Cushie Butterfield & Keep Your Feet Still Geordie Hinnie
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Geordie Ridley (1835-1864) of Gateshead was a regular entertainer at Newcastle's pubs, clubs, social gatherings and music halls; the Grainger, the Wheatsheaf and the Tyne Concert Hall . He wrote Cushie Butterfield as a parody of the more genteel London stage song "Pretty Polly Perkins Of Paddington Green", which was written by Harry Clifton, which in turn Clifton had based on the traditional air "Nightingales Sing".
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Geordie started his working life down the pit as a trapper boy at around age 8 at Oakwellgate Colliery, then moving on to Goose Pit. Around his early twenties, he moved to the heavy Engineering firm, Messrs Hawks, Crawshay & Son, as a wagon rider where, after three years, he sustained terrible injuries when he was crushed by a runaway wagon. This forced him out of the mines and onto the music hall stage. His was a brief but very productive career. Never really getting back to full health after his injuries, Geordie died in Gateshead at age 29.
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Joe Wilson (1841-1875) of Newcastle was another renowned Tyneside music hall comedian and singer; performing more or less the same circuit as Geordie Ridley, a regular at Balmbra's Music Hall, and a more prolific contemporary of Ridley's. He wrote "Keep Your Feet Still Geordie Hinnie" to the tune of " My Darling Nellie Grey", which is also very similar to "Maggie May".
Joe started his working life as a printer and for a time he published and distributed his own songs. Joe's career as a performer was linked to his printing business and he was quite successful. However, he moved away from performing - not completely, though - to more stable employment, becoming the publican of The Adelaide in Newcastle. Eventually, declining health forced Joe into convalescence. Like his father before him, Joe had contracted TB. Rowly Harrison, another local character and publican of The Commercial in Winlaton, took him in to live at the pub at the end of Joe's life. Joe died at age 34.
16 окт 2024
