British Music Hall - C/D, S &D?

What a great thread - one 'Pop' artist who hasn't been mentioned with, I think, a fair Music Hall streak in his work is Richard Thompson - with a squint it's easy to imagine 'I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight' or 'New Saint George' being sung in variety. Currently listening to a record on Topic, from 1978,by the New Victory Band, which (re-) combines music hall and country dance tunes in a pleasant way

DJ Yoda does something cool and clever with 'if you want to know the time ask a policeman' by george formby on his album 'how to cut n patse volume 2' (track 22). scratching here and there, few beats behind it. dead good.

also his myspace says
"Admired for his originality as well as his sense of fun, he is possibly the only DJ in the world who can fill a club cutting George Formby with Jurassic 5..."

sounds awesome

would be better if he left out the jurassic 5 part though

Caught a 1968 documentary on music hall on the (UK) Performance channel last week called 'A Little of What You Fancy'. Worth looking out for for the historical material and footage, but there's also some amazing contemporary 1968 stuff comparing Carnaby Street fashions with Victorian Dandyism.

There are also songs from the Player's Theatre, who did music hall revival shows at the time and may well have fed into the music hall influence on Brit-psych. Fans of British comedy will be amused to see a young Barry Cryer as MC, looking very sharp in a frock coat and cravat. Performance channel tends to repeat everything, so this should come round again.

there was some MH featured on andrew marr's history of modern britain programme on bbc 2 the other day. sounded good. shame it isnt regarded better in this country.

Would someone more knowledgeable than I be so kind as to attempt a definition, please? I think of it as singalong tin pan alley in a straight major key, or alternatively as cheeky folk music with brass.

it's British pop music before importing rock&roll and before widespread uptake of television.

or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_hall#History_of_the_songs

I wasn't sure if the songs were part of shows; standards performed by the big acts of the day (the big acts being what, solo singers? orchestras?); or even if they were sheet music performed in the home. Your link suggests the second of these.

Strongly recommend Leslie Sarony's Ain't It Grand To Be Bloomin' Well Dead (Parts I and II).

xp it would have been a variety show, so the big act could be a singer (more likely an all-round entertainer), but equally a magician or who/whatever else was popular.

Of course it would, it's obvious now you say it - hence the Royal Variety Show, and the Beatles being booked with conjurers and performing dogs when they first got big.