Wilson, Joe

Joe Wilson (1841-75) was a star of the Tyneside Music Halls, who wrote and performed song in the local Geordie dialect. His father and mother were a cabinet maker and bonnet-maker, and at age 14 Joe became a compositor at a Newcastle printers. As a youngster he sang and wrote songs for his own amusement, publishing his first song book aged 17. Like many others he started his performing life as a semi-professional at local free-and-easies, before his professional debut in 1864 at what would soon be called The Oxford Music Hall in Newcastle. He performed almost exclusively in northeast England.