Nick Ross

Nick was born in June 1961 in Newmarket, Suffolk and studied Piano with Prof. Hannah Ellis, and then in his teens, music with Colin Blackburn.

In the late '70s Nick joined a local dance band, and by the early '80s, he lead his own band on various Summer Season, Hotel, and Cruise Line contracts. By the summer of 1985, he started putting together the classic Big Band Line-up of Saxes, Trumpets, Trombones, Rhythm Section and Singers, which became the 'NRO'.

"I am often asked what kindled my interest in the Big Band sound? - the obvious answer would be the wonderful music of Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, Ted Heath et al, but given that I wasn't around in the '40s, the first Big Band that I ever heard live was the Syd Lawrence Orchestra, by my early teens, I had already become a dedicated fan" Nick says.

In the early '90s Nick began broadcasting a weekly radio programme called "From the Bandstand with Nick Ross" on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire with presenter Mark Saggers, and the NRO toured both in the UK and Internationally, venturing as far as the Middle and Far East.

In the late summer of 2003, Nick was persuaded by friends and former band members, not to mention one or two of the "movers and shakers" in the music industry, to take "Sounds of the GLENN MILLER Era" on tour again.