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In
the old days whether it was a formal ball with the band
playing waltzes and foxtrots etc, or a knees up round the
piano everyone loved to Dance. Many homes would have some
kind of musical instrument and everyone had a party piece,
a song or a story to tell at a party, people where forced
to make their own entertainment. But when the first music
recordings were made on wax cylinders in about 1880 and
then on flat disc records shortly after, things would change
forever.
Jimmy
savile is credited to be the first person to host a dance
when the music was played on disc; this was in 1943 at the
loyal order of ancient shepherds in Otley. About the same
time and in Nazi occupied Paris, Jazz bands were banned
and young people with no choice, gathered in basement bars
to listen to recorded music. Maybe because it was cheaper
than a live band, or the post war youth craved genuine American
music, after the war this trend continued and the first
night club (whiskey a go go) opened in Paris 1947. La Discotheques
the French word for record library was born.
However
I think recorded music was used to entertain the party going
public much earlier than this. Between the wars people had
a hunger to live it up and Dances were hugely popular, the
band would strike up and people would take their partners
for the next foxtrot or waltz or whatever they did back
then. My grand father told me of a dance he had arranged
back in the mid 1930’s in London's east end. The venue
was near were he lived in Hoxton Shoreditch and a band was
booked to play. Unfortunately the band were late, and thinking
fast he ran home to fetch the family record player. He played
records amplifying the sound by putting the singer’s
microphone in front of record player. The crowd were kept
reasonably happy until the evening ended in a massive punch
up. My granddad hid under a table while Joe Spinks a champion
boxer from Hoxton, stood guard knocking out all comers.
I
have no reason to assume this story is not true, and must
also assume the occasion of recorded music being used to
fill in the breaks taken by the band was not unique. When
my great uncle died, himself a drummer in a jazz band, he
left a huge collection of pre war recordings. Each record
was colour coded and included instructions of when it would
be best to play each record at a party. It seems reasonable
to assume in the very early days of recordings it would
have been problematic to use this new technology at parties.
However as the technology developed, just like today, people
would be keen to show off the latest bit of high tech kit
and recorded music may have been part of the entertainment
in some early 20th century dances.
However history has decided there are two definite occasions
accepted as the first time pre recorded music replaced the
traditional band and I am not placed to argue. The Mobile
disco DJ first made an appearance in 1942/3. If you can,
ask you grand parents when they first remember hearing recorded
music at a dance and if the DJ was any good.
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