THE March meeting was members' night and Bernice Peach was president for the evening.

Arrangements were made for members to be hostesses at the group meeting, and volunteers were asked to make cakes and help prepare the hall.

There was a competition to select three Arabic tile designs to go forward to the group competition.

Bernard Pumfrey then spoke on The History of the Big Bands.

He began describing how in 1917/18 the Dixieland jazz sound arrived in the country and then moved on to mention Victor Sylvester, Roy Noble , Jack Payne and Al Boley. Each change was demonstrated by short passages of music taken from his large collection of records .

Most members recognised the Glenn Millar sound and remembered the move to Latin American music such as Edmundo Ross and Joe Loss before the arrival of the rock sound with Bill Hayley and the Comets.