The Cafe Society Jazz Band

As light background music they will set a happy tone. If playing during a meal, Café Society has proved to be an excellent aid to digestion. We can also provide more upbeat jazz for dancing if required.

We can adapt to almost any event, from shopping centres, garden fetes, piers and grand openings to entertaining celebrities of stage and screen at The National Theatre, our blend of cheerful rhythmic tunes and expert professionalism never go unnoticed.

We also have a cabaret element. With a mixture of lively music, audience participation and devastating humour, we take you on a musical meander down memory lane with tributes to such stars as Al Jolson, Noel Coward and even George Formby!

Weddings

Cafe Society are a must when planning your wedding. We play as the Bride and Groom are arriving from the ceremony to the reception in our blazers and boater hats, playing bright and happy Jazz making the occasion truly magical.

We then change into our black and whites and play light background whilst your guests enjoy the meal or buffet until the speeches start.

These arrangements are meant as a guide; we are happy to fit in with any special arrangements you may have and indeed if you have a particular favourite song, we will do our best to oblige.

Weddings are always greatly enhanced by Cafe Society making the reception, meal and indeed honeymoon, a glittering success!

Funerals

For funerals, we can perform traditional marches, sombre dirges and hymns in a 1920's New Orleans style.

Cabaret

Cafe Society are in their element with a live audience and love to guide their audiences on a musical meander down Memory Lane! Our sets include regular Jazz standards, plus some rather unusual tunes rarely heard.

The Charleston and Pasadena are essential we feel, also, tributes are made to the legends of the day; Noel Coward and George Formby to name but a few!

With tongue-in-cheek humour and double-entendres aplenty, audiences are regularly left speechless at the end of a performance, which we take as a compliment!

Pricelessly pointless pontifications, purveyed with pizzazz, penetrate the proceedings to perfection (nice bit of alliteration, I'm sure you'll agree!).

We are at home in Jazz clubs, theatres, comedy shows and period events. Our regular re-bookings demonstrate admirably the poor memory of our audiences, and long may they continue to deteriorate!

Corporate

Cafe Society's blend of colourful attire and bright, happy music are a definite boon when planning your event. We have enjoyed success in shopping centres, on piers and even construction sites! (is there no end to our versatility???!!!).

We also have the added bonus of being able to work fully amplified or entirely acoustically, making us able to move wherever and whenever you need us to.

In shopping centres, children gawp amazed, and hooded chavs cease their thuggery. On piers and bridges, we have shown many a potential jumper that life is still worth living! And at football matches, we are a useful draw for an angry crowd!

Anthony Mason

Who fronts the band, plays ukulele and sings in a variety of styles - from 1920's crooner to Noel Coward and even George Formby!

His witty and humorous announcing, together with his suave and rather unusual, debonair appearance, enliven proceedings wherever the band appears. He has also worked with the Temperance Seven and on the Orient Express.

Willy Entwistle

Willie is featured on clarinet, alto sax, violin and penny whistle. A brilliant and versatile musician and arranger, he is also a member of the famous Temperance Seven.

Previous notable associations include The Vintage Syncopators and Laughing Stock. As one of the founder members of Cafe Society, he is often looked to for guidance and inspiration, which he never fails to deliver!

Andy Henderson

At the tender age of just 8, Andy was greatly influenced by his father's extensive collection of Jazz and swing. Local lessons soon started and a long association with his trusty horn began!

As a nipper he began with school and town bands, ending up in the St Helens concert band. In 1978, St Helens was abandoned and Andy headed off to London to join the army band with The Scots Guards travelling the world and having experiences! (some unmentionable I am informed!)

One notable occasion being the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981. Andy can be seen as part of the fanfare at St Pauls Cathedral (long trumpet, large flag!). After 12 years service achieving Sgt rank, he returned to his native St Helens and decided music was his life and continued to play with many bands, notably Manhattan Online.

Andy joined Cafe Society in 2007 and is enjoying the transition from swing to our rather idiosyncratic style!

Colin Turner

Colin first played jazz on tuba and can list many illustrious bands he has graced including The Vintage Syncopators; Mick Burns' Rhythm Kings (which became The Harlem Hot Stompers).

After a 10-year break, he returned with Bozo Butterworth's Hot Potatoes, which lead to the Harmony Hounds. As well as the Hounds, Colin also plays with the Quayside Hot Stompers

Colin joined Cafe Society in 2007 and is thoroughly enjoying himself, delighting audiences with the skilful manoeuvring of both the Recording Tuba and Bass Saxophone.

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1 verified review

"The Cafe Society Jazz Band were just amazing at my Husband’s 80th birthday party. 3 generations of guests said how much they had enjoyed the music. It was good to listen to, to dance to and the ‘banter’ in between was fun and entertaining. I would recommend them to everyone."
– Lynda Blackburn, 27 October 2021, birthday party in Ripon, UK
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