Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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STONE, Lew

(b c1900; d 13 Feb. '69) Popular UK bandleader on radio, playing in clubs and restaurants; accompanying musicals such as Jack Hulbert's Under Your Hat '39, later Annie Get Your Gun at the Coliseum. In his heyday in the mid-'30s his band played "hot' as often as possible, with the Louis Armstrong-inspired trumpet of Nat Gonella (b 7 March '08, London; he made the UK pop chart '97 when one of his old records was sampled). Other stars incl. reedman Joe Crossman, young vocalist Al Bowlley.