Sheila Tracy

Who is Sheila Tracy?

Sheila Tracy is a British musician, best known for her trombone playing, and as a broadcaster and journalist. She studied piano, violin and trombone at the Royal Academy of Music, then was a member of the Ivy Benson All Girls Band between 1956 and 1958. She then formed a vocal/trombone duo, The Tracy Sisters, who appeared in variety, on radio and television, as well as in cabaret all over the world. When the act broke up, she joined BBC Television as an announcer and worked mostly in television until 1974 when she became the first female newsreader on BBC Radio 4.

On BBC Radio 2 she devised and presented the Truckers Hour and introduced Big Band Special featuring performances by the BBC Big Band. She would sometimes join the trombone section of the band on non-broadcast concerts. She was also a regular contributor to Radio 4's Breakaway. She was also a regular presenter on Saga Radio, presenting a big band show called Swing Time with Sheila Tracy which was syndicated across the Saga network.

Among her books are Bands, Booze & Broads, a collection of her interviews with the American sidemen who played with the top bands in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s; and Talking Swing, on British musicians of the same era.