There is a distinct separation between Concert Parties and Music Hall. This division appears in the nature of the performances, the types of attendance and their reception. It is important to remember that in the pre-war era there was a distinct cultural difference between who produced and enjoyed these entertainments. Music Hall was immensely popular, but it was confined to the working classes only. The middle classes, who considered music hall to be "vulgar" were more interested in more refined concert parties. Music Hall demanded a certain amount of participation and familiarity, concert parties often involved recitals or demonstrations. This separation began to break down during the war, as entertainments slowly amalgamated aspects of each other. The cultural circumstances of the troops made the blending of these previously opposed forms of comedy much easier to achieve. This blurring of type was one which did not assert itself on the home front either during or after the war, and although wartime entertainments were still touring the country as late as the 1930’s, they were sanitized versions, censored by the audience that produced them.

Generally speaking, concert parties were more like the recitals given in small town halls at home. They were often performed by members of the civilian public, and troops still in England were often "treated" to local performances by well-meaning civilians. Attendance was often required at these events rather than being voluntary. The concert parties usually consisted of a series of "turns", involving local talents or interests, and edifying speeches directed at the troops. The Bedfordshire Times & Independent describes a fairly typical event of this kind.

By the kind thought and generosity of the members of the Wing Badminton Club, all the troops billeted in the village, were invited to a very substantial meat tea at the Hall on Boxing Day. After tea an entertainment was provided, tobacco and cigarettes were handed out to all the men in the Hall, and after the concert, coffee and cake and other eatables were provided. The Boys Scouts made themselves very useful as waiters. The entertainment included Morris dances by Miss H. Tatham’s class and songs by Mrs. T. Gale who completely won the hearts of the soldiers with "Tipperary". Captain and Mrs. Daniels gave a club swinging exhibition and Miss Adams recited "Play the Game".

Concert parties were however highly successful. When the main bulk of the army was posted abroad, several civilian troupes went with them to entertain the army. These included the YMCA, who were heavily involved in the organization of concert parties throughout the war, and Concerts at The Front. There were additionally ad hoc performances by well-meaning civilians. Private Robert Cude commented on one of these in his diary "if only I had the pluck to speak to the artists, and thank them personally, I should be satisfied. Their hearts are in the right place, for it is easier sad than done to cross the channel, and sing throughout the weekend for the troops, and I thank heaven that there are people that appreciate us for what we are doing and in return, help us to live again, if only for a few hours." (Source: The Imperial War Museum Book of the Western Front, Brown, 1993).

The civilian organized events were far more civilized affairs than the ones created by the soldiers. By 1915, many divisions had their own troupes who were largely excused from active duty and toured rest areas giving performances. These included the Follies (4^th Division), The Fancies (6^th Division) and the Bow Bells (56^th Divisional party). The army put considerable work into supporting these events, and frequently commandeered repair parties to erect halls in which to perform behind the lines. In 1917, a machine gunner reported that around the town of Arras these sites were particularly prolific.

"Within five minutes walk of our Camp no less than four large concert halls had now been erected, and every night concert Parties, belonging to the various divisions stationed on the Arras front gave first-rate concerts, to which all troops were admitted to the sum of half a franc. These concerts were greatly appreciated by our soldiers, especially after a long dreary spell of duty in the "trenches". (A. Russell, With the Machine Gun Corps, 1923, p.135).

The performances given by the soldiers were more bawdy and first hand accounts suggest that their audiences were far more appreciative of this than the more refined shows of civilian organizations. The same performance that Private Cude attended was referred to by another soldier in very dissimilar terms "I should imagine it will be awful – all YMCAs, tinkling pianos and parsons" (IWM Book of the Western Front, p.154). The civilian entertainments had a strictly middle-class theme of stirring songs and wordy recitals which the soldiers did not always appreciate. There was a cultural clash between the projected discourse of the war and the actuality of the war, which the soldiers often found uncomfortable and offensive. Army concert parties had a slightly different structure which overflowed into the themes of music hall. At this point there is a significant blend of artistic style. I shall therefore discuss the amalgamated concerts that became the standard type of performance by first explaining the ways in which music hall functioned.

By the time of the Great War, music hall was established as a major aspect of working class entertainment. Although no less tightly structured than concert parties, music hall depended more heavily on the behaviour of it’s audience as well as performers. Acts demanded more active participation in frequent asides to the crowd, the singing of familiar songs or retelling of popular jokes. Music hall was far more interactive as a staged medium, and it was this aspect as well as the images of home it evoked that ensured popularity with the troops.

Music Hall was far bawdier than the recitals. As it’s title suggests, each performance consisted of a series of popular songs and sketches. These songs ranged from highly sentimental to grossly obscene. Sketches in the army performances included parodies of army life and drag acts, which were extremely popular. Repetition of famous comedic acts, especially Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, were also popular. These songs and skits were often altered to depict aspects of army life and as such could become extremely rude or aggressive in content. The vicious satire of the Wiper’s Times dummy theatre posters give a good example of how music hall could be altered to more subversive effect. The programmes also show how much further boundaries were pushed in music hall, a trait which was not apparent in the more straightlaced concert parties.

As with all of the entertainments, it is important to remember that not everyone found them either relevant or amusing. E.J.Rule records the aversion and delight with which a battalion regarded the contrasting genres of music hall and concert party:

It is important to remember that if entertainment was not nearby, a soldier given a days leave was more likely to visit the local estaminet. The socialization of these impromptu public houses was always the most preferred activity on an evenings’ leave. However, diversity was as essential to the soldier as any other social group. As E.J.Rule points out, neither music hall nor concert parties were unanimously attended, although he does suggest that the "hot and strong" nature of the music hall act is not only attracting a larger audience (it is staged in a hangar and not the local barn), but that it is greeted with far more appreciation than the concert party next door. One of the reasons for this split was class orientated. There was a large percentage of working class men in the army who had been brought up with the tradition of music hall. The entertainments were initially organized by the officers, primarily composed of the middle classes and unintentionally but altruistically providing the sorts of entertainments that they were used to. However, the majority of soldiers were far more interested in singing bawdy songs than being treated to violin recitals. It was this class preference that drew the concert parties slowly towards the music hall style. Concerts started to adapt stylistically and this was reflected in the organized troupes, many of which originally began as impromptu performances where anyone willing had been press-ganged in doing a turn. Naturally many of these acts were based on old music hall themes copied by the soldiers. When the regiments began to organize official entertainers, they chose the most talented members of these performances to join them. Traditions of music hall were gradually melded with the straighter aspects of the concert parties as the army began to respond to demand amongst the soldiers rather than trying to produce more edifying entertainments.

The revised version of the music hall act at the front was distinctly different from those performed at home. Most of the songs were altered to army themes. Most of the romantic themes were made farcical – either by hamming or by performances by youthful soldiers in drag. Drag acts were always popular, possibly because the men were separated from mixed communities for so long, and also because it satirized elements of home life that the soldiers resented. Officers performing out of context was also a dominant feature, enforcing ideas of belonging and that officers were only human. All of these elements combined to reinforce the idea that the soldiers were part of an exclusive society with it’s own jokes and codes. The satire against the incompetence of generals, the ignorance of the home front and the ridiculousness of army life was far stronger in these performances as they were not witnessed by the home front and could therefore express far more subversive themes than anything produced for both audiences. However, although these aspects were consistently repeated throughout the forces, it is interesting that music hall bears very few references to casualties or the action of killing. In such a public area which was still partially conscious of the need for good morale, this was not considered a suitable topic for performance.

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As well as the subversion of the music hall acts, which were gradually altered to correspond and reflect the war fronts, there was also a high degree of sentimentality to the performances. Music hall encouraged communal singing of familiar songs and it encouraged idealized memories of home and the nation left behind. Although many of the songs were obscene or were altered, there was also another series of "straight" sentimental tunes which evoked the themes of the pre-war era. These songs were often romantic (The Roses of Picardy), and connoted the peaceful, domestic period before the war. Englishness was presented in less intellectualized ways than the more middle-class imagery, but drew heavily on similar ideologies. The soldier recognized these tropes from the pre-war era, finding them both comforting and morale sustaining. The songs reinforced the present community (soldiers singing together), and an imagined, idealized community (the home front in it’s pre-war years) as a motif to fight for. The familiarity of these tunes also helped to stabilize the soldiers’ feelings of displacement on the war fronts, reminding them that there was a "normal" world beyond the one in which they had become embroiled.

An indication of the popularity of music hall amongst the troops, and also the ways in which it was used to reinforce the concepts of these two communities is the repetition of the music in trench songs. Plays such as Oh! What A Lovely War! give a skewed perception of the songs the soldier sang on the march. There is more evidence from journals and letters suggesting a great deal of the songs repeated were those of music hall. Primarily this was due to memory – the soldiers sang what they could remember and the proliferation of music hall behind the line would help to reinforce their recollection. Singing was a group activity, and the more people who could remember a tune, the more would sing. Again, it was likely that the soldiers had probably heard obscene or bowdlerized versions of the songs during performances that stuck more firmly in their minds, or were repeating the more sentimental songs from home that more people remembered.

Music hall suffered a significant transition during the war. Music hall performances at home became so fatuous and jingoistic that on their return in 1918, soldiers found themselves angered and betrayed by what they saw as false and irrelevant nationalism. As a result, the traditions of music hall virtually collapsed. However, the soldiers’ own performances took a radically different direction, one that was irreverent, self- mocking and extremely subversive. J.G. Fuller summarizes this neatly, claiming that this trend was entirely necessary; "not so much a radical departure, as a response to wartime conditions based upon the popular culture in which they were steeped" (p.119). Music hall, and particularly the songs that were performed and repeated, demonstrates how much the soldiers wished to form their own community around them; one which was exclusive and idealized. Through music hall, the army not only satirized itself, but also justified itself by creating a picture of the Britain it was fighting for, one which was defined ironically and sentimentally. The paradox here was unresolvable, the soldiers at once portraying their native country as worth fighting for (encapsulating all of the pre-war ideals of nationalism, romance and purity), and a nation of ignorant, incompetent fools. In many ways music hall reflects the social tensions in the army and on the home front. Cultural change was being initiated through the distortion of the traditional performances, but at the same time it was strongly resisted – the soldiers wished to recreate both themselves and the home front in terms of pre-war ideals in order to justify what they were doing. Neiter of these attempts were entirely successful, as can be seen by the resistance to music hall after the war. The themes at the home front had not changed and tried to portray the soldier as always cheerful because of his enjoyment of traditional music hall. This overlooked the fact that the performances had been deliberately changed and distorted. Any subversion that had existed was quashed, as the nation struggled to adapt itself after the war. The myth that the army had behaved decently and bravely at all times meant that much of the bitterness and aggression that was displayed in the music hall acts at the front had to be removed. The response by the veterans to this was one of anger and offense, as acts returned to the trite and facile interpretations of the war that they had worked at so hard to disturb.

Music Hall Photographs and Playbills.

Leslie Henson's account of Concert Party Performances

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