 |
SECTION 15: Broadsides and BalladsAustralia inherited the broadside and ballad tradition from the British - some were transported direct from the Seven Dials Printing shops and others were fashioned here to record local stories and events. It must be remembered that these 'penny sheets' were extraordinarily popular and the sales were nothing short of staggering - in some cases hundreds of thousands of copies of the one song - in some ways these sales could be compared with a best seller in today's book list. Many of the broadsides were composed by songsmiths who worked for the publishing houses and, in most cases, these people attended the Old Bailey Courts to hear first-hand the tales of woe, especially of those sentenced to 'seven years transportation to Botany Bay'. I recommend readers to the Henry Mayhew section as it contains the most lucid, vivid and first-hand description of how the broadsides and ballads were created and used.Many readers will be fascinated to learn that the so called 'Tolpuddle Martyrs' were transported here and several broadsides record their trials. This section will eventually document many of the broadsides connected with colonial Australia however the best guide to these collections remains Hugh Anderson's epic work 'Farewell To Judges and Juries' (Red Rooster Press) and Ron Edward's 'The Transports' and 'The Convict Maid' both on Ram's Skull Press. In this section you will also see several songs, recently discovered', that continue the ballad tradition into popular music of the nineteenth century including some I have found that reinforce collected versions recorded in the 1950s and 60s. | ||||||
Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor (1861)The summer of 1849 saw a serious outbreak of cholera in London, 13,000 people dying from the disease within three months. Henry Mayhew (1812-87) suggested to the Morning Chronicle newspaper to carry out an investigation into the condition of the labouring classes, which was published in a series of 82 articles and later in volume form as London Labour and the London Poor.The following extracts from Henry Mayhew provide us with the most illuminating atmosphere of the ballad writers, publishers, street singers and sellers. | ||||||
I am always interested to find popular Australian songs in print. This one points to particular performers who were popular during the 1860s and 70s.
Simon McDonald, recorded in the 1950s by Norm O'Connor and Mary-Jean Officer, sang a version of this ballad under the title 'Ginny On The Moor'. The National Library of Australia reissued this Wattle disc in 2004. I recorded a version for my 2004 recordings A Panorama of Bush Songs (ABC Records)
In the nineteen seventies a British singer living in Australia, Paul Stewart (I think that was his name), sang this song regularly in the folk clubs and it received wide circulation. To think that it was printed in a popular nineteenth century songster published in Melbourne puts a new light to the song.
|