Sid Millward

Millward was the leader of The Nitwits, a band that played unusual versions of classic songs, usually in a humorous way. He was raised in the East End but left school in his teens to play music. By 1936 he was one of the top saxophonists in the country and his new band debuted in 1937 at the Paramount Cinema. At this time they played the music in a more traditional way with Sid doubling on clarinet. During the war he was the bandleader at London's Cafe Anglais. He also served as part of Ensa, the Entertainments National Service Association. After the war he performed at the Albert Hall and on the radio show Ignorance is Bliss. In the late Forties, he incorporated wilder versions of the hits into the act as well as sight gags with comedians like Cyril Lagey and Charlie Rossi. In the fifties, the band performed in clubs, on TV and in the movies, both in England and America. In the early sixties they worked at the Paris Lido, and then on to the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas in 1962. There The Nitwits played on and off for the rest of the decade to standing ovations. They also spent six weeks at the London Palladium in 1967 opening for Tom Jones. By that time, Millward had suffered several heart attacks, but continued to perform with the group in tails and spats waving a baton as the conductor, but no longer playing the clarinet. He lived in Vegas at that time, but died in a hotel room in Puerto Rico and was buried in an unmarked grave.