Music Hall Memories - Article

Heavy Woollen District
Music Hall Memories

During the Industrial Revolution in 18th Century England the textile, coal, iron and steel industries expanded rapidly. This led to an unprecedented growth in population of the industrial heartland of Northern England. The populations of these towns were swelled by the influx of thousands of rural workers from England and Ireland, who flocked to the booming mill towns and cities seeking employment.

Many of the incoming workers settled in the industrial areas of the West Riding and the populations of
Leeds, Bradford, and Sheffield, and all the major West Riding towns increased rapidly. To cater for and supply affordable entertainment for the new urban working classes Music Halls were built.

An evening at the music hall provided respite from the long days spent working in dangerous mines, hot,
humid, dust filled mills and factories. For a few hours they could be entertained by a variety of acts and
escape their workday trials and tribulations.

The Hippodrome, Foundry St, Dewsbury, circa 1910.
Image credit: Mr Fred Hartley, Kirklees Image Archive

During the early 19th century the Heavy Woollen District of Yorkshire, located around the towns of Dewsbury, Batley, Heckmondwike and Ossett, was one of the key textile centres in Yorkshire, so it was well served with Music Halls. There were four in total. ‘The Theatre Royal’, Theatre Lane, Bradford Street, Dewsbury built in 1865, ‘The Hippodrome’, Foundry Street, Dewsbury 1891, ‘The Empire Palace’, Wakefield Road, Dewsbury 1909, and ‘The Palace Theatre’, Heckmondwike.

Music Hall attendances had been in decline steadily before the First World War, banning the sale of drinks in them in 1923, plus the development of the gramophone, birth of radio, and the advancement of cinemas, didn’t halt the decline. They tried to re brand themselves as ‘Variety, but the advances of television entertainment in the early 1950s put paid to that.

Following the closure of the Music Halls, the sing-a longs moved into the pubs. In the 1940s these evolved into the pub pianist led singsongs, where classic songs from the music halls, World War 1 and 2, and other popular songs from across the decades were sung. They were much alike the traditional ‘Cockney Knees Ups’ in London public houses.

The licencees, to drum up custom on Saturday on Sunday nights, started employing pub pianists to lead the singing. It obviously worked, as they became extremely popular locally with the customers.
Several of these sessions were still prevalent in the Heavy Woollen District in the late 1960s when I moved there.

The Old Wine and Spirit Vaults, Birstall.

Ronnie Smith played piano on Saturday night at the Old Wine and Spirits Vaults, Birstall, where I ran my Folk Club, and at the White Hart, Gomersal, near Cleckheaton on Sundays. Jack Holroyd was the
pianist at the Cockersdale Arms, Gildersome on Sundays. Another pianist played at the Star Inn, Robertown on Sundays also. A lady called Ivy played piano, and piano accordion, on Saturdays at the
Shoulder of Mutton Batley Carr, see ‘Saturday Night at the Shoulder’.

Most of the singers at the Vic on a Sunday Night seemed to have a store of short Music Hall songs in their repertoire, which they usually sang as medleys. First and foremost was Marion McClune, whose
father ‘trod the boards’ of the West Riding Music Halls.

Bob Woodhead, who learnt most of his songs from his father Herbert, had quite a few ‘ditties’ as he was wont to call them, and in the following section I’ve included a medley of my own which originally were three short separate songs.

Marion McClune's Music Hall Medley

The Sunday night sessions at ‘The Vic’ finished when the pub was closed in the 1970s for extensive refurbishment. The breweries, in the name of progress, had a fondness for changing existing small Victorian multi-roomed public houses into bland one-roomed establishments.

I was told that some of the Vic’s Sunday night regulars had moved round the corner to the Lord Nelson on a Sunday Night, so I decided to pay a visit to see what if anything was happening.

On the night I went, there were a few people in the bar area, and in the ‘best room’ there was only Marion McClune with a lady friend, plus Brenda the Waitress. On weekend nights the ‘best room’ was waiter service only, it cost a copper or two more for the privilege of having the drinks delivered to you at your table. After we had chatted for a while, I asked Marion about the Music Hall songs she had learned from her father, who had performed them on the West Riding Music Hall circuit. She sang me a real mixture of mainly snatches of songs covering a wide range of topics. From the comical ‘Bigamy Liz’, through to the plainly sentimental ‘Baby Blew a Bubble’, between songs of love and courtship, and ditties about every-day situations and life in general. Many of these ditties are variants of the chorus of much longer songs that were popular in Music Halls in their time.

The Music Hall always offered popular songs with catchy tunes and memorable singable choruses, and the verses were secondary. The song writers, composers and lyricists who wrote these songs did a sterling job, looking at how long these choruses have lingered on in popular memory.

The Gramophone - a wind-up machine for playing disc records, derived its name from the company that launched it in 1898, the ‘Gramophone Company’.

Come round and hear my gramophone

Come round and hear my gramophone
Come round and hear its lovely tune
I've got a merry widow, waiting for you
Sweet Carolina, Bridget McCue.
It's up an down the middle
And he's playing on his fiddle
Worra with his big trombone Ta-ra-ra-!
We're all right, merry and bright
And we don’t give a bugger, if we're out all night
Come round and hear my gramophone

The Crystal Palace, built 1851

I went to Crystal Palace

For I went to Crystal Palace, my lads
And then I went to the Zoo
I saw lots of lions and tigers there
And Jumbo number two
For I'd lots of money
I felt so funny
I spent it like a man
And afore so long
I'm bahn again t'Lundun.

In the late 1800s a trip up to London was not complete without a visit to see the wonders of ‘The Crystal Palace’, and ‘London Zoo’. The young Yorkshire lad in this ditty was suitably impressed. Jumbo was London Zoo's first Giant African Elephant, it was sold by the Zoo in 1882 to the ‘Barnum and Bailey's Circus’. Jumbo No.2 in the song, one assumes, was the second African elephant the Zoo acquired a female named Alice.

Old Illustration of woman in a giant shoe with lots of children

I'm Bigamy Liz

I'm Bigamy Liz, I'm bigamy Liz,
For if I aint Married, well nobody is.
I've husbands in America,
I've husbands in Siam,
Five out there in the Argentine
The others are in Japan.
I know a woman,
Who lived down in a shoe,
She had so many children
She didn't know what to do.
She put some in the navy
The others are in the Zoo
Gee whiz, I'm bigamy Liz!

This comical little song about the joys of bigamy seems to be a complete ditty. In all my searches,
I’ve not been able to find any information about it, or any other versions.

Down our street

Down our street there was a blooming riot
Five and twenty girls are waiting there
And the police they couldn't keep em quiet
For you know, they wont go
Down to Leicester Square
For me, for me, there waiting there for me
But they'll have to wait
Till their nose turns red
A fiver into a black mans head
Ya ha, ya hee, were not coming back you see
For it anybody knows, a thing or two
It's me, me, me, me, me!

This is the first verse, with a few word changes, of a song entitled, ‘For Me, For Me’, written in 1895 by Harry Wincott and Joseph Tabrar and performed by Fred Earle. The song is all about oneupmanship and being one step ahead of the game, the original words were:

Down our street, there is a blooming riot
Five and twenty girls are waiting there
And the Police, they cannot keep them quiet
They won't go, for, you know, every maiden fair.
Chorus
For me, for me, she's waiting there for me
They can wait 'til a man can swear
There's not a tart near Leicester Square
Ha ha, he he, I'm not going there, you see
If anyone knows a trick or two, 'tis me, me, me!

Illustration and old photo of two music halls

The Alhambra and the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square

Two of the largest and most famous London Music Halls were in Leicester Square, The Alhambra Palace Music Hall built in 1860, and The Empire Theatre of Varieties built in 1884 which opened as a music hall in 1887.

Both were notorious for the ‘Ladies of the Night’ (tarts) who plied their trade in the galleries.

Cover for sheet music with man in top hat and Big Ben

Front cover of the original sheet music, from The Spellman Collection of Victorian Music Covers, University of Reading.

The Clock Struck One

The clock struck, one, two, three, four
Jones waiting in the rain
For his darling Martha Jane
Waiting, waiting, till half past ten
Underneath the shadow of Great Big Ben.

This is the Chorus of a song called, ‘Big Ben Struck One’ sung by Arthur Lennard and published by Francis, Day & Hunter 1897.

Photo of a man in a bowler hat with a penny whistle

Harry Champion

We've All Been Having a Go At It

For we've all been having a go at it
All been having a go at it.
Somebody, had the wings and toes
I had a rub at the parsons nose
Oh good gracious, didn't we make a show
There was seventeen of us, besides myself
And we've all been having a go.

This is the chorus of first verse the song ‘We’ve All Been Having A Go at It’ written in 1896 and performed by Harry Champion. The verse relates to the terrible fuss caused when the lodgers brought home a chicken home for mother to cook, and everyone to consume. This was typical of the London born comedian, who had a proclivity for performing songs with a culinary flavour. The songs, ‘Boiled Beef and Carrots’, ‘Hot Meat Pies, Saveloys and Trotters’ and ‘A Little Bit of Cucumber’ were all from his repertoire. He was also famous for ‘Any
Old Iron’, and ‘I’m Henry the Eighth I Am’.

Original Broadsheet

All Along the Rails

All along the rails, singing a lively song,
Shouting out the chorus of every song we sung.
Oh, we laughed, we chaffed, we sang out fairy tales
Playing the harp at two in the morning,
All along the rails.

A men-only song and supper club.

In the assembly rooms of the Georgian Taverns, musical gatherings flourished. They were bawdy, late night men-only, drinking dens. To hide the true nature of them, they were often called ‘Glee Clubs’ or ‘Harmonic Societies’, where more affluent middle class men would enjoy a night out on the town.

This short ditty from Marian is almost the same as the chorus of the original much longer song, which was sung by Charles Deane. The date, writer and composer of the original are unknown. The full version of the song relates the adventures and consequences of a visit to such an establishment.

For the full set of words see broadsheet, in the University of
Mississippi, Kenneth S. Goldstein Collection:
Broadside Ballads. Unknown, Author, Broadside Ballads:
England. 1271.

Bob Woodhead's Mainly Music Hall Ditties

Bob sang me a trio of ditties which he always sang as a medley, they appear to be snippets of much
longer original songs. They all come from the Music Hall Tradition and were written and first recorded
in the early 1900s.

This is part of a much longer song with tune and lyrics by Noel Gay 1931 and was originally first performed and recorded by Billy Williams and his Orchestra, and also Ciceley Courtneidge. It was covered more recently by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band in 1969.

This appears to be part of a much longer song entitled, ‘ I dont work for a living’, first recorded in 1930 by Frankie Marvin.

Painting of a captain on a ship in rough sea

The Captain Said I’ll Stick to my Ship

The Captain said ‘I’ll stick to my ship’
So we stuck him on deck with glue.
The mate was weighing the anchor for
Somebody's buying old iron ashore
All the crew was gasping
It was a dreadful scene
The cabin boy come back without any beer
And said he was not fourteen.

This was the chorus of a song by the same name, written by F.W. Carter and R.P. Weston and performed by Dennis J. McCarthy in 1903. It was also known as ‘ The Silly Sailors Song’.

Tim Moloney

Tim Moloney was an acrobat
In a Barnum and Bailey show
He was jumping from a trapeze one day
Into a net below
But Tim was saved by a miracle
And this is how it came to pass
All that day he'd been supping ginger beer
And got blown up with gas
He floated around the air
Just like a toy balloon
If it hadn't have been for his fathers clogs
He'd have gone right over the moon.

This appears to be the only one of Bob's ditties that is not part of an early 1900s popular longer song, but a stand alone verse composed by someone unknown.

The Barnum & Bailey Circus was an American travelling circus company, billed as ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’. In the early 1870s both P.T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey ran two separate rival circuses until 1881 when they decided to join forces. The new combined show was known as the Barnum & Bailey Show. When Barnum died in 1891, Bailey ran the show until his death in 1906.

The circus, ‘The Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth’, was then purchased in 1907 by another circus family the Ringling Brothers. They ran two circuses separately until they combined the two shows in 1919. The new amalgamated circus was called the ‘ Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows’. The circus managed to survive the 1930,s Great Depression and ran continuously until it was wound up as recently as May 21, 2017.

Mick's Mainly Music Hall Medley

This medley was originally three short separate songs I learned from different singers in the early 1970s. Over the years, as I sang them, they naturally blended with one another and combined to make one longer song, or medley. In recent years when performing them, I have usually introduced them fictitiously as ‘My Music Hall Medley’. I don’t think any of them were actually Music Hall songs, but they all mainly live up to the criteria of them. In that they are all comic in nature, slightly risqué, quite suggestive, have lively tunes, are highly singable and have good easily remembered choruses.

I’ve written them down here as three individual songs for ease of publication.

My Little White Mouse

Ever since I was a lad of three
I‘ve been fond of animals you see.
Cats and dogs live in our house
But my best friend is my little white mouse
Every day I takes him with me everywhere I go
Last Saturday night at a local dance the M.C. shouted Joe!
Tha munt pull it aht in ‘ere lad
Tha munt pull it aht in ‘ere
I am surprised at a man like thee
Carryin’ that there thing wi’ thee
Th’ad better keep it in thi
Or by my words I fear,
All the girls ahll want to stroke thi little white mouse
An’ tha munt pull it aht in ‘ere.

I can’t really recall who I learned this ditty from, but I have a sneaking feeling that I picked it up from the singing of my good friend Bill Price. I’m almost sure he performed it a time or two at Dewsbury Folk Club and Batley Raggers Folk Club in the 1970s, or when we ran the Green Dragon Folk Club in Wakefield in 1968.

Oh Sebastian

Oh Sebastian, you’ve got such a nasty un,
Take it off an’ throw it into the sea
I’ve seen spotty ones,
Bright coloured and dotty ones
But yours too big for me
How you got it an’ where you got it
To me don’t mean a thing
How you walk it and how you talk it
You’ll hear the ladies sing
Oh Sebastian, you’ve got such a nasty un,
Take it off an’ throw it into the sea,
I mean your bowtie,
Take it off an’ throw it into the sea !

I picked up this ditty from Kathy Lyons, singing it with her mother Marian, at the Sunday night singing sessions at the Victoria Hotel, Carlinghow, Batley. I remember that they always sang it as the first part of one of their many medleys. They always followed it with it with the chorus and a couple of verses of 'Abe, Abe, Abe, My Boy', and this segued into 'Roll a Silver Dollar Down upon the Ground'.

Illustration of woman in period dress with yoyo

French Lady with Yo Yo, circa 1890.

Show Me Your Yo-yo Tonight

Show me your yo-yo tonight, when the lights are low
Show me your yo-yo tonight, swing it too and fro.
Oh, what a surprise, dangling before my eyes
Will you or won’t you? Oh, please say you will.
Show me your yo-yo tonight.
All together now in chorus.
Show me your yo-yo tonight, when the lights are low
Show me your yo-yo tonight, swing it too and fro.
Oh, what a surprise, dangling before my eyes
Will you or won’t you? Oh, please say you will.
Show me your yo-yo tonight.

This little ditty was regularly sung by a singer called Donald Garforth at the ‘Free and Easies at the Nash’, Batley Irish Democratic League Club.

Free and Easies usually happened if the club’s members didn’t like the booked act, ‘the turn’ would be paid off halfway through the evening. The club members would then perform the second half of the evening themselves. Some liked to be accompanied by Michael, the club's regular organist, but others preferred to sing ‘baht’ as they said.

Donald’s performance and on-stage dexterous suggestive use of the microphone was always greeted with howls of laughter by the Club members in the audience.

Another little rude ditty I picked up on my travels was ‘Farmer Brown’s Cow’, I learnt it in the mid 1960s from Rennie Pickles, one of the founders of Bradford’s Topic Folk Club and member of Cropper Lads Folk Song Group. Rennie said that one of his kids was sent home for singing it in the school playground.

I don’t know if it was ever performed on the halls or not, but it feels like it should have been.

Farmer Brown's Cow

Farmer Brown’s cow went thphttt! against the wall
Thphttt! against the wall
Thphttt! against the wall
Thphttt! against the wall
Farmer Brown’s cow went thphttt! against the wall
And you couldn’t see the wall for
Thphttt…! Thphttt…! Thphttt…!

(Thphttt! - The sound of blowing a raspberry.)

About Mick

Mick Haywood is a traditional folk singer & folk song collector who has run and organised folk clubs and festivals for many years. He now lives in Whitby, North Yorkshire.

Mick Haywood's Mainly Yorkshire Miscellany

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