Eric Coates 'Knightsbridge' - John Wilson conducts

The annual Proms appearances of John Wilson and his Orchestra in London's Royal Albert Hall are always eagerly anticipated and invariably sold out. Here he conducts Eric Coates's popular 'Knightsbridge' March from the "London Suite." On this occasion, he was conducting the BBC Symphony in a British Light Music concert at the Royal Festival Hall in 2011.

[@jerryg3524]

there's pride in this music, but also great joy, beautiful. To me it evokes the best of Britain at the hight of its culture. The kind of music beloved by both British and foreigners. I take my hat off to Eric Coates and to this wonderful rendition of his music by John Wilson and orchestra.

[@jackthebassman1]

It’s so absolutely British 🇬🇧

[@Philo-Vids]

John Wilson, the quintessential British man today. I am an American citizen, but I love the England of Eric Coates!!!

[@MrDaiseymay]

YES--SO TRUE, MUSIC FROM MY CHILDHOOD. THIS MUSIC INTRODUCED A NIGHTLY RADIO PROGRAMME CALLED, ''IN TOWN TONIGHT'' , MAINLY INTERVIEWS WITH FAMOUS VISITORS JUST ARRIVED IN ENGLAND, USUALLY FROM THE USA.

[@Normanson2]

This is joyous music well deserving its place as a bright star in the musical firmament. Very well played. It made me happy.

[@kohl57]

Every time I listen this performance (and I'd be embarrassed to admit to how often), I have this urge to do something as British as the music like piloting a Hawker Hurricane, riding a 1950s Raleigh bicycle or just having Marmite on toast. I would love to think of Eric Coates hearing this performance and knowing his music lives on with its greatest present day interpreter, John Wilson.

[@Roger.Coleman1949]

Great comparisons, it is such an uplifting piece of music, like you I must have heard it hundreds of times and it never ceases to bring a smile to my face.A tune of great optimism from the genious of British Light Music, Eric Coates.

[@richardgray6313]

I have heard it so often it’s worn out

[@wiliammound7942]

Agreed but forget the Marmite. How about Robersons Marmalade. Don’t forget to save the label of the jar and send off for your Golliwog badge.

[@susanp.collins7834]

Not me - I'm 67 and I stopped being embarrassed a LONG time ago. Now, I am the Knight Commander of an organisation called The International Order Of Anachronia and every now and then we dress up like a cross between Lawrence Of Arabia and the Knights Of the Round Table. We all hop on white horses and parade through the town while playing this music. How about it?

[@ronaldedwardwilliams3039]

It's just brilliant. As Petroc Trelawney once said John Wilson conducts with such passion and panache he must be the cheerleader of British conductors.

[@Roger.Coleman1949]

In my all time top 10 most favourite pieces of music, such a superb evocative tune .

[@davidp314]

Our youth orchestra are playing it this year so perhaps it will dispel some of that depression. Great stuff.

[@garyhunt8067]

Love this piece

[@None-zc5vg]

The theme of BBC radio's "In Town Tonight" programme.

[@paulweir5031]

I can see our huge Ferranti radio with it's bakelite knobs and illuminated station list in our dining room: In Town Tonight, Two Way Family Favourites, Listen With Mother, Housewives' Choice, Workers' Playtime, Lost in Space, Down Your Way et al . Were they happy days or are the lenses rose tinted?

[@fusspot57]

I think you and I know the answer, Paul! Of course there were difficulties but I think we all hoped and looked forward to a bright new world. Sadly things seem to be going backwards. So much casual violence and selfishness. I truly value kind people and my friends these days.

[@harryplummer6356]

No they are not tinted. I'm now 84 but I can remember all the programmes you mention as if it was yesterday. Cheers!

[@mavisemberson8737]

Children's Hour was a favoutite during the War and after . Uncle Mac and David?.. great plays and serials

[@MrDaiseymay]

If you are a certain age---you will immediately think of a long running BBC Radio evening programme in the 1950's called--'In Town Tonight' a light news edition, of who in the entertainment world had arrived in London, to talk about their latest stage /film or recording enterprise. This was of course, the introducing music. The Knightsbridge March'' was part of Eric Coates ''London Suite''.

[@carolsheehy9059]

In Town Tonight. Happy memories.

[@flemingcourt]

The theme Music to the very popular Vancouver/Seattle "Sunday British Theatre" of classic Brit films, back in the 60's and 70's. Love the theme!

[@MrDaiseymay]

THANKS FOR SHARING, FIRST I'VE HEARD OF THAT, I HAVE MANY FAMILY MEMBER'S IN ONTARIO CANADA.

[@zonabrown9241]

❤❤ive lved many years away from England but this music appeals to my English birth❤❤

[@Glenn1967ful]

Stiff upper lip, take out the Rover for a drive, smoke a pipe, listen to the Light Programme, watch a village cricket game, this is so of its time.

[@johnmh1000]

I say Glenn think you're spot on old bean.

[@wiliammound7942]

Oh! Can I join you, let’s make it a Sunday and we can listen to Sing Something Simple with the John Adams singers.

[@teachermanret]

Oh so very true. Awfully good fun wasn't it.

[@heathermcdougall2399]

Our orchestra is due to start playing this in 3 weeks time.

[@edwardterrill380]

It made me happy too.

[@wiliammound7942]

And so at 3:24 the traffic once again negotiates Piccadilly Circus . Listening in lockdown Melbourne Aust 2020.

[@Richard.Allsop]

Redolent of a Britain rapidly fading away.

[@mavisemberson8737]

Was this In Town Tonight ?

[@adam28xx]

Yes it was!

[@oldedwardian1778]

You MUST be old, I am 82 and I remember those wonderful programs. I had a wonderful education at a King Edward Vi Grammar School in the 1950s. But good as that was, it was enhanced and broadened by the BBC RADIO. Both my wife and I constantly remark on just HOW MUCH WE OWE TO THE FABULOUS PROGRAMS WE LISTENED TO ON THE BBC.

[@TonyWilliampianoman]

Ah yes, Bush Radio (still got it). Food in greaseproof paper, people smoking Players Cigarettes, people generally dressed properly, old double decker bus into Manchester with dad . . . no need to go on :)

[@bloke372]

Do you think that it maybe that we were all sixty years younger

[@amarpreetsingh7066]

.......30 seconds....you're champagne 🥂...ma'am

[@alancrompton7114]

In the 1940s when I was a young Iad the programme IN TOWN TONIGHT was a must to listen to on the wireless and this tune always brought tears to my eyes. Still does and I’m now 84yrs young.

[@evanstj5]

I remember "In Town .." & I'm only 67 !

[@MrDaiseymay]

78 me, always loved this music--''Once again, we stop the mighty roar of London's traffic''.

[@Roger.Coleman1949]

Same here Alan , have a fair way to get to your great innings but my favourite piece of British Light Music by the genious that was Eric Coates.Keep going lad !

[@Glenn1967ful]

@@Roger.Coleman1949 It makes you want to buy a Rover P4 and a valve radio.

[@alanblackwood1]

Another master of light orchestral music. Don't dismiss it folks. It's brilliant.

[@johnmh1000]

So again I ask the question - when is John Wilson gonna get his Knighthood????

[@danielsimon8754]

Why is light music dead? The radio airwaves should be ashamed of themselves for ignoring this type of music. Light music must be brought back to life. What has happened to Friday Night is Music Night. Used to be lots of light orchestral music but now all we get are repeats of the long running show. So many wonderful composers not just Eric Coates, Charles Williams, John Ansell, Trevor Duncan, Frederic Curzon, Ernest Tomlinson and Montague Phillips to name but a few. They used to be featured quite a lot back in the 60s running to the 90s but now forgotten. One excuse is the light music is out of fashion well that to me is rubbish. If it was popular then it will always be so.

[@JuneJarka]

It might possibly be that the people who decided to cancel light music wanted to dumb down the rest of us and turn us into sycophantic automatons. It might possibly be that music like this encourages ordinary plebeians (the masses) HOW TO THINK. But then again, we can’t have that, can we? Restless plebs, then what? They might possibly wake up from their slumber and demand social revolution (in terms of fairness and equity in education, jobs and income)!

[@johnmh1000]

I'm up for the challenge Daniel. I like to think that in a light summer's night over this green and pleasant land of ours, then threads of lovely music like this are weaving a spell or two over England. Can but hope...

[@stephenbaker7079]

@@johnmh1000 Yes, indeed!

[@Buckbury]

Eric Coates is a much underrated composer.

[@stephenbaker7079]

Great British music!

[@janicesmyth1713]

In town to night, anyone remember that . I do .

[@stevew8233]

"Carry on, London"

[@David-wi1ih]

I love this piece and Coronation Scot. John Wilson is brilliant, love to watch him conducting. Also love R Vaughan Williams music too

[@teachermanret]

Absolutely agree with Paul Weir. All those tunes of yesteryear bring back many memories. I was born in '43 so am very aware of listening to the. Especially 'kNightsbridge', or on the Light Programme 'In Town tonight at 7:30pm. Ah well....

[@robertphillips6834]

Yes the lights of Harrods on wet pavement, very evocative of better times.

[@davidcarter3109]

John Wilson puts everything into his performance. Nothing is left, a superb conductor.

[@keithp53]

This is a superb performance at the correct tempo. I'm just old enough to remember this introducing In Town Tonight, the BBC's early version of a radio chat show where celebrities in London that particular week got their few minutes "on the air". Coates wanted to depict a vibrant shopping district - and after CovID lockdowns, gosh that's what we need! Over 90 years after its composition, this is my London anthem.

[@None-zc5vg]

The "In Town Tonight" theme has occasionally popped up in my mind since I last listened to the BBC radio programme back in the '50s: one of its guests was actor Errol Flynn.

[@lucreziia100]

It is a pity that today's youngsters don't get exposed to this quintessentially English genre of music known as "Light Music". It might do their social media addled well. So many of the younger generation suffer from depression and other mental disorders due to today's stress making life style.

[@MsGrandunion]

Such a fantastic piece of music, easily conjuring up images of elegant Londoners in a more genteel era. You can see the trolleybuses rolling along, and the lights above Harrods, reflected in the rainy pavements below.

[@JanetESmith-er8sk]

Nobody and I mean NOBODY does pomp and circumstance better than the British.

[@johnbockelie3899]

I've heard this many times, never get tired of it. Lively music from England.

[@carolinehowell5203]

Thank you Janet. ❤️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@pablonieto9693]

I havent heard this melody may be for 60 years. I remember my father in the evenings dialing his big radio set for the short wave emissions of the BBC , this was the caracteristic music of what he like to attend .This happens many thousands miles from London , in the south cone of South Amerika. Broughts me many good remembrances. Thank you for posting it.

[@MrDaiseymay]

WOW,

[@oldtykesmith2317]

Eric Coates was the Last of the great British Composers his music is superb.

[@philchambers6476]

There was a radio programme called “Tales from the Stave” and it told the story of how Coates had written this but HMV, to whom he was contracted, weren’t interested. The BBC Symphony Orchestra were in a recording studio and he persuaded his mates to play it and it was recorded, with one copy going to the BBC Record Library. And it would have languished, apart from a new “chat show” called In Town Tonight where the Producer was in a panic because the first programme was that evening and he hadn’t got any theme music. He was going through records in the BBC Library and found Knightsbridge, which was exactly what he was after. That evening Mrs Coates said, “They’re playing your Knightsbridge March on the radio, dear guy.” Coates replied, “Well, it won’t do it any harm.” As somebody else has pointed out, in the next few days the BBC got 10,000 (from my memory) letters and cards asking what the music was.

[@johnmh1000]

John Wilson - a quiet legend. When are we going to see more of this wonderful guy and his music?

[@Richard.Allsop]

A musical elegy to a lost world.

[@irenekent4335]

Yes it brings tears to my eyes for lost happy kind family who cared for each other it was so comforting and genuine

[@leedsman54]

Absolutely bloody marvellous!

[@brianfaulkner7446]

Well played, brilliant 0:56

[@JanetESmith-er8sk]

What a jaunty tune and it would seem the exact correct tempo was reached! Bravo! ......from a know-nothing yank.🥰 Wish this march had come to America but alas it didn’t! While we have J P Sousa and others we unfortunately didn’t have Coates. Congrats 🎉 England. You done good!!!

[@njatty]

I remember playing this as a high-school freshman in Milwaukee in 1970. This piece always cheers me up!

[@MrDaiseymay]

THANKS, WE LOVE SOUSA TOO.

[@danielhogan9167]

Magnificent ! This piece seemed to be played a great deal in the 1950s. Wonderful to hear it again. What a great orchestra. Many thanks for putting it on.

[@None-zc5vg]

"In Town Tonight"

[@johnsonalan7667]

Am I wrong, or is this piece of music a history lesson? A lot of streets in central London went straight from horse buses to motor buses . We hear the horses clip clopping jauntily in the first section, then there is a brass fanfare to remind us how the First World War made the horse almost obsolescent. Then we hear the motor bus - who of a certain age can forget the musical tones of those AEC gearboxes as the buses accelerated away from first to finally reach fourth gear? The violas capture this perfectly for me.

[@MrDaiseymay]

Johnson Alan---only in your imagination, but I enjoyed it.

[@PCplays99]

Being a US American I had never heard this march before. It's wonderful. Very beautiful.Leave it to the British to produce such stirring music. The Proms are always good.

[@johnr6168]

I'm glad you liked it. This was a concert at the Royal Festival Hall and wasn't a Prom concert. The Festival Hall is an early 1950s building and built for the 1951 Festival of Britain.

[@MrDaiseymay]

@@johnr6168 Correct, good to remind people. I was hoping to attend, but was prevented by snow, in the west country.

[@herbchilds1512]

I'd love to see this same orchestra and conductor performing Elgar's "Cockaigne."

[@nigeljohnson9820]

When does this bring back memories of the BBC home service, and the cream and brown Bakelite valve radio that my farther listened to when he was working in our store room.

[@kohl57]

This has to be the best contemporary rendition of this Coates' classic.. the quick, upbeat tempo, the crispness of every note.. just pitch perfect. British light music has a lilt, verve and vitality in every note and Wilson has created that magic, that sound that is... Best of British.

[@alexkije]

YES! I have many recordings by Coates conducting his own works. And you betcha, he takes this a furious, spirited pace.

[@emanuelecicchino7256]

Bravissimo.

[@arthurgride8207]

When it was first played as the signature of In Town Tonight, the BBC got 15,000 calls asking who had written it. Wrt to the other comments, it can't be both a Brexit anthem AND redolent of a Britain fading away.

[@arkansized]

Oh, joy...memories of high school orchestra! Absolutely stirring performance, and one of the favorite British march selections.

[@alexkije]

Utterly Fantastic!

[@adam28xx]

Glad you think so!

[@JessJurkovic]

I adore this piece, I first heard it in its two appearances as Monty Python's Flying Circus instrumental music. Charming!

[@ovemunk]

Every percussionist that have played a set of Timpani will love that ending.😎

[@Modeltnick]

Very British indeed. Gives this Yankee goose bumps every time I hear this!

[@SuperFerdie1965]

Good lad!

[@andrewgibbon-williams7974]

Wow! Could Coates orchestrate! Just as good as Elgar.

[@alexkije]

Yes! Played fast. Faster the better. Like Coates conducting his own.

[@alexkije]

The bass drum at 2:33!

[@michaelashby1067]

Coates loved rapid tempos.......oh yeh!😊

[@davecarter4015]

John Wilson is a superb conductor

[@gerrytaylor]

"IN TOWN TONIGHT" BBC 1940's. Radio programme.

[@johnmcculloch1424]

Yep, remember it well

[@JanetESmith-er8sk]

Oh to have been a percussionist! What pure fun!

[@EricsWorlds]

Good God that put me in tears at 3:30

[@geraldolivieri]

Excellent! thanks for sharing

[@tessamorgan6390]

Master at work

[@cameriqueTV]

Just riding my bicycle into an eastern bloc country.

[@johnsmuth5062]

Played this at our proms concert in Queensland this year. Played the bass part on tuba, wonderful fun

[@alexkije]

Really kicks ass!

[@alexkije]

He got the BASS DRUM thump at 2"33 that most orks don't.

[@ghughesarch]

I think you'll find it kicks bottom.

[@alexkije]

The ork go the big bass drum BUMP. And the percussion was pretty good to the last, too! Great fast tempo!

[@sarumano884]

More like a Light Infantry pace than a march.

[@evanstj5]

This should be renamed the "Brexit Anthem" - wonderful nostalgic pomp and circumstance signifying --- nobody's quite sure but it'll all turn out right in the end !

[@alisonmorgan4644]

Absolutely not Brexit is about going backwards to a cramped socially awkward society. I am sure Eric would be forward thinking

[@maushaus2792]

You’re dead right Tim. That’s exactly what it expresses! We want our country back and it’ll turn out alright in the end.

[@Glenn1967ful]

Excellent, just as good as the Dambusters March.

[@robertammannes1643]

I must confess, Monty Python brought me here.

[@sottomayorjose3760]

Espectacular como sempre. Magnífica interpretação! Excelente!

[@tonybailey2854]

👌👌👌

[@bryang6061]

My Old Dad brought a radio back from Germany after WW2, it had two speakers and little switches on the top, maybe part of a two-way radio? Mum and I would listen to "In Town Tonight" some man would cry stop and later you would hear "Carry on London" I was 5 in those days never sure what it all meant 75 now, Eric Coates music brings it all back, Best wishes everyone!

[@RPe-jk6dv]

was your old dad a pillager or bought he the radio in germany?

[@amarpreetsingh7066]

Nice...yes.....indeed

[@thedude4065]

Too fast ... it sounds "rushed" ... original recordings with Eric Coates conducting ... is performed significantly slower than this .... Coates knows the speed it's supposed to be played at. He was only the composer of the piece.

[@adam28xx]

You should have listened to Eric Coates' own recording first, to say nothing of the many others on You Tube. John Wilson's tempo is virtually identical to the composer's! ... kzbin.info/www/bejne/qqOooX-feMiNl9k

[@alexkije]

You are absolutely wrong. I have recordings with Coates conducting. And the orchestra plays this at a furious pace. You had better get informed.

[@R08Tam]

Oh there is always one isn't there. Just bloody enjoy it ffs

[@audreyofficer5833]

Moving memories of In Town Tonight and happy days of coming out of school and tearing round to st, Andrews church, Timperley to hear the story of Pilgrim's Progress . Over sixty years far from England but the many memories are still moving.

[@andrewgibbon-williams7974]

Amazing thing really... the least musical nation in Europe could have come up with this kind of thing. Apart from Elgar - that genius - we had no one. No Mozart, no Beethoven, no Brahms, no Wagner... YET ... it's as if the English are striving to over-compensate. These days, no ambitious classical musician can afford to disdain Britain. A kind of success story, in its way.

[@sunset261]

Handel would like a word.

[@paulputnam8211]

Vaughan Williams & Walton ? !

[@Buckbury]

Profound.

[@zacmumblethunder7466]

Adinsell, Holst, Arnold, Delius, Purcell

[@mavisemberson8737]

Purcell Holst Delius Vaughan Williams . Dowland Don't be so narrow. many international orchestras and choirs want to play Music from the British Isles look on KZbin