My name’s Bob, and I've come to tell you about the York Dance Band. Now, if you want to have a good family party, like a wedding or an important birthday, and you want all your guests to dance after dinner, then don’t book a noisy disco. Have a live band instead. We play all kinds of dance music, including songs that every age group, from teenagers to grandmothers, can dance to.

The band is made up of all sorts of different people - none of us full-time musicians. We have a doctor, two English teachers, a retired journalist and the band leader owns a hotel. Although none of us has any musical training at all, what we all share is a love of playing this sort of music as a hobby.

That’s why, for your party, tell us the type of music you like best; and that's what we’ll play. We mostly play songs from the 1970s, but we know lots of more modern songs, and some older ones too! If you have a request for a special song, tell us about a week before the actual day, and we’ll make sure we find the music and bring it with us.

The band has been together for ten years, but I only joined six years ago, when they decided to increase the number of members from eight to twelve. I was looking for a band to join, and a friend of mine saw an advertisement in the local paper and persuaded me to apply.

Before I joined, the band didn’t have a separate singer, but they realised they needed one. They chose me because I've always enjoyed getting up and singing in front of an audience, and people say I’ve got a good voice. I’ve been in bands before, I even played guitar rather badly in one, but this band is easily the best. I even enjoy the practices.

We sometimes meet to practise in a room behind a hotel. It’s nice because often when we finish practising a piece, we hear the guests in the nearby hotel restaurant clapping. Occasionally we play at weddings and other parties, but we also perform every Friday evening on a cruise boat that takes tourists up and down the river in York. Everyone has a very good time. We've also just recorded a CD of our favourite songs ... in fact I’ll just play a little ...