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The Wilf Lancaster Band

Wilf Lancaster’s Band was “the” big Band in the Chatham area for many years. Wilf was born in 1913 and started playing drums in a Band led by Jack Crawford at the Ronville Resort in the Lake of Bays during the early 1930s.

He formed his first Band in the late 30s and in 1938 chose as his theme song, “With A Song In My Heart”. During the war, many of the musicians left to join the military, playing in service Bands. However, there were enough musicians left in Chatham to play in the Band and they continued to play dances in Chatham, at the Pyranon Ballroom, Masonic Temple, the dance pavilion at Erie Beach, etc., outside dance floors, one on Grand Avenue on the river side, the other near the old CPR station.

Wilf`s Band was the ‘house Band’ at Maurice Smyth’s Pyranon Ballroom, sharing the stage with such notables as Tommy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Band, Charlie Spivak, Ted Weems, and others.

In 1966 the band had a reunion party and dance at the Pyranon Ballroom. Many of the original band members attended and played with the band.

On October 13, 1970 working two jobs (International Harvester and his business, Chatham Blueprinting Service), and with some health issues, Wilf retired and turned the band over to Dr. Bill Pritchard and Fred Foster. Wilf was replaced by Leamington drummer Scotty Nicholson. After Fred Foster passed away Dr. Bill carried on with the band.

Just recently Dr. Bill gave all the band charts and stands to the Primitive Roots section of the Chatham Concert Band . They are being used for dance parties.

The leader of this great band Wilf Lancaster passed away in June of 1973 at the age of 59, the end of a great Big Band in the Chatham area.

Many thanks to Wilf Lancaster's daughter Cheryl Sanregret for the above information. Cheryl goes on to recall how she first met Ken Crone:

On rare occasions, my mother would take me over to the Pyranon Ballroom while dad’s band was playing. I remember when I was little more than two years old, my mother was holding me and during intermission, Ken Crone came up to say hello and to tickle under the chin. That would have been in the winter of 1946-47 and Ken must have only been 18 or so.

I remember squirming in my mother’s arms, wanting her to let me down, which she eventually did. I quickly made my getaway, climbing up the back stairs of the stage, through the little half-door, winding my way through the band until I reached the raised stage where my dad sat, playing the drums. I would sit on the floor and listen to the music. The drums were never too loud for me!