Promising a Swingin’ Christmas on the Eastbourne stage

As band leader Joe Pettitt says: “Nothing says Christmas like Buble or Bing. Those are all the sorts of soundtrack that people stick on over Christmas.

"They are so much a part of people's celebrations.”

The playlist on the night will include Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Santa Claus is Coming To Town, Let It Snow and many more.

For Joe and his musicians, it comes at the end of an excellent year musically.

“I would say that the band is in better than normal territory. Covid was horrible but we did the live streams and we had Arts Council funding and I think all of that just gave us a big shot in the arm and actually that has carried on.”

The orchestra has just played a sell-out show at The Stables in Milton Keynes which was filmed by Sky Arts for broadcast this Christmas – just as they were also filmed and broadcast by Sky Arts earlier this year. And that had a big impact.

“Every other person I speak to at concerts is saying ‘I hadn't seen you before but I saw you on Sky Arts’ so it is really helpful. And the phone is ringing with inquiries which is great because usually it's me ringing other people to ask about work!”

Audiences are a slightly different story, though: “I would say that we are doing OK. Prior to Covid our audiences were largely made-up of older people and I don't know what has happened.

"I'm not saying that they've necessarily passed away but there are some familiar faces that we just aren't seeing anymore. And I think maybe people are just not able to come anymore.

"I think when you're older the best way to stay active is to stay active but with a two-year break I think perhaps some people haven’t been able to keep coming.

"If you're in your 80s and then you suddenly stop going out, then it's probably quite difficult to start again or it may be that they've lost a partner so that's two people we've lost or they've lost the driver who isn't driving anymore.

"But against I think we've picked up a lot of new people through the TV and the live streams and through the other things we're doing. My dad says to me when he comes to concerts ‘You’ve got a lot of new people here’ but the point is that it is the same number of people that we used to get.

"We're getting new people making up for the people we've lost so I'd definitely say that we’re hanging on in there – all thanks to the shot in the arm that we've had from the funding and the TV and the live streams. And that is a big achievement. It is quite positive in itself.

“And we've got a lot of dates in the diary for next year that we haven't had before. We're going to Dubai in March and we started playing a big event in Blackpool Tower that didn't exist before so things are looking good.”

Tickets for the show from the venue.