Harry Walden, music hall Bantam
January 12, 2011
To get things started again on this here blog, I rather wanted to post this video of Harold Walden, former Bradford City footballer (and so close to my heart) turned music hall star. You won’t get today’s footballers doing this kind of thing, though the song he sings — about the vagabond lifestyle lived by players at the mercy of the transfer market — is still fitting. I like how spectacularly unchoreographed and awkward the whole thing is.
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I have a 78rpm record of Harold Walden singing comic songs, “Ronnie the Robin” b/w “And only me knows why”, on the Imperial label (Imperial 2589).
Ronnie the Robin would probably be banned these days for its theme of pederasty (Small boy and school mistress).
One day I’ll probably manage to turn it into an MP3. In which case I’ll post it on the internet somewhere.
That sounds like a gem that you have there – do publicise well if you happen to put it on the internet!
I have now turned the cassette recording of the 78 into .wav format, and will MP3 it today
http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/November%201939/29/794223/MISCELLANEOUS+AND+DANCE+Orchestral#header-logo
This page mentions a second recording by Walden ;
[ Harold Walden (from Ernest Binns' Arcadian Follies), Mother I'm a soldier and Only me knows why (Parlo. F1552)]
Magnificent! Thanks for sharing.
I’ve amended the Wikipedia entry today with the new information.
I have now uploaded the 2 songs to my Myspace account, in the name of misterjohn, so you may be able to listen at last.