From Herbert Payne to wax cylinders
Years ago, I used to collect 78 rpm records. And through them, I discovered a singer called Herbert Payne. He used to sing very odd things – “Amazon, River of Dreams”, “The Lisp of a Baby’s Prayer” – and at the age of about nine or ten, I really enjoyed them. A few years ago I came across a tape of them I made and guess what… I still like them.
So, bearing in mind these recordings are almost certainly public domain by now, where to find them? Well, they’re easier to find than you think… Turns out he is not only a lot more prolific than I thought, he started recording earlier than I thought – on wax cylinders, no less.
The obvious place to start was The Internet Archive, but from there I got fortuitously distracted by The Cylinder Archive, Norman Bruderhofer’s lovingly put together archive of wax cylinder recordings. From there I found Glenn Sage’s excellent site tinfoil.com, then UCSB’s archive. UCSB had several recordings from Herbert Payne and one by Ernest Pike which mentions – in passing – “a.k.a Herbert Payne”.
So there it was. Turns out Payne was Pike after all. Turns out Pike was involved in the first recording of
HMS Pinafore, released on eleven cylinders in the early 1900s.
So, after twenty years or so, I now actually know more one of my favourite singers than I did before. And if you want to hear him in action, I can recommend Roses of Picardy.
Tags: early recordings, Ernest Pike, Herbert Payne, tenor, wax cylinders
November 23rd, 2008 at 06:40
It was with great interest that I discovered (via Wikipedia) this little collection of Ernest Pike’s recordings. I always understood that he, like Peter Dawson, Stanley Kirkby and others, was employed regularly by The Gramophone Co Ltd (owners of the HMV, Zonophone and other labels) as a ‘staff’ artist as, say, Billy Murray was by Victor and other labels. This would certainly explain why their recording careers were so prolific. Indeed, Pike turns up singing the most unlikely items and was asked to accompany well-known stage vocalists when the occasion arose. An example in my own collection, which I have just prepared for a airing on my Footlight Notes web site, is ‘Whisper to Me‘ (HMV 04208) sung by Pike with the famous English musical comedy star Gertie Millar (1879-1952). This song, written by Miss Millar’s husband, Lionel Monckton, was featured by her in the revue Airs and Graces (Palace Theatre, London, 21 June 1917), and recorded at The Gramophone Co’s studios at Hayes, Middlesex, on 30 August 1917. Please feel free to add this to you list. Best wishes, John Culme
November 26th, 2008 at 13:22
Thanks John, that’s terrific information – I’d forgotten both HMV and Zonophone were imprints from the same stable, and the ‘staff artist’ makes a lot of sense. I’ll certainly add that recording to the list – thank you very much – and I can certainly recommend your site!