Music Hall - Top Of The Bill

More music hall songs from the late 1800's and early 1900's on a double LP on EMI. It claims to have been digitally re-mastered but still sounds very scratchy to me. One wonders what it was like before!

Wikipedia says of Gus Elen-

"Gus Elen began his career busking, and found a position singing in a minstrel troupe. His solo success began with the coster songs, sung in 1891 at the Middlesex Music Hall[2], when his comedy partner, a man named Daniels, died in a boating accident. They had performed a 'blackface' comedy act, but solo he performed cockney songs and sketches as a 'coster' comedian, dressed in the clothes of a poor East End costermonger, coming himself from a similar background. In an interview, given after he had become a star, he said,
“ Years before I entered the ranks of music hall performers proper, I used to contribute to the programmes of the weekly sing songs held at such places as 'Poppy Lords' in Lisson Grove; the 'Magpie and Stump', Battersea; or the 'George Street Recital Hall'. At the last named hall, the salaries ranged from a shilling to three and sixpence a night with a cup of coffee and a bun thrown in by way of refreshment. In those days I often filled in a season on the 'waxeys' (on the seaside) at Margate and Ramsgate in a Negro minstrel troupe ”
—in Vaudeville, Old and New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America
Elen was praised as an "authentic cockney from the poor streets" and was well known for his involvement in personally organized charity events. For many years he and his wife distributed free christmas gifts to the poor in public."



Miss Vesta Victoria - Now I Have To Call Him Father

Mr. Gus Elen - It's A Great Big Shame

Mr. Gus Elen - If It Wasn't For The 'Ouses In Between

Miss Marie Lloyd - That's How The Little Girl Got On

Mr. Alex Hurley - 'Arry 'Arry 'Arry

Mr. Herbert Campbell - Up I Came With My Little Lot