Flanders & Swann - Hat Trick: Flanders & Swann Collectors Edition

Gnother collection of supreme British whimsy

While there appears to be a growing resurgence of interest in the English rock’n’roll music of the 50s, there is also an appreciation for other areas of arts in the immediate post-war era that’s more than justifiable. Forget the clichés that state the 50s were a dour black-and-white struggle. In many ways the decade was bright, witty and exciting. Michael Flanders and Donald Swann were among the most English of performers at this time and the multi-talented duo’s work will be known to readers of a certain age from radio performances in the 50s and 60s.

This intelligent collection follows the first box set, The Complete Flanders & Swann, from the early 90s and makes more real rarities available to collectors for the first time, including some of their earliest solo work that dates from during the war. As a duo, Flanders provided most of the clever wordplay, while Swann joined and accompanied on piano, which often included many intricate and entwined musical jokes and reference points. Their work division wasn’t always clear-cut, as Swann provided many entertaining ideas of his own. Most of the well-known numbers such as the Gnu and Hippopotamus songs (though sadly not The Gasman Cometh) are included in rare live performances, and other live work shows how the pair would introduce various local or topical variations to their own work, and spread it “throughout the civilised world… and America”. There are many classic live shows across the first three CDs, several of which were recorded at the theatres by George Martin for the original incredibly popular Parlophone album releases that remained on catalogue for decades. These come from their peak period from the end of the 50s to the early 60s, but for many hardcore fans the fourth disc will delight the most. Here you’ll find rare home recordings and private tapes dating from the duo’s earliest times together. For The Forces is a spoof news show from 1941 featuring just Flanders and some pals, which prefigures Goonish and Pythonesque humour, while Swann’s 1946 recording of Je Suis Le Tenebreux is his earliest here. They actually got together in 1950 to try melding their talent with the lovely Prehistoric Complaint and Surly Girls, which draws from Ronald Searle’s schoolgirls and appears in the accompanying lyric booklet complete with the very involved stage directions for this particular song/sketch.

The pair’s work together became wonderfully clever and inhabits the same particularly British family tree that included Gerard Hoffnung, the Goons, Pythons and Ronnie Barker, and their integration of musical and literary whimsy and witticisms set them apart from the rest. This set, beautifully presented with detailed and affectionate notes and some lyrics will delight their long-standing fans, and will richly reward anyone bold enough to investigate the world of invention of the immediate post-war years with songs about zoos, be-whiskered lechers and red buses. Hold very tight please… Ding-ding.

EMI | 507 8012

Reviewed by Kingsley Abbott
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