British Music Hall Society Conference, Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th October 2023 

“How the Music Hall Worked, 1840 – 1918” CALL FOR PAPERS

The first British Music Hall Society conference will take place at the Cinema Museum in Kennington, London, over the last weekend in October 2023. It will look at ‘How the Music Hall Worked 1840 – 1918’ with a particular emphasis this year on the Speciality Act and Music Hall, Families and Children, and Agents and Circuits (including continental ones).

The BMHS invite proposals for talks (20 minutes plus 10 for questions) on subjects related to the theme. They particularly welcome proposals that go beyond a simple biographical account, but look instead at a wider picture, for example comparing the work or experience of several families.

The BMHS also invite proposals of short PowerPoint presentations – no longer than 6 minutes and 20 seconds, accompanied by up to 20 slides (20 seconds talking per image) – to contribute towards an hour of eight short presentations. Biographical accounts are welcome.

The British Music Hall Society is not an academic institution so presentations should be worded to appeal to a general audience rather than an exclusively academic one.

Ideally, talks will be given in-person, though consideration will be given to virtual presentations (for example, to avoid carbon emissions from long-distance travel).

The conference will also feature panel discussions, early film of acts, and exhibitions (proposals of items to exhibit are welcome) and a local walk. The wonderfully atmospheric Cinema Museum (formerly the Lambeth Workhouse, where Charlie Chaplin was once a resident) is in an area where many music hall performers lived, many agents had their offices and where the first grand music hall and the first circus were established.

How to submit a proposal:

Please send a short paragraph about the subject of your proposed presentation to the email below.

Also include a short biography (up to 100 words), your mobile phone number, and any audio-visual requirements you will need beyond a microphone and lectern. For example, do you plan to display images or a PowerPoint presentation?  Will you need to play video or music during parts of your presentation?

Proposals should be emailed to: contact@britishmusichallsociety.com 

Deadline for submission: 30th April 2023 though they invite expressions of interest to be made as early as possible, and are happy to discuss your ideas. Please consider submitting your proposal soon! Whilst they would like to accommodate all proposals, their focus is on curating a range of presentations that, together, will give a good coverage of the key topics.

The Future They hope that this will be the first in a series of potentially annual conferences, each looking at particular aspects of Music Hall. They welcome suggestions of venues, topics and presentations for future years.