Introduction
Recommended books on Music Hall
Links
Copyright
(Links to performers)
The heyday of the British Music Hall was from the 1890s up to the
second World War. It was the most popular form of entertainment
for
ordinary people, at least until sound films began in the late
1920s.
Most of the leading music hall performers made gramophone records,
and I am making a small selection of recordings available as mp3
files:
you should be able to play them within the web page they appear
on. If you would like to download them you can do so from this page.
The recordings, some of which are over 100 years old, are
inevitably
rather noisy: I've carried out some digital noise reduction though
a
fair amount of noise remains.
I have written some technical notes on the reproduction of 78 rpm records.
I have written a separate page listing recommended books on music hall.
The British Music Hall Society "strives to preserve the history of Music Hall and Variety, and to recall the artistes who were part of that scene. It also continues to actively support and encourage the entertainers of the Present." Members receive a copy of the Society's own magazine - "The CALL BOY" - which is published four times a year
COPYRIGHT
To the best of my knowledge and belief all the audio
material
included on this site is in the public domain. The recordings
are
certainly all old enough to be out of copyright and I have
researched
the rights on the material where possible and confirmed that the
copyright has lapsed. Anyone feeling they have a legitimate
claim on
the performance right of any item should
me and if their
claim seems valid I will remove the item in question pending
investigations.
Roger Wilmut