After early experience as a viola player, the British composer Eric Coates turned his attention to light music, a field in which he won a considerable reputation.

Orchestral Music

Coates won early fame with his march Knightsbridge, adopted as a signature tune for a popular radio programme, and the nowadays even more familiar By a Sleepy Lagoon. A series of marches, including The Dam Busters written for the film of that name, have found a ready market in wind-band repertoire.

Vocal Music

Coates left some hundred carefully crafted songs, many of them familiar to light-music audiences.