Led by drummer Tim Ward, who’s father, the late Hedley Ward was a nationally famous bandleader in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. The Hedley Ward Orchestra was one of the UK’s leading dance bands of it’s day, playing leading events and venues throughout the country. His Hedley Ward Trio are still featured on many archive radio programmes. Sir Elton John even mentioned Hedley Ward’s name recently on BBC’s TV’s The Parkinson Show as being a big influence on his early keyboard playing. Many other stars of the era have referred to Hedley Ward when talking about their history in show business.

As a working musician, and with a family history of being involved in top quality music, Tim Ward scoured the country for the best professional musicians to make up a small band that could also produce a big band sound. He ended up with a dynamic 6 -piece band with every player a virtuoso musician in their own right, that can play the classic swing standards in their original style. The Tim Ward Swingband is virtually unique for a small band in the UK as it can not only replicate the sounds of all the swing vocal greats, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darrin, Tony Bennett , Nat “King” Cole, Louis Armstrong, Billy Eckstein, and Ray Charles but also the female vocal greats including Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and Sarah Vaughan and many others. The Tim Ward Swingband can also replicate the sounds of the world’s top swing orchestras including the late great Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Glenn Miller and the world famous drummer and bandleader, Gene Krupa. We also feature material by the great Harry Connick and many other famous names who have featured swing music such as Robbie Williams.

The Tim Ward Swingband is really dynamic to dance to and has played many hundreds of successful weddings, private functions and corporate events over the past 10 years since it was established. We can always call upon our vast repertoire of the world famous songwriters and lyricists including Bobby Troupe, Johnny Mercer, Sammy Cahn, Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter, “Fats” Waller, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Burt Bacharach plus many more. We have also played special theme nights such as “classic movie nights” where we have played film theme music such as James Bond Theme, Gangsters and Molls” and specialist ” 50’s theme nights.”

If you are fans of "Strictly Come Dancing" and have been having formal dancing lessons we can play special ballroom dancing repertoire if required. Even if this is for a first dance at a wedding or where strict tempo dance music is required for any other event, we can do it! We have a selection of Slow Fox-Trot, Quickstep, Waltz, Old Thyme Waltz, Cha Cha, Beguine, Samba,Tango, Rumba, Bossa Nova, Disco and many more.

Our female vocalist Dee Daley has acquired vast experience over the years performing on TV, at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club and many top venues throughout Europe. Dee is equally at home singing swing standards from the great American songbook as she is performing Soul, Motown and the latest chart material.

The Tim Ward Swingband will normally play a minimum of 3 x ¾ hour sets during a 4 hour period present at the venue. We sometimes play longer sets and more time depending on how the evening is going. We come complete with our own PA system and play CD’s through the system when we take rest breaks either as background music while the buffet is being served or as dance music later in the evening to keep the atmosphere going and keep everyone dancing. If the client has booked a DJ for the evening as well as the band we normally play 2 x 1hour feature sets comprising contrasting swing music which works very well in between POP music being played by the DJ.

A formal first dance for the bride and groom can be selected from our huge repertoire on this page. In some instances, we can play some special requests that may not be part of our listed repertoire, providing we are given suitable notice and it is playable with the instrumental line up that we have as a band. If this involves a special musical arrangement being written for the band we will quote you an extra charge for this. In the past we have been commissioned to play a special theme for an event where we have played the music of a particular singer from yesteryear (i e 30’s to 40’s) that has been a favourite of a bride and groom and continued the theme throughout the evening.

The Tim Ward Swingband is normally a 6 piece band however we can also add a trumpet at extra cost which gives an exra dimension to the sound of the band creating a great "horn section" making more of a big band sound.

Tim had the honour of playing for dancing at Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's private birthday party at The Ritz Hotel in London in December. He was also flown out to play music at the New Year celebrations for the Hollywood theme night at The Suvretta House Hotel in St Moritz, Switzerland. Suvretta House is renowned as one of the world's top hotels.

The band has just been filmed for television designer Laurence Llewellyn Bowen's 2nd series
"To the Manor Bowen" on Living TV to be screened later this year.