Snakehips Johnson Our first Black bandleader
Jonathan Rowe follows the brief life and career of Britain’s first Black bandleader, a man who made the 1930s and 40s swing, and who impressed Bristol, before his tragic death in the London Blitz
AROUND 9.45pm on Saturday, March 8, 1941, a 50kg bomb fell on the dance floor of London’s top nightclub The Café de Paris in Coventry Street. About 80 people were injured and at least 34 were killed, including 26-year-old Ken “Snakehips” Johnson, then at the height of his fame as Britain’s first Black bandleader.
Three years earlier, Johnson and his West Indian Orchestra had topped the bill in a variety show at the Bristol Hippodrome in December 1938, one performance being broadcast live on regional BBC radio on December 16.
The Western Daily Press review, which to today’s readers would seem rather racially offensive, said: “This white-cum-coloured combination weaved intricate patterns in tunes old and new” … The stage itself, a rhapsody in red, and green, “Snakehips” dancing fast and furious in the light of a flickering spot … with the leader conducting inimitably, urging every ounce of rhythm from his players and himself dancing superbly.”
Other acts appearing in the show included French Canadian novelty pianist and comedian Herschel Henclere, American ukelele player Bobby “Uke” Henshaw,
comedian Horace Kenney, Lepomme and Sister (“feats in mid air”),the Gaudsmith Brothers (“with their clever French poodles”), and the Five Herzogs (“girls in a thrilling aerial turn”). The review concluded by commenting on the newly appointed musical director of the Bristol Hippodrome, Sydney Phasey, who “co-operated splendidly in many of the items”.
Phasey, who lived at Reedly Road, Westbury-on-Trym, had just taken up the post at the Hippodrome and was to stay there for 23 years.
Born Kenrick Reginald Hijmans Johnson on September 10, 1914, in Georgetown, British Guiana, Johnson was sent to England at the age of 15 to be educated at Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, Marlow, Buckinghamshire (where other alumni include Garry Weston, the man who invented Wagon Wheels).
Leaving school in 1931, Johnson studied under African-American choreographer Buddy Bradley, who ran a dancing school in London’s West End. It was here Johnson earned his nickname “Snakehips”, from his “fluid and flexible style”.
After a visit to Harlem in 1934, where he saw the great dancer and singer Cab Calloway perform, Johnson abandoned thoughts of studying medicine or the law for a career as a bandleader, despite limited musical ability.
He formed Ken Johnson and his Rhythm Swingers, later renamed The West Indian Orchestra, the first all-Black British swing band. After appearances on stage, BBC radio and an early spot on BBC TV in Cabaret, in September 1938, critics acknowledged Johnson and his band as the first in the UK to “really swing”, and Johnson became a household name.
In October 1939, the 12-piece band secured a residency at the Café de Paris, then a byword for sophistication. The following year, the six foot four tall, handsome, and gay Johnson became the lover of critic and writer Gerald Hamilton (1890-1970), dubbed “the wickedest man in Europe” and 20 years his senior.
Hamilton’s shady past included prison sentences for bankruptcy, theft, gross indecency, and being a threat to national security in wartime.
The couple lived together in London’s Belgravia, and later in a cottage in Bray, Berkshire, where Hamilton was to receive a phone call on March 9, 1941, informing him of Johnson’s death and asking him to identify the body. For the rest of his life, Hamilton kept a photo of Johnson in his trademark white tuxedo with white satin facings, with him at all times and referred to him as “my husband”.
On that fateful spring night, Johnson and his band were playing their signature tune Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, How You Can Love when the bomb dropped.
Johnson was decapitated but his body was found intact, with a red carnation still in his buttonhole, by Ballard Berkeley, a special constable who became an actor and was to find lasting fame as Major Gowan in the classic 1970s TV sitcom Fawlty Towers.
On March 8, 1942, Johnson’s ashes were interred at his old school in Marlow, with a memorial panel in the school chapel. On May 6, 1998, a blue plaque was unveiled in his honour and an annual school prize The Ken “Snakehips” Johnson Prize for improvised music was instigated.
His lasting legacy in establishing the first Black British swing band and his achievements provided a template for other Black musicians to follow. It has been said that if Johnson had lived he would have changed the British music industry even more fundamentally than he did in his few short years of fame.