Page 41 - summer 22

You will have noticed that the instrument was a banjo. Because of the rather crude

recording equipment, loud instruments were normally used, such as banjo, male
voices, military bands, or spoken word.

The musician here was a Brummie by the name of Joseph Sharpe. He joined a
minstrel troupe and became a black faced Olly Oakley, because he thought the name
sounded ethnic. He was a prolific recording artist from 1901 right through until the
late 1920’s, when arthritis forced him to retire.
Most of the surface noise you hear on old recordings, is from the playback

equipment, which wore out the record fairly quickly. So long as it is not too badly
worn, most of the noise can often be removed digitally.
Records became hugely popular very quickly. Victor claimed the first two million
sellers, in 1903 and 1905, though I’ve not been able to find out how long they took to
sell a million. I regard the first one as a cheat. Caruso’s 1903 recording (Vesti La
Giubba) was made with piano accompaniment. He re-recorded it in 1907 with
orchestra, and most of the sales were of the later recording

(Clip No. 2 Caruso with orch.1907)

The 1905 record was a comedy called The Preacher and The Bear, by Arthur Collins,
who apparently recorded it for several labels. It was hugely successful and according
to the reference book I used, outsold all other records for many years after.
(Clip No. 3 Arthur Collins – The Preacher And The Bear)

Meanwhile. Columbia was struggling. In January 1908, Edward Easton ‘fell’ off his

commuter train. He survived, probably because there were 10 inches of snow on the
ground to cushion the fall. Nobody ever found out if it was a suicide attempt. He took
several months to recover.

The third million seller was British, by HMV in 1910, and was a spoken word comedy.
Again a huge hit, especially in Asia, probably selling a million in India alone.

During these early years there was no standardisation. Speeds from 70 to 90 rpm
were used, and even in the ’20’s Columbia labels stated 80 rpm. (I can’t imagine that
one could tell the difference between 78 and 80). Most discs were either 7 inch, 10
inch or 12 inch but occasionally there would be bigger ones, up to 20 inch. A 20 inch
record could apparently play for 10 minutes, but I doubt if the spring on the
gramophone motor would run for that long.
Up until 1908, records only carried the music on one side, with single and double
sided ones selling side by side until around 1911. When Zonophone launched its two
sided records it called the two sided ones ‘The Twin’.Zonophone was a cheaper label

owned by HMV.