Fellow who played the trombone, The

AKA	Fella … Um-ta-ra-ra

Lyrics

Walter Kino

Music

Walter Kino

Roud Index

RN1848

The other night I took my wife down to the music Hall.
 And ever since that night it has been my downfall.
 She sat besides the bandsmen they filled her with delight
 and the fellow who played the trombone he stole my wife that night.

 With his rum-she-ra-ra, rum-she-ra-ra ray
 That fellow who played the trombone he stole my wife away
 With his rum-she-ra-ra, rum-she-ra-ra ray
 He made her feel so gay
 he really tickled her fancy with his rum-she-ra-ra ray

 She said she liked his music, she’d go there every week.
 I said it would be her downfall, she said what a bloody cheek.
 She took no notice of what I said and went from Tyne to Tyne.
 I stayed at home to mind the kids while him and her did shine

 Now the other night I woke up and found she’d gone with all her clothes.
 She’d gone off with that man’s man to a land that no one knows.
 But if I ever find them, I’ll spoil their honeymoon.
 I’d smash that bloody instrument if I catch him playing that tune

A turn-of-the-century song from the Halls remembered in the pubs of south-east England in the 60s and 70s . I had spent many hours trawling for songs with “trombone” in the title, but Martin Nail kindly reminded me of the work of John Howson, who discovered that the original title for the song was Um-ta-ra-ra. His thoughts are summarised in the sleeve-notes of the Veteran CD Comic Songs, Music Hall Songs & Parodies, available from Veteran Mail Order:

‘Um-ta-ra-ra’ was published by B.Feldman & Co. in 1896, when it was sung by its composer Walter Kino. Although the chorus has remained fairly intact, it seems that the verses were not remembered and others have been invented … This was a popular song in Suffolk and Keith Summers recorded a version similar to Ted’s from Jimmy Knights of Hasketon (Sing, Say and Play – Topic 12TS375), which was published in Roy Palmer’s ‘Everyman’s Book of British Ballads’ (1980). In fact it could have been from Jimmy that Ted learned it, as Ted told me that he got the song from a chap who sang it in Swilland Half Moon: “That was in the days when I could hear a song once and then sing it the next night!” Ted always sang this song while walking around the room and impersonating a trombone player.

John Howson, see above

I have spent some time in newspaper archives looking for any reports of Walter Kino singing this song, but I have so far been unsuccessful. So I can’t add much to what John Howson has said, other than to provide a bit more information about Kino…

Walter Kino (1867-1902) was a “comic vocalist” who had a relatively short career. He does not appear in the standard histories of the halls , and what little I know is gathered from the pages of The Era and other contemporary newspapers. Sometimes billed as The Modern George Leybourne, he toured the UK widely between 1890 and 1900 – appearing more often in the provinces than in London. He seems to have written and composed a number of his own songs. His reviews seem very positive, like this one welcoming his return to the Britannia Glasgow, which implies he was particularly popular there:

(I will add to this biography when and if I find out more)

Sources:

• VWML entry
• Kilgarriff Sing us
• Veteran CD Comic Songs, Music Hall Songs & Parodies – Sung by traditional singers from Suffolk
• Searches in Gale Primary Newspaper sources
• Martin Nail, personal communication.

As Jimmy Knight sang it :

Last Updated on January 12, 2021 by John Baxter | Published: December 7, 2019