"Palais" Nights
Are ye' dancing'?
"Palais" Nights are gigs where I take the audience back to the fifties and early sixties with a full night of live music and dancing from that era.
I recreate the sounds and atmosphere of Scotland's most famous dance halls and ballrooms by playing and singing all the top musical hits from 1950 through to 1963.
It's a truly wonderful trip down memory lane...so get your dancing shoes on, because “we’re aw gaun tae the Palais”!
MORE INFO:
The idea for this type of gig happened completely by accident. I was performing in a club one night where most of the audience members were older people who loved to dance. I always like to tailor my set lists to suit my audience (as opposed to many entertainers who tend to just play pre-arranged set lists and hope the audience like it), so this particular night I decided to sing and play a selection of songs from the fifties and early sixties to suit my "mature" audience.
During a break in the evening, I was approached by a gentleman who asked if I was able to play a FULL night of fifties and sixties music if required? I replied yes, of course, that wouldn't be a problem - I know hundreds of songs from the fifties and sixties!
He then told me he was organising a themed party - a "Palais" night - to raise funds for a local charity. He had originally thought about booking a DJ to play records, however as live music and live bands were such a big part of the “Palais” dance era, he felt that using a real musician/singer to sing and play the music completely live would be more authentic and a much better fit for the evening.
He booked me there and then.
In the lead up to the night of the gig I spent some time on Google trying to find out more about the Palais dance halls. I researched in to the bands who performed there, the music they played and the particular dances which were popular at the time. I discovered that dance halls in Scotland had enjoyed two distinct eras - one before the war and another resurgence after the war.
The pre-war era was typically where yer maw met yer da’ and they would dance “the Palais glide”, a very specific dance where everyone linked arms and danced in rows.
The post-war heyday of the "Palais", the era my audience would be remembering, was the fifties right through to the early sixties.
By the time my first big “Palais” night gig came around, I was completely up to speed with all the music and dances I would need to play for this very special themed evening. To say the evening was a success is an understatement. It ended up one of the most satisfying and enjoyable gigs I've ever performed!
Since that very first evening, I have now performed dozens of "Palais" nights, singing and playing all the top tunes from 1950 to 1963 including hits such as “Please stay”, “Kelly”, “Rock around clock” and many, many more.
At the height of it's popularity there were more than 600 "Palais De Danse" halls and it was the number one form of social entertainment of it's time. Sadly, by the mid-sixties cultures had changed and one by one all the Palais halls began to close down.
It was a sad end to a golden era but at least I'm playing a small part in keeping those memories alive for those who lived and loved through those tough but happy times.