One of the more unusual things I’ve had to do lately was acquire a top hat for Remembrance Sunday services at St Paul’s and the Royal Exchange. For those who know of our family’s associations with Wilton’s Music Hall, including organising a wonderful Gilbert & Sullivan sing-along led by Professor Robin Wilson for the Gresham Society – http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-%E2%80%9Csing-in%E2%80%9D-with-gilbert-and-sullivan, as well as our associations with the not-quite-‘toff’, George Leybourne, then the contrast with my aversion to formal wear – http://www.mainelli.org/?p=308 – makes exquisite irony. For those who would like to explore the background to Wilton’s, Champagne Charlie, and some of the first commercial sponsorships:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Leybourne
- http://www.victorianweb.org/mt/musichall/1.html
- http://wiltons.org.uk/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilton’s_Music_Hall
For those who would like to be entertained by some visuals at Wilton’s today, I can only provide the following:
