The Show Must Go On! Popular Songs in Britain During the First World War was first published in French in 2012, and this English version now forms part of Ashgate's Popular and Folk Music series. John Mullen's informative and analytical study focuses on the way in which the popular songs of the Great War, as well as the artists who performed them, were embraced by British working class audiences. As such practice reflected the trajectory of the war effort from the perspective of the home front, the author effectively uses these songs as vehicles that illustrate the extent of the conflict's socio-cultural impact. In this respect, Mullen considers over 1000 wartime songs within which a ‘patchwork of genres’ (p. 37) serves to materialise. These include battle songs, folk choirs, hymns, comedy and folk songs. The main emphasis is applied to music hall, which was then an environment and genre that was enjoying its last period as the UK's prevalent form of live entertainment, with the combined competition represented by cinema, radio and recordings being on the horizon.
The book possesses six main chapters. A detailed overview of the prevailing live entertainment industry is outlined in the first chapter and several of the leading entrepreneurs, agents, stars, musicians and lyricists are featured within the analysis. The second chapter examines the wide range of entertainment on offer to wartime audiences, including pantomime, touring revues (both in the UK and to entertain the troops in France) and black-face minstrelsy. Chapters 3–5 explore the themes of the war era songs, where it is shown that the various methods adopted by audiences to interact with song narratives functioned further to generate their underlying meaning. The last chapter looks at the non-commercial songs of the period, such as hymns and battle songs. These chapters are punctuated by short histories on four key wartime performers: Marie Lloyd, Vesta Tilley, Harry Lauder and Harry Champion.
The premise of the book notwithstanding, as a study of the wartime music hall milieu, the author certainly provides a comprehensive analysis of this environment, with the first chapter in particular (‘Portrait of an Industry’) rich in detail and thorough in approach. Mullen uncovers some of the key elements that underpinned the sector, such as working conditions, theatre contracts and the focus placed on the commercial potential of both jingoistic and sentimental war-related songs by knowing publishers. In such a climate, Mullen conveys that this relationship between commerce and patriotism sometimes made for uneasy, but noteworthy, bedfellows. Similarly, he also shows that lyrics reflecting the differing opinions about the justification for the war, the impact of the huge losses incurred on the battlefield and examples of black humour all resonated within choruses that music hall audiences sang along to. In addition, the author highlights that the gender conflicts that bookended the war, the campaign for women's right in particular, made a distinct impression on popular song during the conflict. With the political activities of the Suffragettes being suspended and the domestic job market open to all, the changes in women's roles acted to stimulate a range of observations within the lyrics of songs, inspiring sardonic chuckles at best, or some indication of unease which inclined towards forms of moral panic. Profiles of audience traits also feature prominently and the gusto with which they engage with some of the more popular songs of the period is articulated in admirable depth. From such observations, the author succeeds in encapsulating the essence of a typical Saturday evening at a local music hall venue, mainly by embracing the social context in which the songs were voiced.
Overall, the sense emerges of a popular and dynamic music industry sector that was both galvanised and shaped by the domestic war effort, and which functioned to reflect the hopes, concerns and expectations about the conflict from the standpoint of working class audiences. However, other elements of the book appear less successful. One of the shortfalls is due to the author's failure to offer a robust theoretical framework in which to position the analysis. In this instance, the discussion on the role of the ‘popular’ within popular song is somewhat laboured, with the limited interaction with contemporary theoretical studies on this topic acting to underline the slightness of the conceptual approach adopted. In effect, this process serves to narrow the focus of the book. Also, while the use of a reasonably small textile town (Burnley) as a representative example of locality and music hall proves effective on some occasions, its value is diminished when applied throughout the book, and it may have been beneficial to provide further consideration of key industrial centres, such as Newcastle or Birmingham. Furthermore, one of the book's main strengths serves to accentuate another weakness. Although the previously mentioned short histories of four of the most prominent wartime performers (Marie Lloyd, Vesta Tilley, Harry Lauder and Harry Champion) all make a valid contribution to the book, the significance of these accounts is weakened somewhat by the brevity of the overviews and their location outside the central narrative. Perhaps more space could be allocated towards these histories within the confines of the book's main structure, thus providing a more cohesive analysis overall.
In conclusion, The Show Must Go On! Popular Songs in Britain During the First World War can be regarded as an overdue study that provides new insights into how British working class audiences engaged with popular songs during a key period. It also offers a fuller understanding of music hall's final phase, extending our knowledge of this environment by adding to studies on this topic by Bailey (Reference Bailey1986) and Maloney (Reference Maloney2003), both of which mainly focus on the period prior to the start of the First World War. While the book will prove attractive to academics interested in this latter era, its narrow focus may otherwise limit its appeal.
