A Concert-in-a Turn - The Honris (Narrated by Peter Honri) (1974)

This post gives those with an interest in the history of music hall a chance to sample a wonderful book about the remarkable Honri family. It’s called Working the Halls by Peter Honri. Like many such books on the subject, it’s now out of print, but this post is a chance for you to read a few excerpts and listen to tracks from the accompanying flexidisc, called Concert-in-a Turn.

ABOVE: Sickert’s Old-Fashioned Mother Of Mine, a portrait of Talbot O’Farrell, in etching and pastel form, respectively.

It features a loving preface (or ‘Overture’) by Spike Milligan which laments the fact that “a few etchings and paintings by Sickert are the only colourful evidence we have of a great age”, a period “that began with gas-lit stages and ended in the tense days before World War II”.

Sickert’s Brighton Pierrots

But the book is not a lament over a dead era. Rather, it begins as it means to go on, with a sensitive yet unmawkish recreation of the mechanics of the music hall era:

With a flurry of cymbals and a final roll of the tymps, the overture ends. The musical director turns to face the spotlights that until now have played on his back, and smilingly acknowledges the clapping audience. He has broken through the slight air of stiffness that every audience has as it settles down to an evening’s entertainment. He nods to some of the regulars; after all, he and most of the band are local men.

Honri comes from a long line of music hall performers and proprietors, the book lovingly documenting, in pictures and text, over a half-century of their songs, costumes, records, films and venues.

It is full of marvellous asides, such as this digression about clowns and clowning:

One day, a doctor, not knowing who Grimaldi was, said to him regarding his low spirits: “I would recommend you see Grimaldi”.
The patient replied: “I am Grimaldi.”

Here is a still from the 1901 film Mister Moon, which featured the author’s grandfather Percy Honri as a huge moon-faced banjo player:

It’s still available to view at the British Film Institute. (There are links to the other Honri appearances on YouTube below.)

At the centre of Percy Honri’s career was his 1906 show Concordia, which featured various innovations, including revolving scenery and a film sequence:

There were six sets of each costume worn by Percy and his assistants. Each set was of a different colour so that each day’s audience would see the fantasy in a different hue [...] Percy Honri played it in various guises for twelve years!

In 1911, a reader of the Daily Chronicle with a Romantic bent called it

A true psychological treatment of the Spirit of a dream. [...] Concordia is the most original and poetic sketch upon the Variety Stage.

I have only photographs at my disposal to illustrate this, but I feel the images below give you a sense of its power, and what ended with the First World War.

A still from Percy Honri’s musical fantasy revue Concordia.

Another still from Concordia (1906). (Click to enlarge.)

A humble Percy Honri turns his back to the camera and holds his concertina up for inspection.

Mary and Percy Honri: a sort of Fred and Ginger of the concertina.
Except a related Fred and Ginger. (Percy was Mary’s father.)

01 - I’m A Jolly Old Jester - Percy Honri

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02 - Peter Honri Introduction - The Happy Darkies - Percy Honri & Fred Gaisberg -
(The First Flat Disc Record) (1898)

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03 - The Happy Darkies - Percy Honri & Fred Gaisberg - The First Flat Disc Record (1948)

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04 - A Typical Music Hall Comedy Routine - Percy and Mary Honri 

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05 - Busking

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06 - Song from Johannesburg - Mary & Percy Honri (1938)

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07 - Poor Marlene's Boyfriend - Mary Honri (1944)

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08 - A Concert-in-a-Turn - Percy Honri (1949)

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09 - I’m A Jolly Old Jester - Percy Honri

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10 - Concordia March - Percy Honri

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11 - The Old Toby Jug - Mary Honri

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12 - The Lost Chord - Percy and Mary Honri

(I presume the tracks without dates are from 1949, but this might be wrong.)

                                                                   APPENDIX                                                                   

There is another post about the Arthur Sullivan song ‘The Lost Chord’ here.

Other accordion-related posts can be found here and here.

Peter Honri, the author (below), can be seen in this scene from Oliver! playing a tiny concertina.

Here is a clip of Percy Honri performing in the 1934 film Lily of Killarney.

Another little YouTube gem: Percy & Mary Honri playing Gipsy Violin (Chiswick Empire, 1936).