Suggs And the City: Journeys Through Disappearing London
“At the height of the craze, in the 1870s, there were 78 so-called Grand Music Halls dotted around London and more than 300 smaller venues, which makes it all the more surprising, as well as rather sad, that so few of these palaces of working-class entertainment still survive today. The great halls that housed the entertainments vanished before their historical importance had been evaluated.
Early on, Madness were described as being ‘intrinsically’ music hall and ‘quintessentially’ English. Once I realised what those words meant, that description came as something of a surprise. Back in the 60s and 70s, when I was growing up, any mention of music hall would immediately conjure up images of the rather bizarre BBC TV show The Good Old Days, which seemed to mainly involve handlebar-moustachioed fellas in stripy blazers pushing ladies on flower-festooned swings singing ‘Daisy, Daisy’. Not much competition for my TV favourites at the time, The Avengers and Batman. Bish, bash, bosh!
Write Review:
Guest
Read Also
8 / 10
User Reviews: