Christmas hitmaker Jona Lewie of Stop The Cavalry fame announces Doncaster concert date

Stop The Cavalry singer Jona Lewie is drop into Doncaster for a concert in the run up to Christmas.
Singer Jona Lewie is coming to Doncaster.Singer Jona Lewie is coming to Doncaster.
Singer Jona Lewie is coming to Doncaster.

The 69-year-old singer, best known for his festive anti-war hit, will appear at The Flying Scotsman Tap on November 11 - Armistice Day.

The star's rousing brass band anthem first climbed to number three in the UK singles chart in 1980 - but has become a festive favourite every year since.

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Born John Lewis, he made his breakthrough in the 1970s and also hit the top twenty with You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties.

He joined his first group, the Johnston City Jazz Band, while still at school in 1963, and by 1968 had become a blues and boogie singer and piano player.

In 1969 he became acquainted with the blues band Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts, joining as a vocalist and piano player.

Lewie stayed with Brett Marvin until 1973, its mainstream hit single being Seaside Shuffle, another Lewie composition, released under the one-off nom de disque Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs.

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Stop the Cavalry meanwhile was only kept from number one by two re-issued songs by John Lennon, who had been murdered on 8 December 1980, the year the song was a hit.

In an interview for Channel 4's 100 Greatest Christmas Moments, Lewie said that the song was never intended as a Christmas hit, and that it was a protest song.

But the line 'Wish I was at home for Christmas' as well as the brass band arrangements made it an appropriately styled song to play around Christmas time.

Tickets for the concert are available from the Silver Street venue.