Tom Costello (born Thomas Costellow, 30 April 1863 – 8 November 1943) was a music hall comedian and singer.
His birthplace is variously given as Birmingham [1] or Ireland. [2] He worked as an engraver before making his first stage appearance in Wolverhampton in 1883, and later the same year started performing in music halls in Bedford and south London. One of his earliest successes was in performing William J. Scanlan's song "My Nellie's Blue Eyes", which was soon parodied by Charles Coborn as "Two Lovely Black Eyes". Costello performed in pantomimes, but increasingly specialised in black humour, such as "At Trinity Church I Met My Doom" and "His Funeral's Tomorrow", and sentimental and patriotic ballads such as the stirring "Comrades", a story of friendship between two old soldiers written by Felix McGlennon, which became Costello's signature song. [1] [2]
He continued to have a lengthy career in pantomime, and in the 1920s toured with his own variety company. He recorded a medley of his most famous songs in 1933. He died, aged 80, in London in 1943 [1] and was buried in Streatham Park Cemetery.
Declan Patrick MacManus OBE, known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including Grammy Awards in 1999 and 2020, and has twice been nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male Artist. In 2003, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Costello number 80 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Joseph Tabrar was a prolific English writer of popular music hall songs. His song "Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow" (1892) became Vesta Victoria's first major popular success.
Matilda Alice Victoria Wood, professionally known as Marie Lloyd, was an English music hall singer, comedian and musical theatre actress. She was best known for her performances of songs such as "The Boy I Love Is Up in the Gallery", "My Old Man " and "Oh Mr Porter What Shall I Do". She received both criticism and praise for her use of innuendo and double entendre during her performances, but enjoyed a long and prosperous career, during which she was affectionately called the "Queen of the Music Hall".
My Aim Is True is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, originally released in the United Kingdom on 22 July 1977 through Stiff Records. After years of little success performing in Britain, Costello was signed to Stiff through the label's founders Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera. Recording sessions for the album took place at Pathway Studios in Islington, London, from late 1976 to early 1977, over the course of six four-hour studio sessions. Produced by Stiff artist and musician Nick Lowe, the backing band was made up of members of Clover, a California-based country rock act, who were uncredited on the original release due to contractual difficulties. Costello kept his day job as a data entry clerk during the sessions.
George Wild Galvin, better known by the stage name Dan Leno, was a leading English music hall comedian and musical theatre actor during the late Victorian era. He was best known, aside from his music hall act, for his dame roles in the annual pantomimes that were popular at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, from 1888 to 1904.
Frederick Jester Barnes was an English music hall singer known for his signature song, "The Black Sheep of the Family", which he first performed in 1907. Although popular on stage, Barnes became infamous for his erratic private life and was often named in frequent controversies reported by the press. Openly gay, Barnes retired to Southend-on-Sea and performed in seaside pubs, notably The Cricketers Hotel, Westcliff-on-Sea. Suffering from terminal tuberculosis and alcoholism, Barnes died from coal gas poisoning at the age of 53.
Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge, was an Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer. The daughter of the producer and playwright Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West End by the age of 16, and was quickly promoted from minor to major roles in his Edwardian musical comedies.
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand, usually known as F. C. Burnand, was an English comic writer and prolific playwright, best known today as the librettist of Arthur Sullivan's opera Cox and Box.
Pantomime is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and in other English-speaking countries, especially during the Christmas and New Year season. Modern pantomime includes songs, gags, slapstick comedy and dancing. It employs gender-crossing actors and combines topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or folk tale. Pantomime is a participatory form of theatre, in which the audience is encouraged and expected to sing along with certain parts of the music and shout out phrases to the performers.
Sir George Edward Wade, CBE, known professionally as George Robey, was an English comedian, singer and actor in musical theatre, who became known as one of the greatest music hall performers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a comedian, he mixed everyday situations and observations with comic absurdity. Apart from his music hall acts, he was a popular Christmas pantomime performer in the English provinces, where he excelled in the dame roles. He scored notable successes in musical revues during and after the First World War, particularly with the song "If You Were the Only Girl ", which he performed with Violet Loraine in the revue The Bing Boys Are Here (1916). One of his best-known original characters in his six-decade long career was the Prime Minister of Mirth.
Colin Whitton McCallum, known by his stage name Charles Coborn, was a British music hall singer and comedian. In a long career, Coborn was known largely for two comic songs: "Two Lovely Black Eyes", and "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo."
Harry Fragson, born Léon Philippe Pot, was a British music hall singer, songwriter and comedian. Born in London of French parentage, he moved to Paris, where he developed an act imitating French music hall performers. The act was popular, and allowed him to introduce his own material. He returned to London in 1905, and became popular in pantomime. He is perhaps best known for his song "Hello, Hello, Who's Your Lady Friend?" which he recorded shortly before his death in 1913, when he was shot by his father in Paris.
Harry Relph, professionally known as Little Tich, was a 4-foot-6-inch-tall (137 cm) English music hall comedian and dancer during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was best known for his acrobatic and comedic "Big-Boot Dance", which he performed in Europe and for which he wore boots with soles 28 inches (71 cm) long. Aside from his music hall appearances, he was also a popular performer in Christmas pantomimes and appeared in them annually at theatres throughout the English provinces. He repeated this success in London, where he appeared in three pantomimes at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, between 1891 and 1893 alongside Dan Leno and Marie Lloyd.
Eugene Augustus Rühlmann was an American-born dancer and singer. Born in Buffalo, New York, he adopted the stage name Eugene Stratton and spent most of his career in British music halls. Stratton was a member of the Grand Order of Water Rats.
Arthur Roberts was an English comedian, music hall entertainer and actor. He was famous for portraying the pantomime dames and later for his comic characters and "gagging" in farces, burlesques and musical comedies. He is credited with coining the word "spoof".
G. H. Chirgwin was a British music hall comedian, singer and instrumentalist, billed as "the White-Eyed Kaffir", a black face minstrel act.
Thomas Leamore was an English music hall and variety comic performer, dancer and singer.
The Concert for Linda was a benefit tribute to Linda McCartney, wife of Paul McCartney. It was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 10 April 1999. Linda McCartney died after a long battle with cancer nearly a year earlier, when she was 56. They were married for 29 years.
Felix McGlennon was a British songwriter and publisher, whose seriocomic songs were popular in the music halls of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Nellie Navette was a well-known British music hall serio-comic performer of the late Victorian era. Famous as a pantomime Principal boy, comedienne, dancer and singer, she made frequent appearances at such venues as the East End Pavilion Theatre and the Tivoli Theatre of Varieties on The Strand where she appeared alongside such entertainers as Lottie Collins, George Robey, Tom Costello and Marie Lloyd, among others.