Peas and Queues

If you come back to On Centre Stage (OCS) from time to time you’ll discover that I have three great passions in life, the history of the British theatre and its ugly sister (but really beautiful)  music hall, the musical theatre and 1950s’ rock ‘n’ roll.

An odd ball collection perhaps, but hopefully that will make OCS unpredictable. This is my little corner of my cyber paradise, but I never loose sight of the fact that if I want an audience, I have also to engage and entertain.

Lloyd, and I guess music hall in general, was that she understood the halls were all about connecting with the people, the real working people, and holding up a mirror to their hopes, fears and aspirations etc.

If you want an insight into the social history of England around the late 19^th century and early 20^th century take a close look at the music hall during that period. The down-to-earth human stoy was all there. 

I mean, for instance, Coster songster and showman Gus Elens’ ‘If It Wasn’t for the Ouses In Between’, must rank as one of the  first social environmental impact studies? . Take a look.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1GmDA8FU9w

I decided that this song was so important I'd add a few lyrics. 

IF IT WASN'T FOR THE 'OUSES IN BETWEEN

(Edgar Bateman / George LeBrunn)

Gus Elen - 1899

If you saw my little backyard

"Wot a pretty spot", you'd cry

It's a picture on a sunny summer day

Wiv the turnip tops and cabbages

Wot people doesn't buy

I makes it on a Sunday look all gay

The neighbours finks I grow 'em,

And you'd fancy you're in Kent

Or at Epsom if you gaze into the mews

It's a wonder as the landlord

Doesn't want to raise the rent

Because we have such nobby distant views

Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden

And Chingford to the Eastward could be seen

Wiv a ladder and some glasses

You could see to 'Ackney Marshes

If it wasn't for the 'ouses in between

Marie’s contribution came when she tackled the wowsers (that’s an Aussie word for folk who want to put fun on the backburner) who were keen to dismantle the great music hall tradition (American readers note that's the UK's version of vaudeville).

Marie fronted up a morals committee in the 1890s (they wanted to close the people’s entertainment for goodness sake) and gave the performance of her life.

She did the saucy music hall favourite, She Sits among the Cabbages and Peas (get it) like it was a lovely middle- class ballad and Come into the Garden Maud (a genuine middle-class frontroom favourite) as if it were an invite to a lustful you-know-what.

(In another version of the above story I have been told she sang two music hall songs straight-faced, Oh! Mr Porter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1XxG33PE3k

and A Little Bit of What You Fancy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihOqdfwbCPw
,
and the Come Into the Garden, Maud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-rv4YiTg8U shocked the committee into silence. Bet that was a relief all around!)

In the next few days I am going to post a  farting story from the music hall, which, at the time, was considered a great entertainment.

A 19^th century French fartiste was one of the most successful performers on the European music hall stage, being paid heaps, and playing for the crown heads of Europe.

In the coming soon category I also have something on a new Australian play and, as the year rolls by, the Brisbane theatre scene just gets more exciting.