MUSIC maestro Alan Waller, who has been likened to jazz legends Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, is still making music at 78. Most Monday evenings a group of musicians gathers at his Marske home to practise both dance music and classical - from Glenn Miller to Mozart.

They are preparing for a concert to be held at Saltburn on Easter Sunday, March 13, under the title Alan Waller and Friends' Easter Concert.

Mr Waller, who has been playing music, mainly for dances, for more than 60 years, is looking forward to playing at the town's community theatre.

His older brother, Herbert, 86, was organist there when the building was a Methodist church just before the Second World War.

Behind this event, which is in aid of the community association building repair fund, lies a lot of work.

Mr Waller's wife, Mavis, disclosed: "He works morning, noon and night, up to 40 hours a week preparing for concerts. He puts in a lot of effort to give individual musicians solo spots.

"He's always got music on his mind. Even in bed, I can feel his foot tapping!"

Mr Waller's last concert raised £400 for Marske Cheshire Home, a cause close to his heart. It was held at Saltburn Golf Club and attracted a packed audience of 100, who enjoyed dancing the night away.

Alan Waller was born at Boosbeck the son of singer William Robinson Waller and his wife, Emma, a piano and violin player. He went to the village school where he remembered helping to make a bamboo pipe "like recorders of today".

The music teacher was the late Tommy Almond, of Saltburn, who was his great inspiration and lifelong friend.

His parents bought him a clarinet for £5.40 and he had 30 lessons at 30p a session.

He left school at 14 and became an errand boy at Hinton's grocery shop, in Dundas Street, Saltburn, delivering groceries all over the town by bike.

"My first dance job was a few months later at the Presbyterian hall in Redcar's High Street, near the clock where Clinkard's shoe shop is now. The bandleader was Jack Wigham, who taught woodwork at Boosbeck and Dormanstown schools," said Mr Waller.

With the war under way, he joined the Boy Service at 16 and auditioned for the Royal Artillery's regimental band.

"By my 18th birthday I had played for 25 broadcasts and at a concert in the officer's mess before the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill," he said.

After the war he returned to Hinton's and helped to form the Victory Dance Band. They were engaged at just over £7 a night by Leslie Horgan, clerk to the former Saltburn and Marske Urban District Council.

In 1947 he formed his own band - "My first resident job" - at the Royal Hotel in Whitby, owned by H V Hindmarsh Enterprises.

More broadcasts, including Music While You Work followed, when playing at Butlin's holiday camp in Clacton, Essex.

Artists he worked with then included Tommy Handley, Stainless Stephen and Hutch.

In the autumn of 1948 Mr Waller returned to Cleveland to play for ten years at Dorman's Hall, Oxford Road, Middlesbrough, which he managed for seven years.

In 1958 he played at the Locarno, Glasgow, including a TV appearance on Come Dancing.

His day job by then was with the North-Eastern Electricity Board, in the Redcar commercial department, where he worked for nearly 30 years.

At night he played music - at Middlesbrough Town Hall, the Ladle Hotel and Marton Hotel and Country Club.

In 1974, Mr Waller retired from dance playing and formed the Redcar Silverwood Band, mostly with young people aged 12-21. In 1982 the 43-piece band toured Germany - "at no cost whatsoever to members". All the money had been earned by the band's playing.

Tours of the Lake District, Isle of Man and Scotland followed in subsequent years. All the time, Mr Waller conducted the band for no fee.

"During this period I returned to playing dances so the fees could go to Silverwood," he said.

One of the highlights of the band's year was to perform at Rotary's national conference - Mr Waller was a member of the Redcar club, of which he became president.

In 1987 he met Ann Charlton, then suffering from the early stages of multiple sclerosis.

"She had a dream to build a suitable home for MS sufferers. The committee was Ann and myself. The dance band raised many hundreds of pounds for the now Ann Charlton Lodge, Redcar."

Mr Waller retired at 60 from NEEB and for 7 years had "an enjoyable time" teaching the clarinet and saxophone at Yarm School until 1997.

"They were lovely kids and I took them to many concerts, including one during Saltburn's heritage week in the Italian Gardens.

"One year it rained heavily and we had to run for it. I enjoyed playing at tea dances in the Spa, particularly with the couple dressed as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert."

Mr Waller was out of action with a brain haemorrhage for nine months. In recent years he has concentrated on leading the weekly sessions at his home - one week classical music and the next dance band music.

He laments the shortage of brass band players in East Cleveland, which sometimes means no live music is played at Remembrance Sunday services at cenotaphs.

"One major reason for the shortage of musicians is that more promising young people go to university these days," he said.

He is also proud that five of the players from the Redcar Silverwood Band (now run by another conductor and called the Silverwood Band) are school heads of music, and two have their own bands. He is pleased that his son, Andrew, plays the drums.

But asked if the TV series Strictly Come Dancing might lead to a mini revival of ballroom dancing, Mr Waller said: "Where would people dance?"

He said the area had very few halls which could accommodate a large band and cater for hundreds of dancers.

"Saltburn Spa, before it became an hotel, saw an average of 800 dancers. And we never had any trouble there on New Year's Eve."

Looking back on his dance band career, Mr Waller said: "I like to see people enjoying themselves. It's been great."

* The Easter concert in March includes guest singers and a musical quiz. Tickets at £4.50 will be available soon from Kings, Saltburn.