OBVIOUSLY no-one warned them, but the The Glenn Miller Orchestra is booked to play the Canberra Theatre on the ACT election night, October 20. 

Nevertheless, the concert spectacular promises to take our minds off party politics with a sentimental journey down memory lane – long before self government – on the eve of the 75th anniversary of American bandleader Glenn Miller’s death over the English Channel during World War II.

The show features, of course, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, The Moonlight Serenade Singers and The Broadway Swing Dancers.

The orchestra will be playing the original Glenn Miller arrangements, the music of The Andrews Sisters, the Frank Sinatra Songbook and romantic World War II melodies made famous by Vera Lynn.

Bandleader and musician Glenn Miller inspired the World War II generation and boosted morale with his many popular songs. He formed the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1937, which immediately attracted attention and big crowds to venues, and a series of recordings followed.

On February 11, 1941 Miller was presented with the first gold record for “Chattanooga Choo-Choo”.

In 1942, at the peak of his civilian career, Miller decided to join the war effort. At 38, he was too old to be drafted, he persuaded the US Army to accept him so he could, in his own words, “be placed in charge of a modernised Army band”.

In 1944 Miller mysteriously disappeared while flying over the English Channel from London to Paris.