THE clock will be turned back to the golden age of swing when the Pasadena Roof Orchestra (PRO) comes to town.

Leading these polished jazz and swing musicians is band leader and vocalist Duncan Galloway, who has headed up the orchestra for more than 10 years.

Smooth-voiced, charismatic Duncan is speaking to me hours before playing a cricket match with his orchestra pals. It would seem as though those who play together really, erm, play together.

Which is exactly how I like to imagine him - transforming from band leader tuxedo to cricket whites in one fell swoop - the quintessential English gentleman with a twinkle in his eye.

On a challenging day with the Echo phone lines, this unflappable former actor is happy to wait for me to call him back once the gremlins subside.

Attracting the PRO to Weymouth is a big coup for Portland Rotary Club, which will use the evening to raise money for its local charities.

The concert will also see the launch of the orchestra’s new CD. Duncan said: “We recorded it in May. It’s a live album of 18 tracks of stuff we play at our concerts.

“It’s very exciting, I haven’t even seen a copy yet. The discs are being pressed in Hamburg as we speak.

“We’re hoping they will be on sale in Weymouth and it will be the first time they’ve been on sale anywhere.”

The orchestra last played in Weymouth around six years ago, Duncan said, and is very much looking forward to returning.

“We played at the Regent in Christchurch in May and really love coming to Dorset.

“Weymouth Pavilion is a typical seaside theatre and I’m so pleased it was revived under new management.”

The orchestra has performed in a wide array of venues across the globe.

Duncan said: “We did the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank in London.

“We also played at the home of the Berlin Philharmonic which was amazing, you can whisper on stage and be heard. But we’ve played at so many different places all over the land - from the sublime to the ridiculous!”

Duncan originally trained at the Duncan Webber Academy in London as an actor.

He heard the music of the TV show Pennies from Heaven, which featured 1920s and 1930s jazz and swing, and was hooked.

“Part of the acting involved musical training,” Duncan said.

“Pasadena played 20s and 30s music and that really appealed to me. At drama school I would hear Pennies from Heaven.

“The 1920s and 30s music was great to hear and I wondered which band would be playing that kind of sound.”

In his acting career Duncan had a blink-and-you-may-have-missed-it moment in anarchic 90s children’s TV show Bodger and Badger, which featured a mischievous puppet with a penchant for mashed potato.

“I played a police sergeant and didn’t get pelted with mashed potato. I was the one who was probably trying to keep order on the show!”

The orchestra has worked with many different stars over the years, including Robbie Williams and Bryan Ferry.

Duncan said his most memorable collaboration was a Radio 2 comedy series featuring Jeffrey Holland of Hi-de-Hi fame and veteran actress June Whitfield.“It was a lot of fun. We did a lot of different voices and the storyline was that we were on tour in Russia in 1938.“The great thing about radio is that there’s a lot of potential for creativity,” he said.

The PRO’s illustrious history is as British as you can get - and the orchestra isn’t named after the town of Pasadena in California - as mistakenly assumed by this reporter.

The band turned professional in 1975 and was actually named after a piece of sheet music. Home in Pasadena was top of a pile of music in a baker’s van, belonging to orchestra founder John Arthy. The original music was acquired in 1969 from a woman answering an advert for dance band music.

The band’s first LP was released in 1974 and premiered at the Miden Music Festival in Cannes.

Duncan said: “The band does go very far back. It did the music for Marlene Dietrich’s last film with David Bowie. More recently we recorded music for a German film called The Comedian Harmonists.”

Being band leader is a role Duncan is grateful for on a daily basis.

“It’s stressful sometimes but it’s more of an honour than a burden to take on the mantle of an orchestra that’s been going so long with that sort of gravitas and the sort of reception it gets.

“It’s a great pleasure that people remember the music but the important thing is to keep standards up and keep meeting people’s expectations, I really enjoy that side of it. The music is generally about forgetting your troubles and I really try and focus on that side of it.”

A Weymouth audience can expect a toe-tapping good time, Duncan says.

“Mini The Moocher is often a favourite number with people and lots of people want to join in. Some know it from The Blues Brothers.

“I’m hoping that people who have never experienced this kind of music before will come and experience it. They should ignore the labels and they don’t have to be a fan of the music to enjoy what the orchestra is doing.

“There are some excellent arrangements and a lot of it is about having fun.”

On this note, I bid this most perfectly English of gentlemen farewell and the best of luck in that afternoon’s no doubt hotly-contested Pasadena Roof Orchestra cricket match.

With a smooth-voiced charm to rival any coffee advert and a repertoire that plunges its audience into a golden era, there’s every chance Weymouth Pavilion theatregoers will be hit for six by Duncan and his orchestra.

n The Pasadena Roof Orchestra will perform at Weymouth Pavilion on Friday, September 23 at 7.30pm. To book tickets for this charity fund-raising event, call 01305 783225.