the 2000s and 2010s.
In April 2007, a story on The Phantom Dancer, was the feature article in a Sydney Morning Herald Metro lift out.
In November 2007, The Phantom Dancer, won Best Music Show in the annual national CBAA Radio Awards.
In 2008, the show began to be repeated 6am Sunday mornings.
Then in 2010, the repeat program was moved to 6pm Saturday evenings.
In 2011 I was very honoured to receive a much coveted 2SER volunteers award.
In 2012, The Phantom Dancer, went national. It’s now heard on over 30 radio stations of the Community Radio Network across Australia. It has a particularly strong listenership on the popular ArtsoundFM in Canberra.
And now, as of 30 April 2013, The Phantom Dancer has grown to be two hours long! And I still work professionally in radio – as a voice over artist with RGM Voices (here’s my voicereel) – as well as volunteer.
I suppose that makes me one of the many radio professionals 2SER has created over the years.
Many people have supported and nurtured the Phantom Dancer since 1985 when hair was long, black pants, black coats and black pointy shoes were de rigueur, and swing was a dirty word. The list of names is too long to print here. Most important are the many 2SER Phantom Dancer subscribers who keep Australia’s only live 1920s-60s radio swing & jazz show, and 2SER, on air with their subscriptions and donations. 2SER is a community supported station. Thank you.
Hence, this week’s Phantom Dancer Video of the Week. It’s a mix of 2SER 1st Birthday Idents by Sydney commercial radio personalities for the very first subscriber drive in 1980. Long time 2SER listeners, is that the voice of John Cochrane giving George Donikian some feedback after his first ID read? Enjoy…
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
One of the wonderful swing dancing couples who spontaneously broke into dance on the grass at Newtwon Festival today during the Phantom Dancer 2SER Chillax Area live 1920s-60s radio and TV swing set
One of the swing dance couples who got up on the grass to cut the rug to the swing and jazz played by Greg Poppleton, The Phantom Dancer, at Newtown Festival 2012
SUNDAY 28 OCTOBER – Greg Poppleton & the Bakelite Broadcasters launched their long-awaited new CD, Doin’ The Charleston at the Empire Cinema, Bowral
AND the CD is now available for you to hear and enjoy at Bandcamp and CDBaby.
WHEN you buy ‘Doin’ The Charleston’, you’re supporting independent music and we thank you
‘Doin’ The Charleston’ NEW CD by Greg Poppleton and the Bakelite Broadcasters – Buy online at Bandcamp and CDBaby
ON ‘Doin’ The Charleston’ you’ll hear, Greg Poppleton (vocals), Paul Furniss (soprano, alto and tenor saxes, and clarinet), Al Davey (trumpet and trombone), Grahame Conlon (banjo), Geoff Power (sousaphone), Rod Herbert (sousaphone) and Lawrie Thompson (drums and washboard)
GREG POPPLETON & THE BAKELITE BROADCASTERS entertained at the CD Launch with an 80 minute barnstorming show of 1920s and 1930s jazz and swing, with songs from ‘Doin’ The Charleston‘ like ‘Road To Gundagai‘, ‘Falling In Love Again‘, and ‘Sweet Lorraine‘, followed by the screening a new digital print of the 1952 Gene Kelly classic, ‘Singin’ In The Rain‘ set at the turn of the silent movie era
Greg Poppleton and the Bakelite Broadcasters CD Launch ‘Doin’ The Charleston’Southern Highlands News Friday 26 October 2012
MEDIA RELEASE…
GREG POPPLETON &
THE BAKELITE BROADCASTERS
DOIN’ THE CHARLESTON NEWEST CD
WITH the same maverick spirit that produced ‘The Phantom Dancer’ (both the sold-out collectible CD and the award-winning, national radio show), ‘Doin’ The Charleston’, is the long-awaited second album from Greg Poppleton & The Bakelite Broadcasters
Recorded live-in-studio in just 5 hours, ‘Doin’ The Charleston’, is the first document of Greg Poppleton & The Bakelite Broadcasters as a purely 1920s 5-piece. There are more layers, more stylistic tangents than before, all coated in nth-dimensional, metaphysical, Jungian freakouts, with a DNA recovered from the very bones of smoking, catchy, 1920s pop
Whilst the undeniably authentic 1920s vocal style of Greg Poppleton is still at the forefront, there is an irrefutable pop sensibility creeping into the instrumentation of the new material that calls to mind the likes of C W Stoneking and Tuba Skinny
Greg Poppleton is very proud of the results, “For me, ‘Doin’ The Charleston’, is all about the songs, how they line up, intertwine, switch partners and promenade home”
Greg has expanded his 3.5 octave sonic palette with a long list of influences to forge his own sound. Heir to a tradition of finely-crafted, dramatic, confessional music that explores the ups and downs of life and love with a keenly-observed honesty that touches all who hear, Greg Poppleton is backed by what really is an all-star classic jazz band of world-touring musicians
Paul Furniss weaves shimmering, infectious, toe-tapping anthems using soprano, alto, tenor saxophones and clarinet. Al Davey wails, growls and caresses on trumpet and trombone. He brings together the brightest elements and darkest undertones in a unique blend of unshackled two-beat. Grahame Conlon’s banjo demands attention weaving audacious fat chords around the pulsing, minimalist sousaphone loops of Rod Herbert and ARIA nominee Geoff Power and the chemically infused drum beats and sharp-edged washboard laid down by Bell band legend, Lawrie Thompson
The quintet make lullabies, lush dreamy vintage pop, and the powerful, bone-rattling immediacy of hot, danceable jazz. Vocal hooks are inescapable, lush productions uncannily authentic to the Roaring 20s, as sophisticated and pristine as anything on a 78 disc. ‘Doin’ The Charleston’s’ 14 tracks (including a bonus alternate take on the soaring St James Infirmary) trace a unique aesthetic universe that is fully-crafted and fully-realised, deftly walking the lines between joyous exhilaration and otherworldly rapture, pleasure-centre pop and total self-possession
Greg Poppleton & The Bakelite Broadcasters’ is a universe that invites exploration and demands revisiting
‘Doin’ The Charleston’ is a journey from darkness to light, from anger to love, from chaos to order
Bring your dancing shoes for a trip back in time with 2ser’s Phantom Dancer, as Greg Poppleton soundtracks an evening of swing, jazz & dance from live 1920s-60s Radio & TV.
We’re getting dressed up for this event! Bring your classy gear to Five Eliza street Newtown for a night of authentic early swing & jazz.
Presented by 2ser’s Phantom Dancer and The Sydney Fringe Festival
FREE
Doors open 5pm
Phantom Dancer: 6 – 10pm!
Phantom Dancer Tonight at FIVE Eliza (5 Eliza St) Newtown
This week’s Phantom Dancer has a whole set of Duke Ellington from his ABC ‘Date With The Duke’ series (1945/46) and lots more live 1930s-50s swing & jazz radio besides
And a quick plug – enjoy The Phantom Dancer live as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival at FIVE Eliza (5 Eliza St Newtown) Free, 6 – 10pm. Presented by 2SER
This weeks Video Of The Week: The Ingenues – all-women orchestra Vitaphone film clip from 1928
And here’s a photo of The Ingenues at Sydney’s Central Station on tour in Australia in the 1920s
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
Actor - Singer - Voiceover 