Blue Cat Origins

In 2002, I was touring Europe with Belle & Sebastian. In a record shop in Stuttgart, I bought a Naxos CD compilation of British dance band music of the 1930’s. Upon listening to this and the other two volumes in the series I fell in love with artefacts of an all but forgotten era. The music was unlike anything I had heard before - somewhere between music hall and jazz, with quirky arrangements and strange combinations of instruments - violins playing alongside saxophones, tubas and even a piccolo. The lyrics were mostly about love and romance, but also weird things like bungalows and ginger headed sailors (47 to be precise). 

After doing some research on the period, I discovered that the band leaders from this time were the rock stars of their day, with suites at the Savoy and a champagne lifestyle.

They were hugely successful. In 1929 alone, the Jack Hylton band played over 700 gigs to a million people, selling 3.2 million records in the process. The biggest bands of the day were playing mostly to the rich and it would have stayed that way had the BBC not also been broadcasting a radio performance from a dance band every night of the week - except Sundays - between 1030pm and midnight.

Fast-forward to January 2026 when I got talking to saxophonist Dave Donnelly in the pub one night. Turns out he loved this music too, so I decided it was time to form a band. I set about recruiting some of the finest jazz musicians Scotland had to offer. And so The Blue Cat Orchestra was born. I can’t wait to share this with an audience.