{"id":6114,"date":"2020-10-27T16:06:16","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T16:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=6114"},"modified":"2023-04-30T07:17:01","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T07:17:01","slug":"where-are-the-lads-of-the-village-tonight","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/where-are-the-lads-of-the-village-tonight\/","title":{"rendered":"Where are the lads of the village tonight?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>The boys of the village<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td> 1914
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Writer\/composer<\/td>Weston\/Datewski<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN25462<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>George Lashwood<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source Singers<\/strong>
Bond, Frank 1965 England: Hampshire
Goode, Archer 1974 England: Gloucestershire
Modern performances<\/strong>
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The West End's not the same tonight\nThe West End's not the same tonight\nThe lights aren't shining quite so bright\nThat's what I hear the little ladies say\nTo gave a glad eye is a crime, for it's a sad eye all the time\nThe dear lads of the village are away\nThe barmaid at you tries to wink\nBut with a tear-drop has to blink\nAnd won't be ashamed to tell you why\nTho' the mob their flags are waving\nSinging jingo songs and bragging\nAll the girls will ask each other with a sigh.\n\nWhere are the lads of the village tonight?\nWhere are the nuts we knew?\nIn Piccadilly? In Leicester square? No, not there\nNo, not there. They're taking a trip on the Continong\nWith their rifles and their bayonettes bright\nFacing danger gladly where they're needed badly\nThat's where they are tonight.<\/em>\n\nNo, Algie isn't on the moors\nAnd bringing pheasants down by scores\nHe's shooting quite a different kind of bird\nAnd Gussie isn't with the hounds\nHe's now on foreign hunting grounds\nHe's hunting German foxes so I've heard\nAnd Percy tho' at sea a lot\nIs not at Cowes upon his yacht\nWhen last our Percy boy was seen\nHe was back as master gunner on a twenty thousand tonner\nDropping shells upon a German submarine\n\nWhere are the lads of the village tonight?\nWhere are the nuts we knew?\nIn Piccadilly? In Leicester square? No, not there\nNo, not there. They're taking a trip on the Continong\nWith their rifles and their bayonettes bright\nGone to teach the vulture murder is not a culture\nThat's where they are tonight.'<\/em>\n\nWe miss those gay dare-devil boys\nThe student lads, all fun and noise\nBut Guys and St Bathelomew's know well\nThat in the trenches kneeling low\nThey tend the wounded though they know\nThe Red Croos Flag's a mark for German shell\nBut all the boys are doing grand\nFor King and Home and Motherland\nAnd when at last they've turned the tide\nTho' Berlin's the place they'll rush for\nThey'll do nothing we need blush for\nNo, they'll play the game, and we shall say with pride.\n\nWhere are the lads of the village tonight?\nWhere are the nuts we knew\nIn Piccadilly? In Leicester square? No, not there\nNo, not there. They're taking a trip on the Continong\nWith their rifles and their bayonettes bright\nWhere the Kaiser humbled, knows his power has crumbled\nThat's where they are tonight.'<\/em><\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
RP Weston<\/a> perhaps one of the most prolific songwriters of the Edwardian Halls, wrote this song for George Lashwood. To me this does not seem to be a straightforward, jingoistic songs of the halls – perhaps it’s just straightforward sentimentalism, but this song seems to reflect a regret for the youth lost to conflict…..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
George Lashwood<\/strong> (1863 \u2013 1942), sometimes billed as the Beau Brummell of the Halls<\/em>, was perhaps the last of the Lions Comiques<\/em>. Dressed as a Regency dandy he would sing patriotic, sentimental and comic songs. He fell out of fashion after the First World War, but had put aside enough money to live very comfortably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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