We also provide music for pit bands in theatres and educational school concerts to teach children about the instruments we play. The Sleepy Lagoon Orchestra is West Sussex's go to Dance Band. Formed in 2018 to celebrate the works of 1920s & 30s band leader Jack Hylton, with the band continuing to play his pieces today in a lively packed set of charts encouraging audiences tapping their toes and to
get up and dance. We are located in Chichester with our name coming from Eric Coates piece 'By the Sleepy Lagoon', made famous from BBC Radio 2's Desert Island Discs. Coates had a house in Selsey, just south of Chichester, when he wrote 'By the Sleepy Lagoon'. "It was inspired by the view on a warm, still summer evening looking across the "lagoon" from the east beach at Selsey towards Bognor Regis. It's a pebble beach leading steeply down, and the sea at that time is an incredibly deep blue of the Pacific. It was that impression, looking across at Bognor, which looked pink, almost like an enchanted city with the blue of the South Downs behind it, that gave him the idea for the Sleepy Lagoon". Since the bands successful debut concert featuring the music of Jack Hylton, conducted by Pete faint, the band has gone from strength to strength, traveling across the south coast as well as into Europe and the Channel Islands. The Sleepy Lagoon Orchestra has since been a successful hire band for many charity concerts, garden parties and local festivals. In 2021 and 2022 the band performed at the Winner's Enclosure for Goodwood's Festival on Speed, with some famous faces stopping to listen such as Tom Cruise and Jackie Stewart. The band also performed at the Goodwood Revival Ball, a private ball for the big names of motorsport and well known personalities, such as Jenson Button, Rowen Atkinson, Ollie Murs, and Jason Mamoa to name a few. The 2021 Revival Ball's theme was a 1940s film set with dancers and actors creating the scene of a Film shoot taking place. In the winter of 2021 we also started Sleepy Lite. This band is still playing the great hits of the Sleepy Lagoon Orchestra but with less players to be accustomed to smaller venues and tighter budgets for hired events.
