The Guardian newspaper has recently been running a fascinating series of booklets on the First World War, and recommended a site called firstworldwar.com.  Checking them out they have a great range of vintage recordings, by famous names such as (more…)

Ernest Pike continues to contribute 50% of the entire traffic to this site - who knew that this obscure singer would prove so popular?

Anyway, an email from a nice chap called Bart tipped me off to two more recordings available through UCSB’s The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project: The Green Isle Of Erin and Do You Remember The Last Waltz?.
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More Ernie Pike has come to light in my never-ending quest to fill my life with sentimental Edwardian-era music.

Actually, this is possibly of interest to scholars, this time, as it’s one of the earliest recordings of The Mikado, from 1906.  The notorious stage piracy of the time (and I don’t mean The Pirates Of Penzance) meant that G&S were very careful with their productions, sometimes opening both British and American productions on the same night to stop rival companies opening on the same day.  Richard D’Oyly Carte, the organiser of their opera company, was keenly aware of this, and refused to release the scores for these recordings, so the orchestral arrangements are somewhat different to the D’Oyly Carte productions, and therefore are deprecated by scholars.  Which is a shame, but it’s glorious to hear Pike (even if only as one of the chorus) with frequent collaborator Peter Dawson, singing something you still see performed today.  (By the way, don’t be fooled that only one of the titles is linked - click on the gramophone horns).

And there’s more - the Internet Archive has added two Herbert Payne recordings from 1907 - In My Aeroplane For Two and Rowing To Hampton Court.  I’ll update my virtual Pike library with these as well..