Odd isn't it? The daughter of one of my fellow band musicians is coming round to my place on Friday afternoon this week because she wants to learn "some of those funny old music-hall songs you do". She's in her early '20s.

What I don't sing, if I can help it, are the more obvious "Music Hall" songs - Harry Champion song, for example - as even I find them a bit tedious at times. (Apologies to those who think Harry Champion is the hound's equipment...). There are some superb monologues and songs from that era - many of them now well known - and an evening with my mate Jim Ward would demonstrate this. There's also a particular way of putting these songs across (Jim's also excellent at this). In those days, performers had to project without amplification, often over an orchestra, to large audiences. Such an approach might not suit a smaller folk club audience these days, and a more confiding, lower-key performance may be more appropriate.

In terms of "getting it", Rob is right to point this out. Here's an example, from the last verse of George Formby Senior's "My Grandfather's Clock":

...
And at nine o'clock the crank
Used to chime a double blank,
And me Grandad had to knock - he couldn't go".

Anyone not get that?