Victor Silvester

Victor Silvester was born on February 25, 1900 in Wembley, London, England. He was married to Dorothy Silvester.

Partnering Phyllis Clarke, he won the 1922 World Dancing Championship and subsequently opened his own chain of dance academies, becoming England's foremost ballroom dance teacher.

The lack of what he felt were adequate records for dancing led Silvester in 1935 to form his own five-piece band, later enlarged and named Victor Silvester and his Ballroom Orchestra, whose first record, "You're Dancing on My Heart" (by Al Bryan and George M. Meyer), sold 17,000 copies and was to become his signature tune.

His BBC Television show Dancing Club lasted 17 years. He also presented a weekly request programme on the BBC Overseas Service (later World Service) which ran from 1948 to 1975. His obituary in The Times noted, "Turn on a radio in Famagusta, Cape Town or Peking and one would be likely to hear his music issuing from the speakers.

By 1958, when he published his autobiography, he was the most successful dance band leader in British musical history, and a major star on British radio and television.

He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the order of the British Empire) in the 1961 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to ballroom dancing.

He would continue to make music for half a century, mostly covering the popular music standards and show tunes, sometimes (but rarely) swing, trad jazz and in latter years, especially from 1971 when the orchestra continued under his son Victor Silvester Jr.. rock and roll, disco and pop. These later attempts to stay "with it" involved the introduction of an electric guitar, but it is mostly the more melodic recordings of the 1940s and 1950s that are now reissued on CD and still sold widely.