The legendary Kenny Ball has been "blowing his own trumpet" since the 1960s and along with the incomparable trombonist John Bennett will be performing at "Dancing Through The Years" at the Liverpool Olympia on April 25, 2008.

Hosted by the Iron Door Club the Blue Magnolia Jass Orchestra, celebrating 40 years in the business, will also be performing.

We invite you to dance and remember Liverpool's music in association with the Captial Of Culture festivities. The Blue Magnolia Jass Orchestra is slated for 8:00 pm followed Kenny Ball and John Bennett at 9:00 pm.

It is particularly fitting that Kenny Ball is playing in affiliation with the Iron Door for the April 25, 2008 performance. The relationship between Kenny and the Club goes back many years. As the story goes, Harry Ormesher when manager of the Mardi Gras Club in Mount Pleasant Liverpool 2, first booked Kenny Ball when he was an unkown artist. Harry had great vision and that he realized the potential in Kenny in 1958 and 1959 was clearly no accident.

When the Iron Door opened in 1960 Kenny Ball was contracted to play at the Mardi Gras Club at the time. Not quick to forget his early days with Ormersher, Kenny broke the contract with the Mardi and came over to the Iron Door. This must have been a very tough decision for Kenny Ball to make but forever won the admiration of Geoff Hogarth, manager of the Iron Door Club. Geoff remembers the role that the Club played in a famous song in his recollections that follow.

We used to book Kenny and his band for two consecutive nights perhaps twice per month. This eased his travelling time and expenses from London. Invariably they would have jam sessions when the Club closed for the night. It was during one of these sessions that our resident piano player Clarence, whose given name was Dave Martin, was tinkering away at the piano. David, an excellent pianist, played a very obscure tune which I think was from before the 1800s. Kenny started to follow David on his trumpet and very soon the all band joined in. They worked on the tune all night putting words to the music and making it into a song. Monday morning the band set off back to London. During that week they played the song to Lonnie Donnegan who suggested a few changes and they recorded the song. The rest is history because it went straight into the hit parade. The song was called "Samantha".