A couple of years ago, Ben Nicholls bought an old English banjo from a house sale in mid-Sussex. When he went to pick it up, it was clear the instrument hadn’t been used for 50 or 60 years and in the case was a handwritten list of tune titles which had belonged to the previous owner who had died sometime before.
Amongst the Schottisches, Polkas and Waltzes, which were the standard repertoire for banjo around the First World War, was Egyptian Princess. With a bit of research, it turned out that this was a tune by the British banjo player Joe Morley, born in 1867 to a concertina playing, bricklayer father. By 1892, Joe was being billed in music hall and variety shows as “Joe Morley, Banjo Player, Champion of The World”.
The title, Egyptian Princess, is clearly a nod to the era of Egyptomania which started in the Victorian era and peaked in the 1920s with the discovery of Tutankhamun. It was a craze that didn’t just appear in music, but right across fashion, architecture, literature and even through to the Edwardian era’s ‘Wickedest Man in the World’ Aleister Crowley.
Much of the music on The Servants’ Ball album comes from the tune list of the Sussex concertina player Scan Tester who like Joe Morley, started out as a step dancer. Egyptian Princess, coming from the instrument case of a nameless Sussex banjo player in the same era, seems to fit right in….
“These guys found the setlist from a 1930s village hall dance band, literally, and now they’re bringing it to life, exciting to see where this goes….” Jon Boden
The Servants’ Ball are
Ewan Wardrop – Ex Principal dancer with Mathew Bourne’s New Adventures, choreographer for Two Noble Kinsman with Eliza Carthy at The Globe, performer with RSC, Royal National Theatre, Royal Opera House, Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, founder of The Bo Diddlers Morris Side.
Rob Harbron – Concertina- Leveret, Full English, Jon Boden Remnant Kings.
Ben Paley – Fiddle – Tom Paley, Bonnie Dobson, Damon Albarn, Long Hill Ramblers
Ben Nicholls – Upright Bass – Seth Lakeman, Full English, Kings of The South Seas, Nadine Shah
Evan Jenkins – Percussion – Neil Cowley Trio, Ben Watt
Julian Hinton – Piano – Trevor Horn, Seal
The Servants’ Ball is out now.