Lesley Welch (6 August 1925 – 1 September 2014) was an Australian bandleader, singer, pianist and recording artist, popular in the 1940s and 1950s.

Career

Lesley Welch was born in England in

Newcastle-on-Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , RP: ), is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located on the River Tyne's northern bank opposite Gateshead to the ...

, but his family moved to Australia when he was young, and settled in

Gladesville, New South Wales Gladesville is a suburb in the Lower North Shore (Sydney), Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Gladesville is located 10 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government ...

. After teaching himself piano, Welch began playing blues at parties and nightclubs during the 1940s. He toured nationally, performing jazz and appearing on radio, and in 1948 he was voted King of Swing at a Sydney Town Hall concert. He signed a lifetime contract with the

Australian Record Company The Australian Record Company (ARC) was a record label and manufacturer later acquired by CBS Records International. Originally known as Featuradio, a company formed in 1933 by George Sutton and his brother-in-law James M. Sayer. They sold the bus ...

(ARC) in 1949, and by 1952 had already recorded over 200 songs for them. He left ARC to set up rival

Festival Records Festival Records, later known as Festival Mushroom Records, was an Australian recording and publishing company founded in Sydney, Australia, in 1952 and operated until 2005. Festival was a subsidiary of News Limited from 1961 to 2005. The com ...

that year, and worked as A&R. In 1953 his album ''Tempos de Barrelhouse'', was released by Festival as one of the first records by an Australian artist pressed at

33 RPM The LP (from long playing or long play) is an analog sound storage medium, specifically a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specificati ...

. During the 1950s, Welch performed with his jazz band at concerts targeted towards a teenage audience, but that were popular with all ages. When he left Festival, Welch led the studio orchestra at the

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

in Sydney and later worked for

Reg Grundy Reginald Roy Grundy (4 August 1923 – 6 May 2016) was an Australian entrepreneur and media mogul, best known for his numerous television productions. He was the producer of various Australian game shows, such as '' Blankety Blanks'' (based on ...

producing game shows. Welch was later called "the Invisible Man of Australian music history" and "Australia's great anticipator of rock'n'roll" for his early work performing rock music in Australia. In 1950 he was described as "probably the biggest name in the Australian jazz field today." Les Welch died in September 2014, aged 89.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welch, Les 2014 deaths 1925 births Australian musicians