(c’45) Dick Keeble (drums), Jack Tidbury (tenor sax), Denny Beaumont (trumpet / trombone), Leslie Lipscombe (Piano), John Foley (guitar), and Dave Court (bass).

Dick Keeble’s Keys of Swing played throughout the local area from the Lion Hotel, Guildford in ’45 – they were certainly there on Boxing Day that year – to the Atalanta Ballroom, Woking in the early ’50s. Keeble, who was a dispensing optician by day, and his band were based in Worplesdon and won many Melody Maker competitions.

Dick Keeble’s Keys Of Swing won The Melody Maker Southern Counties Dance Band Championship in 1949. Source: Helen Orrell via Guildford Town Past and Present.

On 9 Feb 1949 they won The Melody Maker Southern Counties Dance Band Championship. This was held at Cheam Bath Halls and judged by Ted Heath and Les Evans. Regrettably, they came 4th in the South Britain Area Finals – beaten by Johnnie Moss and His New Music, The Top Five and Their Music, and Eric Wakefield and his Band – on 22 September ’49 at Wimbledon Town Hall; but Tidbury and Beaumont did secure individual awards for tenor sax and trumpet respectively, and Foley an honorable mention for guitar.

By 1958 Beaumont had formed the Denny Beaumont Jazzmen.

Gallery:

Clipping of page 6 from Melody Maker 19 Feb 1949 announcing Dick Keeble’s Key’s of Swing the winners of The Melody Maker Southern Counties Dance Band Championship 1949.
Clipping from Melody Maker 19 Feb 1949 announcing Dick Keeble’s Key’s of Swing the winners of The Melody Maker Southern Counties Dance Band Championship 1949.
26 Dec 1945: Dick Keeble’s Keys Of Swing at the Lion Hotel, Guildford. Source: Carol McCallum via Woking Old and New (Doing it together)