Dal Richards
Dal Richards | |
---|---|
![]() Richards in March 2009 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Dallas Murray Richards |
Born | Vancouver,British Columbia,Canada | 5 January 1918
Died | 31 December 2015 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | (aged 97)
Genres | Swing |
Occupation(s) | Conductor, bandleader, musician |
Instrument(s) | Saxophone, clarinet |
Years active | 1940–2015 |
Dallas Murray Richards,[1]CM,OBC(5 January 1918 – 31 December 2015) was a Canadianbig bandleader.[2]
Richards and his band performed in theLower Mainland,atPNEbandstand and the annual New Year celebration at the Bayshore Hotel. The band played 79 consecutive New Year's Eve concerts until his death[3]on 31 December 2015.[2]
Richards led his band for many years in a weeklyCBC Radioshow broadcast nationally from the Panorama Roof Ballroom of theHotel Vancouver.[4]He hosted a weekly one-hour show on radio stationCISL.[5]
Richards was commonly thought to be the lyricist of "Roar You Lions Roar", thefight songof theBC Lionsfootball club set to the music of "I Love the Sunshine of Your Smile". However, Peggy Miller of CJCA, an Edmonton radio station, wrote the lyrics in 1953, and Richards arranged and popularized the song with his band's performance at games. His 1968 albumCFL Songspopularized "Roar You Lions Roar", "Go Argos Go", "On Roughriders" and many other songs still heard to this day in CFL stadiums.[6]
A documentary film on Dal was produced for Bravo and The National Film Board of Canada in 1997. BIG BAND BOOM! was produced and directed by Mark Glover Masterson and was nominated for a Hot Docs International Documentary Award in 1998 and ultimately won Best Arts Documentary at the U.S. International Film and Video Festival in Chicago in '98.
Awards and honours
[edit]- 1994: Order of Canada, Member[7]
- 1994: First inductee into theBC Entertainment Hall of Fame[8]
References
[edit]- ^"Dal Richards".Vancouver Foundation. 14 December 2008.Retrieved1 January2016.
- ^abMackie, John (1 January 2016)."Dal Richards, Vancouver's King of Swing, dies at 97".Vancouver Sun.Archived fromthe originalon 11 October 2018.Retrieved1 January2016.
- ^Mackie, John."Dal Richards, Vancouver's King of Swing, dies at 97".Vancouver Sun.Archived fromthe originalon 11 October 2018.Retrieved6 December2017.
- ^Davis, Chuck, ed. (1997).Greater Vancouver Book.Linkman Press.ISBN978-1-896846-00-2.
- ^"Dal Richards".CISL. Archived fromthe originalon 7 July 2011.Retrieved31 October2010.
- ^Beamish, Mike (14 September 2012)."B.C. Football Hall of Fame welcomes a new leader of the band".Vancouver Sun.Retrieved1 January2016.
- ^"Dal Murray Richards, C.M., O.B.C."Governor General of Canada.Retrieved31 October2010.
- ^Baker, Paula (4 January 2016)."WATCH: Looking back at legendary big band leader Dal Richards".Global News.Retrieved15 September2018.