{"id":239,"date":"2019-12-12T14:18:27","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T14:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=239"},"modified":"2021-05-23T09:45:21","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T09:45:21","slug":"waiting-at-the-church","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/waiting-at-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiting at the church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>My wife won’t let me<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Lyrics<\/strong><\/td>Fred Leigh<\/td>Music<\/strong><\/td>Henry Pether<\/td>Roud<\/strong> <\/td>V53409<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Music Hall performers<\/strong><\/td>Vesta Victoria 1900s
Florrie Forde 1900s<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Richard Thompson 2003<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
I'm in a nice bit of trouble, I confess\nSomebody with me has had a game\nI should by now be a proud and happy bride\nBut I've still got to keep my single name\nI was proposed to by Obadiah Binks, in a very gentlemanly way\nLent him all my money so that he could buy a home\nAnd punctually at twelve o'clock today.\n\n There was I waiting at the church\nWaiting at the church, waiting at the church\nWhen I found he'd left me in the lurch\nLor', how it did upset me\nAll at once he sent me round a note\nHere's the very note, and this is what he wrote\n\"Can't get away to marry you today,\nMy wife won't let me\".<\/em>\n\nLor, what a fuss Obadiah made of me\nWhen he used to take me in the Park\nHe used to squeeze me till I was black and blue\nWhen he kissed me he used to leave a mark\nEach time he met me he treated me to port\nTook me now and then to see the play\nUnderstand me rightly, when I say he treated me\nIt wasn't but me that used to pay.\n\n\nJust think how disappointed I must feel\nI'll be off me crumpet pretty soon\nI've lost my husband the one I never had\nAnd I dreamed so about the honeymoon\nI'm looking for another Obadiah\nI've already bought the wedding ring\nThere's all my fal-the -riddles packed up in my box\nYes, absolutely two of everything.\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps the best known music hall song, made famous by Vesta Victoria, but also in the repertoire of her contemporary, Florrie Forde<\/a>.  The lyrics were written by the prolific Fred W Leigh<\/a>. Sung regularly wherever people of a certain age sing together…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vesta Victoria (1873-1951) started out young as “Baby Victoria”, became “Little Victoria”, and eventually became “Vesta Victoria the Queen of the Music Halls”. Also popular in the States, her strap-lines included the classic: A Vesta will strike anywhere<\/em>! She had a string of other hits including: Daddy would’t buy me a bow wow, Our lodger’s such a nice young man<\/em>, and Poor John<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hugely successful, she was worth around \u00a33.25 million (by today’s standards \u00a3975 million). She lost most of her money to swindlers, and when she died in 1951 she had less and \u00a316,000 worth of assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song was famously performed (well a snatch of it) by Prime Minister James Callaghan (1912-2005) at the TUC annual congress in September 1978, denying that there would be a general election any time soon (it came in 1979…) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n