![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Macklin explores the role of music in British fascism's ‘palingenetic’ project for national rebirth. Taking as his starting-point the cultural production and criticism of music emanating from within the British Union of Fascists (BUF), he argues that music played an integral part of the fascist experience, representing far more than mere ‘entertainment’. Macklin examines how the BUF used music to underpin party mobilization strategies, to anchor choreographed set-pieces like meetings and marches, and to reinforce ‘collectives of emotion’ among participants as well as unaligned spectators. Having discussed the integrative mechanisms through which the BUF sought to capitalize on music's emotive appeal, and particularly the ideological content of ‘Fascist songs’, Macklin's article moves to examine the party's reaction to jazz. Not only did it offend British fascism's conservative cultural aesthetic but it served as a cipher for the wider sense of degeneracy British fascists believed had afflicted race and nation.
Notes
1 Thomas P. Linehan and Julie V. Gottlieb (eds), The Culture of Fascism: Visions of the Far Right in Britain (London: I. B. Tauris 2004); Michael A. Spurr, ‘“Living the Blackshirt life”: culture, community and the British Union of Fascists, 1932–1940’, Contemporary European History, vol. 12, no. 3, 2003, 305–22.
2 For an introduction to the debate, see Roger Griffin, ‘The primacy of culture: the current growth (or manufacture) of consensus within Fascist Studies’, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 37, no. 1, 2002, 21–43, and David D. Roberts, Alexander De Grand, Mark Antliff and Thomas Linehan, ‘Comments on Roger Griffin, “The primacy of culture: the current growth (or manufacture) of consensus within Fascist Studies”’, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 37, no. 2, 2002, 259–74.
3 ‘Palingenesis’ embodies the idea that the ‘national community’ will arise, phoenix-like, following a long period of decline and decadence; Roger Griffin, The Nature of Fascism (Abingdon and New York: Routledge 1993), argues that it forms part of the mythic core of fascism.
4 Roger Griffin, ‘“This fortress built against infection”: the BUF vision of Britain's theatrical and musical renaissance’, in Linehan and Gottlieb (eds), The Culture of Fascism, 45–66, is the notable exception. Surprisingly, Richard Reynall Bellamy, We Marched with Mosley: The Authorised History of the British Union of Fascists (London: Black House 2013) does not refer to the role of music within the party either.
5 Fabian Virchow, ‘Performance, emotion, and ideology: on the creation of “collectives of emotion” and the worldview in the contemporary German far right’, Journal of Contemporary Ethnology, vol. 36, no. 2, 2007, 147–64.
6 Henry B. Rayner and Robert Stevens, ‘Fascism and ministry of fine arts’ (letter to the editor), Musical Times, vol. 75, no. 1098, August 1934, 737–8.
7 E. D. Randall, ‘Fascism and culture: true place of creative genius’, Blackshirt, no. 48, 23–9 March 1934, 1.
8 John F. Porte, ‘Rescue of British music’, Fascist Week, no. 14, 9–15 February 1934, 7.
9 Mary Curzon, Baroness Ravensdale, In Many Rhythms: An Autobiography (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson 1953), 141.
10 ‘Fascist songs’, Blackshirt, no. 40, 26 January–1 February 1934, 3. Graham worked first for the BUF Research Department before being transferred to the editorial staff of Blackshirt; see ‘Official gazette’, Blackshirt, no. 37, 5–11 January 1934, 4. He was appointed Deputy Branch Officer on 1 January 1934; see ‘Official gazette’, Blackshirt, no. 38, 12–18 January 1934, 4. In his capacity as director of the musical directorate he was paid £250 per annum, a reflection of the seriousness with which the BUF viewed his task; see Special Branch report, 11 March 1935: National Archives, Kew, HO 144/20144.
11 ‘Fascist songs’, Blackshirt, no. 40, 26 January–1 February 1934, 3.
12 ‘Fascist songs’, Blackshirt, no. 41, 2–8 February 1934, 3.
13 ‘Fascist songs’ (letter to the editor), Fascist Week, no. 14, 9–15 February 1934, 8; see also ‘Land of hope and glory’ (letter to the editor), Fascist Week, no. 15, 16–22 February 1934, 8. The NF also favoured it, see National Front Songbook (London: Freedom Books n.d.), copy in Wayne Ashcroft papers, University of Warwick Library, Modern Records Centre, Mss. 412/HQ/1/2/9, as they did other songs such as ‘Men of Harlech’ which was the tune to which the BUF song ‘Comrades! Raise the Martial Chorus’ had been sung.
14 ‘Blackshirt music: crystallises new sentiment’, Fascist Week, no. 28, 18–24 May 1934, 7.
15 ‘Blackshirt music: crystallises new sentiment’, Fascist Week, no. 28, 18–24 May 1934, 7.
16 F. E. Burdett, ‘“Giovinezza … Giovinezza” … song of youth triumphant’, Blackshirt, no. 82, 16 November 1934, 8.
17 ‘Blackshirt music’.
18 ‘Jazz goes with Jewry’, Blackshirt, no. 85, 7 December 1934, 9.
19 J. E. Graham, ‘Songs of the revolution: inspired by a common bond’, Blackshirt, no. 52, 20–6 April 1934, 1.
20 During the late 1930s Watson contributed a long-running series of articles (from 1935 to 1937) on ‘the groundwork of music’, explaining the complexities of the development of musical form to the readership of Action, which was perhaps most remarkable, given the general content of the newspaper, for its absence of antisemitism. Watson was also perhaps the ‘S. W.’ who contributed regular reviews to Action's ‘Shows Seen’ column that, though praising the Royal Philharmonic Society for its deliverance of ‘an evening of entirely British music’, was not unable to applaud the ‘gracious character’ of Mendelssohn's ‘Italian’ symphony; S. W., ‘Coronation music’, Action, no. 60, 10 April 1937, 12, and S. W. ‘Huddersfield choir in London’, Action, no. 53, 20 February 1937, 13.
21 Special Branch report, 11 March 1935: National Archives, Kew, HO 144/20144.
22 E. D. Randall, ‘Britain awake!’, Blackshirt, no. 58, 1 June 1934, 6.
23 E. D. Randall, ‘The flame of fascism: discarding the selfish futilities of individualism’, Fascist Week, no. 11, 19–25 January 1934, 4.
24 Randall, ‘Fascism and culture’.
25 E. D. Randall, ‘“Comrades”: why the word is used [in] our songs’, Blackshirt, no. 52, 20–6 April 1934, 3.
26 E. D. Randall, ‘“Comrades”: why the word is used [in] our songs’, Blackshirt, no. 52, 20–6 April 1934, 3.
27 E. D. Randall, ‘Forward to freedom’, Blackshirt, no. 244, 8 January 1938, 5.
28 Duncan Fallowell, ‘A life in full: the last bright young thing’, Independent on Sunday, 13 July 2003.
29 ‘Two fascist songs’: publication for Royal Albert Hall meeting’, Blackshirt, no. 52, 20–6 April 1934, 3, and W. J. Leaper, ‘Leader's inspired speech: a hallowed memory to Blackshirts’, Blackshirt, no. 53, 27 April–3 May 1934, 1.
30 ‘Royal Albert Hall meeting: milestone in the history of fascism’, Blackshirt, no. 52, 20–6 April 1934, 2–3.
31 Randall, ‘“Comrades”’.
32 Julie Gottlieb, ‘The marketing of megalomania: celebrity, consumption and the development of political technology in the British Union of Fascists’, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 41, no. 1, 2006, 35–55.
33 Leaper, ‘Leader's inspired speech’. Fascist Week, no. 25, 27 April–3 May 1934 featured a photograph of the band. Selwyn Watson, the BUF composer, had perhaps a more personal reason to be pleased with the success of the meeting. Afterwards, Patricia Cawdery joined the BUF, and she and Watson soon wed, honeymooning in Fascist Italy; see ‘Well-known London Blackshirts marry’, Blackshirt, no. 122, 23 August 1935, 6.
34 ‘Records of Albert Hall meeting: played to Hasting audience’, Blackshirt, no. 75, 28 September 1934, 6.
35 For advertisements, see Blackshirt, no. 251, June 1938, 8; Blackshirt, no. 252, July 1938, 2; and Action, no. 125, 9 July 1938, 17.
36 John Richard Thackrah, The Royal Albert Hall (Lavenham, Suffolk: Terence Dalton 1983), 136.
37 William Joyce, ‘Searchlight over Britain’, Action, no. 6, 26 March 1936, 10.
38 A. K. Chesterton, Oswald Mosley: Portrait of a Leader (London: Action Press 1937), 128.
39 ‘Mosley!’, in Fascist Songs (London: BUF n.d.), copy in Robert Saunders Papers, University of Sheffield Library, Special Collections, MS 119/H22.
40 See advertisement in Action, no. 6, 26 March 1936, 12.
41 ‘Blackshirt music’; ‘Male voice choir’, Blackshirt, no. 42, 9–15 February 1934, 3.
42 ‘Blackshirt choir, Blackshirt, no. 81, 9 November 1934, 9.
43 Bee, ‘The big parade’, Blackshirt, no. 216, 19 June 1937, 4.
44 ‘Fascist choirs formed’, Blackshirt, no. 84, 30 November 1934, 9.
45 ‘N.H.Q. entertainments’, Blackshirt, no. 84, 30 November 1934, 9.
46 ‘“Fog service”’, Blackshirt, no. 89, 4 January 1935, 12.
47 ‘Blackshirt news’, Blackshirt, no. 102, 5 April 1935, 8.
48 ‘Song of Union!’, Action, no. 112, 9 April 1938, 13.
49 ‘British Union personalities: no. 16—Mr Clement Bruning’, Action, no. 54, 27 February 1937, 8.
50 ‘London Command Choir’, Blackshirt, no. 90, 11 January 1935, 12; Special Branch report, 11 March 1935: National Archives, Kew, HO 144/20144.
51 ‘Women's choir’, Blackshirt, no. 85, 7 December 1934, 9; ‘Activities at women's headquarters’, Blackshirt, no. 90, 11 January 1935, 10.
52 See advertisements for Blackshirt dances, in Blackshirt, no. 80, 2 November 1934, 10; ‘Nigger minstrels’, Blackshirt, no. 86, 14 December 1934, 2; and ‘London Command Blackshirt Club’, Blackshirt, no. 122, 23 August 1935, 6.
53 ‘Pianoforte recital at N.H.Q.’, Blackshirt, no. 83, 23 November 1934, 11; ‘Leader praises Blackshirt talent’, Blackshirt, no. 84, 30 November 1934, 5.
54 ‘N.H.Q. entertainments’, Blackshirt, no. 84, 30 November 1934, 9.
55 ‘Fascist bands’, Blackshirt, no. 57, 25–31 May 1934, 2.
56 ‘Blackshirt Band: organising professional musicians’, Blackshirt, no. 58, 1 June 1934, 4; advertisement in Blackshirt, no. 47, 16–22 February 1934, 4.
57 ‘Blackshirt Band’. The band consisted of William Germain, Mark Sheridan, Stan Tringham, P. Pringle, James Germain and Reginald Mote, some of whom were ‘ex-members of such famous bands as Jack Hylton's and George Birmingham's’; ‘Branch news: London and Home Counties’, Blackshirt, no. 47, 16–22 March 1934, 2.
58 ‘Blackshirt Band’.
59 ‘Military band’, Blackshirt, no. 47, 16–22 February 1934, 3.
60 Fascist Songs. ‘Giovinezza’ was praised as the ‘song of Youth Triumphant’; Burdett, ‘“Giovinezza … Giovinezza” … song of youth triumphant’.
61 For a comparison of ‘The Marching Song’ with the ‘Horst-Wessel-Lied’, see David Machin and John E. Richardson, ‘Discourses of unity and purpose in the sounds of fascist music: a multimodal approach’, Critical Discourse Studies, vol. 9, no. 4, 2012, 329–45.
62 David Mason, ‘Blackshirts or no-shirts: Mosley and his movement on record’, unpublished manuscript in the author's possession, 7, estimates that the British record label Decca pressed around 2,000 copies. For an advertisement for the recording, see Blackshirt, no. 143, 17 January 1936, 2.
63 ‘“The Marching Song”, British version of “Horst-Wessel-Lied”’, available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v = PdyNmzFDtfw (viewed 25 June 2013). This refrain would also later be recycled by the seminal neo-Nazi rock 'n’ roll band Skrewdriver in their song ‘Hail the New Dawn’; see the post by ‘Kommano88’, 8 March 2006, on the thread ‘Need lyrics for BUF marching song’, on Stormfront Britain's Round Table forum on Stormfront.org at www.stormfront.org/forum/t276215 (viewed 19 August 2013).
64 ‘“Britain Awake”’, available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v = vmScBiIlfEE (viewed 25 June 2013).
65 ‘The Mosley sound heritage’, Comrade: Newsletter of The Friends of O.M., no. 6, April 1987. Eric Whittleton, a founder member of the BUF previously active in Mosley's New Party was in the choir; ‘Obituary: Eric Whittleton’, Comrade: Newsletter of The Friends of O.M., no. 56, October 2003.
66 E. D. Randall, ‘Bourgeois Bolshevism’, Action, no. 103, 5 February 1938, 7.
67 ‘B.U.F. symphony orchestra’, Blackshirt, no. 84, 30 November 1934, 11. The conductors included Edward Carwardine and A. M. Gifford.
68 Diana Mosley, Loved Ones: Pen Portraits (London: Sidgwick and Jackson 1985), 97–132. In his review of Loved Ones, John Carey took the phrase ‘the parasite who creates the barrier of social class’ from Mosley's book Fascism (1936), commenting that this was ‘an accurate description of several Loved Ones—most notably Lord Berners’; John Carey, ‘The discreet charms of the aristocracy’, Sunday Times, 24 March 1985, 45.
69 Diana Mosley, A Life of Contrasts: The Autobiography of Diana Mosley (London: Hamish Hamilton 1977), 110.
70 ‘Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, Lord Berners’ (podcast), 5 May 2011, available on the BBC website at www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/a310f4b5-2cfb-4caf-b682-3832829d0f3d (viewed 25 June 2013).
71 ‘Coronation music’.
72 Mark Amory, Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric (London: Chatto and Windus 1998), 133.
73 ‘Branch news: London and Home Counties’, Blackshirt, no. 57, 25–31 May 1934, 2. It was included in Fascist Songs.
74 ‘Something about words’, Blackshirt, no. 67, 3 August 1934, 10.
75 Amory, Lord Berners, 133.
76 Amory, Lord Berners, 134.
77 John Lucas, Reggie: The Life of Reginald Goodall (London: Julia MacRae Books 1993), 54–5.
78 John Lucas, Reggie: The Life of Reginald Goodall (London: Julia MacRae Books 1993), 55–64.
79 ‘Sir Reginald Goodall’ (obituary), Gramophone, July 1990, 186.
80 Cuthbert Reavely, ‘Debunking Covent Garden: Wagner's warning’, Action, no. 74, 17 July 1937, 14.
81 Oswald Mosley, ‘Wagner and Shaw: a synthesis’, The European, no. 37, March 1956, 51–61.
82 Richard Thurlow, Fascism in Britain: From Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts to the National Front (London: I. B. Tauris 1998), 222.
83 Nicholas Mosley, Rules of the Game/Beyond the Pale: Memoirs of Sir Oswald Mosley and Family (London: Pimlico 1998), 520–1.
84 Oswald Mosley, My Life (London: Thomas Nelson 1968), 364.
85 Stephen Dorril, Blackshirt (London: Penguin/Viking 2006), 382–3, 461. The full name of Diana Mosley's younger sister was Unity Valkyrie Mitford.
86 Brigitte Hamann, Winifred Wagner: A Life at the Heart of Hitler's Bayreuth, trans. from the German by Alan Bance (London: Granta 2005), 466–7; Mosley, My Life, 364. Other individuals to attend Frau Wagner's salons during this period were Edda Göring, Ilse Hess, Adolf von Thadden, leader of the Deutsche Reichspartei, who was closely associated politically with Mosley, and Hans Severus Ziegler, former superintendent of the Weimar Deutsches Nationaltheater and organizer of the 1938 Entartete Musik (Degenerate Music) show; see Gottfried Wagner, He Who Does Not Howl with the Wolf: The Wagner Legacy, an Autobiography (London: Sanctuary 1998), 60.
87 Lady Diana Mosley, the castaway on Desert Island Discs, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 26 November 1989, programme available on the BBC website at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castaway/85ff774f#p009mdck (viewed 25 June 20-13).
88 Evening Standard, 9 July 1992.
89 Cuthbert Reavely, ‘Priority’ (letter to the editor), Action, no. 58, 27 March 1937, 8.
90 ‘Turn table talk’, Gramophone, vol. 16, no. 183, August 1938, 108.
91 At Reavely's child's christening in June 1929 the godparents were Sir Walter Peacock, Air Vice-Marshall Sir Vyell Vyvyan and Marchioness Townsend of Raynham; see notice in ‘Christenings’, The Times, 19 June 1929, 19. In 1932 he sold his home, Kinnersley Castle, a Jacobean seat with 1,200 acres, twelve miles from Hereford and Leominster; see notice in ‘The estate market’, The Times, 12 September 1932, 16.
92 Cuthbert Reavely, ‘Opera in English: a plea for better translations’, Gramophone, vol. 7, no. 76, September 1929, 156–8.
93 See a notice for Reavely's ‘song recital’ at Grotrian Hall on 16 October 1930, in The Times, 16 October 1930, 12; and the subsequent review in ‘Concerts’, The Times, 18 October 1930, 10, that noted: ‘The singing of Mr. Cuthbert Reavely at the Grotrian Hall on Thursday night had a certain downright vigour to recommend it in the suitable type of song, but in those of sentiment or of a reflective nature it was found to be wanting in finesse. Mr Reavely's technique further showed the limitation of unevenness in smooth tone-production, the lower register being far better controlled than the upper, while he was not able to vary the colour sufficiently. He has a strong baritone voice worthy of a surer method and sounder style.’
94 ‘New Cornish opera’, Blackshirt, no. 112, 14 June 1935, 5.
95 Mason, ‘Blackshirts or no-shirts’, 14.
96 Cuthbert Reavely, ‘Hotch-potch of Garvin and Beachcomber’, Blackshirt, no. 105, 26 April 1935, 4; Reavely, ‘Debunking Covent Garden’.
97 Porte, ‘Rescue of British music’.
98 John F. Porte, ‘“Merrie England”’, Fascist Week, no. 29, 25–31 May 1934, 7.
99 Cuthbert Reavely, ‘The Leader at the Aeolian Hall’, Blackshirt, no. 138, 13 December 1935, 5; Selwyn Watson, ‘Enthusiastic audience at the Aeolian Hall’, Blackshirt, no. 140, 27 December 1935, 2.
100 Watson, ‘Enthusiastic audience at the Aeolian Hall’.
101 ‘High Court of Justice, King's Bench Division: Libel action against “The Times”: jury stop the case, Reavely v. Colles and another’, The Times, 11 November 1936, 4. See also Joseph Dean, Hatred, Ridicule, or Contempt: A Book of Libel Cases (London: Constable 1953), 84–7. Reavely, whose part demanded that he sing one line but then remain on stage for a further hour, was incensed to read of his own performance: ‘For instance, the conflict between Elijah and Ahab, which is felt as a clash between good and evil in the narrative of the oratorio, is stultified by the physical appearance of a king who can only make gestures of impotent annoyance … both Miss Vera de Villiers, as Queen Jezebel, and Mr Cuthbert Reavely, as her consort, were unsteady in their declamation.’ F. H. Lawton, Reavely's lawyer, argued that The Times had imputed that his client was a man whose physical appearance and acting abilities had made him wholly unsuitable for the part. Defending, Sir William Jowitt, later involved in the internment of British fascists, claimed the remarks, though taken out of context, were bona fide comment, made without malice on a matter of public interest. In his testimony, Reavely stated that ‘he generally played parts of a virile and dramatic character’, which would certainly explain why he felt The Times had impugned his reputation and indeed his masculinity, inferring he was, in Lawton's words, ‘a puny individual’.
102 Quoted in ‘Turn table talk’, Gramophone, vol. 16, no. 183, August 1938, 108.
103 Reavely subsequently became a ‘steward’ for the Right Club, a conspiratorial antisemitic and pro-Nazi coterie led by Captain A. H. M. Ramsay, the Conservative MP for Peebles. The nature of Reavely's antisemitism can be seen in his pamphlet Power over Nations (1945), which claimed that ‘the Jews’ were waging an ‘occult war’ of satanically, subtle subversion against ‘Christian principles’.
104 Griffin, The Nature of Fascism, 45–66.
105 Reavely, ‘The Leader at the Aeolian Hall’.
106 A. M. Gifford, ‘National music’ (letter to the editor), Blackshirt, no. 100, 22 March 1935, 7.
107 ‘Jazz goes with Jewry’.
108 L. G. G., ‘Books Read’ (review of Knud Holmboe's Desert Encounter), Action, no. 46, 2 January 1937, 12.
109 Leonard Banning, ‘Idle amusements are undermining national stability’, Blackshirt, no. 69, 17 August 1934, 6.
110 A. K. Chesterton, ‘On with the dance’, Blackshirt, no. 128, 4 October 1935, 3.
111 Cuthbert Reavely, ‘Hitler's wise move’ (letter to the editor), Blackshirt, no. 86, 14 December 1934, 11.
112 F. G. Searle, ‘Shorter hours and “increased output”’, Action, no. 162, 1 April 1939, 9.
113 Ezra Pound, ‘Musicians’, Action, no. 126, 16 July 1938, 13.
114 Henry J. Gibbs, ‘Music in the gutters’, Blackshirt, no. 75, 28 September 1934, 7; John F. Porte, ‘Unemployed musicians—contrast with Berlin’, Fascist Week, no. 23, 13–19 April 1934, 7.
115 O. B. W., ‘Behind the saxophone’, Action, no. 7, 2 April 1936, 11.
116 S. W. Wilkinson, ‘Save the music halls’, Action, no. 63, 1 May 1937, 11.
117 ‘East London flashes’, East London Pioneer, vol. 1, no. 3, 5 December 1936, 1. See also Kevin Morgan, ‘King Street blues: jazz and the left in Britain in the 1930s–1940s,’ in Andy Croft (ed.), A Weapon in the Struggle: The Cultural History of the Communist Party in Britain (London: Pluto 1998), 123–42.
118 Leese had also developed a coruscating critique of the role of Jews in the supposed degeneration and decline of British music. Like most fascist groups, the IFL had its own marching song, ‘St George Our Guide’, for which Leese wrote the words and Henry Hedges the music. It was both a hymn of praise to Nordic man and a defiant attack on the deracinating influence of Judaism, a few lines of which are representative: ‘Judah! Thy course is run!/ Forward! The fight is on/ For man's salvation/ St George our guide!’. The song played only a minor role in the ceremonial presentation of IFL ideas however. Though sung ‘with heartiness’ when unveiled at a 100-strong IFL meeting in Lysbeth Hall, Soho Square, London, on 29 May 1933, to celebrate the advance of fascism in Europe, IFL publications made no further reference to it and so its role in IFL activities is hard to calculate; see ‘St George Our Guide’, The Fascist, no. 49, June 1933, 1; ‘IFL celebration dinner’, The Fascist, no. 50, July 1933, 1; and Henry Hedges and Arnold Leese, St George Our Guide! (London: IFL 1933), copy in British Library, Music Collections, VOC/1933/HEDGES.
119 IFL, The Tragic Symphony—The Wailing Wall of Archer Street (1934), copy in the British Library, General Collection, W.P.10608.
120 ‘Jews displacing Britons—the plight of London musicians’, The Fascist, no. 53, October 1933, 1.
121 ‘Hope for British musicians’, The Fascist, no. 57, February 1934, 3.
122 ‘Trade and professional: employ an English band’, The Fascist, no. 62, July 1934, 4.
123 Porte, ‘Unemployed musicians’. This is not to say that there were not genuine labour disputes between Jews and Gentiles in the music industry during the 1930s that the Musician's Union (MU) and the Jewish Defence Committee (JDC) of the Board of Deputies of British Jews worked quietly to diffuse. One instance involved Messrs J. Lyons & Co., a Jewish-owned firm that employed dance bands to serenade diners at its tearooms, and that was only one of a handful of firms in the entertainment and catering industry to oppose collective bargaining. Between 1938 and 1939, the MU feared that the growing dispute between musicians and management could have ‘anti-Semitic repercussions’, if Lyons's refusal to treat with the union became public knowledge, and so appealed to the Board of Deputies for assistance. Though the Board regarded the dispute as a ‘labour matter’ and denied having any ‘compelling jurisdiction’ to intervene, it did not rule out the possibility of the dispute becoming a ‘Jewish question’ and so, presumably on this account, brokered a meeting between the two parties leading to better terms and conditions being secured. This appears to have ended the dispute; see ‘Trade union complaints, April–May 1939’: Wiener Library, London, Jewish Defence Committee Papers, 1658/1/1/1 (folder 2). See also minutes of the general meetings of the London District Branch, and minutes of the London District Branch Committee: University of Stirling, Musician's Union archive, MU 4/2/1/2/2, and MU 4/3/1/3/8, respectively (for which I am most grateful to Karl Magee).
124 Bandsman, ‘Bridish dance bands’, Action, no. 17, 11 June 1936, 8.
125 ‘Notes for music lovers’, Blackshirt, no. 226, 28 August 1937, 2.
126 Bluebird, ‘Radio flashes’, Action, no. 8, 9 April 1936, 15.
127 Wilkinson, ‘Save the music halls’.
128 William Slater, ‘In praise of Britons’ (letter to the editor), Action, no. 89, 30 October 1937, 18.
129 F. E. H., ‘Christmas jazz’ (letter to the editor), Action, no. 99, 6 January 1938, 18.
130 North Dorset, ‘Mutilating the national anthem’ (letter to the editor), Action, no. 101, 20 January 1938, 18.
131 Robert Strike, ‘“Be proud you are British”’, Action, no. 52, 13 February 1937, 6; and Bluebird, ‘An unwanted alien comedian’, Action, no. 53, 20 February 1937, 4.
132 Bluebird, ‘Radio flashes’, Action, no. 49, 23 January 1937, 4; Bluebird, ‘Radio flashes’, Action, no. 68, 5 June 1937, 4.
133 Bluebird, ‘Radio flashes’, Action, no. 59, 3 April 1937, 4.
134 ‘Young Scots hate jazz’, Action, no. 52, 13 February 1937, 11.
135 W. R., review of The Good Patch, Action, no. 124, 2 July 1938, 4; for the quoted passage, see H. W. J. Williams, The Good Patch (London: Jonathan Cape 1938), 162.
136 Martin Duberman, Paul Robeson: A Biography (New York: New Press 2005), 227–8.
137 A. N., ‘Hitler and the means test’, Action, no. 141, 29 October 1938, 18.
138 ‘On the march’, Blackshirt, no. 212, 22 May 1937, 6.
139 ‘Branch news: London and Home Counties’.
140 Small advertisement in, for instance, Action, no. 81, 4 September 1937, 19.
141 ‘Novel concert at Streatham’, Blackshirt, no. 68, 10 August 1934, 12.
142 John Warburton and Jeffrey Wallder (comps), The Defence Regulation 18B: British Union Detainees List (London: Friends of Oswald Mosley 2008), 15.
143 Songs of Union (London: Raven Books n.d.), copy in author's possession.
144 Trevor Grundy, Memoir of a Fascist Childhood: A Boy in Mosley's Britain (London: Heinmann 1998), 31
145 Union, no. 275, 8 May 1953. In a similar vein, Union, no. 432, 20 October 1956 carried a ‘Records Wanted’ advertisement stating that the advertiser was ‘willing to pay 12s. 6d. each for following: HMV EG2811 and EG2822 10 inch records, “Horst Wessel Lied.” Apply Box No. E.C.S.I.’ On the farther shores of British fascist politics, during the early 1950s, The Britons sought to keep the heart and soul of the ‘Jew-wise’ movement together through a series of social gatherings at which attendees were serenaded by ‘Arthur's Aryan Dance Band’; see Jewish Chronicle, 28 April 1950.
146 Compare the UM's Songs of Union and the BUF's Fascist Songs for similarities.
147 Kenneth Allsop, ‘Will Mosley march again?’, Picture Post, 2 January 1954, 42.
148 Grundy, Memoir of a Fascist Childhood, 122–46.
149 See the thread ‘Need lyrics for BUF marching song’, 7–8 March 2006, on Stormfront Britain's Round Table forum on Stormfront.org at at www.stormfront.org/forum/t276215 (viewed 19 August 2013).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Graham Macklin
Graham Macklin is Research Fellow at the Institute for Research in Citizenship and Applied Human Sciences, University of Huddersfield, and Honorary Research Fellow at the Parkes Institute for Jewish/Non-Jewish Relations, Southampton University. He has published widely on British fascism and extreme right-wing politics, including British National Party: Contemporary Perspectives (Routledge 2011), co-edited with Nigel Copsey, and Very Deeply Dyed in Black: Sir Oswald Mosley and the Resurrection of British Fascism after 1945 (I. B. Tauris 2007). He is currently completing a history of white racial nationalism in Britain to be published by Routledge in 2014. Email: [email protected].