Sunday Night is Music Night

Original version

BBC Radio 2 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Light Programme.

BBC Radio 2

Radio 2

Vernon Kay

Music

Entertainment

Making your mid-mornings memorable, Vernon's bringing big tunes, big names and big laughs.

Vernon Kay: D-Day 80: A Concert Commemorating the Normandy Landings

Performances & Events

D-Day 80 - A Concert Commemorating the Normandy Landings

D-Day 80: A Concert Commemorating the Normandy Landings

BBC Radio 2 - Vernon Kay, D-Day 80: A Concert Commemorating the Normandy Landings

Vernon Kay with the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Big Band at Portsmouth's Guildhall.

Vernon Kay with the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Big Band and special guests performing some of the best loved and most enduring music of that era at Portsmouth's Guildhall.

As dawn broke on the morning of the 6th of June 1944, hundreds of Allied Warships made their way towards the coast of Northern France. D-Day had finally arrived. Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare, was underway, heralding one of the most decisive campaigns of World War 2. More than 150,000 troops would land on 5 beaches in Normandy.

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Radio 2 marks this occasion with a special concert from Portsmouth's Guildhall. Presented by Vernon Kay and featuring the combined musical forces of the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Big Band performing some of the best-loved and most enduring music of that era.

Featuring classic film scores including The Longest Day, Attack on the Iron Coast, A Bridge Too Far and Band of Brothers. Musicians also played an important role during those times, most notably Glenn Miller’s United States Army Air Force Band. They arrived in England in 1944, and over the next year, would make more than 500 broadcasts and 300 live performances attended by more than one million military personnel. Among their classics to be performed are In The Mood, Tail End Charlie and Moonlight Serenade.

The concert also features guests, including the acclaimed soul voices of Vanessa Haynes and Tony Momrelle, who perform some of the biggest hits of 1944, including Duke Ellington’s Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me, Louis Jordan’s Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby and Nat ‘King’ Cole’s Straighten Up And Fly Right. 9-piece vocal ensemble The D-Day Darlings revisit those Vera Lynn favourites, We’ll Meet Again and The White Cliffs of Dover, and singer / pianist Kate Garner takes a nostalgic look back at Now Is The Hour and I’m Gonna Get Lit Up When The Lights Go Up In London.

During the interval Jacob Millin tells the story of his grandfather Bill Millin, the D-Day piper of Sword Beach.

Amazing music. Played by an amazing line up.

Radio 2: Amazing music. Played by an amazing line-up. The home of great music, entertainment and documentaries

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Vernon Kay

D-Day 80: A Concert Commemorating the Normandy Landings

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC Radio 2

About BBC Radio 2